Maryland Business

By: Rachel Pryzgoda

Amazon unveiled a new blind-accessible Kindle this week, prompting the National Federation of the Blind to commend the Seattle online retail giant on the new technology.

The new model offers voice-guided menu options.

NFB officials praised the release and its accessibility improvements — but perhaps not surprisingly, the ever-revolutionary Apple had won the Baltimore organization’s heart years ago.

“Where we’ve had a lot of success is with Apple,” said Chris Danielsen, NFB’s director of public relations.  “Their accessibility is constantly improving.”

He cited the accessibility of the iPad since its release this year, as well as iTunes, the iPod and the iPod Touch.

NFB had encouraged Amazon before the first Kindle came out in 2007 to make the product blind-accessible.

“A few years ago we said [to Amazon] this could be really revolutionary,” Danielsen said.

Three years and a lawsuit later, they’ve done it.

The lawsuit, which was resolved in January, arose against Arizona State University because of its participation in a learning program that used the Kindle DX, which blind students couldn’t use.

The NFB and the American Council of the Blind said this directly violated federal law.  In the settlement, Amazon said it would make improvements to increase the Kindle’s accessibility.

So here we are. The new model, starting at $139, comes equipped with a voice guide that reads all menu options aloud, which it did not offer before. The Kindle DX had offered technology that could read texts aloud, but allowed no way to get there.

“Amazon hasn’t talked to us personally [about unveiling the new model],” said Danielsen. “We have worked with them on the accessibility of their Web site, though.”