{"id":222,"date":"2009-03-28T08:06:21","date_gmt":"2009-03-28T15:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jamie.workingagenda.com\/blog\/?p=222"},"modified":"2018-10-22T12:30:48","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T16:30:48","slug":"kindle-2-and-synthetic-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jamie.workingagenda.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/28\/kindle-2-and-synthetic-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Kindle 2 and synthetic speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/abbr>\n

I was asked by several disability groups to make a statement on the Kindle 2 dispute (see here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>) regarding synthetic speech. (See below for more details). This is a link to my comment<\/a> for the KEI blog. <\/p>\n

If you have thoughts about this issue, you might contact board members or the membership of the Authors Guild. Here are some names:<\/p>\n

Roy Blount Jr.
\nPresident of The Authors Guild
\n31 East 32nd Street, 7th Floor
\nNew York, NY 10016
\nPhone: (212) 563-5904
\nFax: (212) 564-5363
\nStaff E-mail: staff@authorsguild.org<\/p>\n

Vice Presidents: Judy Blume
\nTreasurer: Peter Petre
\nSecretary: Pat Cummings<\/p>\n

Other Board Members<\/strong>
\nBarbara Taylor Bradford
\nSusan Cheever
\nSusan Choi
\nMary Higgins Clark
\nMichael Crichton
\nJames Duffy
\nJennifer Egan
\nClarissa Pinkola Est\u00e8s
\nJames Gleick
\nOscar Hijuelos
\nDaniel Hoffman
\nNicholas Lemann
\nDavid Levering Lewis
\nJohn R. Macarthur
\nStephen Manes
\nMichele Mitchell
\nVictor S. Navasky
\nDouglas Preston
\nRoxana Robinson
\nJean Strouse
\nPeg Tyre
\nRachel Vail
\nSarah Vowell
\nNicholas Weinstock
\nShay Youngblood<\/p>\n

Ex Officio Members Of The Council<\/strong>
\nRoger Angell \u2022 Robert A.Caro \u2022 Anne Edwards \u2022 Erica Jong \u2022 Robert K. Massie \u2022 Herbert Mitgang \u2022 Sidney Offit \u2022 Mary Pope Osborne \u2022 Letty Cottin Pogrebin \u2022 Nick Taylor \u2022 Scott Turow<\/p>\n

\n

Manon Ress’s note to A2K listserve on NYC Demo at Authors Guild on Kindle 2 issue:<\/p>\n

A coalition of organizations representing people who cannot read print will protest the removal of the text-to-speech function from e-books for the Amazon Kindle 2 at the Authors Guild headquarters in NY City at 31 East 32nd Street on April 7, 2009, 12 to 2:00 p.m. Join us there!<\/p>\n

Some background: on February 9, 2009, Amazon released a new version of its e-book reade, the Kindle 2, which included text-to-speech technology.<\/p>\n

This technology which has been used mostly by people who are blind or have print disabilities provides a \u201creads aloud\u201d text by way of automated, synthetic speech.<\/p>\n

The print-disabled community was extremely encouraged by this development, since they have long advocated that manufacturers of mainstream products make their devices fully accessible to all Americans. Other consumers who might not officially qualify as reading disabled persons were also encouraged and ready to buy books that they could also “listen to” if they needed.<\/p>\n

However, because of pressure from the Authors Guild, Amazon has announced that it will give authors and publishers the ability to
\ndisable the text-to-speech function on any or all of their e-books available for the Kindle 2.<\/p>\n

There are 245,000 e-books currently available for the Kindle 2 and that number will continue to expand. The fact that they are not all available for print disabled persons willing to buy the books is a shame. The fact that the authors guild is falsely claiming it is a copyright violation to listen to a book is a shame. <\/p>\n

All consumers, including the print disabled consumers, should let the authors’ guild know they are opposing the decision to make it difficult to use the Kindle the way consumers want or need.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was asked by several disability groups to make a statement on the Kindle 2 dispute (see here, here, here, here, and here) regarding synthetic speech.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[25,22,26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jamie.workingagenda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jamie.workingagenda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jamie.workingagenda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jamie.workingagenda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jamie.workingagenda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/jamie.workingagenda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1535,"href":"http:\/\/jamie.workingagenda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions\/1535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jamie.workingagenda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jamie.workingagenda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jamie.workingagenda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}