Schools agree Kindle needs support for blind

The US Justice Department struck a deal on Wednesday that will see three universities drop their test programs with Amazon's Kindle. Case Western Reserve, Pace and Reed College have agreed to stop using the e-book readers until the hardware can support blind students. The decision also forbids other readers that don't properly compensate for the lack of sight.

The settlement follows a lawsuit after advocacy groups sued for allegedly excluding the legally blind from the program. Kindles have a rare level of support for the blind in providing text-to-speech for most titles but don't have any voice readouts to guide poor-sighted readers through the menu system.

Amazon won't be immediately affected by the program change as the agreement only becomes binding at the end of the spring term, lining up with the end of Amazon's trial at the universities. The online retailer hasn't yet responded to the verdict but now has until the fall to implement support for the blind if it intends for the trials to carry through into real programs.

By Electronista Staff