Although some colleges are embracing the Kindle as a study tool, at least two universities are rejecting the device because they believe it discriminates against visually impaired students.
From the Associated Press:
“The National Federation of the Blind planned to announce Wednesday that the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Syracuse University won’t consider big rollouts of the electronic reading device unless Amazon makes it more accessible to visually impaired students.
Both schools have some Kindles that they bought for students to try this fall, but now they say they won’t look into buying more unless Amazon makes changes to the device.
‘These universities are saying, “Our policy is nondiscrimination, so we’re not going to adopt a technology we know for sure discriminates against blind students,” ‘ said Chris Danielsen, a spokesman for the National Federation for the Blind.”
The National Federation of the Blind sued Arizona State University in June, saying it was discriminating against students who are visually impaired. An Amazon.com spokesman, according to the AP report, said the company is working to make the device more accessible for these students.
