The federation says the device should be able to speak the menu choices as well.
Electronic books still make up a small portion of the overall book market but it's a fast-growing segment. In hopes of getting even more people to try the Kindle, Amazon released the $489 Kindle DX this year, which has a large screen and is geared toward textbook and newspaper readers. The company then worked with several colleges to give out Kindles this fall with digital versions of their textbooks on them.
The Federation of the Blind along with the American Council of the Blind and a blind Arizona State University student sued ASU, one of the schools that participated in this pilot program, in June, arguing it was discriminating against blind students. That case is ongoing.
The group also filed complaints with the Department of Justice against five other schools that are participating in the Kindle trial with Amazon. Wisconsin and Syracuse are not among those schools.
Ken Frazier, director of Wisconsin-Madison's library system, said the library bought 20 Kindle DX devices for use in a history class this fall. Though he's not sure how many blind students are at his school, he said many students have difficulties reading texts for various reasons, such as learning disabilities.
"Our experience is that when you make technology accessible, everybody benefits," he said.
