Open Letter to Authors

To the authors whose 255,000 books are available on the Kindle 2: 

Word Version: Open Letter to Authors

We represent 15 million Americans who cannot read print because of blindness, dyslexia, spinal cord injury and other print disabilities.  We include school children, the elderly, professionals, college students, returning veterans, and your neighbors, family members and friends.  We want to buy and read your books.  We have fought very hard for many years to have equal access to technology and information.  For the first time, now that the Kindle 2 offers a text-to-speech function, which will read a book aloud, we can purchase and enjoy your books like everybody else.  Sadly, the Authors Guild does not support equal access for us.  The Guild has told us that to read your books with text-to-speech we must either submit to a burdensome special registration system and prove our disabilities -- or pay extra.  The Guild’s position is outrageous and discriminates against the millions of people with print disabilities who are eager to be your readers and customers.

Please support us by joining our informational picket in front of the Authors Guild’s headquarters at 31 East 32nd Street in downtown Manhattan on April 7, 2009 at 12:00 p.m. or by e-mailing your support to ReadingRights@nfb.org.  For more information, please visit our website: www.readingrights.org.

American Association of People with Disabilities
American Council of the Blind
American Foundation for the Blind
The Arc of the United States
Association of Blind Citizens
Association on Higher Education and Disability
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Burton Blatt Institute
DAISY Consortium
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
IDEAL Group
International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet
International Dyslexia Association
International Dyslexia Association – New York Branch
Jewish Guild for the Blind
Knowledge Ecology International
Learning Disabilities Association of America
National Center for Learning Disabilities
National Disability Rights Network
National Federation of the Blind
NISH
National Spinal Cord Injury Association
United Cerebral Palsy