Amazon releases Kindle 3 with talking menus!

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Amazon has just announced its newest Kindle, the Kindle 3, which, according to Amazon, has text-to-speech enabled menus that make the device independently operable. This is a significant victory, directly tied to the advocacy efforts of the Reading Rights Coalition and the work of many of its members.

There is still more work to be done to make the device fully accessible, however. The web browser is not accessible and there is no audible signal or battery strength information. You have to purchase and download the e-books from your PC, rather than directly from the device. However, in a phone call a year ago that included many members of the RRC, we urged Amazon to put speed ahead of perfection. While we would have preferred more speed, we cannot complain about the decision. Amazon is committed to addressing the remaining accessibility issues going forward.

Finally, it is worth pointing out that the very low price of the Kindle 3 makes clear that mainstream accessibility need not be costly, but that Amazon would have saved itself a ton of engineering costs (and lawsuit and p.r. nightmares), if it had made the Kindle accessible from the get-go.

NFB Press Release

Amazon Kindle 3 Website