The U.S. Justice Department says it has reached a settlement with the Sacramento (California) Public Library over a trial program the library was conducting that let patrons borrow Barnes and Noble NOOK e-book readers.
DOJ and the National Federation of the Blind objected to the program on grounds that blind people could not use the NOOK e-readers for technological reasons.
The Justice Department said the settlement is aimed at stopping discrimination: “Emerging technologies like e-readers are changing the way we interact with the world around us and we need to ensure that people with disabilities are not excluded from the programs where these devices are used,” said Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez in a news release.
A DOJ official told CNSNews.com it interviewed a woman who could not participate in the library’s e-reader program due to her disability and concluded that the program had violated the ADA.
[…]
According to an article posted on NFB’s website, while e-books “are an especially exciting development” for blind readers, Nook’s “bookstore, desktop software, mobile software, and dedicated hardware reading devices are all inaccessible to blind users.”
The settlement agreement also directs the library not to buy any additional e-readers that exclude blind or disabled people; and it requires the library system to train its staff on the requirements of the ADA, the DOJ said.
“We are pleased that the Sacramento Public Library Authority worked so cooperatively to adopt measures that will allow patrons with disabilities to avail themselves equally of the library’s programs and services,” said U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, Benjamin B. Wagner.
Let’s just go ahead and say it: the reason blind people can’t use e-readers has nothing to do with the technology of these particular e-readers. It has to do with the blindness of the blind people. That the Department of Justice would presume to deny people the use of this technology because some others haven’t the ability to use it, is one of a billion reasons why we don’t want the State making these kinds of decisions for us — and why the kind of egalitarianism pushed by the radical left is so dangerous, based as it is around an idea of enforced conformity.
I mean, seriously: the blind can’t read traditional print books. Should libraries not be allowed to purchase and offer any of those, either? Will the DOJ require public museums to give the blind leave to feel paintings and other works of art?
This kind of suit — and settlement — is no more intellectually defensible than would be a DOJ edict outlawing blindness on the basis that it discriminates against the blind. Or some new law declaring that, because blind people exist, those who aren’t blind must put their own eyes out — because not doing so is insensitive to those who can’t themselves see.
But then again, when the government owns you, like it does public libraries (and our health care!), it gets to make the rules.
Christ. What country is this?
Hey, you know what else blind people can’t use – REAL books.
So I guess, under the ADA, libraries should just shut down. Unreal.
If you people wouldn’t open your fuckin’ mouths, the blind sons of bitches wouldn’t even know that e-books existed.
This is beyond stupid. Computers have had voice recognition and voice programs for ages. 20+ years ago sort of qualifies as ages in computer technology years, I believe.
Libraries, (well, at least my public library system*) also make downloadable audio-books available.
So maybe instead of taking away the nook, they could have purchased a few cheap mp3 players?
*But then, I don’t live anyplace near as oppressive as Sacramento.
In answer to your question, it’s the [dis]United (Soviet Socialist) States of America.
This is where I note that it’s wonderful that the DOJ is doing really important stuff, rather than fucking around with worthless shit like prosecuting gang members who intimidate voters.
One of my first clients was the MTA – New York’s subway system, and our first task was to try and increase ridership among middle-class professionals. This was at the tail end of the subways being a crime-ridden shithole, and when we suggested that they offer discounts for purchasing, say, ten tokens at a time, they refused on account of fairness. Heaven forbid that some of the lowlifes and ghetto bunnies – who hopped the turnstiles relentlessly anyway – couldn’t afford to buy in bulk because they can’t manage their government money.
DOJ mandate: Kindle Fire Braille. iPad Braille…
Braille must be learned by every US citizen!!!
Because justice.
And I thought I was done at sign language.
I’d say something about Barnes & Nobles bricks and mortar stores, but I wouldn’t want to give the bastards any ideas.
Be careful how you spell out certain words.
You wouldn’t want to threaten anybody violenty violence or something.
This is bizarre. Every library I’ve been to offers audio books.
Also, I denounce this site for having comments inaccessible to the blind!
What’s next? Must every book be available in every single language that’s spoken here?
Oh, and that seemingly unrelated story I posted upthread was meant to note the stupidity of using fairness as a reason for government inserting itself into things even when it’s self-defeating – the case I mentioned – or absurdly onerous as is the case here.
Someone at the DOJ own Apple stock?
You wouldn’t want to threaten anybody violenty violence or something.
Would that be as simple as a middle finger or would I need to get more “dog whistle” creative for the Chris Matthews/ Touré types?
The Braille e-book has been a concept around since 2009. Obviously there’s just not that much market demand for it and audio books currently suffice.
I’d even say that the government should offer a grant for creating that instead of pointless suing, but for some reason the words “16 Trillion” are shutting me up.
Diana Moon Glampers for President.
I tried to post a comment here in braille but all I managed to do was ruin my monitor.
As far as I know, all the paperwork DoJ filed in this suit is inaccessible to the blind.
But not to the stupid, clearly.
I tried to post a comment here in braille but all I managed to do was ruin my monitor.
You tried to make the little bumps with bullets, didn’t you?
It’s cool. I know the feeling.
I shot my monitor once in November 2008. Wasn’t about braille though.
– Yeh, the apple stock angle is the money quote. If you want to know the general incentives for any move from the “determined outcomes” cult in DC, just follow the money.
– It would be hidhly enjoyable if some rich Conservative like the Koch brothers sued the DOJ for diceimination, since libraries have no access for one of Obama’s voter demographics – dead people.
– The Obama campaign steps on its dick….again.
– Carney: “We were already planning on going.”
– Which means they’re back to channeling Kerry: “…but that was before we weren’t.”
Ah, Harrison Bergeron, we hardly knew ye.
And this is why I abandoned an MLS in my first quarter.
Because it’s not about how to do research and manage libraries, it’s about HOW DO WE HELP THE DISINCENTIVIZED.
In light of recent facts, Mayor Bloomberg calls for a return to the Dewey Decimal System.
ADA based lawsuits are a growth industry. Filing a suit is like buying a winning lottery ticket.
oh hi National Federation of the Blind yup the light is green it’s safe to cross
. .
.. .
link
Frankly I’m appalled at the rampant discrimination shown toward the blind pilot by not only every major airline, but by ALPA, the military and the FAA.
the ada is prime fed stuff for repeal ask clint
the freak show lost an act sortof
Vanished!… Islamic Jumah Disappears From Official DNC Schedule
fiat 1
President Obama will sign an executive order Friday to make improvements to mental healthcare and suicide prevention services for veterans, which he will announce in a speech at Fort Bliss in Texas.
The executive order instructs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to hire 800 peer-to-peer support counselors for mental healthcare and to increase the VA veteran crisis line’s capacity by 50 percent before the end of the year.
The order also tells the VA to work with the Defense Department to develop a national suicide prevention campaign, and for the VA, DOD and Health and Human Services to conduct a study about the causes and treatments of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.
link
fiat 2
President Barack Obama issued an executive order on Thursday that would increase the number of cogeneration plants in the U.S. by 50 percent by 2020, a move that would boost U.S. industrial energy efficiency and slash carbon emissions by 150 million tons per year.
The order is the administration’s latest effort to deploy cleaner and more efficient energy production in the country by working around political resistance to climate change and “green” energy legislation on Capitol Hill.
The measure aims to accelerate investments to help manufacturers expand their use of combined heat and power (CHP) facilities, which generate thermal and generating power in a single process.
The White House said increased investments in the industrial sector, which accounts for over 30 percent of energy consumed in the U.S., would improve its competitiveness, lower energy costs and reduce heat trapping emissions.
“The Federal Government has limited but important authorities to overcome … barriers, and our efforts to support investment in industrial energy efficiency and CHP should involve coordinated engagement with a broad set of stakeholders,” the order says.
link
– That Jamah event may have been cancelled brcause they didn’t get any responses to their help wanted ads for suicide bombers.
What was that about us all being equally miserable? That’s exactly what they’re forcing by way of law here.
Burn it down and salt the earth beneath it. It’s the only way. Aside from nuking it from orbit.
Right?
Paging Diana Moon Glampers.
– Looks like Jug ears will be hunting for new digs after he gets fired in November.
Chi-ca-gp, Chi-ca-go
That town full-a brown
The meth is hot, and the pizza is round
The people end up, in a hole in the ground
I had the time, the time of my life
I pulled a gun, when he pulled a knife
In Chi-ca-go, Chi-ca-go
My home town-n-n-n.
I would bet it is not cancelled, it’s just not going to get publicized in the press or video that is in English. The DNC is being held at Time Warner Cable Arena for days 1,2,3 and the last night is at Bank of America Stadium.
The Jumah events are at Marshall Park, the Hilton Hotel and the Park Expo & Conference Center. So if our MSM doesn’t cover it it never happened and if the Islamic press does then it did for them.
Sorta like Arafat’s way of speaking one message in English and a different one for his homeboys in their language.
gal pal val shows up
That seat has been taken
Paging Michael O’Donoghue.
Derp!
Books on tape and voice activation btoh work on laptops. So if you are blind don;tget an e-book reader. Get a tablet or laptop PC.
But, but that’s too easy! What will the lawyers do?
all this mocking can’t be helpful to president
professor alinskybaracky.We’re about a Biden dick away from the remedy for this sort of offense being plucking out all the uppity sighteds’ eyes.
For the equality, you know.
BTW, apropos of nothing, the Leamas movie pick of the week is Key Largo, starring Bogie, Bacall, and E.G. Robinson.
The genre is “Florida noir,” one of the main characters being a hurricane, recalling our recent experience with Isaac.
I though it was a consciousness raising piece about the plight of the Seminole.
so much for the library’s video lending service.
they already had to cancel their audio book lending service since that deaf guy sued.
sorry for the repeeps
We shall go on to the end, we shall mock them
fightin France, we shall mock themfighton the seas and oceans, we shall mock themfightwith growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall mock themfighton the beaches, we shall mock themfighton the landing grounds, we shall mock themfightin the fields and in the streets, we shall mock themfightin the hills; we shall never surrenderTalking books are discriminatory against the hearing-impaired. This looks like a job for the DOJ!
This is all so terribly interesting in a ‘yeah, as if, you knob’ sort of way, the first time we read Kurt Vonnegut’s amusing story.
The perfect remains the enemy of the good. And in progressives eyes, the perfection of their ideals trumps the goodness of any real world solution.
It’s moments like this that I *almost* understand the hordes of leftits Twits twittering death threats when things like Kirstie Alley saying Clint Eastwood was kind of funny happen.