The call came from the All Party Parliamentary Internet Group
(APIG), a discussion forum for new media industries and
parliamentarians, which released a report on Digital Rights
Management this week.
Many people with visual impairments rely on a screen reader to
read the content of a digital page aloud or they have the page
displayed with a Braille device. But assistive technologies can
only operate when the content is compatible – and eBooks are often
incompatible.
RNIB told the inquiry that Adobe eBooks usually have
accessibility settings disabled and that Microsoft eBooks reader
implement "owner exclusive" markings so cannot be transferred to a
Braille device.
In some cases, RNIB said "audio rights" to a book had been sold
to another party and the eBook publisher was cautious not to
infringe. The charity pointed out that there is a significant
difference between a trained actor's performance in creating an
audio-book for the mass-market and what can be achieved by
computerised text-to-speech systems. "There is clearly no
likelihood of the latter damaging sales of the former," noted the
APIG report.
At APIG's oral hearing, Lynn Holdsworth, a visually impaired
person, said she had bought an eBook from Amazon only to find that
screen readers had been "locked out". Neither Amazon nor the
publisher was able to help her – so she obtained an illegal copy
which her screen reader could interpret.
APIG called upon the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to
"review the level of funding for pilot projects that address access
to eBooks by those with visual disabilities". It also recommended
"that action is taken if they are failing to achieve positive
results."
Website Accessibility Conference 2006
A UK national conference on best-practice public sector website
accessibility takes place on 13th June in Edinburgh, organised by
Parallel 56, User Vision and OUT-LAW.
Event
details at Parallel 56's website
