Pressure increases on Amazon with AppleVis campaign

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Wednesday, 9 January 2013 13:27pm

eBook giant Amazon has been under increasing pressure from disability groups due to its failure to provide accessibility features in its Kindle devices and apps. The latest comes from a campaign run by AppleVis to have Amazon’s Kindle app for iOS devices made accessible for blind users.

AppleVis, a popular resource for blind and vision impaired Apple users, has launched a campaign to encourage Amazon to make its Kindle app for iOS compatible with the VoiceOver screen reader. If made, the change would drastically increase the accessibility of eBooks on mobile devices and provide blind customers greater choice.

AppleVis states, “Not only would this be a good commercial decision, but it would simply be the 'right' thing for Amazon to do. As consumers, this would also provide us with some much-needed competition and choice when shopping for eBooks.”

Through its Campaign of the Month initiative, AppleVis enables readers to target the developers of inaccessible apps, including CNN, Facebook and Skype, via an accessible petition form. Over 260 people have taken part in the Amazon Kindle app campaign so far.

As we reported in December, Amazon promised improvements to two of its Kindle tablets as a blindness organisation protested the use of Amazon products in schools.


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