Time to bring anti-social technology to book

At AbilityNet we champion a digitally inclusive future and among the expanding choice of innovative hardware, software, online systems and applications available, there are many examples that are truly accessible. However, there are at least as many instances where the basic principles of design for all are willfully ignored and, in so doing, exclude “non-standard” consumers –­ who incidentally make up a sizeable chunk of the population.

This is why my colleagues and I have decided to award Technology Anti-Social Behaviour Orders ­– or Tasbos for short.

It is difficult to pick just one offender among the web and software developers, manufacturers of mobile phones, digital TV desktop sets and MP3 players. So often we look at a new product and wonder: How could the needs of disabled users be disregarded quite so completely? And, how could access be so readily sacrificed for slight improvements in speed or other functionality?

But one industry has recently distinguished itself by its uniquely disdainful indifference towards the disabled community and we are proud to award our first Tasbo jointly to Amazon.com and the US publishing industry.

The next version of Amazon.com’s e-book reader, the Kindle DX, was supposed to come with built-in text-to-speech capabilities. A great step forward, one would think, heralding greatly enhanced access to reading material for those with a wide range of sensory and physical needs. Not so.

The US publishing industry claimed that the device would not only represent an infringement of copyright, but would also presage a dramatic decline in audio-book sales.

Amazon.com backed down and removed the function from the planned product, unless specific publishers or authors approved the use of text-to-speech for their works. Vested interests or ­ – to be honest, barefaced greed – have conspired to deny millions of people a basic human right ­ – that of access to information, culture and the arts.