NFB, ACB, And ASU Resolve Kindle Litigation

Amazon was pushing heavily for a while to get the Kindle eReader into the hands of students who could use it for textbooks rather than buying and toting around the hoards of books that go with being in school. Amazon ran afoul of blindness organizations who complained the device was not accessible to the blind.

The National Federation for the Blind (NFB), the American Council for the Blind (ACB) and Arizona State University has announced that they have reached a settlement in the litigation stemming from ASU attempting to offer the Kindle on its campus. The allegation was that the Kindle DX was inaccessible to the blind and violated federal law.

The settlement was reached in part because the pilot program will end in September 2010. Amazon is making improvements to the readers, ASU is working to deploy readers in classes over the next two years, and it is looking to use devices accessible to the blind. The settlement didn't involve any damages or the payment of any attorney's fees.