Accessible Does Not Mean Free
May. 14th, 2013 03:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
diannaamarichThe Kindle app has been accessible now on our idevices since May 1 of this year. For the first time ever, we have access to (so Amazon says) over 1 million books. And for the first time, there is no text-to-speech being enabled or disabled on a book. Most books (with some exceptions that I will get to) are accessible. So are periodicals and newspapers.. The only books that don't appear to be readable are those that are not the actual text but scanned copies, and I understand Amazon will refund purchases of those if we can't read them.
This is absolutely positively awesome! I have been searching for paid and free Kindle content. There is a LOT out there. So much so that I feel I can be picky about which books I get now. It is very, very, very nice to have that luxury. "No, I really don't want that one, and I won't just buy it because it's accessible." I love that freedom.
But one issue keeps coming up on an email list I am on. I get tired of having to try to explain myself again and again there and not doing a good job, so I'm going to try here.
I thank BookShare , The National Library Service , Learning Ally , and Baen Books for giving me access to all of their electronic text at no charge. I can download whatever ebooks they have, in whatever format I want, so I have books in epub for iBooks and Nook, and also as .mobi for the Kindle app (Baen Books). I get specialized audio or text from Bookshare, the National Library Service, and Learning Ally.
I am glad that all of these services exist, but I don't feel that because I am blind I am automatically entitled to free content. I do not expect Amazon, Barnes And Noble, or Audible to automatically open up their catalog to me and give me free content because I am blind.
The trouble is that again and again, I seem to come across blind people who don't want to ever pay for books. They won't even hear of it. If a book is not available to them at no cost, even if it's one they want very badly, they won't even consider buying it. Unless you count Bookshare, where you have to pay a fifty dollar annual fee to get access to 100 free books a month. They just won't spend a penny, and they seem, to me, to feel that they are entitled to it. How dare they be expected to pay for content like the rest of us? I don't buy the limited income crap. I have that problem, but when I can pay (or am given a membership or gift card), I do pay, and gladly. Sure, it makes me be even more picky about the books I want, but when I buy content from Amazon, or iBooks, or Barnes And Noble, or Audible, I know I am supporting authors I want to support because their writing is good; so good that after reading a version from Bookshare, or Learning Ally or the NLS, I will actually support them and buy a copy of the book to keep.
That's what NLS and Bookshare have become for me. Places to download books to listen to or read in Braille, where I can decide if I like that book enough to want to buy it. If I do want to by it, I add it to my wish list and hang onto the other copy until I can get it in a mainstream format. Then that other copy goes away. and if I don't like it, well, I don't have to keep the copy I downloaded from Bookshare or the NLS, and I don't have to spend money on it.. I treat Bookshare and the NLS very much like a sighted person treats a public library. I go in, look for what I want, and read it, just as a sighted person does with a print book from the library.
I guess this makes me seem like I am a hypocrite, because I'll take advantage of free stuff that's available, but I don't think so. In the end, someone gets money that I want to spend. I'm not holding back because "we shouldn't have to pay" for stuff. I'm holding back because I am not made of money.
There are many good authors out there, such asjennifer_brozek, e_moon60, Margaret Yang and many authors at Baen Books. They are also people with normal lives, like ours. I engage with them on Twitter and follow their blogs. I even chat with one every day about coffee and what we've been up to. They are people, just like me, trying to make a living.
One author learned I could not read a book that was available for Kindle for free (this was back in March before the software was accessible). She gave me a copy of the book in another format. She didn't have to do that. And you know what? I love the book so much that I am going to buy it from Amazon at the earliest possible opportunity, because it is just that good.
There was a time when the number of Braille books ever made was not equal to the amount of printed materials produced in one year. Braille books were (and still are) extremely expensive. If I wanted a book, I had to either pay high prices for it, or I had to spend hours scanning the book and hoping I could read it and make sense of it. I now have access to a LOT of reading materials at my fingertips, or through VoiceOver, because e-book reading software is not only available, but now accessible. Publishers, authors, and companies have leveled the playing field for US. It's time that WE, THE BLIND, leveled the playing field from OUR side and actually, you know, show that we give a damn and want authors to do well by purchasing their e-books.
We can't tell someone, "I'm blind. You should work for me for free." But when we don't pay for content, that's in effect what we're telling authors. "I'm blind, so you have to write and entertain me for free." That just won't cut it.
I realize a sense of entitlement is not the only issue. Some people will not buy from Amazon because they don't feel Amazon has done enough, or that Amazon took way too long to implement a working completely accessible solution. Amazon themselves have admitted there is more work to do, and they are working on it. They need to make the Kindle Fire line accessible, and the Kindle apps for Android, the Mac, and Windows-based PCs accessible. I understand that, and I have faith they will deliver. We still need to do our part to encourage this, and one way is to put our money where our mouths are.
This is absolutely positively awesome! I have been searching for paid and free Kindle content. There is a LOT out there. So much so that I feel I can be picky about which books I get now. It is very, very, very nice to have that luxury. "No, I really don't want that one, and I won't just buy it because it's accessible." I love that freedom.
But one issue keeps coming up on an email list I am on. I get tired of having to try to explain myself again and again there and not doing a good job, so I'm going to try here.
I thank BookShare , The National Library Service , Learning Ally , and Baen Books for giving me access to all of their electronic text at no charge. I can download whatever ebooks they have, in whatever format I want, so I have books in epub for iBooks and Nook, and also as .mobi for the Kindle app (Baen Books). I get specialized audio or text from Bookshare, the National Library Service, and Learning Ally.
I am glad that all of these services exist, but I don't feel that because I am blind I am automatically entitled to free content. I do not expect Amazon, Barnes And Noble, or Audible to automatically open up their catalog to me and give me free content because I am blind.
The trouble is that again and again, I seem to come across blind people who don't want to ever pay for books. They won't even hear of it. If a book is not available to them at no cost, even if it's one they want very badly, they won't even consider buying it. Unless you count Bookshare, where you have to pay a fifty dollar annual fee to get access to 100 free books a month. They just won't spend a penny, and they seem, to me, to feel that they are entitled to it. How dare they be expected to pay for content like the rest of us? I don't buy the limited income crap. I have that problem, but when I can pay (or am given a membership or gift card), I do pay, and gladly. Sure, it makes me be even more picky about the books I want, but when I buy content from Amazon, or iBooks, or Barnes And Noble, or Audible, I know I am supporting authors I want to support because their writing is good; so good that after reading a version from Bookshare, or Learning Ally or the NLS, I will actually support them and buy a copy of the book to keep.
That's what NLS and Bookshare have become for me. Places to download books to listen to or read in Braille, where I can decide if I like that book enough to want to buy it. If I do want to by it, I add it to my wish list and hang onto the other copy until I can get it in a mainstream format. Then that other copy goes away. and if I don't like it, well, I don't have to keep the copy I downloaded from Bookshare or the NLS, and I don't have to spend money on it.. I treat Bookshare and the NLS very much like a sighted person treats a public library. I go in, look for what I want, and read it, just as a sighted person does with a print book from the library.
I guess this makes me seem like I am a hypocrite, because I'll take advantage of free stuff that's available, but I don't think so. In the end, someone gets money that I want to spend. I'm not holding back because "we shouldn't have to pay" for stuff. I'm holding back because I am not made of money.
There are many good authors out there, such as
jennifer_brozek, e_moon60, Margaret Yang and many authors at Baen Books. They are also people with normal lives, like ours. I engage with them on Twitter and follow their blogs. I even chat with one every day about coffee and what we've been up to. They are people, just like me, trying to make a living.One author learned I could not read a book that was available for Kindle for free (this was back in March before the software was accessible). She gave me a copy of the book in another format. She didn't have to do that. And you know what? I love the book so much that I am going to buy it from Amazon at the earliest possible opportunity, because it is just that good.
There was a time when the number of Braille books ever made was not equal to the amount of printed materials produced in one year. Braille books were (and still are) extremely expensive. If I wanted a book, I had to either pay high prices for it, or I had to spend hours scanning the book and hoping I could read it and make sense of it. I now have access to a LOT of reading materials at my fingertips, or through VoiceOver, because e-book reading software is not only available, but now accessible. Publishers, authors, and companies have leveled the playing field for US. It's time that WE, THE BLIND, leveled the playing field from OUR side and actually, you know, show that we give a damn and want authors to do well by purchasing their e-books.
We can't tell someone, "I'm blind. You should work for me for free." But when we don't pay for content, that's in effect what we're telling authors. "I'm blind, so you have to write and entertain me for free." That just won't cut it.
I realize a sense of entitlement is not the only issue. Some people will not buy from Amazon because they don't feel Amazon has done enough, or that Amazon took way too long to implement a working completely accessible solution. Amazon themselves have admitted there is more work to do, and they are working on it. They need to make the Kindle Fire line accessible, and the Kindle apps for Android, the Mac, and Windows-based PCs accessible. I understand that, and I have faith they will deliver. We still need to do our part to encourage this, and one way is to put our money where our mouths are.
