E-Readers Get Year Reprieve on Accessibility, FCC Says, OK'ing Waiver for Amazon, Kobo, Sony

Some who are blind or have other vision problems would like to use e-readers to read texts aloud, much like some earlier versions of Amazon’s Kindle allowed, said American Council of the Blind Director-External Relations and Policy Eric Bridges in an interview Wednesday. The waiver is a cost advantage to e-readers over tablets, which research firm Yankee Group forecast will sell in the U.S. for an average of $105 this year versus $256 for tablets, said analyst Carl Howe, Yankee vice president. “Books tend to be one of the things that you'd like to have very accessible, and the fact that they're not requiring them to include accessible features for Web access may create a somewhat unlevel playing field with those tablet makers that have to include” such features, Howe said. Amazon, Kobo and Sony had no comment.

It was a “close call” for CGB to make in weighing the goal of accessibility over the product limitations of e-readers, said the bureau twice in an order released Tuesday (http://fcc.us/1ffjIPs). That was the day the bureau had to act, after giving itself six more months as the partial government shutdown occurred during the deadline that e-readers used for ACS were to be accessible to the disabled (CD Oct 24 p20). A close call was “the competing public interests at stake” for those with disabilities to use basic e-readers versus the industry’s “interest in preserving a unique product,” said the order signed by acting bureau Chief Kris Monteith. Another hard decision was whether “availability of social media apps” on the devices is a primary or co-primary function “capable of providing two-way interactive ACS between individuals, such as chat functions that are covered by Section 716” of the 2010 law, said the order. ACS “serves an incidental purpose on these devices,” the primary purpose of which is reading, it said.

The waiver is for a year, as advocates persuaded the bureau that’s akin to the product development life cycle as opposed to the two years the companies cited, said the order. “A lengthy or permanent waiver might negatively impact consumers with disabilities in the future with respect to their ability to access ACS.” The bureau said it’s “very sensitive” to advocates’ concerns and it understands “the need to provide access to text-based digital works, recognize[s] the importance to the community of people with disabilities of being able to access text in an audio format, and acknowledge[s] that some ACS is also text based.” Rapid changes in e-reader and ACS technology and the “expanding importance” of ACS to all consumers argue against a permanent waiver, said the bureau. “While important technologic breakthroughs may require several years of development, the smaller incremental improvements seen in most product releases do not appear to take that long."

The basic e-readers covered by the waiver are mobile devices designed primarily for reading text-based digital works like books and periodicals, said the bureau. It said the devices must have no LCD screen or camera and not be offered or shipped to consumers with built-in ACS. “Using a browser to post information to a social media website (e.g., Facebook), look up information on the web, access Wi-Fi, or purchase or download an e-book is not evidence of ACS; nor does it support a finding that ACS is a primary or co-primary purpose of these devices,” said the decision. “We must look to whether the browser is designed, marketed, and used for ACS, such as electronic messaging services, in order to determine whether basic e-readers have ACS as one of their primary or co-primary purposes."

Some of ACB’s approximately 20,000 members use e-readers rather than more expensive “assistive technology” and tablets, smartphones and other advanced and expensive devices from companies like Apple, said Bridges. “The challenge is they are expensive,” and that can be a hardship for those who are older versus buying an e-reader, he said. “The technology that is utilized or that could be utilized to make those $75 or $80 devices accessible is simply not that expensive anymore.” Bridges and allies thought there might be a waiver for a limited period of time, rather than none whatsoever as those groups sought, “simply because it is a pretty narrow class,” he said. “You're never happy when something is extended,” he said of the order extending the 180-day reprieve e-readers got from the FCC in October. Other groups opposed to the waiver had no comment.

E-readers hit their peak in U.S. sales at 8.6 million devices in 2012, and Yankee expects this year will see more people than any other year own one, at 20.1 million, versus an installed base of 132 million in 2014 for tablets, said Howe. Tablets, sales of which in this country are projected to rise 25 percent to 74.8 million this year from last, will continue to grow but by increasingly smaller portions, said the analyst. “They're not growing as fast as they used to be.” E-readers will “continue to exist, but it will be a smaller part of the market -- this is a cannibalization business” by tablets, said Howe. “And to a much lesser extent, by smartphones.” There will remain some e-reader users “who don’t want to transition, they don’t want a tablet, they want an e-reader,” he said.

"Somebody has lobbied pretty well to say that they don’t want to have to provide Web services” on e-readers, Howe said of the waiver. “In many cases, there aren’t good Web browsers on these devices, because at the end of the day they're not designed to be Web devices.” Worldwide tablet shipments grew 28 percent in Q4 to 76.9 million units from the year-ago quarter, said preliminary data from International Data Corp. released Wednesday (http://bit.ly/LaKc9Y). “While the market’s growth rates remain impressive, they're down dramatically compared to the year-over-year rates of the same quarter one year ago (87.1 percent) and indicate a significant slowing of the overall market.” Ranked in order of Q4 shipments of tablets, leaders are Apple, Samsung and Amazon, said IDC.