Blind Americans to Protest Proposed Amazon Deal with New York City Schools

Deal Will Discriminate Against Blind Students

Date : August 26, 2015

Time : 4:30–6:00 p.m.

Place : M.S. 131
100 Hester Street
New York, NY 10002

On Wednesday, August 26, members of the National Federation of the Blind will participate in a protest outside M.S. 131 in New York City, where the city school system’s Educational Policy Panel will meet later that evening to consider a proposed $30 million contract under which Amazon, Inc. would construct an electronic storefront for New York City schools and become the primary provider of electronic textbooks and related educational materials for students. Because Amazon’s e-books are not fully accessible to the blind, the protest will inform the Educational Policy Panel and the public that the deal would be an act of deliberate discrimination against blind students and faculty and a violation of federal law. Those participating in the protest will enter the formal meeting at 6:00 p.m., where blind students, teachers, and others will testify as to the inaccessibility of the Amazon products and the discriminatory effects the use of these products will have on blind students and faculty if the deal is approved.

For more information about this issue, please visit https://nfb.org/blog/vonb-blog/we-must-stop-amazon-fail. To request interviews and/or demonstrations of how Amazon’s technology fails blind students, please contact Chris Danielsen at (410) 262-1281 or cdanielsen@nfb.org.