Tablets Have Accessibility Features, Says Coalition of E-Reader Manufacturers

Tablets are adding accessibility features, while e-readers "are becoming even more distinct" from tablets, said Amazon, Kobo and Sony representatives and their lawyer in lobbying the FCC to grant their request for a longer waiver of accessibility rules. E-readers have "become even more specialized for digital reading, featuring a long battery life and decreased size, weight, and complexity," said the Coalition of E-Reader Manufacturers, which represents the three companies. "Tablets are increasing in functionality and continue to add accessibility features." In a recent one-week sample of more than 400,000 e-reader devices, 4.2 percent of users launched the product's browser, and no more than 2.5 percent used it for what might have been advanced communications services, said a filing recounting executives' lobbying of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's office and Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staffers. "It would be arbitrary and capricious for an agency to conclude that an activity (ACS) is a primary or coprimary use of a device" based on such evidence, said the coalition in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday to docket 10-213. Two library groups recently opposed the accessibility waiver that CEA and the Internet Association backed (see 1411120048).