I work in a library. I get to help people learn how to use audiobooks. Many of these people are elderly and not terrible comfortable with their futuristic tablets. Even on a good day, assuming the network is running at full speed and the stars are in alignment, it takes about half an hour to get set up, but given the multiple passwords, accounts, security checks, and moments of “I think I may have already registered an Adobe ID…” the whole thing often takes longer. And that is when these people are assisted by someone who has done this hundreds of times. Even worse, I sometimes spend hours on a device only to find out that it is incompatible.
This is huge from an accessibility standpoint. Elderly people aren’t stupid. They have been paying attention for the last fifty years and are keenly aware of the future they were promised. Search for book. Push button. Read book. It should be that fucking intuitive. But it isn’t, and every layer of abstraction piled on above that (“Oh, I’m sorry, that publisher doesn’t release ebooks.” “No, the adobe ID uses your email address as the ID, but it is different from your email address.” “No, after checking out a book you have to download it to your device.” “No, sorry, someone already checked out that book.” “Yes, I know it is just a file, but we only have a small number of copies.”)… well, it’s a lot of stuff to overcome.
Printed books are easy. ebooks should be too, and yet we now have a system that takes the worst parts of a books analog and digital equivalents and forces them on people.
Cynically, I wonder if this is done intentionally to discourage people from borrowing ebooks.
So anyway, I broke the news to the IT department sitting next to me over lunch, and needless to say we are all relieved. Yay!
