[vicsireland] Re: Amazon Launch Kindle Software for PC with Accessibility Features
- From: "Ciaran Ferry" <Ciaran.Ferry@xxxxxx>
- To: <vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2011 09:28:52 -0000
I think that case was more concerned with the hardware device gadget
Gerry rather than the PC software.
Incidentally - the hardware (or e-reader as products such as these are
called nowadays) itself is somewhat accessible now too. See below review
from the Blind Access Journal.
Anyone ever had a go of one of these things?
http://blindaccessjournal.com/2010/08/kindle-accessibility-review-how-fa
r-has-amazon-opened-the-door-to-the-blind/
By guest writer Larry Wanger.
The Kindle is an electronic book reading device produced by Amazon that
provides access to hundreds of thousands of in-copyright books and well
over a million more that are either out of print or in the public
domain. In other words, it's pretty safe to say that if it's not
available on the Kindle it's not available in e-book format.
The question we must ask is, "how effectively does the new Kindle 3 make
the books in this vast library accessible to blind readers"?
While it is clear that Amazon has taken some steps in the right
direction to make the new book reader accessible, this review will point
out significant areas where there's a great deal of work to be done in
order for the company to claim it sells a truly accessible product.
The Pros:
* A device with access to over 600,000 books and over a million
more out of copyright.
* Light weight, small and very portable.
* Outstanding battery life.
* Works for the casual reader who doesn't expect more than simply
being able to read a book.
The Cons:
* Speech output that is less than stellar.
* There may be over 600,000 books but text to speech doesn't work
on all of them.
* The new Kindle just won't fit the bill for students, researchers
or serious readers who demand a lot in terms of navigation and
accessibility.
Those who know me are aware that I tend to be an early adopter. If a new
device or technology hits the market and if it promises accessibility I
find myself wishing for it. So, in July when Amazon began taking orders
for the new Kindle I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. The following
paragraphs highlight the good, the bad and what needs work on the new
Kindle. I've done all of the heavy lifting and spent hours finding the
strengths and shortfalls of the new reader.
You'll find nearly 650,000 copyrighted books in the store. Amazon says
the mission of the Kindle team is to put every book in the world in your
hands within 60 seconds. And, while they may be able to do that, they
continue to fall short in terms of providing that level of accessibility
to the blind community.
Out of the box, the Kindle is not accessible. The shipment includes a
print quick-start guide and the Kindle has printed instructions on the
screen telling the owner how to begin using the device. No disk is
included with a copy of the guide. You'll need to go to the Kindle web
site to find a downloadable PDF copy of the manual.
Turning on the Kindle is fairly easy. A sliding switch is located on the
bottom edge of the device. However, no speech is available just by
firing up the Kindle. You will need assistance navigating the menus so
that a feature called Voice Guide can be activated. Note: this is a
one-time activation and the Voice Guide remains on for future use.
To improve your experience when turning on your Kindle the first time,
make sure you set up an account on the Amazon store prior to purchase.
By doing this, your Kindle will arrive registered with your account
information and you'll save yourself some headaches. More on the cause
of the potential headaches later.
Before elaborating on Voice Guide, it's worth noting that there are two
aspects to accessibility on the device. Voice Guide is a feature that
gives you a level of accessibility to menus and non-book-reading
functions on the Kindle. Meanwhile, Text to Speech or TTS is what
enables you to read books, magazines, newspapers, blogs and other
materials you download to the Kindle. It may be best to think of Kindle
as having two screen readers even though they use the same voices and
speech.
The Kindle makes use of a very simple menu structure. By using Voice
Guide one can move around the menus and make selections and hear various
options and settings. My experience thus far indicates that all menus
are fully accessible by using the 5-way key located on the lower right
corner of the Kindle keyboard. Unfortunately, accessibility with Voice
Guide more or less ends with the menus.
TTS is the feature used for reading books and other publications
available on the Kindle store. The store features a wide variety of
content beyond books. One can read many popular magazines, local,
regional and national newspapers and blogs. The key to being able to
access this wealth of information and entertainment is whether or not
the publisher has allowed Amazon to enable the TTS option.
Unfortunately, I have been unable to find any hard numbers in terms of
how many publications on the store restrict the TTS feature. Previously,
publishers had indicated concerns over copyright and possible loss of
audio book sales due to this feature of the Kindle. Clearly, this issue
must be resolved before the Kindle is widely adopted by the blind
community. Still, my initial experiences are that most books I encounter
do allow for TTS usage. Each book listing on the store clearly indicates
whether or not TTS is enabled for that title. Additionally, thanks to
the free two-week trial offered with magazines and newspapers, I was
able to test several successfully with TTS. Imagine waking up with your
local paper already waiting for you on your Kindle thanks to the
included wireless synching.
Activating TTS appears to be simple at first but quickly becomes a bit
tedious. First, TTS must be turned on each time you launch a book. Say,
for example, I am reading Time Magazine, which supports use of TTS, but
then I decide to resume reading the book I purchased from the Kindle
Store last week. I hit the Home button to leave Time Magazine and land
at the main menu. I then use the arrow key to move through the
selections and then choose the book I want to resume reading. Kindle
opens to the page I last read; however, the TTS doesn't just resume
reading. Instead, I must hit a button to bring up options for that book.
These include options to adjust typeface, font size and, if allowed, the
TTS option. Choosing to turn on the TTS option results in Kindle
resuming reading out loud from the place you previously left off. If you
decide to go back to Time Magazine you will need to repeat this same
process. Kindle does include use of a specific key combination to
immediately begin use of TTS, though I have experienced some
difficulties with this.
Whether you are a student conducting formal research for a term paper or
a casual reader trying to move by paragraph or page within the
publication you are reading, easy and quick navigation that is speech
friendly is essential. Unfortunately, Kindle falls short in this area.
While you can navigate by chapter or article, finer navigation by
paragraph, sentence, line, word or character is not supported at this
time. If you are looking for a product that can simply read books then
the Kindle is probably a good choice; however, if you need detailed
navigation, you would be better served by other reading formats.
The new Kindle offers a significant number of features beyond simply
reading. For example, you can bookmark pages for later reference, make
notes, highlight passages and share them on popular social media sites
and look up words in the built-in dictionary. You can even search for
selected words or phrases on Google and a number of other websites.
Unfortunately, neither Voice Guide nor TTS work with these features and,
therefore, they are not accessible.
Remember those potential headaches I mentioned previously? One of the
main selling points of the Kindle is the ability to shop for and buy
books from the Kindle Store and have them appear almost immediately on
your device. Sounds great right? Well, don't expect Voice Guide or TTS
to give you access to the Internets largest book store. The built in Web
browser is currently not able to be accessed by low vision or blind
users. You will need to shop for books on your computer or mobile phone.
Tip: the Kindle Store interface is very accessible on the iPhone through
the otherwise useless Kindle app. (The Kindle app does not currently
allow for Voice Over support on the iPhone or iPad platform but one can
shop from within the app. Once purchased from one of these platforms,
books appear on the Kindle. In short, you cannot utilize the built in
web browser and therefore should expect to be unable to independently
register your Kindle or to purchase books on the device itself.
Anyone who has an interest in the e-book and portable reader market
knows that things have changed significantly over the past year. The
Kindle is just one of many portable readers available today. The iPad
and the accompanying iBooks store further disrupted the market earlier
this year and more change is inevitable. Options for blind readers are
also very diverse. Beyond the widely known BARD, digital NLS services
and Book Share, we can choose iBooks as an option. Further changes took
place just last week with increased accessibility to the KOBO service
now available on Apple's portable devices and then the introduction of
the more accessible Kindle on the 27th.
Is the Kindle the best choice for you? You are the only person who can
answer that question. If you do not need detailed navigation and can
accept purchasing Kindle books on your mobile phone or computer then it
will work well for you. However, if you need detailed navigation and
want access to every feature on the device, then you should look
elsewhere. My experience has been quite positive and I look forward to
reading many books that I otherwise may have never found thanks to the
expanded level of accessibility now available.
________________________________
From: vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Gerry Ellis
Sent: 20 January 2011 16:10
To: vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vicsireland] Re: Amazon Launch Kindle Software for PC with
Accessibility Features
Hi,
There has been a legal case going on in the States for the last year or
more to force accessibility on the Kindle. I understand that this
relates primarily to the fact that the Kindle is being adopted in the U.
S. education system. I have absolutely no doubt that is why it has been
made available there but not here.
Anyone feel like taking a case?
Take Care
Gerry Ellis
If you don't know where you're going,
How will you know when you get there?
From: vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ciaran Ferry
Sent: 20 January 2011 10:25
To: vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vicsireland] Re: Amazon Launch Kindle Software for PC with
Accessibility Features
We'll need to wait til they update the software for amazon.co.uk then,
which you wouldn't imagine would be too big a deal.
Be nice if they'd do the one for IOS too when they're at it, being
chained to a PC to read a book would be a bit of a pain.
Still, credit where credit's due - at least they're working on it.
Ciaran
________________________________
From: vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Scanlon, Tony
Sent: 20 January 2011 10:20
To: vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vicsireland] Re: Amazon Launch Kindle Software for PC with
Accessibility Features
Hi Ciaran
Don't know exactly why unfortunately but would agree with Tim copyright
issues must be a big concern, but they do HOPE to make it available so
maybe it is just pure economics.
Tony
________________________________
From: vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ciaran Ferry
Sent: 20 January 2011 10:03
To: vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vicsireland] Re: Amazon Launch Kindle Software for PC with
Accessibility Features
That's a real pity Tony.
Hopefully it won't be too long before it's available this side of the
pond.
Wonder what the issue is - i would've thought that if electronic
versions of books were available in a certain jurisdiction that there'd
be no problem using this software to read them. Do you know if it's a
copyright thing, or just Amazon being awkward and / or lazy?
Do you know if different versions of the application are required for
each store i.e. one for amazon.com, one for amazon.co.uk etc?
Ciaran
________________________________
From: vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Scanlon, Tony
Sent: 20 January 2011 09:49
To: vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vicsireland] Re: Amazon Launch Kindle Software for PC with
Accessibility Features
Hi Ciaran
This was discussed on the UK Access List and it appears it will not be
available outside of the US.
This was the response from Amazon.
Tony
Here is the response which I received from amazon.com regarding
accessible
Kindle for PC
"
Thank you for your inquiry about Kindle for PC with Accessibility
Plugin.
At this time, we are unable to offer this software to our international
customers.
To successfully register the application and purchase digital content
from
Amazon.com, the 1-Click payment method listed on the Manage Your Kindle
page> must be a credit or debit card issued by a U.S. Bank with a U.S.
billing
address.
We value our international customers and hope to make Kindle for PC
with
Accessibility Plugin available internationally in the future. To
receive
emails from Amazon when updates on this topic are available, please
send an
email to blind-interest@xxxxxxxxxxx
> For additional information, please visit
> www.amazon.com/kindle/accessibility/help.
>
> Thanks for your interest in Kindle."
>
> I would recommend that as many people as possible contact Amazon
requesting
> that this application be introduced here. The more e-mails they
received the
> more likely it is to have an impact.
________________________________
From: vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:vicsireland-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ciaran Ferry
Sent: 20 January 2011 09:24
To: vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vicsireland] Amazon Launch Kindle Software for PC with
Accessibility Features
http://www.fredshead.info/2011/01/free-kindle-software-with-accessibilit
y.html
Amazon.com has released Kindle for PC that adds accessibility features
designed for blind and low-vision customers.
Kindle for PC with Accessibility Plugin is a free, downloadable
application for your Windows PC. It provides the following accessibility
features: text-to-speech reading with adjustable voice settings,
voice-guided menu navigation, large font sizes, high contrast reading
mode, keyboard navigation, and accessible shortcuts.
With this software, for the first time ever, the entire collection of
English language books in the Kindle Store can be read aloud. With over
750,000 English language titles, Amazon offers the largest selection of
accessible ebooks. In order to use the text-to-speech feature, an
external screen reader program must be installed and running on the
Windows PC.
"We welcome your feedback at
kindle-PC-accessibility-feedback@xxxxxxxxxx".
The free download is available at
http://www.amazon.com/kindle/accessibility
<http://www.amazon.com/kindle/accessibility> . The download is large
because it comes with Nuance Tom and Jenifer 22khz voices. Important
keyboard shortcuts to know include:
* ctrl-r, reads using the supplied voice, not your installed
software synth.
* ctrl-d, adds or deletes a bookmark
* ctrl-shift-v, switches between Tom and Jenifer
* ctrl-shift-c, switches between continuous and single page
reading
* F5 syncs reading position with a Kindle on your account
* Left and right arrows move back and forth by page
* ctrl-I provides limited instructions
Ciaran Ferry, Business Solutions, ESB ITS, 27 Lwr Fitzwilliam St, Dublin
2, Ireland.
Tel: +353-1-(70)27945 | EMail: Ciaran.Ferry@xxxxxx | Web:
http://www.esb.ie <http://www.esb.ie/>
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