[Dtb-talk] FW: Kindle: can it be used by the blind?

[Andrews, David B (DEED)]

Thanks for thinking to ask her -- Mike.  This is a great summary!  

The Technology Center comes through again.

Dave



-----Original Message-----
From: Dtb-talk [mailto:dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Mike Freeman via Dtb-talk
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2014 10:18 AM
To: Discussion of Digital Talking Books
Subject: [Dtb-talk] FW: Kindle: can it be used by the blind?

All:

Below is Amy Mason's evaluation of the accessibility/useability of Kindle technologies. Amy works for our International Braille and Technology Center.

Mike Freeman


-----Original Message-----
From: Mason, Amy [mailto:Amason at nfb.org]
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2014 6:09 AM
To: Mike Freeman
Subject: RE: [Dtb-talk] Kindle: can it be used by the blind?

Mike,

The Kindle situation is a bit of a tricky one, but here's what I can tell you from a practical point of view.  Kindle books are protected with DRM (special software intended to keep people from using their books in anything but their players), and so cannot be read in Word and OpenBook.  Amazon offers a "Kindle for PC with Accessibility" package, which will let you read the books, but not with much in the way of navigation, and books that are complex with their formatting may not read intelligibly at all.
Essentially the limitations of this application are that you cannot read down to the word or line level, and you cannot get spelling for individual words.  You will not be able to use Braille to read them, as the application is self-voicing the content, though the menus will be read by your screen access package of choice.  You will have to learn their keystrokes, and you can pretty much move by page backwards and forwards, so it's probably ok for leisure reading, but if you want to do something academic, you are going to be pretty hard pressed.

The Kindle eInk devices, (the Paper white, the Kindle touch, etc...) are not accessible at all, and cannot be used by a blind person at this time. An older model that is no longer sold, the Kindle Keyboard, was similar in
functionality to the PC software.    

The Kindle Fire tablets currently being sold have some accessibility, but the software in my most recent testing has been sometimes difficult to use, and there were some limitations to what you could do with the content. It was less severe than the other two, but I remember having difficulty fully navigating the books.  These are touch screen tablet devices, that are dedicated Android tablets for consuming content from Amazon, so the firmware may have been updated since my last in depth look at the device, but I found it difficult to use for reading.  On the positive side, the voices on these tablets are from Ivona, and very easy to listen to.

The final option for reading Kindle content, and the best to my mind, though still not perfect, is the Kindle app for iOS devices, (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch).  This app will work with VoiceOver on the iOS device, and will allow you access  to all the menu options about the book, the text of the book itself, down to the ability to navigate by character, and if you have a
Bluetooth Braille display, a pretty smooth Braille reading experience.   You
can read by character or word, but many of the "academic features" I would say don't work quite as expected.  PDF books cannot be read at all, images are not described, selecting text is non-trivial, and a few other matters like that keep the Kindle app from being fully accessible, though it is quite usable for less academic purposes.  I use it fairly often in fact for leisure reading.

I hope this helps.  I am not on the list, but if you need to contact me with further questions, my contact information is in my signature.

Amy Mason
Access Technology Specialist
National Federation of the Blind
200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place
Baltimore, MD 21230
410-659-9314 ext. 2424
amason at nfb.org

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can have the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back.

To make a donation to the National Federation of the Blind Imagination Fund campaign, please visit www.nfb.org/ImaginingOurFuture



-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Freeman [mailto:k7uij at panix.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 3:41 PM
To: Mason, Amy
Subject: FW: [Dtb-talk] Kindle: can it be used by the blind?

Amy:

I'd answer the gentleman's question below but my information may be a bit out-of-date. Might you answer him and put the answer up on DTB-Talk also?

Thanks. Read on.

Mike Freeman


-----Original Message-----
From: Dtb-talk [mailto:dtb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Mike Gilmore via Dtb-talk
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:22 PM
To: dtb-talk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Dtb-talk] Kindle: can it be used by the blind?

I must start out by saying I love my Stream.  However, it's kind of disappointing that it doesn't support the ebook format of amazon.com.  And, let's face it: some books may never go up on bookshare or it may take awhile for them to go up there or perhaps audible won't record them or NLS.  
Has anyone out there used a Kindle?  I've heard that it has a voice on it that'll read the book and I was wondering is the machine easy to use for the blind? If it's plugged into a computer can it be operated with a screen reader and have the book read in, for example, Microsoft Word?

Or, alternatively, can ebook versions of novels, etc., be purchased from amazon and downloaded onto a computer and be read in JAWS or Openbook?

Thanks.

Mike