[Electronics-talk] E-Readers

[Sharon Ballantyne]

Hi Vince,

I am totally blind. i ahve been using a kindle keyboard for about a year and a half. You can put audible books on it so you ahve different narrator's for those books from audible. The text to speech has a regular voice speech rate (very very slow to my ears) and their increased speed is still rpetty slow. I'd love to be able to adjust the speech rate further but the kindle does allow me access to Amazon books that are text to speech enabled. This unfortunately does not apply to all books, so check before you purchase any text.

I have not found a way to asily use the keyboard except for the space bar to pause and enabling the speech using control and symbols. The homea nd back key are easy to use and the five way key that simulates an enter key in the middle of a box with the upper and lower edge lines of the box operating as up and down cursors and the left and right sides operating as left right cursors. The menu key just above the five way is also accessible as are the page up and down on either side. 

When the speech is turned on, it will read the book continuously so you don't ahve to turn pages.

The navigation for on and off is a slider that also takes you to screen saver and turning off option. The volume control is easy to use and the earphone jack is discernible.

I do use the book mark features with no difficulty but not the add notes and highlights.

I ahve used the keyboard (QWERTY style) to do searches within texts or to locate a text but when you are using the keyboard for example to enter ssearch string there will be no audio feedback so you are a bit in no mans land there.

I use the computer to go to Amazon and actually find the books I want. If I ahve ordered a free sample I can choose to purchase the book right from my kindle without going to my computer.

It is not as accessible as all the features that the sighted have but I really like it for its portability, long battery life and instant access to books. Theya re not kidding about a book in under a minute.

Hope this description is of some help.

At the time I bought my e-reader the others were not at the time as accessible. That could have changed.

All the best,

Sharon
On 2012-01-10, at 7:59 PM, cheez wrote:

> I think this topic has been discussed before, however I don't remember what was said.
> Which E-Reader offers the most user-friendliness for a total?
> Vince 
> 
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