[Trainer-Talk] New Issue Reading Kindle Books On iPhone with VoiceOver

[David Goldfield]

Hi.

I am noticing a new issue when reading Kindle books on my iPhone. I sent the following report to device-accessibility at amazon.com<mailto:device-accessibility at amazon.com> but I am reposting it here as I'm wondering if others on this list are able to reproduce this issue. If there are trainers on this list who are assisting students with the Kindle app on iOS this is an issue that I'm wondering if you've seen, even though some users might not notice and some who do notice it might not care.




Hello. I am noticing a new issue regarding the Kindle app on my iPhone 8, running iOS 11.4.1 using VoiceOver.


Description

In the past, when performing a continuous read with the two-finger swipe down gesture the reading flow was always smooth. In other words, VoiceOver did not pause at the end of each line of text, but only paused at the end of sentences or paragraphs, making the reading flow sound natural. The only other pause was when the page needed to be flipped but this was very brief and produced a very short earcon.

Recently, this behavior has changed. Now, VoiceOver pauses after each line of text, making the flow of reading sound more unnatural. I have tried changing the font and adjusting font size and spacing but altering these settings does not resolve the issue.

Additionally, the earcon when the page flips is a bit different, sounding like the earcon you hear when opening an app, which makes the pauses between page flips more noticeable and jarring.

This behavior occurs with all of my books. The one exception is when reading a magazine in text view, where the app behaves as expected during reading.



Steps to Reproduce

1. With VoiceOver running, open the Kindle app and ensure that a book is currently open. Ensure that the book contains more than one page.

2. Swipe down with two fingers to cause VoiceOver to read continuously.

3. Allow the reading to continue past the current page so that the page flips.


Expected Results

When reading continuously VoiceOver should only pause during page flips and at the end of a sentence.

Page flip earcons should be very slight and brief.


Actual Results

During continuous reading pauses occur after each line.

Page flip earcons are longer than in previous versions.




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David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist WWW.David-Goldfield.Com<http://WWW.David-Goldfield.Com>