[Athen] Google eBooks and VoiceOver on iPad

[Ken Petri]

Hi Pratik,

Glad to hear folks are pushing accessibility of Google eBooks. As for the
Android Google eBooks app's accessibility: Forget it. Nothing at all outside
of "Talk Back" access to the titles of books on the main "library" page. You
cannot read a word out of the books.

To me frank, I'm not terribly surprised. It's par for the course. Android
accessibility is simply pathetic, especially when compared to iPhone. It is
truly frustrating and incredible. At this point, Talk Back and the eyes-free
shell are a joke--a "smart" phone that makes calls and looks up contacts
(not very efficiently), whoop-dee doo! From what I have heard, there are no
improvements with the latest release, Gingerbread, either. Sad sad sad to
the point of reprehensible. Google needs to wake up on this one. Apple owns
the market for accessible phones at this point.

ken
---
  Ken Petri
  Program Director, OSU Web Accessibility Center
  102D Pomerene Hall, 1760 Neil Avenue
  Columbus, Ohio  43210
  Office: 614.292.1760
  Mobile: 614.218.1499
  Fax: 614.292.4190
  Web: wac.osu.edu
  Email: petri.1 at osu.edu



On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 6:38 AM, Pratik Patel <pratikp1 at gmail.com> wrote:


> Shelley,

>

> I have played with both the web-based reader and the iPhone app.  There are

> some things that need to be resolved with the web-based reader like

> improperly labeled buttons or missing labels.  I am able to read the text

> by

> using Firefox 3.6x JAWS and NVDA.  It does not work with Internet Explorer

> 8.  I have not yet tried System Access or Window-Eyes.  I am also told that

> it works with Safari and Voiceover on the Mac.  I will try that later in

> the

> day.  I have more hope for SA.  Unlike their other products, Google is

> planning to make improvements re accessibility.

>

> The iPhone/iPad app has some interesting oddities when using it with

> Voiceover.  One good thing is that font size and type can be changed.  I

> believe day-time and night-time modes will be able to  provide sufficient

> contrast options.  Right now the major limitation is that Voiceover users

> cannot change pages independently.  Even though it is sort of doable by

> using the slider, the slider jumps too much for it to make a significant

> difference.  It might be more controllable by using the iPad since there is

> more surface to play with.  The standard way of sliding one's finger across

> paragraphs of text does not read any text.  The two-finger down gesture

> does

> read text from top of the screen to the bottom, but it does not turn pages

> automatically like iBooks does.  There are several improperly labeled

> buttons in this app as well.  These can be relatively easy to figure out

> with their image names though.

>

> Public domain books can be converted to text from the online book store.

> There is a mobile version of the store that can be viewed by using the

> browser.  This, I believe is usable by using Safari Mobile.  I'll have to

> check this.

>

> I and several other people have been in touch with the person working on

> accessibility to this product via Twitter.  She says that fixes to the

> online store and reader are already in the system and should be released

> soon.  The iPhone/iPad app work will take a bit because of Apple's

> restrictions about third-party libraries.  I'd love to hear more about the

> Android app and how accessible that is or is not.

>

> Regards,

>

> Pratik

>

>

>

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On

> Behalf Of Shelley Haven

> Sent: Monday, December 06, 2010 11:43 PM

> To: Access Technology Higher Education Network

> Subject: [Athen] Google eBooks and VoiceOver on iPad

>

> As some of you know, Google unveiled their eBooks platform and eBookstore

> today.  More info here:

> http://books.google.com/ebooks

>

> Google eBooks can be read on Android devices (obviously), iOS devices, the

> Web, and both Sony and Nook e-readers.  You can download an app for reading

> Google eBooks on iPads, etc. here:

> http://books.google.com/help/ebooks/ios.html

>

> I downloaded a sample eBook to my iPad and was pleasantly surprised to find

> that it works with VoiceOver (perhaps not that surprisingly since it uses

> the ePub format, like iBooks).  Also, it surrounds the text being read

> (sentence, paragraph, etc.) with a rounded rectangle.  VoiceOver gestures

> don't seem to work quite like they do in iBooks, though -- still trying to

> figure them out.  But the capability is there.

>

> Text in the Web reader does not appear to work with text-to-speech.

>

> Just thought you'd like to know...

>

> - Shelley

>

> _____________________________

> Shelley Haven  ATP, RET

> Assistive Technology Consultant

> www.TechPotential.net

>

>

>

>

>

>

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