[Athen] Kindle software

Kestrell kestrell at panix.com
Thu Feb 9 07:15:46 PST 2012


The software Accessible Kindle for PC is accessible with a screen reader, but only in the most basic way. You can't, for instance, read a word character by character in order to find out how something is spelled, and you can't read sentence by sentence or word by word. You can't use this program on anything other than a PC or laptop, so the reader is chained to a not-very-portable mode of reading.

I tried this program again just last week, and I find it frustrating enough that I rarely use it. Since the reader cannot find out how words or unfamiliar terms are spelled, I would say that it is not accessible enough to provide a fair level of access for any student who is trying to read a textbook for a course.

Kestrell
----- Original Message -----
From: Pratik Patel
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network'
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2012 9:31 AM
Subject: RE: [Athen] Kindle software


Hello Robert,



There is a specific piece of software that can be downloaded for some accessible output. It hasn't been improved.



There are built-in voices that can be used to read out loud. You can use speed control. You can read page by page. You won't be able to read by paragraph, line, word, sentence, etc. There is no support for a screen reader to read the book; nor is there support for braille displays. For books that do not have TTS enabled, you will get no speech.



Hope this helps.



Regards,



Pratik



From: athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Robert Beach
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2012 9:30 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network (athen-list at u.washington.edu)
Subject: [Athen] Kindle software



Hello all,



I know this was discussed some time ago, but I need an update/reminder.



I know there is an accessibility patch for the Kindle software for PC that supposedly makes it work with JAWS. I also remember the reviews weren't very exciting when I first heard it discussed. What kind of luck are folks having with this setup? Have there been any improvements? What draw backs might I expect to find?



Thanks.





Robert Lee Beach

Assistive Technology Specialist

Kansas City Kansas Community College

7250 State Avenue

Kansas City, KS 66112

913-288-7671

rbeach at kckcc.edu





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