[Athen] Kindle software

E.A. Draffan ea at emptech.info
Fri Feb 10 05:19:28 PST 2012


Many thanks Ken for this news - I have just downloaded the Kindle PC
accessibility version and NVDA reads all the navigation elements and then
describes the content with the term 'border' and you can see the text that
should be read aloud with a border around it. But do you think those of us
in the UK are being prevented from using the TTS - I was trying it with the
Kindle manual - no sign of TTS. It could well be my incompetence! Many
thanks for any help available on the topic as we are also evaluating all
these apps and ereaders and will be producing evaluations sometime in the
year - available to all of course!



Just wish I could catch up on it all at CSUN and I am now sending apologies
for not being able to attend the meetings.



Best wishes E.A.



Mrs E.A. Draffan

ECS, University of Southampton,

Tel +44 (0)23 8059 7246

http://access.ecs.soton.ac.uk

http://www.emptech.info



From: athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Ken Petri
Sent: 09 February 2012 14:58
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] Kindle software



Hi Robert,



Pratik is painting a gloomier picture than is the case. The thing is called
Kindle for PC with Accessibility Plugin and you can get it for free here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000632481>
&docId=1000632481



If you have a screen reader installed (for example NVDA, which, again, is
free) when Kindle fires up, you will be able to use NVDA to navigate the
controls of the interface and the home screen (there is some verbal "junk"
in the interface in NVDA, not so with JAWS, but it's livable).



For book reading, the Plugin's native TTS takes over. It downloads with a
high quality male and female voice, which you can toggle between. You can
navigate by sentence on a page or have the whole page read in its entirety.
There is no way to select or copy text with a screen reader. That will
require sighted use and a mouse. But you can set a note on an entire page
and the notes are accessible with a screen reader. (Oddly, the notes cannot
be removed via screen reader, though they can be edited).



You can also set and search on bookmarks and text.



This behavior is NOT limited to books with TTS enabled by the publisher. It
will work with any Kindle book and there are more than 900,000 of those now.




It's far from perfect, but it is a marginally decent accommodation.



Also, if you buy a book in Kindle, it is relatively trivial to break the DRM
and convert it to EPUB for playback in other devices.



Best,

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
http://wac.osu.edu | petri.1 at osu.edu





On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 9:39 AM, Robert Beach <rbeach at kckcc.edu> wrote:

Hmmm, sounds rather gloomy. There is a book I need that is not available at
any other resource (that I can find), but is available for the Kindle.
Since it is a textbook and not a leasure read, I really would like to have
at least paragraph navigation. Also, since I don't know if TTS is turned on
or off in the book, I hate to go that route.



Thanks for the feed back.





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



From: athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Pratik
Patel
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2012 8:31 AM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network'
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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