[Athen] Online eBook Accessibility

[Russell Solowoniuk]

Hi Wink,

I use an iPhone 4S with VoiceOver.  The Kindle app works quite well with VoiceOver on the iPhone.  I've never read an actual textbook in this manner, but am currently reading a non-fiction book and it reads well.  You can swipe down with two fingers to have VoiceOver read continuously, and the nice thing about this is when the end of the page is reached, the page is turned, and VO continues to read.  A single finger double-tap will bring up a menu where you can choose to go to a specific page, go to the table of contents etc.  From the table of contents, you can double-tap with one finger on the section of the book you wish to read, and you are taken directly there.  You can navigate within the text by character, word, and line.  You can double-tap and hold on a word to select it, and then choose to highlight the word in a variety of colors or look up the definition , or search the word in Google or Wikipedia.  You can also extend the selection by dragging your finger, but I found this a bit difficult using VO.  I haven't found a way to have VO announce when highlighted text is read, so not sure how helpful this is for a student who is blind.  There is also an option to share selected text, but I haven't played with this as of yet.

I have also used the Google Play Books app on my iPhone.  It works well too, but I haven't used it as much so can't comment too much on it, other than to say you can also navigate through the table of contents and the pages are automatically turned and read with VO.  In the book I was reading in the Google Play Books app, the option to navigate by line was not there... not sure if this is specific to the book or to the Play Books app.

HTH

Russell


>>> "Wink Harner" <foreigntype at gmail.com> 3/26/2014 1:27 PM >>>

Hi out there in ATHEN-Land,

 

Anyone have any first-hand experience with the use of screen readers or TTS
readers with online textbook sources such as:

- Chegg

- CourseSmart

- GooglePlay-

- Kindle

- Kno 

- Vital Source

 

Publisher denied a PDF file and suggested the student purchase one of the
electronic versions of the requested book from the sources (above).
Student's preference is PDF, but if he can get the file to read aloud, he
may be OK. I have asked him for his preference. 

 

What experience do any of you have in the TTS capabilities on any of those
e-book sources listed?

 

Let me know!

 

Thanks in advance for your collective knowledge.

 

Wink Harner

foreigntype at gmail.com 

480-984-0034