[Athen] Kindle questions

[Deborah Armstrong]

I forgot to mention that another thing I like about the Kindle apps is how well they work on low-end devices. On my super slow Atom processor Windows 10 machine the app is faster than the browser; on my $49 Kindle I never have problems with latency when reading a book. Kindle accessibility is far from perfect, but it is one thing that makes the Kindle a good bet for some students now.

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Deborah Armstrong
Sent: Friday, April 3, 2020 8:12 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Athen] Kindle questions

I'm a dedicated Kindle user, but I want to know how well Kindle works for people with other print impairments.

How effective is the Kindle app for the Mac and for Windows for your students who use Voiceover, Zoom, other magnification and tools like K3000 and Read and Write? I'm pretty sure there is no way for K3000 to read a Kindle book but I could be wrong.

Here's why I need to know: here at home, I cannot effectively scan textbooks. I have a scanner, but personal deliveries are not a good idea with the shelter in place.

But in looking up my students' textbook needs I increasingly see that the Kindle offering and renting a book on the Kindle is often considerably cheaper than renting or purchasing from our bookstore, even when it's an ebook.

So I want to start recommending my students use the Kindle app and read more of their textbooks there.

For screen reader users, the Kindle app works well with JAWS and NVDA , though of course not all material is totally accessible and it's difficult to  get to a particular section - not as convenient as a Daisy book.

But it's fine for courses like literature where you have to read a book straight through. Gets a bit harder if you need to find a particular story in a large collection like a Norton literature anthology.

And the app can be a bit tricky to navigate if you are new to your screen reader.

But you can read books on your phone or tablet as well.

What I need to know is how effective are the Kindle apps for people who don't use JAWS or NVDA?

--Debee

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