[gui-talk] [nfbcs] Kindle app accessible?

Fri Jun 3 09:00:29 UTC 2011

There is a Kindle for PC with accessibility version which you can download from www.amazon.com/kindle/accessibility. It's large - 231MB - and it will work with all books on the Kindle store, even those which have text to speech not enabled. Below is a document I wrote for a UK audience (the software was released in the US in January, but was only made available in the UK last month) and posted on our website. Be warned, it's 1300 words long! The May edition of Access World also has a good article on it at www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw120506.

Steve

Kindle for PC with accessibility

1. Introduction

Amazon, the makers of the hardware Kindle ebook reader, have developed free software versions to enable their books to be read on a variety of computers and mobile phones. Kindle for PC is the software version which runs on Windows XP and later computers.

Previous versions of Kindle for PC incorporated keyboard accessibility and a number of display options of potential use to low vision users. However, while an external screen reader could navigate the menus and controls, it was not possible to access or read the content of a book.

While the hardware Kindle has text-to-speech built in, Amazon allow publishers to prevent this feature working with their titles. The information about each book on the Kindle store thus includes whether text-to-speech is "enabled" or "disabled". 

The result is that up until now, there was no guarantee that a speech user would have access to the books they wanted to read on the Kindle.

Amazon have now released a version of Kindle for PC which incorporates a text-to-speech feature for book content.  This feature works for all books downloaded from the Kindle store, even those which have text-to-speech disabled.  (Note that although Amazon also allow subscriptions to newspapers and magazines, these are not available on the PC version.)

Kindle for PC with Accessibility is a large download (231MB) and is available from: www.amazon.com/kindle/accessibility

2. Installing Kindle for PC and getting books

Installation of Kindle for PC is straightforward - there are no options or questions. At the end of the installation the software starts with a dialogue on which you must register by logging into an existing Amazon account. The dialogue offers the option of creating a new account, but this does not work with a screen reader. An alternative is to use a web browser to go to the Amazon site and create your account there, then return to this dialogue and log into your account.

On the Home screen, there is a "Shop in Kindle Store" button which opens a browser at the Kindle store page. From here you can purchase and download books, or download samples of books to try before you buy. There are a number of free books available also, although note you still have to have an Amazon account and "buy" these books for £0.00 to get them!

The page of information for a book will tell you whether the text-to-speech has been disabled. You can tell you are on a page of information for a book because it will have the title of the book as a level 1 heading. The text-to-speech information is within the first list item. 

Each book has a free sample available. Currently the button used to acquire the sample is mislabelled for screen readers; it appears to be the second of two buttons labelled "Buy now with 1-Click", and it is preceded by the following text: "Sample the beginning of this book for free."

3. Keystrokes for reading

Kindle for PC opens on the Home screen, which contains any books downloaded. Tab to the list of books, then arrow between the titles and press Enter on one to open it. You can then use the following to read it - note that a screen reader must be running before these commands will work:

Read navigation instructions - Ctrl-I 
Start reading (from top of page) - Ctrl-R
Pause/Restart reading - Space Bar or F6
Toggle voice (male/female) - Ctrl-Shift-V 
Increase speech rate - Shift-Plus 
Decrease speech rate - Shift-Minus 
Toggle between reading by one page and continuously - Ctrl-Shift-C 
Read current sentence from beginning - Ctrl-Comma 
Read Previous sentence - Ctrl-Shift-UpArrow or Ctrl-Shift-LeftArrow 
Skip forward one sentence - Ctrl-Shift-DownArrow or Ctrl-Shift-RightArrow 
Announce current location within a book - Ctrl-P 
Read the name and author of the open book - Ctrl-L 
Add note to whole page - Ctrl-Shift-N 
Highlight whole page - Ctrl-Shift-H 
Jump to Reading Pane - Ctrl-Shift-R 
Open the Font size dialogue - Ctrl-Shift-F 
Increase words per line - Ctrl-Shift-Plus 
Decrease words per line - Ctrl-Shift-Minus 
Increase Font Size - Ctrl-Plus 
Decrease Font Size - Ctrl-Minus 
Restore Default Font Size - Ctrl-0

4. Points to bear in mind

Good points:
*	The text-to-speech feature works even for books which have text-to-speech set to "not enabled" in the Kindle store.
*	It is possible to read by page, or continuously read.
*	It is possible to reread the current sentence, and jump to the next or previous sentences.
*	There are two voices (one male and one female) and three speeds.
*	There is a play/pause keystroke so that reading, once interrupted, can be restarted without losing your place. 

Bad points:
*	It is not possible to navigate at less than the sentence level, or spell a word.
*	You cannot choose what punctuation is spoken.
*	Help information on the text-to-speech feature is not available from within the Kindle for PC application. It is only available from the web page given in the introduction to this document.
*	Although Kindle remembers the page if the application is closed, the position within the page is not remembered by the text-to-speech, so this always restarts at the top of the page. 

Other points:
*	A screen reader must be running before the Kindle text-to-speech feature works. 
*	The voices used are Nuance's Samantha and Tom, both of which are American.
*	The default setting is single page reading mode. If you prefer continuous reading mode, you have to switch it on each time you start Kindle for PC.
*	Other voice settings - sex and speed - are remembered between sessions.
*	There are a number of undocumented keystrokes: Ctrl-Shift-F opens the Font size dialogue; Ctrl-Shift-Plus increases words per line, Ctrl-Shift-Minus decreases words per line; Ctrl-L reads the name and author of the open book; Ctrl-C deletes the dictionary. 
*	The Help feature opens a web page. Therefore, if there is no Internet connection, no help is available.
*	The keystrokes for reading the current, next and previous sentences all invoke the "read" command, so once you press one of them, Kindle carries on and reads the rest of the page. 
*	In single page reading mode, minimising the font size (Ctrl-minus repeatedly) and maximising the number of words per line (Ctrl-Shift-Plus repeatedly) minimises the number of times the "next page" and "read" commands must be issued.
*	Some screen readers do better than others at reading the Kindle for PC interface. On Windows 7, latest versions of NVDA, Thunder, System Access and JAWS are the most successful; Window-Eyes and Narrator are less successful, and Supernova Screen Reader gives no useful output.
*	The book list area of the screen contains spoken help information on navigation. These are set by Amazon and cannot be turned off. 
*	The Help menu contains "future improvements" and "send feedback" options, both of which may be useful for reporting good and bad aspects of the software.

5. Next steps

The addition of text to speech is a big step forward for Kindle for PC accessibility, and we hope this means more blind people use and enjoy it. 

There are still areas which RNIB would like to see improved, for instance greater flexibility in terms of navigation and pronunciation of punctuation, and the ability to use one's own screen reader or voices.

If you decide to give Kindle for PC a try, remember that you can feed back directly to Amazon through the Help menu, Send Feedback item. Alternatively, we would love to hear your thoughts so that we can include your feedback in our comments to Amazon and ensure we represent a broad spectrum of views. You can contact us by email on ebooks at rnib.org.uk. 

Steve Griffiths, Digital Accessibility, RNIB
May 2011
End of document

-----Original Message-----
From: gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Nadia Cioffi
Sent: 02 June 2011 20:59
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
Subject: Re: [gui-talk] [nfbcs] Kindle app accessible?

I do not know, but I do know that apples are really good. Google  I think is
not best  is not best to look for that becouse it can be very on sided .I
would suggest you get on mailing list gui-talk they have a lot more blind
users and the GUI stand for graphical user interface. I'll add them as a bcc
(blind carbon copy) that way you can get an answer to your quotation.
gui-talkuser101

On Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 2:04 PM, nancy coffman <nancylc at sprynet.com> wrote:

> You could try the accessible Kindle for pc ap but does it work with all
> books? I would want to know the book will speak before I bought it. Check
> the NFB technology blog for a good review of that program. Part of the
> decision will be based on what the book was for.
>
> nancy coffman
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tracy Carcione <carcione at access.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2011 1:12 PM
> To: nfbcs at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [nfbcs] Kindle app accessible?
>
> I was looking at books on Amazon today, and saw a blurb that said if I
> didn't have a Kindle, I could download a free app and still use the Kindle
> edition of the book.
> Has anyone tried this app?  Was it accessible?  I'm loath to buy the
> Kindle edition, then find out I can't read it.  On the other hand, it
> would be great not to have to scan the book.
> TIA.
> Tracy
>
>
>
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