Indie Book Club discussion
General
>
Kindle and Accessibility -- is there any way to change this?
date
newest »
newest »
Laurel, I don't know anything about adjusting the colors or settings, so I can't help there. But have you tried the read-back/voice-over options that the... Kindle Keyboard, I believe at least, has? I have a friend who is totally blind and she uses that on her Kindle. I realize you don't need the voice over like she does, but it might be an option on a Kindle.Just throwing that out there.
Mia wrote: "Laurel, I don't know anything about adjusting the colors or settings, so I can't help there. But have you tried the read-back/voice-over options that the... Kindle Keyboard, I believe at least, has..."didn't know that existed. It would be great to see that in demo, but last I looked they don't demo that on amazon.com and I cannot think of a retailer that sells kindles besides amazon.com
Staples sells Kindles, it's where I got mine, though I don't know if they have the one my friend had cause it's an older model. I can ask my friend, though, what she knows about it and get back to you, if you want?
Mia wrote: "Staples sells Kindles, it's where I got mine, though I don't know if they have the one my friend had cause it's an older model. I can ask my friend, though, what she knows about it and get back to ..."Sure! I don't have the money to buy one RIGHT NOW, but if there is a way to know what to look for, it will at least give me the chance to test out the new options -- then buy when I have the money.
I am not sure, the newer kindles might be able to be changed from the black and white. Maybe a kindle Fire? Try looking here. It is a UK site but if they are available here they are available in the US. http://www.which.co.uk/technology/com...
Kindle Fire link, http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0...
Oh and I emailed Amazon to ask. Curious now.
Here is the Amazon response when I asked what features they had for people with low vision. Me - "My friend has low vision, as does my father and out of curiosity I emailed them to ask what features they had for kindle users/potential kindle users with these visual restrictions. I believe some people who have low vision struggle with black on white text."
Amazon -"I understand that you would like to know what are the different options available on kindle fire for people with low vision.
As of now there are not much option available for people with low vision.
I've listed some options below which you can consider for people with low vision:
1. Voice Guide : Reads your screen actions aloud to assist with navigation.
2. Text-to-speech : The text-to-speech feature on Kindle Fire and E-ink device will read your book, blog, magazine, our newspaper out loud to you in English.
- Explore by Touch enables special gestures you can use to navigate your Kindle Fire.
These features are exclusive to the Kindle Fire HD 8.9” model, and are currently not available on other Kindle Fire or E-ink devices.
With Explore by Touch, you can use special gestures to navigate your Kindle Fire:
- Unlock your Kindle: With two fingers, swipe from right to left near the bottom of the screen.
- Open the Quick Settings menu at the top of the screen: With two fingers, swipe down from the top of the screen.
- Scroll through items in the carousel and content libraries on the Home screen: With two fingers, swipe to the left or right
- Turn pages in a book: With two fingers, swipe to the left or right
- Download or open an item: Double-tap
- Make menu selections onscreen: Double-tap
I've also forwarded your comments to our concerned departments as a feedback and valuable suggestion. So that they can look into this and if possible come up with a more feature/option for people with low vision.
We have a dedicated team working relentlessly to implement the feedback back we receive. We'll consider your feedback as we plan further improvements. We're regularly working on improvements to your Kindle experience."
I talked to my friend and she said that Kindle is not great for accessibility in general. The Kindle Keyboard had voiceover, but they're phasing that out. She says that the Kindle Fire apparently has some accessibility options "after a fashion" though she doesn't have one so she didn't elaborate.She said if you can see well enough to access the text to speech option that might help. It's not accessible enough for her to turn on herself.
Otherwise, she says she uses the Kindle app on her iPhone. The iPhone has a voiceover option she can use without anyone's help, and the app lets you read Kindle books on it.
Dunno if that helps any, but it's what my information seeking has found.
Ok so I just set my book up for create space and large print. Going for font size 18 (which was what I was advised) 737 pages and Createspace do no more than 400. I looked at Lulu but you REALLY don't want to know how much that would be.
Alexandra wrote: "Ok so I just set my book up for create space and large print. Going for font size 18 (which was what I was advised) 737 pages and Createspace do no more than 400. I looked at Lulu but you REALLY do..."Sure you can do 737. It depends on book size. Go to 7x10 and you can do it.
I had 8 by 10. I will look tomorrow. It is still going to be ruddy expensive.
I am low vision by way of traumatic brain injury and cannot see black, white, or the sepia (which is why I have SO MANY typos in Good Reads; the site over rides my Windows accessibility settings).
I can see blue/white combinations for text though.
It would make a huge difference for me as a low vision reader if they would make this simple change. And quite frankly, I think it would be of great use to the "normal" sighted (in scare quotes because so many of us are myopic or hyperopic and wear glasses). Why not let us customize our reading more?
This lack of accessibility is a major reason I don't participate in books of the month or group readings. I tried to read Fellowship of the Ring for the Tolkien group's reading challenge; with my eyes, I could only get about 20 pages into it. It's really that hard and quite frankly, I am one of the VERY FEW authors to offer large print versions of my books!
It's something to think about if you are not offering your books in large print!