RE: Accessible Kindle for PC App Released
- From: Adrian Spratt <Adrian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 17:07:00 -0500
I didn't finish my thought. As you probably know, Amazon made its Kindle
more accessible to enable American colleges to use it in courses without
discriminating against visually impaired students. Several entities were
behind the settlement with numerous colleges, including the two I mentioned.
Amazon wasn't a signatory to these agreements, but they are definitely the
motivator behind the developments that Gary reported here last night. I'm
confident the ACB and/or NFB would take up your cause if Amazon didn't
cooperate directly with you.
_____
From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Adrian Spratt
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2011 5:02 PM
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Accessible Kindle for PC App Released
Yadiel, it's possible that excluding the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and
probably the other territories, was an oversight. I know, a big oversight.
IN recent months, I've found Amazon's customer service online and on the
phone to be much more helpful than in the past. You might want to contact
them. Or else contact the ACB (American council of the blind) in Washington,
D.C. or the NFB to ask them to look into it.
_____
From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Yadiel Sotomayor
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2011 12:34 PM
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Accessible Kindle for PC App Released
Well, just my luck! Apparently Puerto Rico (even though is considered a
state according to all US federal laws) is not supported. I can't download
the application because, Puerto Rico is not an official "state". That is
just great.
From: Gary King <mailto:w4wkz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2011 12:50 PM
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Accessible Kindle for PC App Released
Yes, the application is free, and as I mentioned, you can find some free
books in the Kindle Store. You do need an Amazon account to register the
app and get books from the store, even the free ones.
Gary King
w4wkz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
.
----- Original Message -----
From: Yadiel Sotomayor <mailto:yadosotomayor@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2011 10:07 AM
Subject: Re: Accessible Kindle for PC App Released
Is the aplication free?
From: Gary King <mailto:w4wkz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 9:16 PM
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Accessible Kindle for PC App Released
If you've been waiting for an accessible Kindle app for the PC, you're in
luck! Go to
http://blindbargains.com
and read the entry under Latest Bargains. The link will take you to the
Amazon page that describes the app and how to download and use it. Read
through all of the Help links, and you will know all that I do about it.
The app download is 231 MB, so if you have a dialup connection, forget it!
It has been tested with JAWS and NVDA. A screen reader must be detected by
the app in order to enable text-to-speech on all Kindle books. As you may
know, authors have disabled text-to-speech on the Kindle itself for many of
their titles. At least, we will be able to read them on the computer with
this app.
You can read the books a page at a time or continuously with a male or
female voice. Navigation only goes down to the sentence level, so you can't
read word by word or have words spelled. I hope this will change in a later
version.
I would suggest that if you want to try the program that you get one of the
free books available from the Kindle Store. I visited the Free Collections
link and chose a book from the Limited Promotions section. There were 143
selections to choose from. I just made sure that I looked for the ones that
were $0.00.
These are my early impressions of the program, and at least I think they
have made a good start toward accessibility. We will need to give them
feedback to insure that improvements will be made.
Gary King
mailto:w4wkz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Yadiel J. Sotomayor
E-MAIL: yadosotomayor@xxxxxxxxxxx
Yadiel J. Sotomayor
E-MAIL: yadosotomayor@xxxxxxxxxxx
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