Hi,
Ah thank you this is very informative.
Robin
From: David Goldfield
Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2018 8:44 PM
To: blind-philly-comp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-philly-comp] Re: New Issue When Reading Kindle Books on iOS
With VoiceOver
Hi, Robin.
On the original Kindle Ereaders, you had a choice of either Tom or Samantha
from Nuance. They used the high quality voices and not the compact versions
which weren't as clear. I used to use a Kindle Keyboard, sometimes known as a
Kindle 3, and got very used to the Tom voice. Since Amazon owns the Ivona
software the newer Fire tablets use Ivona voices, which are also used on the
Fire TV products. They only offer two Ivona voices for the U.S. English region,
which are Sally and Joey, although voices for other languages and dialects are
freely available. I believe there are more Ivona voices which Amazon does not
make available and I have read one user on the Kindle list express some
frustration at this, which I can understand. I have not used the latest Kindle
ereaders but I am assuming that the same voices are made available for those
devices, as well. The Tom and Samantha voices from Nuance are not available for
Fire tablets. It is possible to legally purchase other voices for Android
devices, such as Nuance, Acapela and Eloquence. I would love to purchase some
of these voices but it is likely that they will not operate on the Fire
tablets, although I have not yet verified this.
On 7/29/2018 1:48 AM, Robin Frost wrote:
Yes because here all I have to choose from are default iOS voices far as I
can tell.
I’m just curious what voices it uses when reading on a kindle fire type
tablet as I don’t know.
Robin
From: David Goldfield
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2018 3:51 PM
To: blind-philly-comp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-philly-comp] Re: New Issue When Reading Kindle Books on iOS
With VoiceOver
Robin,
Ah, so you'd like to see the Kindle app offer its own set of voices? Do you
mean the way Voice Dream Reader does?
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist WWW.David-Goldfield.Com
On 7/28/2018 1:45 PM, Robin Frost wrote:
Hi,
Yes there have been massive reports of this I’ve seen on the ViPhone list I
think it was that I saw it. So in short yes others have experienced this and
are reporting it via the feedback area under more and help and feedback in the
app as well. Thanks for citing this email address I didn’t know it existed.
Always something new to learn.
I wish we had more voice choices in that Kindle app I surely do (smile).
Take good care,
Robin
From: David Goldfield
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2018 10:02 AM
To: blind-philly-comp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-philly-comp] New Issue When Reading Kindle Books on iOS
With VoiceOver
Hi.
I am noticing a new issue when reading Kindle books on my iPhone. I sent
the following report to device-accessibility@xxxxxxxxxx but I am reposting it
here as I'm wondering if others on this list are able to reproduce this issue.
Hello. I am noticing a new issue regarding the Kindle app on my iPhone 8,
running iOS 11.4.1 using VoiceOver.
Description
In the past, when performing a continuous read with the two-finger swipe
down gesture the reading flow was always smooth. In other words, VoiceOver did
not pause at the end of each line of text, but only paused at the end of
sentences or paragraphs, making the reading flow sound natural. The only other
pause was when the page needed to be flipped but this was very brief and
produced a very short earcon.
Recently, this behavior has changed. Now, VoiceOver pauses after each line
of text, making the flow of reading sound more unnatural. I have tried changing
the font and adjusting font size and spacing but altering these settings does
not resolve the issue.
Additionally, the earcon when the page flips is a bit different, sounding
like the earcon you hear when opening an app, which makes the pauses between
page flips more noticeable and jarring.
This behavior occurs with all of my books. The one exception is when
reading a magazine in text view, where the app behaves as expected during
reading.
Steps to Reproduce
1. With VoiceOver running, open the Kindle app and ensure that a book is
currently open. Ensure that the book contains more than one page.
2. Swipe down with two fingers to cause VoiceOver to read continuously.
3. Allow the reading to continue past the current page so that the page
flips.
Expected Results
When reading continuously VoiceOver should only pause during page flips and
at the end of a sentence.
Page flip earcons should be very slight and brief.
Actual Results
During continuous reading pauses occur after each line.
Page flip earcons are longer than in previous versions.
--
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist WWW.David-Goldfield.Com
--
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist Feel free to visit my Web site
WWW.DavidGoldfield.Info
