Re: Accessible Kindle for PC App Released
- From: "Brandon Keith" <brandonboy13@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 07:41:50 -0800
Yes, but this is the first version of a product that is going to go mainstream
very fast.
So I would love to see it become quality. ATM it looks like they just slapped
on Sappi and didn't know that the majority of Blind people don't use the two
stereotype computer voices.
I am very thankful and excited that they have done this and it is a great first
version.
If the blind users all request that we have word and letter navigation and the
ability to use the full range of Sappi voices, or be able to plug-in a voice
like one can with Jaws, I believe that will be in the next update.
Once it gets those 3 things they will have another happy customer!
Thanks,
Brandon Keith
Check out
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/brandonkeithcom
Also add me on facebook!
brandonkeith
From: DJ
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2011 6:20 AM
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Accessible Kindle for PC App Released
Sheesh guys, at least they're working on it. I'm not responding to any
particular person, but why is it that when a piece of software is first
announced to have been made accessible, people immediately complain that it's
not perfect, it won't do this, it won't do that, bla bla bla? Yes, we should
point out that this feature or that feature could use some tweaking, or perhaps
ask what we as a community can do to help make it work more to our liking, but
can't we make a minor attempt to be a bit more diplomatic about it? It just
seems that people come off as attacking which is not likely to get us very far.
At least it usually seems that way to me.
As we all know, Amazon has a very large presence on the internet and I for one
am pleased that they are making an effort to bring the VI community in with the
rest of the world. How often do you really see this kind of effort by other
major companies?
Someone had to say this. Thanks for your time.
DJ
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Gary King
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 10:23 PM
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Accessible Kindle for PC App Released
Brandon,
I copied the following link from the Amazon page that is linked to on the Blind
Bargains site:
mailto:kindle-PC-accessibility-feedback@xxxxxxxxxx?subject=Kindle for PC with
Accessibility Plugin Feedback
The link is rather long and may wrap in this message.
I saw on another list that someone who tried the app expected the screen reader
to be able to read the text of the book on the screen. It doesn't! The only
access to the books is with the provided text-to-speech voice. I wouldn't try
to read any books with complex layouts such as cookbooks or books on math or
chemistry.
Gary King
w4wkz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
----- Original Message -----
From: Brandon Keith
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 8:32 PM
Subject: Re: Accessible Kindle for PC App Released
Thank you for letting us know about this!
This is awesome!!!
Where is the best place to submit feedback to Amazon? Just on the Kindle
Support page?
Thank you,
Brandon Keith
Check out
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/brandonkeithcom
Also add me on facebook!
brandonkeith
From: Gary King
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 5:16 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
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