[vi-kindle] Re: is the new kindle fire accessible?
- From: "Russ Kiehne" <russ94577@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <vi-kindle@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 06:31:06 -0700
Perhaps the following review will help:
Kindle Fire HDX: Usable By the Blind At Last?
By Buddy Brannan
Anyone who has been following the
Serotek blog
,
SeroTalk
, or even just
me
, will know that Amazon has taken a fair bit of heat over the Kindle and its
halfhearted,
lackluster, token efforts toward making Kindle content usable by people who are
blind
or visually impaired. It’s probably fair to say that many of us thought that
Amazon
wouldn’t ever make its content available to us in any meaningful way; its
seeming
unwillingness to do so in the face of complaints, demonstrations, and lawsuits
against
some of its institutions using its Kindle readers in pilot programs bolstered
our
belief that some miracle would have to happen before we were able to use Amazon
Kindle
content in any meaningful way. Sure, there was some rudimentary text-to-speech
capabilities
in some Kindle models. However, it wasn’t possible to independently activate it,
some content didn’t read with it, and even if a book you wanted to read did
work,
access to many of the platform’s other options were unavailable. Moreover,
enough
detail, such as word or single letter navigation, was unavailable, making use
for
more than pleasure reading impossible.
Enter the
Kindle app for iOS.
I used to joke that it was 99% accessible. The only thing that didn’t work was
the
actual book reading, but everything else worked perfectly. All of that changed
just
a few months ago when, one fine day, we all received a pleasant surprise: a
Kindle
reading app that would read Kindle content and gave blind people the ability to
use
most if not all Kindle functions. The community was ecstatic! Finally, we would
have
access to the couple million titles available to everyone else. This, we said,
was
our Gutenberg. We hoped that this newly realized access to ebooks heralded
Amazon’s
turning the corner, and we would at last see even better access to Kindle
hardware
next.
Imagine our delight when we read the announcement that the
Kindle Fire HDX
would be coming, with new features, a higher res display, and by the way, it
would
have features for people with print impairments. Anticipation, excitement, and
yes,
still some skepticism. After all, a leopard can’t change its spots, right? What
would
we really get? Would it be more of the same, or would we see something like what
we got with the iOS app? Being one who was very critical of Amazon’s efforts (or
lack thereof) in this arena, not to mention being a gadget freak, I picked up a
Kindle
Fire HDX myself just a couple weeks after its release. So how does it stack up?
Are
we going to be pleased or sorely disappointed? To be fair, I haven’t explored
everything
about the device. There is plenty I don’t know about it. Even so, it leaves a
decent
first impression. It’s a good solid start, understanding that there’s plenty of
room
for improvement. Bottom line: I don’t hate it, which is, let’s be honest, about
as
close to a ringing endorsement as one can expect. And it’s a lot better than
we’ve
gotten in past years.
Physical Description
The Kindle Fire HDX is about the size of a paperback book, though of course, a
lot
thinner. Officially, it’s 7.3? X 5.0? X 0.35? (186 X 128 X 9.0mm) and weighs
10.7
ounces, or masses 303 grams. (The cellular capable version is slightly heavier.)
I don’t know about any of you, but official specs don’t usually mean a lot to
me.
If you’ve seen an iPad Mini, The Kindle Fire HDX is slightly smaller and
slightly
thicker than the Mini. The back edges are beveled. With the tablet in landscape
mode
(sideways), you’ll find stereo speakers at either end of the top back beveled
edge.
On the left edge, near the corner where the speaker is, you will find a single
button,
which locks the unit or powers it on and off. Directly opposite, on the right
edge,
again near the speaker, are two buttons, one above the other. These are the
volume
up and down buttons. Having control buttons on the edges, in the back panel
around
the beveled edges, seems a little strange at first glance, but it really does
work
out all right. It does seem a bit strange to have the on off button at the
bottom
of the tablet while in portrait, and the volume up button to the left of volume
down,
again in portrait mode, but with the tablet held in landscape mode with the
speakers
toward the top, the arrangement makes sense. Again with the tablet in landscape
mode
with the speakers facing away from you, the left edge has a micro USB port for
charging
or plugging into a computer, while the right edge has a stereo headphone jack.
The
front of the Kindle is all touch screen, with no physical buttons at all.
Setting Up
The first question in my mind was whether or not I could set up the Kindle Fire
HDX
without sighted assistance. This is indeed possible. Once the tablet powers on,
hold
the power button until you hear three piano notes. This is the power off screen.
Simply hold two fingers on the screen, spread slightly apart. If you’ve done it
correctly,
you’ll be advised to hold your fingers a bit longer on the screen, and then
Talkback
will start. The first thing you get is a tutorial on the basic gestures used to
navigate
the interface. This is pretty much straight up Talkback, so if you’re an Android
user,, it is likely you’ll feel right at home. It is possible to turn on the
screen
reader at any time, not just on initial startup. This is done as mentioned
above,
from the power off screen. One thing though, if you temporarily disable the
screen
reader as documented, you can’t easily turn it back on. So if you’re going to
hand
it to a friend who doesn’t need a talking tablet, go through the accessibility
settings
and disabled the screen reader completely. You’ll then be able to turn it back
on
much more easily than you would if you just disabled it.
Typing took a bit of getting used to. It seems you have to lift your finger
pretty
well dead center on a key, or it won’t register, giving you a high-pitched beep.
This beep lets you know that doing a swipe up will bring up some other interface
element, but to me it just said “I didn’t get that letter”.
The Home Screen
The home screen is divided into five parts:
The status bar has the time and battery percentage if you turn that on. You can
do
a three finger swipe down from this to bring up notifications and change
settings.
* A row of buttons to select different kinds of content, such as apps, books,
audiobooks,
music, and so forth. All the buttons don’t fit, so this area scrolls left and
right
as you swipe through it. * The carousel is a big area that rotates through all
of
the available books, apps, music, and documents. The most recently accessed ones
are first. Swipe to the left or right to change to different items. * The home
screen:
This is a grid of applications or other content that you always want to be
available.
You can add to or subtract from this grid with a tap and hold on any item. This
brings
up a context menu to allow you to add or remove or delete entirely. If you want
this
to take up your screen and make the carousel disappear, you can do so by
scrolling
up from the home screen grid. * The menu bar usually has buttons on it for
search,
menu, and back.
Usage
I was able to read books, play music, watch movies, and install and use apps. I
was
also able to browse the web, though the built-in browser isn’t nearly as easy to
use as Mozilla Firefox is. You’ll have to get Firefox from a third party app
site
though, more on that in a minute. You are supposed to be able to read a book
continuously,
or you can review it in any amount of detail. Reading continuously with the
latest
update was a bit hit and miss, and the most I was able to get the Kindle to read
nonstop was a chapter. Reviewing is done by dragging your finger around the
screen.
In one way, this is great, since you can really get a good idea of how a page,
or
a book, or an app, is visually laid out. Getting the exact information you want,
such as a specific word, will take some practice, maybe even a lot of practice.
Also,
note that, unlike with Voiceover, if other audio is playing (such as music or a
movie),
screen reader output does not cause your other audio to duck. This may make some
things difficult to do while listening to audio content. Some gestures are a
little
difficult to get used to. For instance, some actions require you to draw a
circle
in order to select a specific action, or a level of navigation granularity.
Fortunately,
it’s not picky about how perfect your circle is. Also, of course, with auto
rotate
turned on (the default behavior), the gestures are relative to the tablet
orientation.
I also found that some gestures, such as the home or back gesture, or the swipe
down
to get the status display, had to be quite exaggerated in order to properly
register.
One thing that made using the Kindle Fire HDX easier for me was to turn the
autorotate
feature off and lock the orientation into portrait mode. It really is OK to do
this,
as apps such as Netflix or Amazon Instant Video, which require a landscape
orientation,
will automatically rotate to accommodate. In all other cases though, the screen
stays
the way you lock it. I’ve been asked about how usable the Netflix app was. I’m
pleased
to say that one can select content and watch movies and TV shows. Unfortunately,
I was unable to do anything more than start a show and watch all the way
through.
Part of this was because of the absence of audio ducking, and part was due to
not
being able to find the player controls. I also started an Amazon Prime video,
but
truthfully, I didn’t play with it much more than to determine that I could start
and play and pause a movie. For the record, it was “Contact”. I do have to say
that
audio was quite good, considering the Kindle Fire HDX’s compact size. I was also
able to navigate my Amazon music library, select tracks, and play them. This
could
be a great little music player for those of you with a lot of music purchased
from
Amazon. Again, all content is available from the carousel. It is also available
from
the category buttons at the top of the home screen.
Speaking of categories, There was one thing that was unclear to me when I first
started
with the Kindle Fire HDX. That was determining what was displayed and what was
not
when viewing content by category. For instance, I couldn’t figure out why some
third
party apps I installed were shown as installed but weren’t showing in my list of
apps. It turns out you can display content that is either locally installed or
available
from the cloud. Some stuff available from the cloud also happens to be on your
local
device, but the reverse isn’t always true, especially when you’re talking about
third
party stuff. And speaking of third party apps
Amazon has an Android marketplace, it’s true. However, apps there may not be the
same version available from other places. I saw, for instance, a later version
of
ES File Explorer than was available on the Amazon app store. For this, you may
want
to install a third party app store. Google Play is not supported, although there
is at least one article that tells one how to at least get some Google services.
This is an exercise left to the reader. I installed another app store called
1Mobile,
from which I was able to find lots of free apps. These installed fine on the
Kindle
Fire HDX, although you have to be sure to set your security settings to allow
this.
Again, exercise for the reader. I definitely recommend Mozilla’s Firefox
browser.
Browsing with the built in browsers possible, though I admit to not spending a
lot
of time with it. I admit to a certain bias against Web browsers that reside on
tablets
and phones, but I’ll use them if I don’t have a desktop or notebook computer
easily
at hand.
Things To Improve
As I’ve said before, Amazon has a good start on providing an accessible reading
experience
on their hardware. I have not tried pairing with a braille display, nor have I
tried
pairing with a bluetooth keyboard,but I understand both are possible. Anyway, as
with all things in their first run, there is still room for improvement. For the
screen reader, a greater speed range would be something I’d like to see, and I
think
others would agree. I have mine set to the fastest speed, and it’s comfortable
for
me, though I wouldn’t mind a bit more. I know others would like more than a bit
more.
The Ivona voices are quite nice. I don’t know if other voices, like Espeak, or
Acapella,
or Realspeak, are available or not, but I’m sure that everyone has preferences
in
this regard.
The voice for reading books now seems to agree with the voice for the screen
reader,
which is to say, they’re the same. While this is true, it’s possible to make the
book reading voice go a lot faster than the screen reader voice. The fact that
the
voice itself is the same for both book reading and screen reading is good. The
speed
choices need to likewise agree. I’d like to see the previous granularity gesture
introduced again, or allow a choice. Selecting the menu,then drawing a circle to
find the right granularity, seems overly complicated to me, especially for
something
that may well need to be done often.
Duck other audio when it’s playing and the screen reader is talking. Maybe this
is
a wanna have rather than a gotta have, but sometimes audiobooks or music really
do
compete in volume with the voice, and it isn’t possible to adjust them
individually.
Things I haven’t Done
I haven’t used the Amazon app to buy anything, nor have I purchased from the
Kindle
store on the Kindle Fire HDX. I have purchased Kindle content from the computer,
and it shows up beautifully on the tablet. This is true both of Audible books
and
Kindle books. I haven’t done a lot of Web browsing, certainly no more than
necessary.
See my above bias against tablet browsing.
I haven’t completed a kindle book, though I have lots of them to work on.
Bottom Line
I don’t hate it. I don’t love it yet either, but I could, given a bit more time
and
a bit more polish. The audio from the speakers is quite good, not to mention
pretty
punchy. I could easily see watching movies on this, or listening to audiobooks.
Once
automatic continuous read works reliably, I could even see reading Kindle books
with
it. With a bit of practice, I think I could get to where I was looking up words,
highlighting, making notes, and the rest. I’m not nearly as comfortable editing
or
typing on it, but I expect that would come with more time as well. I’m not sure
I’d
recommend it for a new computer user, or for someone who needed to use it as a
serious
productivity tool, at least, not yet. I still believe that it has potential
though,
and I will be watching updates and improvements eagerly.
From: Larry Lumpkin
Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2014 5:30 PM
To: vi-kindle@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vi-kindle] is the new kindle fire accessible?
I’d appreciate anyone’s thoughts on their experience with the currently
available kindle fire. Thanks.
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