[vi-kindle] Re: vi-kindle Digest V3 #24
- From: jessica brown <justforlistmessages531@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: vi-kindle@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 22:35:41 -0800
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----- Original Message -----
From: kb7uengene <kb7uengene@xxxxxxxxx
To: "vi-kindle@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <vi-kindle@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date sent: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 19:09:39 -0500
Subject: [vi-kindle] Re: vi-kindle Digest V3 #24
On Aug 11, 2013, at 6:37 PM, jessica brown
<justforlistmessages531@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:-
What's a skin?
a---
----- Original Message -----
From: kb7uengene <kb7uengene@xxxxxxxxx
To: "vi-kindle@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <vi-kindle@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date sent: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 10:23:24 -0500
Subject: [vi-kindle] Re: vi-kindle Digest V3 #24
The problem with the Kindle Fire is that it's heavily skinned,
which makes it's user-interface extremely proprietary. A blind
person would be much better off to buy a 2013 Nexus 7, which has
a completely un-skinned version Android 4.3 on it and add the
Kindle for Android app to it once Amazon incorporates
accessibility support into it.
http://www.irp.wisc.edu/faqs/faq1.htmit.
On Aug 11, 2013, at 9:20 AM, "Russ Kiehne" <russ94577@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
At this point in time, the Kindle fire is not fully accessible.
See below:
Amazon, Why Do You Keep Burning Blind Readers?
Submitted by cvangerven on Fri, 12/07/2012 - 13:00
Blog Date:
Friday, December 7, 2012
By Amy Mason
According to ZDNet and Engadget the Kindle Fire will be getting
Explore by
Touch and Voice Guide to provide
accessibility features to blind and visually impaired customers.
These features were first introduced in Google's Android, Ice
Cream Sandwich
operating system. (This is the basis of the OS for the Kindle
Fire and Fire HD
which has been heavily skinned by Amazon for the device.) Google
has since
released Jelly Bean which has improved markedly on accessibility.
If this
were Amazon's only weakness,
an out-of-date OS, I would be disappointed, but I would
understand. This is
not, however, Amazon's only problem.
Their weakness instead, appears to be a disregard for the wishes
of its blind
consumers.
Blind people want Kindle books. We want them badly enough that I
know several
blind people who have chosen to buy the Kindle Keyboard, despite
being unable
to do anything more than start and stop text-to-speech on their
books. The
PC edition (with accessibility plug-in) is slightly better. If a
user is
willing to sit at a PC, they can read by navigational elements as
small as a
sentence at a time, and as large as a page (seriously, you have
to sit at the
computer and turn every page. What a thrilling way to read a
book!)
I hear a few of you saying, "Ok, Amy, so you are upset about the
past, but now
Amazon is offering this additional accessibility in the Fire". I
am sorry to
disappoint
you, but for all intents and purposes it did not improve on their
existing efforts.
We purchased a Kindle Fire HD, and received it last Friday. We
read on
Amazon's website that there were accessibility features, so we
felt that we
had to do our due diligence and test their work. First of all,
when you get
the device,
you have to have a sighted person turn on the accessibility
features because
there is no way for a blind person to turn them on independently.
Secondly, access is limited to the device settings, the
collection of books in
a user's library, the primary navigation buttons (back, home, and
more) and
allowing you to start and stop text-to-speech on a book. A
sighted reader on
this tablet has the capability to browse the Web, play music,
play audio
books, download and read magazines and newspapers, buy Android
apps, read
e-mail, view documents (this ay be accessible, I didn't get a
chance to check),
browse photos, voice chat, and read books. We are limited to
access to the
settings, navigating our library, and using the digitized speech
equivalent of
a cassette tape. We can play and pause speech, and it will read
continuously,
just like on the Kindle Keyboard, but we cannot navigate
accessibly. No
headings, paragraphs, pages, sentences, words or characters can
be
distinguished, nor can you go back accessibly. Tables of contents
and social
media integration are likewise unavailable to blind users.
We were concerned by these conclusions, and decided that perhaps
we were
missing some details, so we called the company. (Accessibility
was a very
small part of the help page after all.) We spoke with two
different customer
service reps, and indeed, the reps verified that yes, this is the
extent of
the accessibility of the device.
It is hard to see the accessibility features in the Kindle Fire
as a gesture
of goodwill.
Amazon is familiar enough with what true accessibility looks
like, both
directly from us, from the work their competition has done, and
even from the
screen access packages it requires to allow a PC user to read
with text to
speech on a computer.
It cannot claim ignorance when Google, Apple, and Microsoft all
offer far more
accessible devices (they all have their problems, but let's be
honest, these
guys are all making a legitimate effort.). Furthermore, both the
iPad and the
Nexus 7 are confirmed to offer accessible eReaders from other
creators (several
of which can be used with Braille) while no access to Kindle
books is available on any of these platforms.
Amazon needs to stop burning blind readers with these
half-hearted attempts at
accessibility in all versions of the Kindle, including the Fire.
What is
needed now is for it to implement real accessibility, rather than
expecting
blind readers to accept a cassette tape equivalent in an era of
multi-purpose
tablets.
-----Original Message----- From: Christopher Hawthorne Moss
Sent: Saturday, August 10, 2013 9:39 PM
To: vi-kindle@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vi-kindle] Re: vi-kindle Digest V3 #24
The Kindle Fire latest generation supposedly has text to speech.
It's
not a stand alone ereader but a tablet.
I wonder if they mean to include a waiver of accessibility for
college
Kindles too?
Theoretically you will still be able to read books aloud on the
Kindle
for PC... but that leaves you glued to your computer right?
I make my living writing and part of my marketing is book reviews
in the
narrow genre I work in. Practically none of those books in that
genre
are available through the NLS. I would basically be cut off from
my
livelihood in any meaningful way. I have a DaVinci so I
theoretically
could read print books.. but can and would want to in a practical
way
are two different things. It would necessitate sitting in one
place for
hours and reading page after page. With the Kindle I was able to
ride
the bus, lie in the dark, go about doing chores, that may not
seem like
such a sacrifice but just being able to read page after page
pretty much
effortlessly is a terrible thing to lose.
Cordially,
Christopher Hawthorne Moss ("Kit")
christopherhmoss@xxxxxxxxx
That's All I Read/Kit Moss Reviews at
http://kitmossreviews.blogspot.com
Our Story: GLBTQ Historical Fiction at www.glbtbookshelf.com
My books: www.shield-wall.com
WHERE MY LOVE LIES DREAMING by Christopher Hawthorne Moss
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_
id=4126
When the Civil War began, it split more than just brothers...
"It's not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world
does
to you if the world does it to you long enough and effectively
enough,
you begin to do to yourself. You become a collaborator...because
you
believe the same things they do." James Baldwin to Nicki
Giovanni, 1973
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