MAT Program: Tech Tip

MAT Program: Tech Tip

Contributed by Joseph Beckett, Program Coordinator for MAT

Accessibility for Kindle

From: www.amazon.com

Kindle devices, the Kindle reading application on Fire tablets, iOS and Android, and Kindle for PC are accessible to all, regardless of ability.

Individuals with moderate vision impairments or other reading disabilities can make reading more comfortable by customizing the font type, size, and weight, controlling the screen brightness, margins, and line spacing, or inverting the background and text colors.

Individuals who read with assistive technology can use Amazon’s VoiceView screen reader to read on Kindle devices and with the Kindle app on Fire tablets. Fire tablets also work with popular Bluetooth refreshable braille displays. Individuals who read on iOS, Android, or PC can use the screen readers supported on those devices to read more than 9 million screen reader supported books with Kindle.

Amazon continues to improve how Kindle apps work with assistive technology. With Kindle for PC 1.23 and later, individuals using the NVDA screen reader can interact with math equations and efficiently navigate tables using familiar keyboard commands.

Blind and Visually Impaired

Blind and visually impaired individuals can use popular screen readers including VoiceView on Kindle devices and Fire tablets, VoiceOver on iOS, TalkBack on Android, and NVDA and JAWS on Windows to enjoy over 9 million screen reader supported titles in the Kindle Store.

Use VoiceView, or other screen readers to read character by character, word by word, or continuously, as well as move forward or backward in the text. Look up words in the dictionary and Wikipedia. On the latest release of Kindle for PC, read MathML content with NVDA and MathPlayer and navigate tables using NVDA table commands.

Amazon’s Fire tablets, the Kindle app for iOS and Android, and the Kindle for PC app enable you to read with refreshable braille displays by connecting them to the device via Bluetooth. Kindle for iOS provides additional support for Apple accessibility features such as Speak Screen, Zoom, Assistive Touch, and Stereo to Mono audio.

Navigation and Exploration

Navigate your library or within a book using the consistent title, menu, and button names. Explore content and navigate item-by-item as well as by touch using VoiceView gestures on Kindle devices, your Fire tablet, or common accessibility gestures on VoiceOver, Talkback, NVDA or JAWS. Search for a book within your library or search within your book and navigate to specific locations.

VoiceView screen reader

The VoiceView screen reader is available on Fire tablets and Kindle devices. It provides spoken feedback to describe the actions that take place on your screen.

VoiceView can be activated from any screen on a Fire tablet by holding the power button down until you hear an alert and then holding two fingers slightly apart on the screen.

The Kindle Audio Adapter activates VoiceView on Kindle Paperwhite when plugged into the Micro-USB port. Just plug your headphones or speakers into the audio jack on the Kindle Audio Adapter to use your e-reader with an audio interface. To activate VoiceView on a Kindle Device with Bluetooth support, see the setup instructions below.