s-420-90.jpg)
Earlier this week Amazon released the Kindle Fire, a 7 inch touch screen tablet at a cost of $199. The Kindle Fire has a great web browser called silk that claims to load web pages faster then other tablets. The Kindle Fire runs a variant of the Android operating system with a custom user interface. With a great price and fast web browser is the Kindle Fire accessible to people with disabilities.
Unfortunately, the Kindle Fire does not have accessibility features. Unlike the iPad the Kindle Fire does not have text-to-speech, braille display support or mono audio. Not to mention a number of new accessibility features in iOS 5. To learn more about iOS 5 click here. The Kindle Fire may be a great tablet for the main stream market but unfortunately is not accessible for disabled users. Below is the National Federation for the Blinds (NFB.org) condemnation of the Kindle.
"Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: “Blind Americans have repeatedly asked Amazon to include accessibility for the blind in its Kindle product line. The feasibility of including accessibility in similar products has been demonstrated. The Department of Education and the Department of Justice have made it clear that Kindle devices cannot be purchased by educational institutions, libraries, and other entities covered by this country’s disability laws unless the devices are fully accessible. Despite all this, Amazon has released a brand new Kindle device, the Kindle Fire, which cannot be used by people who are blind. Enough! We condemn this latest action by Amazon and reiterate that we will not tolerate technological discrimination. The National Federation of the Blind seeks nothing less than equal access to all technology for blind people. It is one of the most critical civil rights issues facing blind Americans in the twenty-first century, and we will do everything in our power to see that this right is secured.”To read more about accessible e-readers click here. Click read more below to watch a video about the Kindle Fire.
iPad is too heavy and pricey for me since I need some for reading only. Kindle Fire should be the best choice but it just only for US!! Boo
ReplyDeleteIt's really too bad. My 80 year old mother would love it if she could enlarge the print, adjust the screen brightness and have text to speach access. Amazon is an arrogant company and shame on it. They should get a clue that that aging baby boomers will need these features.
ReplyDeleteHi, thank you for your comment! While the Kindle fire does not offer text-to-speech or high contrast options it does give users the options to change screen brightness and enlarge the font.
ReplyDeleteCan you suggest any applications (or applications in development) that allow a visually impaired user to install assistive technology on a touch-screen tablet like the Kindle Fire?
ReplyDeleteI had a hunt around and discovered that the amazon app store contains a lot of apps that are not even able to work on the kindle so I decided to ask around and I found a blog that talks about an app called cool reader. Apparently cool reader can be used to make the kindle fire read books aloud. I believe in order to do so you might need to load the books onto the kindle using the calibre program that is available for all three main computer operating systems. This is a good idea anyway as calibre is such a good program for obtaining and storing books. The address for the blog I read that gave directions on how to do it all is here:
ReplyDeletehttp://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/android/text-to-speech-tts-on-kindle-fire.asp
This website certainly has all the information I needed about this subject and didn't know who to ask.
ReplyDeleteHere is my web-site ... diet plans that work fast