Breaking News on Kindle PC App

Sometimes, the blog post you planned isn't the most important one to post. While I do have a post on accessibility and Google Calendar, I got information this morning that really needed to be shared first.

The Kindle app for PC now includes text-to-speech. This is big, my friends. Let's hear it directly from Amazon:

Amazon.com is releasing a new version of Kindle for PC that adds accessibility features designed for blind and low-vision customers.

Kindle for PC with Accessibility Plugin is a free, downloadable application for your Windows PC. It provides the following accessibility features: text-to-speech reading with adjustable voice settings, voice-guided menu navigation, large font sizes, high contrast reading mode, keyboard navigation, and accessible shortcuts.

With this software, for the first time ever, the entire collection of English language books in the Kindle Store can be read aloud. With over 750,000 English language titles, Amazon offers the largest selection of accessible ebooks. In order to use the text-to-speech feature, an external screen reader program must be installed and running on the Windows PC.

The free download is available at: http://www.amazon.com/kindle/accessibility

We welcome your feedback at: kindle-PC-accessibility-feedback@amazon.com

Sincerely,
The Kindle Team

So, let's take this apart a bit. You do need to have screenreading software already installed on your computer for the Kindle accessibility plugin to work. I'm pleased that they tested it with JAWS (the market leader for screenreaders) and NVDA, which is a free screenreader. I'm looking forward to testing it with some more basic text-to-speech programs to see how far the idea of "screenreader" extends; will keep you posted!

• The good news: Requiring the use of a screenreader means that this bypasses the blocks that some publishers have put on the text-to-speech option in Kindle standard books.


• Other good news: The plugin makes the Kindle PC app accessible for readers with visual impairments; a huge improvement.


• The sorta bad news: Readers with learning disabilities (a pretty darn large group!) are going to have install a screenreader and to learn to use basic screenreader functions to use the text-to-speech function in the Kindle PC app, which does seem a bit silly. And cumbersome.


• The unstated: There is no mention in the accessibility plugin information about Kindle store accessibility... If you know more about how accessible the Kindle store is, please give it a shout in the comments.

Here's hoping that a Mac plugin is on its way, especially as VoiceOver and Speech are already built into the Mac operating system. I'll report testing of the accessibility plugin soon.