Kindle - Friend or Foe? A Review of the Kindle DX

If you follow accessibility news at all, you've probably heard some of the kerfuffle about the Amazon Kindle. For those who don't want to follow the link, I'll try to sum up the issues quickly:

• Starting with the Kindle 2, text-to-speech is available. This means that alternate format text is instantly available with no conversion, no extra cost, no extra time... to everyone who might benefit from it.
• Only the book text can be read aloud. Menus, other functions, and PDF files are not accessible through text-to-speech.
• The Authors' Guild got concerned about copyright rights.
• Amazon agreed to turn off the text-to-speech function on specific books or whole catalogs at the publisher's request.
  
• So far, 33 disability organizations have joined ReadingRights.org in an effort to make this new advancement available for all. This would include keeping text-to-speech intact on all books and extending it to the menus and other functions.
• Injunctions have been filed against several postsecondary institutions who are participating in a pilot project with Amazon; the basis is that the device and content are not accessible.
  

But, is the Kindle worth the fuss?

I bought a Kindle DX about a month ago so that I could have access to the books and scholarly articles I'm reading for my doctoral work without having to lug them all with me. I wanted the DX rather than the smaller, lighter, and less expensive Kindle 2 because the DX has the capability of handling native PDF files, rather than going through the rather cumbersome process of sending them to Amazon for conversion. What's been my reaction?

Love it.

But I don't have a disability that affects my reading, so how I evaluate it personally and how I evaluate it for student use might be different, right? Yes and no. Let's break it down.

Reasons to Buy a Kindle if You Are a Student With a Print Disability

• All the reasons that everyone else would buy a Kindle! Cool factor; much lighter than carrying 3,500 texts (on the DX - 1,500 on the 2); free wireless; immediate access to thousands of books, magazines, and newspapers (including an increasing number of textbooks); book samples; great display; ability to change font size on the fly; highlighting, annotations; text to speech...
• For students with low vision, the ability to change font size is great. Depending on your functional vision, it may not be large enough. A test-drive is absolutely recommended before plunking down the cash. You will probably want to have a handheld magnifier about though, as the menus and other functions, as well as the Amazon Store, don't enlarge.
• Text-to-speech is a big deal, and it's available for the large majority of items. The voices are quite tolerable and do have speed adjustments. More importantly, text-to-speech is available without waiting for someone else (me) to convert it. Buy and read. That's it. Doesn't that sound wonderful?
• For those textbooks that aren't yet available in the Amazon store, I can convert your text to a format that can be read on the Kindle. This is no different from the other text conversion services here at SOU; only the end product is different.
• There are thousands of free books out there at Project Gutenberg, LibriVox, and other sites. You can read these on the Kindle as well.
• For students with mobility impairments affecting your neck and/or spine, reading on the Kindle is pretty darn nifty. There are covers that double as a book stand so that you can read at a 90-degree angle quite comfortably. The buttons are large enough and have enough tactile response to be relatively easy to manipulate.
  

Reasons Not to Buy a Kindle If You Are a Student with a Print Disability

• Currently, the Kindle is not accessible for users who are blind. Frustrating, but true.
• It's not cheap. The Kindle 2 is currently going for $299, and the DX is $489. Yikes.
  
• Your text-to-speech capability is in the hands of Amazon... with no guarantees that it will continue to be available to you. This is worrisome.
• Some degree of fine-motor control is necessary to be able to operate the 5-way button (scroll and select functions) and the keyboard. Other buttons, especially the two you'll use most often - next page and previous page - are fairly large and can be manipulated with a closed fist.

What's your thoughts on the Kindle? Shout 'em out in the comments!

Tools I'm Using - Part 3

For those who are just now joining the conversation, this is the third in a series of tools I'm using in the pursuit of my Ph.D. Remember, my primary research computer is a Mac, so all of the tools below are Mac-friendly. If they also have a Windows version, are web-based, or have a mobile application, I've noted that in the cute little squiggly brackets {}.

Research tools

• Bookends Bookends has a very iTunes-like interface, which makes arranging and managing references quite easy. It's also extremely powerful - so much so that I've still not managed to learn all of the things that it can do. Integrates nicely with Google Scholar and PubMed resources to search for articles.
• Zotero [free] {Windows} Oh, how I love Zotero. It's a Firefox extension and automatically downloads citation information with a single click. Add the ability to attach files, take snapshots of web pages (since they have that tendency to change and move), take notes, and quickly and easily create bibliographies, and it's a real winner. The how-to videos on the Zotero site are fantastic, it's available in 30 languages (yeah, like I speak that many), and it's free and open-source. With the newest version, they've also included a social component, so you can work with others on the same project. Wow. There's only two other features I wish Zotero had:
  • the ability to access from other locations - perhaps in a desktop/web sync like Mendeley or Evernote Oooo... the new 2.0 beta offers this. Too exciting! Will let you know how this goes.
  • a separate "space" for notes. As they are, they're a bit cumbersome to navigate.
• Skim [free] If you want to interact with your PDFs like you do with physical print, Skim is the way to go. Highlight, annotate, draw circles... and have it read to you with Mac's built-in Speech. Searchable notes, my friends, searchable notes. Only wish - make an iPhone/iPod app so it could be used on the go as well.
• Mendeley [free] {Windows} PDF repository and social researching software. Also does some bibliography generation. The killer feature for me is that Mendeley automatically pulls reference data from the article - a huge boon when you're tracing a rabbit trail or some less well-known concept. As with all other bibliography generators, you'll want to make sure that the auto-extracted information is correct and formatted in a way that works with the style guide you're using. For me, this often means manually changing the case in titles from Title Case to Sentence case.
• Delicious [free] {web-based, iPhone app} I'm torn whether to put Delicious in Organization or Research. Delicious tracks all of my bookmarks and allows me access to them from whatever computer I'm using - that makes it an Organization tool. However, Delicious is also a social bookmarking service, allowing me to see what other people have saved as bookmarks for a particular term (tag) - that makes it a Research tool. You decide for yourself... I just call it darn useful.
• Google suite [free] {iPhone app} Keeping up with what's going on in the many areas of my interest is not easy. That's why I rely so heavily on RSS feeds to bring information to me. Having Google Reader just a couple of touches away on my iPod Touch means I can read what's new in AT, education, history... or lolcats... whenever I have just a few minutes and wi-fi access. It's a constant stream of information that I can dip into whenever I want.
• WikiTap [free] {iPhone app only} I'm reading some fairly difficult stuff these days (yes, "stuff" is a technical word). Despite my relatively large vocabulary, I'm constantly running into terms that I'm not entirely sure I grasp. That's where WikiTap comes in. If I keep my iPod next to what I'm reading, I can look up the term either quickly or in more depth without losing my train of thought.

Attentive readers will think, "Hmm. Why is she using three different reference management packages? Isn't that confusing?" Yes, it is, thank you for noticing. At this point, each provides a feature or two that the others don't have. As I continue to refine my own processes and what works for me, I'll probably pare this list down to one or two. That's the fun of working with new tools - finding out what either fits your own process or revolutionizes it to make you more efficient and efficacious. With Zotero's new version, I may actually be paring down sooner than I thought; but I'll have to play with it for a bit first. Onward!

Tools I'm Using - Part 2

My last post was on the organization tools I'm using to get (most) things done. This post will concentrate on the writing tools I'm using. Remember my criteria:

• My higher multiple intelligence points are: linguistic, visual, musical, logical/mathematical (which is weird, with my dyscalculia), and intrapersonal.
• My primary computer for this work is a Mac, but I work on multiple computers throughout the course of a week.
• I'm really busy, so time and resource management is definitely an issue I need to have under control.

All of these will run on the Mac. However, where they are web-based or can run on Windows also, I'll note that.

Writing tools

• PBWorks personal wiki [free] {web app} I use the wiki to create a reference file for the major research papers I'm writing. This article from Study Hacks introduced me to the idea of wiki-based writing and completely changed how I work on these papers. I've only been using it a short time, but already see huge advantages to it. It's also really, really easy to use.
• LiveJournal [free] {web-based, iPhone app} I use the LiveJournal blogspace to write about the process of learning - the emotional pieces, what I'm learning, how I'm progressing. It's been very helpful to help me look back and track my progress. The specific reason for choosing LiveJournal for this purpose is that it has very easy options to make the posts private... which means I've got a learning journal I can access from anywhere, but that is only viewable by me or by specific friends if I so chose. Tangential note: I use Blogger for this blog. Blogger is easy to use and has a number of quite helpful features.
  
• Mellell I started using the Mellel word processor a few weeks ago for its incredible ability to outline and the smooth integration it has with Bookends (see below). It's so powerful that it's going to take me awhile to really uncover all of the useful ways to use it. As I find them, I will update this space.
• MS Office for Mac [was cheap because I got staff/faculty license] {Windows} I'm not a big Microsoft fan (don't get me started), but had to have this because Office is ubiquitous. Unfortunately, the templates that my PhD program so thoughtfully provides for us (yay for templates!) don't translate well into other word processing apps, so I'd end up reformatting anyway and lose the advantage of the template. One of these days, I'll sit down and reformulate the templates specifically for OpenOffice and Mellel.
• Open Office [free] {Windows} I really, really love the word prediction that OpenOffice built in. Academic writing tends to use the same multisyllabic words over and over, and word prediction saves me hundreds of keystrokes when using these words.
• VUE [free] {Windows} VUE is hard to describe fully. The best I can do is to say that it's an extremely powerful mind map. I use VUE to tie together different documents and resources as I plan processes, so it's somewhere between an organization tool and a writing tool. I also use it as you would any mind map to brainstorm ideas.
• MacSpeech Dictate This where my geekiness shows most, I think... However, I do have a serious reason for spending the money on Dictate. I've got some repetitive stress injury issues with my hands. Using Dictate allows me to take some of the strain off of my hands and use my voice to write instead. Since it's really difficult for me to divorce the acts of composing and typing, I most often will use Dictate for notes. Since I use large blocks of text from each of the theorists or research articles I'm reading to start synthesizing ideas and themes, I just dictate those big blocks (with citation information) into my wiki. Lots of text, really fast, without numbness. I like it.

Next time: research tools.

Tools I'm Using - Part 1

I thought it might be interesting for you to see some of the things I use in the course of my Ph.D. work. Keep in mind some of my requirements:

• My higher multiple intelligence points are: linguistic, visual, musical, logical/mathematical (which is weird, with my dyscalculia), and intrapersonal.
• My primary computer for this work is a Mac, but I work on multiple computers throughout the course of a week.
• I'm really busy, so time and resource management is definitely an issue I need to have under control.

All of these will run on the Mac. However, where they are web-based or can run on Windows also, I'll note that.

Organization tools

• Google Calendar [free] {iPhone app, web-based} Everything that isn't on my work schedule is on my Google calendar. I also link to my husband's calendar and my kids' calendars, so I know where everyone is. Mostly. I also schedule what tasks I'm working on into Google calendar slots. If I had my way, I'd synchronize my work calendar with this too... but that's not an option that's available, unfortunately.
• Remember the Milk [free, but I bought Pro license for $25] This is especially helpful for my coursework. At the beginning of the term, I set aside a couple of hours and break down all of the work on my syllabi into manageable chunks, then list those in Remember the Milk with the due dates. A quick look at RTM lets me know what I should be doing each day. I bought the Pro license so that I could use the iPhone app. This way, when I'm sitting in a meeting and have something to add to my to-do list, I can do it immediately and it syncs up with my master list. Important, with all the things I'm trying to juggle.
• Evernote [free] {iPhone app, Windows, also has web component} Evernote is an amazing application that I am still learning to use effectively. My favorite function of Evernote is that I can grab snapshots of webpages and organize them in ways that are logical, and more importantly, findable again!

Next post: Writing Tools

Open Letter to Amazon.com

Dear Amazon.com,
The community of people with print disabilities were all a-twitter about the Kindle 2. Readers who use their ears to read - those who are visually impaired, have learning disabilities, are learning English, or are functionally illiterate - were excited to finally have a mass-marketed, accessible device that allows them to read. No "special" devices. Books, newspapers, and magazines would be available to them at the same way, at the same time, and AT THE SAME PRICE as they are to everyone else. What a great idea!

But then you allowed authors and publishers to block that great idea.

I work at a regional university. One of my responsibilities is to ensure that students with print disabilities have accessible textbooks. Frankly, I was really hoping that the Kindle could help. I'd love it if our students could just buy a textbook that is accessible to them. Just this morning, I had a student ask me about the Kindle 2 - whether it might work for her, and how she might be able to fund it. It hurt to have to tell her about the decision you have made to allow authors and publishers to block access to text-to-speech, but it wouldn't be responsible of me to let her assume, based on early press, that she's have that accessibility to all the great texts that you have.

Please, Amazon, reconsider.