The following should answer your question about the Kindle app on Ios:
BREAKING: Amazon’s Kindle for iOS Updated with Accessibility
Posted under:Accessibilityby Justin Romack
I remember the feeling quite vividly—sitting in my college courses on the
first
day of class, staring at a syllabus with books I knew I’d never be able to
obtain in an accessible format before we were to review them. I attended a
great
university and had access to a fabulous disability services office, but far
too
many books were simply out of reach in a timely fashion.
I’d talk to peers who would download their books onto a Kindle, and as time
progressed, soon they’d load them on their iPhones and iPads to tote around
wherever they went. But, sadly, Amazon seemed to stubbornly push
inaccessible
Kindle products onto the market without any regard to the blindness
community.
That all changed yesterday morning, though, and many have voiced their
excitement for the newly accessible Kindle for iOS application (available
now
through Apple’s App Store). That’s right—the blind, visually impaired and
dyslexic now have full access to Amazon’s catalog of over one million books,
magazines and newspapers, all at the touch of a button in the Kindle Store.
After playing around with the app, connecting my braille display and
exploring
tactilely and buying (more than) a few books to try out, I want to share
some
initial impressions and a general breakdown of what you can expect from the
app.
The Interface
Amazon’s Kindle for iOS has a simple interface upon startup. If you have
purchased books already, you’ll be taken to your cloud bookshelf with an
option
to download each title. If you’ve already downloaded these texts, you can
click
and launch them with a single-finger double tap gesture, or a split-tap
gesture.
While in the book of your choice, Amazon has made the interface incredibly
simple, boasting no buttons, labels or other controls you may expect to see
in
an app like this. You are presented with the book’s text—and that’s all.
This is
nice because the text fills the entirety of the screen, making it much
easier to
scroll line by line with your finger.
The Reading Experience
I’m not a huge fan of audiobooks. The dramatization of text by some readers
tends to be a turnoff for me, and it’s important that I have access to the
text
in a way that I can read character by character if need be. Solid, intuitive
and
flexible navigation is imperative for any reading app or device–and it’s why
I’ve really enjoyed using Apple’s iBooks app the past year or two.
In terms of navigation, Kindle for iOS is absolutely on-par with the iBooks
experience. I can navigate character by character, word by word, and line by
line, which is excellent. In one word—it’s “flawless”.
Since there are no on-screen controls while in the reading view, you can
either
interact with the text by a read all from top gesture (which is a two-finger
swipe downward), navigate via a rotor gesture (use the rotor to select
whether
you’ll move by character, word or line), move your finger through the text
or
move between pages (with a three-finger swipe left or right), which prompts
the
app to automatically start reading content on the new page. It’s simple,
easy
and very effective.
Making Highlights and Creating Notes
This is easily one of the most exciting features I’ve found in the Kindle
for
iOS app—and best of all, it’s very accessible. To highlight a section of
text,
or to create a note about something you’ve read, perform a single-finger,
double-tap and hold around the general area in which you’d like to make your
annotations. Hold your finger in this spot for a moment, and then lift it.
If
you’ve done it correctly, VoiceOver will announce “pink highlighter”, which
represents the color used to mark your selected section…but we’re not done
yet.
If you were to flick around the screen at this point, you’d see options to
change the highlighter color, share the selection and various other options,
but
here’s the kicker—you can actually adjust the selection (from edge to edge)
using the flick gesture up and down. Flick until you find “left most edge”
and
“right most edge”. By flicking up and down while focusing on either edge,
you’ll
move the edge of your mark forward and backward. If you pause for a moment
after
adjusting your selection, voiceOver will announce the contents of your
highlighted section. Wow!
After selecting the text you’d like to mark, you can save it as a mark,
create a
note or look up a word in the dictionary. You can also Google your selection
and
search for it on Wikipedia, as well. I think this is leaps and bounds ahead
of
anything else out there—and I’ve already used it to annotate several of the
books I’m currently reading.
Accessing the Menu While Reading a Book
Since there are no controls found on-screen while reading your book, you’re
probably wondering how to perform basic features like bookmarking a page,
navigating to a specific page or location, etc etc. All of this (and much
more)
can be found in the menu, which is accessible by performing a single-finger
double tap (or a split-tap gesture) anywhere on-screen while in the reading
view. VoiceOver will announce “menu On”, and you’re now able to explore the
options for your book.
Basic Controls inside the Menu
After opening the menu, you will be presented with several options
pertaining to
your book. In the top-lefthand corner, you will find a button labeled “Home”,
which will take you back to your bookshelf. At the center and top of the
screen
is a text label which states the name and author of the book you are
currently
reading.. Single-finger flicking to the right (or navigating to the
upper-righthand corner of the screen), you’ll find a “Bookmark” button. This
will bookmark the current page (the page visible when you opened the menu).
One Note about Bookmarks
If Amazon could make one improvement about this menu, it would be the
ability to
see whether a bookmark is currently present for the page. I believe they
could
accomplish this by having VoiceOver announce “Bookmark selected button) if a
bookmark has already been set for the current page. The trick here is—if a
bookmark IS already present, pressing this button will remove it without any
indication to the VoiceOver user.
“Return to Book” Option
In the very middle of the screen, there is an option to jump back into your
book. This option remains present in some subpages of the menu—but not
always.
The Bottom Row of Controls
The bottom row of controls holds most of the nitty-gritty details most users
will want to access. From left to right, these controls include:
Back: This option appears to always be “dimmed”. Not sure what it does…
View Options: This menu controls various aspects of the visual
presentation of
your book, including font style, font size and brightness.
Go To: This menu offers a wide variety of locations in which you can be
taken
to throughout your book. I’ll discuss this menu in greater detail in a
moment…
Search: The Kindle for iOS app comes with an insanely powerful search
tool,
which allows you to comb the entire contents of your book for a word or
phrase. I’ll cover this one, too, in a bit more depth a little later.
Sync: This option will sync the reading position of your current Kindle
device
with the furthest point reached on any other device. This could be quite
handy
if you use Kindle for iOS on an iPhone AND an iPad.
The Progress Slider: The progress slider is located just below this row of
five buttons, and represents your current location as a percentage. You
can
adjust this slider with the flicking gesture up or down, or you can do a
single-finger, double-tap and hold to adjust more precisely.
The “Go To” Menu
This menu allows you to jump through your book at varying navigation levels,
such as by page, by bookmark or back to the beginning. Some “go to” options
include:
Cover: This option will place you on the cover of your current book.
Table of Contents: Choosing this option will take you directly to the
table of
contents, allowing you to navigate by chapter or section. (NOTE: The table
of
contents DOES work with VoiceOver, but you’ll have to navigate slowly with
your finger because these are not visible as links.)
Beginning: Selecting this option will take you to the very beginning of
your
book, past the cover, table of contents and most introductory content.
Location: Pressing the “Location” button will allow you to navigate
directly
to the page of your choice. Use the keypad to type the page number, and
then
locate an “OK” button toward the middle-right section of the screen.
Book Extras: Here’s where Kindle shines over most any other options you’ve
likely tried—this section contains crowdsourced selections taken from the
book, which means other readers took the time to select portions of the
book
that stood out to them, highlights and memorable moments, and favorite
quotes.
There is also a section which includes notes for parents. One other
interesting thing about this menu is the ability to toggle “spoilers” on
and
off, which will help you avoid any revealing content as you dig through
the
extra features of your book.
My Notes and Marks: This section lists all of the bookmarks and highlights
you’ve made throughout the book. Note that you can remove these by using
the
“Edit” button at the top-lefthand corner of the screen.
Popular Highlights: Keeping with the notion of crowdsourcing, Amazon pulls
in
the most popular highlights from all other users reading the currently
selected book. This is one feature I absolutely love! Kindle for iOS tells
you
the location of the highlighted section, as well as how many people have
highlighted it.
X-Ray: X-Ray allows readers to explore “the bones of a book.” Tap on any
page
as you read to find chapters and locations that mention ideas, characters,
and
important places, as well as background info, biographies, and more from
Shelfari and Wikipedia.
Before You Go: This section contains options for you to rate, review and
share
the currently selected book. The selections made here will no doubt factor
into the recommendations Amazon makes to you for future reading.
The Search Feature
The search functionality in Kindle for iOS is by far one of the most
powerful
I’ve seen in a reading option. But as impressive as its ability to search
through your text, I’m in love with the way it displays your results.
After selecting the “Search” option, you’ll be presented with a standard
search/edit field and the iOS keyboard. Type your query and press “Go”. The
app
will process the text and present you with a list of results, with the page
number listed to the left of the section where your word or phrase is
present.
You’ll also notice a count at the bottom of the screen for the tonal number
of
instances the app found for your search.
Where Amazon Did It Right
I think it’s often easy for us to assume companies aren’t listening to our
accessibility concerns, or the timetable for accessibility isn’t moving fast
enough, but the Kindle for iOS app is a classic example of patience paying
off.
There are no flaws I’ve found in the app’s accessibility, with only one
minor
preference issue. There has been extensive beta testing for the
accessibility
improvements, as is obvious by the flawless execution made by Amazon.
The standout feature, and one which Apple can take cues, is the highlighter
found in the reading view. The granularity at which your highlighted
selection
can be edited is remarkable. If you flick around the screen, you’ll notice
VoiceOver report “left most edge” and “right most edge”. Performing a flick
gesture up or down will reposition the respective edges of your highlighted
section (before you approve it). This is highly impressive,a and not present
in
iBooks.
Summing It All Up
My allegiance rarely sways between two products. I tend to stay loyal to
solutions that have worked well for me in the past—and I’d assume many
reading
this can relate to that idea. But, given Amazon’s impressive offering and
the
affordability of many selections, I could see myself using Kindle for iOS
more
often than the iBooks offering from Apple. It will be intriguing to see if
Amazon continues this stance on accessibility, and extends it to their other
software and hardware offerings.
-----Original Message-----
From: Donald L. Roberts
Sent: Friday, October 04, 2013 11:17 AM
To: Viphone
Subject: A couple of Kindle questions
I haven't yet used the Kindle IOS app. Also, I haven't yet upgraded to
IOS 7.
I plan to buy a Kindle book and am wondering whether I can load the book
both on the IOS app and also on the accessible Kindle for PC. I am also
wondering if either of the two apps has a mechanism for continuous
reading. The original Kindle for PC had no such command.
Thanks.
Don Roberts
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