Demonstrations of Kindle Fire accessibility feaures

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Thursday, 10 October 2013 12:05pm

The Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB) in the UK has released a set of videos demonstrating the accessibility features of Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets.

The first video, Kindle Fire for low vision users (embedded below), demonstrates how to customise the magnification, colour and font settings to make the tablet easier to use for people who are vision impaired.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3B1lTBKWjk

Watch the Kindle Fire for low vision users video with captions on YouTube

The second video, Kindle Fire with speech (embedded below) demonstrates the Kindle Fire’s Voice Guide screen reader. The demonstration shows that the Voice Guide and Explore By Touch features both have significant shortcomings. A blind user is unable to get into the accessibility menu and turn on the features without assistance from another. And while Voice Guide and Explore By Touch work reasonably well for accessing eBooks, other Amazon services such as the store and apps are unsupported.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFzJYYnSEmM

Watch the Kindle Fire with speech video with captions on YouTube

The accessibility features were introduced to the Kindle Fire models after Amazon faced legal action in the USA from the National Federation of the Blind.

Read the RNIB’s detailed list of the Kindle range’s benefits and obstacles.

Pricing

The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDX, 8GB is available for $US 379 while the 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX, 8GB is available for $US 229. The Kindle Fire HD is available for $US 159. Australian prices and shipping dates are yet to be released.


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