Amazon introduced a new version of Kindle, its electronic book reader. But once more, the device fails to include many assistive technology features. To be sure, the Kindle 2 includes a sleeker design and a lighter console. For the disabled, the most interesting feature by far is a text-to-speech function that allows readers to listen to books with a robot-like computerized voice that is delivered — some say — with a Eastern European accent. What’s interesting is, though Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos didn’t say as much, his company partnered with a key assistive technology company, Nuance Communications, to build the speech capability into the Kindle 2. Nuance is the maker of RealSpeak software, which is the same technology that enables text-to-speech on Nokia cell phones and Freedom Scientific’s JAWS screen readers to make them accessible for the blind and visually impaired. Nuance also makes Dragon NaturallySpeaking, a speech-recognition program that’s popular among workers with mobility impairments who can’t type on PCs. Unfortunately, Amazon didn’t take advantage of Nuance’s full accessibility features, such as its menu of custom voices. Kindle 2 users can only choose between a male or female voice, which makes the speech function adequate for reading a recipe or a short article, but not a longer novel. However, Amazon calls the text-to-speech function “experimental” — so perhaps they’ll upgrade to more sophisticated voices in future versions.
Thanks for the review. I wasn’t sure if the text to speech would allow someone like me to use the device, but apparently not. I hope that Amazon will catch on and make the kindel another reading option for people with disabilities.
[...] I wrote about Amazon’s Kindle 2 failing the accessibility test because it didn’t go whole-hog with its text to speech function that would have enabled blind [...]
[...] example, the blog has a post up criticizing Amazon’s Kindle 2 for not using all the text-to-speech options it could have from its partner in the technology. [...]
[...] example, the blog has a post up criticizing Amazon’s Kindle 2 for not using all the text-to-speech options it could have from its partner in the technology. [...]
Hi there,
You probably heard there’s been quite a flap over the Author’s Guild’s complaint about the unregulated text-to-speech function in the Kindle 2. I wrote a post you may find interesting that I think takes a balanced look at this issue:
http://accessiblemedia.wordpress.com/e-books-and-the-disabled-catch-22/
I appreciate your comments.
Bob
Ps. Abledbody looks great – thanks for putting it out there.