[vip_students] Read all about the kindle keyboard!
- From: "NCBI Support" <support@xxxxxxx>
- To: <vip_students@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2012 16:26:59 -0000
By JACKIE CAIRNS
There are several flavours of Amazon's Kindle E-Reader on the market, but
the only model still available with some degree of accessibility to blind
and visually impaired people is the Kindle Keyboard. This unit supports 3G
and WiFi, retailing at £149 from Amazon. But what is Kindle Keyboard, and
how does it work?
The Kindle Keyboard is an E-Reader that allows you to purchase and download
books from the Kindle Store, and read them on the device. It also has lots
of other features, but these are not accessible to people with limited or no
sight.
The Kindle Keyboard measures 190 mm by 123 mm by 8.5 mm, and weighs 247
grams. The screen comprises a six diagonal electronic paper display, while
the Lithium Polymer battery takes approximately four hours to charge. It
can last up to a month, depending on whether WiFi is turned off, and how
much one reads. Unfortunately, however, the battery is not
user-replaceable.
EXPLORING THE KINDLE KEYBOARD
Approximately two-thirds of the Kindle Keyboard is taken up by the screen.
Text size may be adjusted by up to eight times. On either side of the
screen are two buttons that are flush with each edge of the device. The
upper, shorter buttons are for page up, and the lower, longer buttons are
for page down. These buttons are easy to press when lifting your Kindle
Keyboard, so caution is required when picking it up.
The tactile keyboard on this unit occupies the remainder of the device.
Typing notes is possible, but there is no key echo available, so not
recommended if you rely on speech to do so.
On the bottom edge, from left to right, is a volume button that decreases to
the left, and increases to the right. This is followed by a 3.5 headphone
jack, micro USB port and a power switch. This control is spring-loaded, so
simply flick it to the right to turn the Kindle Keyboard on and off. When
speech is turned on, the Kindle Keyboard announces: "screen-saver" if you
power down the device. It will also say this if you leave your Kindle
Keyboard unattended for more than 10 minutes. You may resume reading from
where you left off when returning to your device. Stereo speakers are
situated on the back of the Kindle , just below the top edge.
KEYBOARD FUNCTIONS TO NOTE
The qwerty keyboard contains some variations that it is necessary to mention
in order to navigate menu options and reading material on the device. On
the top row of the keyboard, the key to the extreme right is the menu
button. It is possible to determine this because it is longer than the rest
on that row. You use this key to enter the menu on the device. The options
are:
1. Shop in Kindle Store;
2. View archived items;
3. Search;
4. Create new collection;
5. Sync and check for items;
6. Settings;
7. Experimental.
Sadly, however, only some items here are relevant to this piece. Below the
menu button is a square with a sunken middle. The top, bottom, left and
right edges of the square are your four-way navigation keys. The sunken
portion in the middle is the enter or return key.
Below the square, on the bottom row of the keyboard, are two further long
keys. The right-most is the Back button, while the one next to this on the
left is the Home key. If you wander into a menu, or want to leave your
material, simply press the Back key to escape.
To the left of these horizontal long keys on the bottom row is the Text, or
AA key. Press this to bring up another menu connected with page
preferences. One of the items on this menu crucial for accessibility is the
text-to-speech function.
A long space bar is to the left of the Text or AA key. The shift key is the
bottom left button on the keyboard.
GETTING STARTED
The box contains your Kindle Keyboard, USB power cable, and USB PC
connection cable. It is recommended you give the Kindle Keyboard a full
charge before use for the first time. The USB port on the bottom edge of
the unit acts as its power source as well as PC connectivity.
Your first task is to turn on the Kindle Keyboard, by flicking the power
switch for a second or two to the right, then activating guided speech. To
do this, press the shift, (bottom left key), and space bar, (longest
horizontal button on the bottom row), simultaneously. There is no
indication when this combination is pressed that speech is active. But
using the up and down portion of the square, described above, should provide
a spoken list of items on the main screen of the device. These items should
include all the books you purchase, with the top title being the book you
opened last.
Now use the up and down portions of the square to select the book you want
to open. Next, press the sunken portion of the square, (enter or return
key).
As well as the guide voice, you also need to turn on text-to-speech in order
to hear your material being read by either male or female synthesis. This
may be achieved in two ways. Note that this needs to be done each time you
open a book.
a. Press the shift key and the Sim key simultaneously. The Sim key is
located one key to the right of the space bar, one row up, then one key to
the right again.
Or:
b. Press the Text or AA key immediately to the right of the space bar. If
your voice guide is turned on, you should hear: "Page Preferences"
announced. Now arrow down, by pressing the bottom portion of the square
four times to hear: "Text To Speech Turn On", and press the sunken enter or
return part of the square.
To pause reading, simply press the space bar, and toggle it to resume
listening to a book. To change from male to female synthesis, with
text-to-speech turned on, press the Text or AA button. Now move down twice
to Speaking Voice, and move the left and right portions of the square to
switch between male or female and select your preference with enter. You
can also change the speed of your reading voice, with text-to-speech turned
on, by again pressing the Text or AA key. Now move down once to Speech
Rate. Use the left and right portion of the square to choose between
Default, Slower or Faster, and press enter.
The text size may also be changed. To do this, press the Text or AA key
within your document, and use the left or right portions of the square to
alter the font size, then select.
This may all sound rather daunting, but it is something you can learn to do,
and indeed get used to, after a few jaunts into the world of reading
E-books.
HOW TO BROWSE AND DOWNLOAD TITLES
Many people have an Amazon account which is an Email address and password,
used to sign in on the website to purchase items. As the Kindle Keyboard is
developed by Amazon, you need to use your Amazon account to purchase books
from the Kindle Store. If you don't have an Amazon account, you will need
to create one. When you do this, all Kindle purchases will be downloaded to
your Kindle Keyboard. As it is likely you bought your device from Amazon,
your credentials are logged with them anyway, so start browsing the Kindle
Store for material you wish to purchase.
Once you have selected your book(s), choose the Download button. You will
receive a confirmation Email from Amazon which details your purchase(s). In
the meantime, when you turn on your Kindle Keyboard, you will find your
book(s) on the Home screen. You will also notice that your name appears on
the device. It normally takes approximately one minute per download, but it
can vary, depending on the signal in your area.
You might be wondering how your book arrives on your Kindle Keyboard without
you having to put your WiFi password into the device? Books bought from the
Kindle Store on the Amazon website are downloaded through the 3G Whispernet
service which is free in the UK. If you receive a 3G signal, as on a mobile
phone, your books should arrive that way. If not, or you want to put in
your WiFi password, you will almost certainly require sighted assistance.
This is because there is no speech feedback when entering case sensitive
letters, numbers and other symbols, and no way of knowing when you are on
the edit field to type in your password.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
I came to the Kindle Keyboard rather late in the day of the 2010 release of
this third generation product. I didn't believe I could listen to a book
read by synthetic speech, but was pleasantly surprised. I wanted to widen
the endless possibilities beyond the fantastic RNIB Talking Book service,
Braille, and the likes of Audible. The Kindle Store gives me books on their
release date, and categories that aren't likely to be available in
alternative formats for months to come.
I have no difficulty browsing for titles or filling my shopping basket on
the Amazon site! I find my books are downloaded within a couple of minutes
using the 3G Whispernet service, and I haven't needed to put my WiFi
password in yet either. Turning on the TTS to read books is straightforward
for me, and the basics of reading my purchases is much better than doing
without.
But it isn't a perfect solution, not by any means. Amazon have only really
made the Kindle Keyboard partially accessible. That is to say, you can turn
on the voice guide for some menus, and you can listen to a book by
activating the text-to-speech facility. You know when your battery requires
charging as the TTS will tell you to connect the power cord. But there is
no audible status that you can activate without sighted assistance at any
given time.
You cannot use the Kindle Keyboard to browse the Kindle Store. This has to
be done on your PC because none of its features speak. Indeed, you are
quite limited in being able to navigate a book once TTS is enabled.
Despite the swell of support to the developer with recommendations for
enhancing the accessibility of Kindle devices, the lobby of pleas has fallen
on deaf ears. The Kindle Keyboard still remains a half-hearted
accessibility attempt by Amazon, and given it is now more than two years
since its release, we can only hope the company is encouraged to review its
policy once stocks expire.
A PC version of the Kindle software is available for free download from the
Amazon website. If you use this in addition to the Kindle Keyboard, it is
possible to synchronise your books so that you end up in the same place on
either device. And when you purchase books from the Kindle Store on the
Amazon website, you can choose to which device you want to download your
material.
To date, the Apple and Android versions of the Kindle app are not
accessible. There are, however, other software-based E-Readers not covered
in the scope of this article.
The manual for the Kindle Keyboard is available on the unit, but it
primarily assumes someone with sight is using the device. There is also
some useful documentation on the RNIB website that describes the
accessibility features for both the Kindle Keyboard and PC application.
Finally, I do recommend a cover for your Kindle Keyboard to protect it
against any scratches and knocks. A leather cover for around £18 is
available on the Amazon website, that allows you to use all the Kindle
Keyboard's functions without removing it.
For further information, visit
www.amazon.co.uk/kindlestore
© 2012
--
I am using the free version of SPAMfighter.
SPAMfighter has removed 1479 of my spam emails to date.
Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len
Do you have a slow PC? Try Free scan
http://www.spamfighter.com/SLOW-PCfighter?cid=sigen
Follow us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/ncbiworkingforpeoplewithsightloss
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ncbi_sightloss
Check-out NCBI's Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh appeal on the following link.
http://youtu.be/25P2tiuCi0U
********************************************************************
National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI) is a company
limited by guarantee (registered in Ireland No. 26293) .
Our registered office is at Whitworth Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9.
NCBI is also a registered Charity (chy4626).
NOTICE: The information contained in this email and any attachments
is confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the intended
recipient you should not use, disclose, distribute or copy any of
the content of it or of any attachment; you are requested to notify
the sender immediately of your receipt of the email and then to
delete it and any attachments from your system.
NCBI endeavours to ensure that emails and any attachments generated
by its staff are free from viruses or other contaminants. However,
it cannot accept any responsibility for any such which are
transmitted. We therefore recommend you scan all attachments.
Please note that the statements and views expressed in this email
and any attachments are those of the author and do not necessarily
represent the views of NCBI
********************************************************************
Other related posts:
