The UK’s leading sight loss charity Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has worked with global technology giant Amazon to ensure that people with sight loss can enjoy the features in the latest range of tablet devices.
Blind and partially sighted people will be able to enjoy improved access to the UK’s largest source of ebooks thanks to new accessibility features which have been incorporated into the new Kindle Fire.
The new range of Kindle Fire tablets will allow people with sight loss in the UK to access Amazon’s 2 million titles using increased font size, synthetic audio, and electronic braille and have the opportunity to listen to the 100,000 audio books through Audible UK directly on the device.
RNIB was consulted during the development and testing phase of these new devices. The charity is in a unique position to coordinate expert and user testing, offering technical and consumer recommendations to help Amazon ensure that the new features were accessible to people with a range of sight loss conditions around the world.
The new accessible devices mean that blind and partially sighted people will be able read the full range of Kindle books, newspapers and journals in a variety of ways. The built-in screen reader allows readers to listen to titles whilst the magnification function enlarges the screen view. The device can also be used with an electronic braille display and the audio book player also supports accessibility.