Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Amazon Adds Features For Blind, Visually Impaired Kindle App Users

Seattle-based Amazon.com has taken steps to address a widespread effort by the National Federation of the Blind to protest the company's Kindle readers, with the addition of a new set of features aimed at blind and visually impaired customers. Amazon said it has added new features, starting with its iOS app, which allows users to have the reader "read aloud" books in the Kindle store, add consistent navigation features, allow character-by-character, word-by-word and other reading features; ability to connect to iOS accessibility features and peripheral braille displays, and more. The National Federation of the Blind has been complaining that Amazon.com was "indifferent" to the needs of blind readers with its e-book readers and software. Amazon said it will be adding the features to other Kindle apps in the future.