• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

SEENIT

TV, Film, Broadband, Pay-TV, Games, Computing and Tech | News, Comment & Reviews

  • NEWS
  • FEATURES
  • ADVERTISE
  • Twitter

RNIB welcomes more accessible Kindle app for iPad and iPhone

May 7, 2013 - Staff@seenituk

Amazon's Kindle app for iPad has been made more accessible.
Amazon’s Kindle app for iPad has been made more accessible.
A new Kindle app for Apple’s iPad and iPhone has been welcomed by the RNIB, the UK’s largest charity for the and partially sighted people.

The app includes in-built magnification and speech functions, that, for the first time, readers with sight loss can now read the full range of Kindle books, newspapers and journals.

The charity says earlier versions of the Kindle reading apps weren’t compatible with Apple’s accessibility features, limiting access to content for those with visual impairments.

“We’re excited to introduce these new features to our Kindle for iOS app, making it easier than ever for our blind and visually impaired customers to access the vast selection of over 1.8 million books in the Kindle Store on their iPhone or iPad,” said Dorothy Nicholls, Vice President, Amazon Kindle.

“With this update, we’re also making customer-favourite features—such as X-Ray, End Actions, sharing, highlighting and bookmarking—more accessible. We look forward to continuing to develop and extend our accessibility features on Kindle Fire and our other Kindle apps.”

Amazon consulted consulted blind and partially sighted people during the updated app’s development and testing phase to ensure it was fully accessible and user-friendly.

RNIB’s Director of Inclusive Society, Fazilet Hadi, said: “This fantastic breakthrough from Amazon means that people with sight loss can now read the 1.5 million titles in the Kindle Store. RNIB helped Amazon by getting feedback from blind and partially sighted people who tested early versions of this app.”

“It is important that this level of accessibility is now replicated across all of the apps and devices in the Amazon Kindle range. We urge Amazon, and all other developers and manufacturers in the eBook industry, to continue their work in making eBooks, devices and apps useable by everybody.”

Richard Mollet, Chief Executive from Publishers Association (PA) also welcomed the news, commenting: “Achieving progress on accessibility for blind and partially sighted people is always going to require action from every party in the chain.

“Publishers are working hard to make their files accessible at the production level, and we are pleased to see retailers and device manufacturers taking important steps too. We will continue to work with charities for blind and partially sighted people to ensure that eBooks deliver on their promise of accessibility.”

Blind and partially sighted people can find out more about accessing eBooks at www.rnib.org.uk/ebooks or by calling RNIB on 0303 123 9999 for a copy of our Get Started with eBooks guide.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Related

Tagged With: ebooks

Blu-ray and Gaming Top Buys

David Attenborough’s A Perfect Planet is getting a 4K Blu-ray release

Doctor Who: Sylvester McCoy and Bonnie Langford reunite in trailer for Season 24 Blu-ray release

Batman: Soul Of The Dragon comes to DVD and Blu-ray next month

RECENT

BT Sport to show 26 Premier League games this month

Godzilla vs. Kong: Watch the brand-new trailer

Robert Kirkman’s Invincible is coming to Amazon Prime Video

Watch Danielle Macdonald, Hugh Skinner and Joanna Lumley in Falling for Figaro trailer

Popular

Sky bags first run rights to Entertainment One catalogue

Freesat adds BBC Sounds to app line-up

Coming To America sequel to get global release on Amazon Prime Video

Hitman developers announce new James Bond game

Featured

Ofcom calls for greater social and geographic diversity in TV and radio

BT Sport app now available on Now TV devices

StarzPlay is now available from Rakuten TV

Britbox – What does the new UK-centric streaming service offer?

Popular Topics

  • Amazon Prime Video
  • BritBox
  • Freeview Play
  • Set Top Box Reviews

ADVERTISE ON SEENIT

We’re pleased to offer a number of advertising opportunities to high quality brands including sponsored content, competitions and advertising placements.

Please contact us for details.

MORE FROM US

Copyright © 2021 · All Rights Reserved · Contact Us · Copyright · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy
MayorWatch Publications Limited · 20-22 Wenlock Road · London N1 7GU · Company Number 6291816