I’m blind. Kindle text to speech has been a nightmare to master—here’s how to fix this

By David Faucheux, a freelance audiobook reviewer for Library Journal. The views are only his and not necessarily LJ’s.

I’ve been blind most of my life. But I hold a masters degree in library and information science and am comfortable with tech although I’m not a full-fledged expert.

TeleRead asked me in July if I would consider reviewing the recently released $70 basic Amazon Kindle. It brings back the text-to-speech accessibility that had existed in older versions. But there is an ugly Catch 22 for blind people. 

Just how can we benefit from the built-in audio VoiceView tutorial and related guidance in the already-loaded users’ guide if we don’t know how to use the screen reader in the first place? You must drill down too far in the menus to reach text-to-speech features.

Unfortunately this typifies Amazon’s seeming lack of understanding and empathy in considering the needs of blind people. My Kindle arrived several weeks ago…

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