Amazon announced several new features that make it easier for blind and visually-impaired users.
The new features should be available immediately for iOS iPhone and iPad devices.
"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," Dorothy Nicholls, a vice president in the Kindle unit, said in the company's press release.
The new features include the ability to read-aloud with voice-over technology, ability to use X-Ray, End Actions and sharing to social media as well as consistent navigation buttons. Users can also adjust the zoom, lighting and peripheral braille display. The X-Ray feature, which was added to Amazon's 2011 Kindle lineup, allows users to learn more about certain characters, places, and phrases in a book via online encyclopedias such as Shelfari.com and Wikipedia.
The new features will be available for more than 1.8 million Kindle Store offerings. Amazon has come under fire before for not having enough features for the visually-impaired on the Kindle. Last December, Dr. Marc Maurer, the President of the National Federation of the Blind, stated that "Amazon has repeatedly demonstrated utter indifference to the recommendations of blind Americans for full accessibility of its Kindle e-books and failed to follow the best practices of other e-book providers," according to TechCrunch.
"I found the functionalities to my liking and above my initial expectations. Frankly, due to continued vision loss and vision changes, I hadn't read very much at all. Now, I've read more books in the past few weeks than in the last five years," Kevin Daniel, senior director of strategic recruiting for the nonprofit Lighthouse for the Blind, said in the Amazon announcement.
Last week, Amazon rolled out a design update for its native Kindle app for Android. The redesigned library had a carousel of books on top that displayed recently read items and an easier navigational tool.
