@matt@dhamlinmusic@lynessence@pixelate@quanin@GamingWithEars@mcourcel IMHO those are larger problems than bookmarking. We can get close enough (nearest paragraph) bookmarking in a webview. And that would be fair exchange to have working links, footnotes, endnotes, media, math content, and all the rest. But I can think of no way with current screen readers and API's that we can do autoscroll. Kindle manages it, but they're doing...something custom that I don't know anything about. And I'm just not willing to give that up.
@matt@dhamlinmusic@lynessence@pixelate@quanin@GamingWithEars@mcourcel Nope. Direct TTS output is available if you want that. But both NVDA and jaws present kindle ebooks in some sort of custom virtual buffer. It supports pressing enter on links, autoscroll during say all, etc.
@matt I've honestly been afraid to look at it too close. Kindle Cloud broke accessibility because people started using it as a way to remove Kindle DRM now that the other popular methods don't work. If I wanted too, it would be pretty easy to create a new synth driver for NVDA that uses say all as a way to extract the text from a Kindle book. Here's the current technique they're using, if you're curious: blog.pixelmelt.dev/kindle-web-drm/
@fastfinge For the record, my interest wouldn't be in bypassing DRM, but in making it easier for applications and toolkits other than the big two Windows browser engines to trigger the virtual cursor behavior in JAWS and NVDA.
@matt When you first open Kindle for PC, your ebook library is shown in what is just a standard web view. So they do have a full browser engine as part of Kindle. But they don't seem, from what I can tell, to be using it to show the actual ebook.
@fastfinge Thanks. Bottom line: The virtual cursor implementation that NVDA uses for Kindle is hard-coded to the Kindle app, and based on that window class name, the same is probably true for JAWS.
@matt Yup. So in short, if I wanted to make another ebook app that worked the way Kindle does, I'd need to write a custom virtual cursor implementation for NVDA to work with it.
@fastfinge NVDA is modular enough that the implementation work in NVDA, or in an add-on, wouldn't have to be done from scratch, but yes, as far as I can tell, some app-specific or toolkit-specific work would currently have to be done. And for JAWS, that would basically mean being big enough to get onto Vispero's development roadmap.
@matt As other folks are saying: I could do all that work for free and without pay...or...I could just read my epubs in Kindle and get back to my actual job. :-) But in short, this is why the current set of blindness made ebook readers are the way they are.
@fastfinge Fair enough. I have my own reasons for wanting to crack the problem of activating virtual cursor behavior for things that aren't Chromium or Firefox. Of course, I don't expect anyone to work on that unpaid on my behalf.
@fastfinge Servo recently got funding specifically to work on accessibility, so I'm wondering how that's going to play out, and if they're going to want to get me involved given my work on Rust GUI accessibility.
@matt It feels like Windows would be the easier place to start, though, given Wayland and everything else that was still a mess on Linux last I checked.
@fastfinge I guess all the platforms are messy in different ways. I'm just thinking, since the funding came from the Sovereign Tech Fund, they might prioritize getting results on Linux, where it's all open-source.
@fastfinge I did a prototype in the first half of 2024. It's been sitting on hold because I've been busy with other stuff, and I also don't know if GNOME actually got another round of funding.
