Got my hands on a copy of the new #Kindle app for Windows 11. You can read the text with a #screenreader, but only line by line. Not word by word or character by character. Say all does not work. Pages do not advance automatically; you must press page down when you get to the end of a page. Find does not work. You cannot select or copy text. Alt text does not seem to work, though I'm unsure if this was a problem with my particular book. Hopefully Amazon gets these things fixed before Kindle Legacy is discontinued on June 30th. For now, this app is effectively unusable for long-form reading, or for research and study. @nationsblind@JonathanMosen#accessibility#a11y#blind
@feld@JonathanMosen@nationsblind Yes. All of these things worked on the existing Kindle app for Windows. However, that app has been renamed to "Kindle Legacy" and is being discontinued on June 30th, and will no longer run after that date. The new app runs only on Windows 11, and is only available in the Microsoft Store.
@JonathanMosen@nationsblind I tested with both NVDA 2026 and jaws 2026. I did not try with Narrator. I downloaded the new Kindle app from the Microsoft Store, ensured I had the latest version, and then opened a book that I knew worked correctly in the Kindle Legacy app. Once I opened the book, I found that I could read by line with the up and down arrows. However, pressing the say all hotkey did nothing. And when I cursored down to the end of a page, the text did not advance until I pressed page down. I checked the settings for an auto-advance, or other accessibility setting, but found nothing. The assistive reader is available and will read with your default SAPI5 voice. However, this is not nearly as nice as using say all. Also, there is no way to read by letter, so checking spelling is impossible. I do not know if the text of Kindle books in the new app displays on a Braille display or not, as I do not have one connected to this computer.
@JonathanMosen@nationsblind No worries! It happens all the time. I'm hoping NFB still has contacts over at Amazon. I use Kindle on my Laptop to read research and technical material that's not available on bookshare. So the ability to check spelling character by character is critical to me. As well as selecting and copying text so I can make citations.
@JonathanMosen@nationsblind Thanks! In the meantime, if you find that text can be displayed on a Braille display in the new Microsoft Store app, I would love to know. I can borrow one for at least a few weeks if that will work around the problem at least temporarily.
