Kathlynn+Utzman

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The Kindle, by Amazon, is an electronic reading device in which various books, magazines, newspapers, and games can be downloaded onto. The device has the capability to hold over 810,000 reading materials. In addition to the wide variety of resources it holds, it also could greatly contribute to being an assistive technological tool based on its capability to increase font size, ease of button use, and the ingenious text-to-speech feature. Increasing the font size would greatly benefit students with vision impairments. Also, the buttons are straightforward and easy to use. Only two buttons are needed to flip through different pages, thus eliminating possible struggles with touch-screen devices. Additionally, the text-to-speech feature can be used for students that either 1.) struggle with reading, or 2.) cannot see words very well. As demonstrated in the video, this feature allows the reader to both hear and potentially see the words as the Kindle reads. As the popularity of the Kindle continues to grow, there is growing talk of textbooks being converted to digital books. This would make the device even more useful for students. Overall, the Kindle is an excellent tool for assistive technology.

REVIEW #1--Donnie Nees The Kindle does present as an excellent assistive technology device, however, in my opinion it is only adequate. First, it does have the ability to have increased font size for low vision readers, but it is limited to the size the text can be increased to. Additionally, once the text is increased to the largest available font, there is a very limited number of words per line on the small screen. Second, the text-to-speech feature is nice for small article-type readings, but the voices are limited to either male or female and either is extremely electronic monotone sounding. This would become extremely annoying after a page or two of text!