In 2016, Amazon announced the availability of Fire OS 5. As part of this release, Amazon announced VoiceView, a screen reader designed specifically for Kindle Fire tablets. VoiceView did not offer direct braille support, but very limited access to braille was available through Amazon's version of BrailleBack. With BrailleBack, not all Kindle titles which could be read using VoiceView could be read in braille, there were no commands to change pages when reading, and a braille display's keyboard could not be used to enter text.

Since its release in 2016, VoiceView has evolved in every way, including braille support. In September 2017, Amazon announced that braille was directly supported by VoiceView. Reading Kindle content in braille was supported, as was using braille commands to navigate the tablet. Text entry using a display's Perkins-style keyboard was also supported in the September 2017 release of VoiceView. Native braille support could be had on Kindle Fire tablets from the 4th generation onward. This article will examine the current state of braille on the Kindle Fire tablet using the 7th generation of the Kindle Fire HD 8 running Fire OS version 5.3.6.4. An Orbit Reader 20 and Brailliant BI 14 were used in testing.

There are many potential options with the Kindle Fire that are beyond the scope of this article. Installing the Google Play Store allows the downloading of Android apps such as KNFB Reader, BARD Mobile, and Dolphin EasyReader, among many others. The affordability of the Kindle Fire, coupled with the ability to download numerous apps from the Google Play Store, gives people who are blind and deafblind yet another option that merges assistive technology with mainstream technology.

Support and Set-Up

According to Amazon's documentation, braille support is limited to a few braille devices. Supported displays include the Brailliant BI displays from Humanware, the Orbit Reader 20 from Orbit Research, the Refreshabraille sold by the American Printing House for the Blind, and the VarioConnect, VarioUltra, and SuperVario lines from Baum.

The Kindle Fire's documentation provides well-written instructions for initial set up and pairing of the device with a supported braille display. Note that the process of pairing a braille display to a Kindle Fire is similar to that used when pairing a braille display to an iOS device. The pairing request is initiated in VoiceView settings, as opposed to Bluetooth settings. Once connected, braille should immediately appear, giving a braille-only user access to much of what the Fire tablet offers. Within the Braille menu, a few user-customizable options are available. Among these is the ability to set your preferred braille table, and to mute all sounds.

Using Fire OS with a Braille Display

Many of the commands used for navigating Fire OS will be familiar to users of braille displays and notetakers. For example, Spacebar + dot-1 moves to the previous item while Spacebar + dot-4 moves to the next item. Pressing a cursor routing button activates the currently selected item while Spacebar + F launches the Find function. Though some of the commands may be different from those encountered by long-time users of braille displays and notetakers, they are typically commands that can be easily committed to memory. For example, to go to the Notification Center, press Spacebar + N.

As more than one item shows on the display at a time, selecting items is faster if the display has cursor routing keys. You can simply press the cursor routing key above or below the item you wish to activate. As the Orbit Reader 20 has no cursor routing keys, you have to know what item currently has focus, then press Spacebar + E to activate it. If you are not using speech, the only way to tell if an item is highlighted is by turning on the Show Accessibility Focus feature. To turn this feature on, press Spacebar + dot-7 + dot-8. This raises dots-7 and -8 underneath the item currently in focus. When you have activated the desired item, you can toggle Show Accessibility Focus off should you find it interferes with your reading experience. I evaluated the Orbit Reader last January, and documented my struggles with being unable to toggle this feature on and off. I'm happy to see this problem has been remedied since my evaluation.

Also addressed since the last time I wrote about the Fire tablet and braille support was the issue related to a paired braille display being remembered after the Fire restart. With the latest update, Fire OS remembers the paired display, and I have seen no issues with the braille display being remembered despite restarting the device multiple times. The only time I found that a braille display would not successfully connect was if the Fire was unlocked before a braille display was turned on. Simply locking the Fire, turning on the braille display, and then unlocking the Fire yields consistent results.

I found several inconsistencies with displaying content when using the Brailliant BI 14 that were not present when using the Orbit Reader 20. For example, though focus would jump to the next item when pressing Spacebar + dot-4, the app in focus was not always shown in braille. This was not an issue with specific apps, as sometimes the correct app would show on the braille display while not doing so at other times. The Orbit Reader did not have this issue.

Braille Support in Specific Apps

Reading

One of the most common uses of a Kindle Fire is for reading Kindle content. I was able to purchase and read content from the Amazon Kindle store with no difficulty. I was able to search for and download a book using braille on the Orbit Reader. When browsing the store with the Brailliant BI 14, I received inconsistent braille feedback, so used the Orbit Reader for the rest of the process. After selecting a book to purchase, I was able to read the synopsis, reviews, and other information. There were a few elements VoiceView didn't read, which were also not displayed in braille, but they did not impact my ability to buy or download content.

Reading a book on the Kindle Fire is a pleasant experience. After opening a book, I was placed at the beginning of the Prologue, bypassing all front matter. If you wish to go backward to the Table of Contents, you can do so by pressing Spacebar + dot-1 to move to the previous section. I was not able to find a command to quickly jump to the beginning of the previous section, so if you wish to review the front matter, a lot of backward scrolling will be necessary. The Fire recalled my position in the book each time I exited the application. To close the book you are currently reading, press Spacebar + Z to activate the Back button, or exit the application by pressing Spacebar + H.

The Find function did not appear to work in either of the two Kindle books I tested unless the word was on the page I was currently reading. One of the nice things about the Find function, if it were to work throughout the entire book, is that you could search either forward or backward very easily. Spacebar + dot-8 will search forward, while Spacebar + dot-7 will search for text going backward. It would be great to be able to use this, for example, to search an entire book for academic reasons. It would also be helpful to have this command function throughout the entire text so that you could more easily find where you left off in a book should the Fire fail to preserve your reading position.

Mail

Though a bit clunky, the Mail application works for the most basic tasks. I was able to set up a mail account and read and send email with no trouble. I reported in my very brief glance at braille support on the Kindle about how typing fast resulted in jumbled or missing letters. I'm happy to report that this is no longer an issue when composing emails on either the Brailliant or Orbit Reader. When using the Mail app, the Brailliant provided inconsistent feedback in braille. I experienced no issues when using the Orbit Reader.

Once in your email, the quickest way to compose a new message is to press Spacebar + dots 4-5-6-8 to move to the last element on the screen, which is the New Message button. When I typed a first name in the "To" field, no possible matches were found even though my address book was on the Kindle. Perhaps the match was located somewhere on the screen, but I couldn't find it. I typed my full email address because I hadn't talked to myself enough that day, and then was able to navigate to the "Subject" and "Compose" fields. Unlike in most programs, you must press Spacebar + E to change the focus from one field to another. You can also add the cc: and bcc: fields if you wish by moving backward from the "To" field. After composing a message, find the "Send" button located above the "To" field toward the top of the screen. If you entered the recipient's email address correctly, the message will send. If you have entered an invalid address, however, there is no braille feedback to alert you to an error. It is spoken by VoiceView, but this does not benefit a deafblind user who can't hear the speech. Using braille alone, I was unable to locate the error message on the screen to determine the issue.

The Mail application is missing robust features that would make managing email for a braille or VoiceView user more enjoyable. For example, having something like the Actions rotor on iOS to delete messages quickly would be helpful.

Browsing with Silk

The default web browser for Fire OS is called Silk. I was able to launch Silk without issue and chose to bring up the AccessWorld homepage to test the browser. It's worth noting that you must enter the web address in computer braille, as contracted braille is not supported.

All the navigation commands appear to work with Silk including the ability to jump by heading, form control, etc. You can combine the letter that you choose with dot-7 to move to the previous occurrence of the element, and dot-8 to move to the next. For example, Spacebar + F + dot-8 will move the browser to the next form field. The Find feature appeared to work very well searching both backward and forward through web content, even on very cluttered websites. I was able to sign into a website and post a comment to a discussion forum without any trouble. Having the ability to jump by specific elements made this a very efficient process.

Alexa

Alexa, Amazon's virtual assistant, is available on the Kindle Fire. Using Alexa, you can control smart home devices and carry out many other useful functions using your voice. Sadly, it appears that there is no way to control Alexa by typing in requests. A deafblind user who cannot speak is not able to use Alexa because of the inability to enter requests with a keyboard. Further, if I tell Alexa to do something, the only braille feedback I receive is "image" even though I get a voice response. Both Apple and Google permit text entry with their voice assistants, so hopefully Amazon will do so as well at some point soon.

Conclusion

It's very clear that Amazon Accessibility is taking braille support seriously both in terms of feature development and bug fixes. Several of the challenges I encountered while briefly discussing braille support on the Kindle Fire in the January 2017 issue of Access World have been resolved. With a price tag of $60, coupled with the Orbit Reader 20 at $449, this package can deliver a lot of functions at a much lower price than anyone could have dreamed of two years ago. While braille support needs some work, and certainly could be improved upon, I'm encouraged by the fixes I have seen since I last evaluated the Fire tablet and am hopeful for an even better braille experience in 2019.

Product Information

Product: Fire HD 8
Price: starts at $59.95
Manufacturer: Amazon

This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.

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Author
Scott Davert
Article Topic
Product Reviews and Guides