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E-Ink Shows And Low Imaginative and prescient Accessibility


I’ve been utilizing eReaders to learn books since I used to be in center faculty, primarily utilizing e-ink shows that mimic the looks of paper and that don’t have distracting functions or options that take away my focus from studying. Whereas I favor e-ink shows from a consumer expertise perspective as a result of it doesn’t contain vivid screens, no approach of accessing digital textual content is 100% excellent and I’ve realized to make use of completely different workflows to entry content material on my machine independently. Listed below are my ideas for utilizing eReaders with e-ink shows and low imaginative and prescient accessibility methods that may make content material simpler to entry.

Benefits and drawbacks of utilizing eInk shows with low imaginative and prescient

eReaders historically include one in every of two kinds of shows, LCD and e-ink (generally stylized as eInk). LCD shows are much like the shows discovered on smartphones and pill computer systems and are optimized for studying in indoor environments or areas with restricted lighting, whereas e-ink shows mimic the looks of a e book web page and are optimized to be used with different environmental lighting akin to a lamp or out of doors studying. Some eInk shows could have an optionally available backlight characteristic for offering extra illumination.

Benefits of utilizing e-ink shows for studying with low imaginative and prescient embrace:

  • Paper-like show doesn’t use backlight or vivid screens to show content material, and is commonly an off-white shade
  • Content material is displayed in a black and white/greyscale shade scheme
  • Basically, e-ink gadgets supply an extended battery life in comparison with LCD gadgets
  • Gadgets supply a number of choices for customizing the show of digital textual content and bigger font sizes in comparison with print copies of books
  • E-Ink gadgets can be found in quite a lot of sizes and are usually smaller than LCD gadgets, providing elevated portability
  • Gadgets embrace choices for utilizing bodily buttons or gestures to navigate the machine interface/flip pages
  • For customers that really feel like they “stand out” when utilizing assistive expertise to learn, e-Ink eReaders present a discreet possibility for studying massive print textual content as they mimic the dimensions of a bodily e book

Disadvantages of utilizing e-ink shows for studying with low imaginative and prescient embrace:

  • Gadgets don’t usually supply display screen magnification applications for navigating menus/libraries, which can embrace small print or icons
  • Desk of contents menus are sometimes displayed with smaller font sizes, making it difficult to make use of the menu to navigate a e book.
  • Footage are displayed in black and white/grayscale and customers could have problem enlarging photos or deciphering picture that use shade to convey data
  • Whereas some gadgets have optionally available backlight options, they act extra as a highlight or studying gentle and should not present sufficient illumination for customers that want brighter shows.

In relation to studying novels or text-only content material, I favor to make use of an e-ink show as a result of I’m delicate to vivid lights and may learn from the paper-like show so long as massive print sizes are enabled (something with a lot of footage or colours is learn with an eReader app on my iPad). As for navigating menus with small print, I’ve developed a number of workarounds for accessing content material, and have additionally memorized the machine format so I can use motor reminiscence to navigate completely different screens with out having to look intently on the display screen.

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Studying to make use of a brand new eInk machine with low imaginative and prescient

When studying to make use of a brand new e-ink machine with low imaginative and prescient, it’s useful to have a duplicate of the machine handbook displayed on a separate display screen that may be enlarged. To view the display screen extra simply, a magnifying glass, desktop video magnifier, or comparable magnification software can be utilized to assist a consumer familiarize themselves with a tool and enlarge the show additional.

Another choice is to work with an assistive expertise specialist, expertise coach, or one other particular person to discover ways to use the machine with low imaginative and prescient. Some shops additionally supply free in-person assist for studying to make use of a brand new machine, which was the case after I bought a Nook from Barnes and Noble.

One technique that could be useful is making a DIY tactile overlay, which can be utilized to offer extra distinction/outlines for studying to make use of a tool. I’ve linked a video from Perkins College for the Blind that makes use of an iPad overlay for instance, however the course of and supplies are the identical.

Vital tech abilities to cowl when studying to make use of an eReader embrace:

  • Turning the machine on/off
  • Charging the machine
  • Methods to add new books (both from the machine or utilizing a pc/wired connection)
  • Navigating the e book library
  • Opening a brand new e book
  • Resume studying in a present e book
  • Turning pages ahead/backwards
  • Adjusting the show settings
  • Eradicating books from the library when completed

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Utilizing an eReader with exterior magnification

One of many disadvantages of e-ink shows (and eReaders basically) is that machine menus can typically embrace small font sizes which are troublesome or unattainable to learn. In these conditions, it’s useful to have exterior magnification accessible, akin to a magnifying glass, video magnifier, or different optical machine. Personally, I typically use my telephone digicam as a makeshift magnifier to zoom in on menus or small print.

Examples of instances after I want to make use of exterior magnification with my eReader embrace:

  • Enlarging textual content labels in my machine library if I can’t see e book covers or need to change how my library is organized
  • Studying labels for show settings or machine settings
  • Checking a web page quantity or proportion learn

I don’t want to make use of magnification whereas studying as a result of my eReader’s font dimension is massive sufficient for me to learn comfortably with out magnification, and I do know the places of the library button and present studying buttons on the machine toolbar.

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Including new books to the eBook library

Whereas my eReader has an possibility for getting eBooks straight from the machine, I’ve hassle navigating this interface as a result of small font dimension. Nevertheless, this isn’t the one approach so as to add new books to an eReader, and I exploit the next methods for including new books to the eBook library:

  • Buying eBooks straight from the model’s web site. These titles are sometimes protected by DRM (digital rights administration) and may solely be used on the model’s supported eReaders, e.g. Amazon Kindle title can’t be learn on the Barnes and Noble Nook
  • Downloading EPUB books from Bookshare, an accessible on-line library for people with print disabilities. Bookshare is free for college kids (Okay-12 and Increased Ed) in the US, so that is the place I obtain nearly all of the books I learn. I obtain the Bookshare books to my pc and add them to my machine by way of USB.
  • Libby/OverDrive is a service accessible from collaborating public libraries for trying out eBooks, which could be downloaded to a consumer’s machine utilizing the Adobe Digital Editions software or robotically despatched to a Kindle machine (for choose titles)
  • Ship-to-Kindle can be utilized to ship recordsdata on to a Kindle machine or software that’s related to the web.

Methods to sideload content material to an eReader

Books which are downloaded/bought from a model’s web site will likely be robotically added to the machine library when the machine is related to the web. Customers can add content material to their eReader bought or downloaded from one other supply utilizing a course of referred to as sideloading.

Earlier than sideloading content material on an eReader, pay attention to what file codecs are supported by the machine. Nook eReaders assist PDF and EPUB codecs, whereas the Amazon Kindle eReaders assist PDF, DOC/DOCX, TXT, EPUB, HTML, and Kindle’s proprietary file codecs.

To sideload content material from a pc to an eReader:

  1. Obtain or find recordsdata so as to add to the eReader machine. I prefer to put every part in a folder for simple entry.
  2. Join the eReader to a pc by way of USB cable.
  3. As soon as the pc acknowledges the eReader, choose the choice to open the machine to view recordsdata. Customers could must unlock their eReader to approve file transfers.
  4. Find the machine file folder for content material or books.
  5. Copy/paste recordsdata from their pc into the machine folder so as to add the content material to the machine library. Don’t copy/paste a whole folder of books, choose the recordsdata themselves (I exploit Ctrl + A to pick out all the recordsdata in a folder after which copy/paste them into the machine folder).
  6. As soon as completed, be certain that the machine is safely ejected from the pc and restart the machine if wanted to refresh the library.

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Methods for organizing books on an eInk show

As soon as the eReader is full of content material, how will the consumer work out what they need to learn? Usually I depend on coloured icons or shapes to navigate interfaces or determine content material, however this isn’t an possibility on an e-ink show. My favourite methods for organizing books on an e-ink show with low imaginative and prescient embrace:

  • Sorting books both by Creator or by Title, which supplies a logical order for trying to find content material
  • Utilizing a grid format that reveals massive icons of e book covers, a lot of which have distinctive shapes or artwork
  • Organizing books into cabinets throughout the machine, which may also help with group by presenting fewer books in a single space, however will possible require exterior magnification or sighted help throughout setup as a consequence of small print sizes

Some customers could favor to obtain fewer books at a time or delete/archive books when completed to cut back the quantity of visible litter on their machine or make it simpler to find books.

Can I modify the e book covers?

For books that wouldn’t have DRM safety, customers can change the e book covers by importing the file into Calibre (a free open-source software program for managing eBooks) or the same program that edits particular person metadata for titles. When enhancing the metadata, customers have the choice to vary the e book cowl and substitute it with their very own file or generate another cowl. This will make it simpler to find books within the eBook library.

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Configuring show settings for textual content

E-ink shows typically characteristic a minimalist show for textual content, which is nice for distraction-free studying. Nevertheless, customers with low imaginative and prescient will possible must customise show settings for studying, which is able to robotically be utilized at any time when they open a brand new book- I discover that I not often have to regulate these show settings from e book to e book when I’m studying EPUB file codecs. This could typically be configured inside a e book by choosing the show settings icon, which appears to be like like an Aa icon on most gadgets.

eInk shows supply the next choices for customizing the show of content material:

  • Font dimension. That is normally displayed as a slider or with buttons that incrementally enhance the font dimension.
  • Font type, which might embrace a mixture of serif and sans serif fonts. Nook and Kindle gadgets additionally supply Open Dyslexic
  • Font weight, which might embrace choices for daring font
  • Web page margins
  • Line spacing
  • Justification/textual content alignment

For supported gadgets, backlight illumination could be activated by both urgent a button on the machine or utilizing a slider on the show settings menu.

Altering background colours on an E-Ink show

Most e-ink shows wouldn’t have an possibility for invert colours/inverted shows, also referred to as darkish mode. Whereas that is an possibility for choose Kindle Paperwhite gadgets (enabled below accessibility settings), I’ve not personally really helpful it to anybody as a result of it has a noticeable flashing impact when turning pages and seems to have an effect on battery life.

For customers that may desire a “tinted” display screen whereas studying that’s completely different from the off-white show constructed into the machine, one technique I’ve used is inserting a coloured overlay sheet on high of the display screen, which is manufactured from clear tinted materials. The sheet itself is lower to suit the dimensions of the show and could be eliminated when not in use.

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Extra assets on eReaders and eInk shows for low imaginative and prescient

  • My private eReader is a “plus” mannequin with a bigger show dimension (round 7 inches), which I favor for studying with bigger font sizes.
  • To guard my machine and maintain it from getting misplaced, I bought a vibrant, high-contrast cowl that may simply be noticed on high of furnishings or inside a backpack. I speak extra about this in Excessive Distinction and Low Imaginative and prescient
  • If I’ve to do quite a lot of studying for sophistication, I can sideload EPUB recordsdata created by Anthology Ally or downloaded from one other supply and skim them on my eReader. Study extra in Utilizing Anthology Ally With Low Imaginative and prescient and How I Use My eReader For College and On-line Lessons
  • I do know that there are gadgets that exist with a shade eInk show, however I’ve not personally used them as a result of they don’t supply choices for enlarging photos. If I’ve to learn one thing that has footage in it, I favor to learn it on my bigger iPad display screen.

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