Amazon Fire Tablet Accessibility - The Blind Life

We take a look at the accessibility on the Amazon Fire Tablet. Is this the right Android tablet for you? Check out the video to find out.
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1 [phone]

[@VisionOptional]

First, I want to say that I appreciate your channel my friend. The accessibility shortcut is there. Just click the power button 3 times quickly to toggle VoiceView on/off. I love the fact that the tablet allows you to turn on VoiceView right at setup as well, allowing for non-visual setup of the device. VoiceView is a solid screen reader option, and like you said, the voice is great too. Thanks for the review, and for what you do. Idrees.

[@scottcbarlow]

Sam, thanks for showing this. This is a great option for some of us that can't afford the higher end tablets.

[@theblindlife]

Yes, it’s definitely a great option

[@sontwo3948]

Sam, thanks for this straight forward info. The responsiveness and sophistication of the HD 10 is a pleasant surprise...just got it yesterday. Your video made familiarizing myself, with what is a NEW device for me, much less intimidating.

[@blindkenyangamer]

this was super helpful. Thanks

[@ashleighpiccinino1849]

I think this was also in the voice view settings on your tablet. It’s been a while since I have used this, but I have mine set to a three finger click of the power button. This will turn on voice view if it is already off, and do the reverse invoice food is turned on. also, the rotary gesture you were talking about (a quick swipe up and down, or down and up), is the granularity movement. The actual rotor gesture is called a drug wheel gesture. do use jog wheel, double tap and hold on anything with a slider (volume, speech rate, etc). Then, move your finger in circles, to adjust the rate or volume. The only downside I see with voice view, is no games can be played on the Amazon fire. Voice we will not work, and I do not know why. of course, Alexa enabled skills work, but no games such as merge dragons. I will have to get a hold of Amazon, through the chat links, to find out why. Maybe that could be an improvement for the future.

[@mike419100]

Very impressive. Thanks!

[@inekogary8870]

Yes if you want to use it with a braille display. You would have to use both voice output and Bluetooth for your refreshable braille display to work. Because on my iPhone and iPad I could link up my blue focus 14 braille display and just type from there. And it does have to have on both voice over and Bluetooth for you to use it. So if that has a braille setting in it then it will have to use both voice output and Bluetooth.

[@ChijiokeEziyi]

With the new fire tablet HD 10 you can turn off and on voice view using the power button

[@ashleighpiccinino1849]

There is also another way to get to voice view. After powering on the tablet, press and hold the power button until you hear the tone. of course, this is on a new device, without a password set yet. Please make sure the device is all the way powered on, so use someone who has site to make sure for you. after hearing the tone, placed two fingers (a finger with a part) on the screen and hold. Voice view is ready, “should be heard at this point. they will then take you through the tutorial, showing you how to use voice view. Please go through this tutorial if you are new to using the screen reader. however, if you accidentally hit skip, you can go back to the tutorial at any time in settings, accessibility, and your voice view settings.

[@mckensieparker6414]

I heard the shortcut to turn on Voiceview is 3 taps of the power button. Try that.

[@tabithajackson7758]

I have a Amazon Kindle Fire 7 HD tablet. Got it for like 20 bucks. The accessibility is great on it. Can read books with the white on black text features and you can download NLS BARD app on it.

[@theblindlife]

That’s awesome!

[@loneblindjedi]

When you turn on voice view, a system notification shows up. To quickly turn voice view off, swipe down with three fingers after touching the top of the screen to pull the notification down. Click on the voice view notification and turn voice view. when ready to turn it back on, press the power button until you hear a tone. Let go of the button and press hold with two fingers until voice view comes on.

[@98CobraTurbo]

Wow, that's a nice secret tip. How did you figure that out? Nice! Thanks.

[@metalrabbit09]

I got the Amazon Fire HD 8, 8th generation after watching your videos about it how it does wonderful text to speech on Kindle and also finding it on open box sale. The battery drains faster than I'm used to, but I'm able to listen to and read Kindle and other fext to speech apps on airplane and/or low battery usage modes and use lite versions of other apps which helps keep battery from draining too fast. You can install the Google framework and download apps from Google Play , so I'd recommend the 32 gb version. Also using @Voice Aloud app.

[@theblindlife]

Thanks for the heads up on the battery!

[@jameskirkup1384]

Good to see they have the triple tap to zoom feature, I use it all the time on my galaxy s9, does anyone know fi the fire tablets let you triple tap and hold to pan around like on the android phones?

[@theblindlife]

I don’t know for sure but since the fire tablet is running Amazons fire interface on top of android, I would assume the android accessibility is the same.

[@tintukurian]

hello, can i take notes and highlight using the voice view? after buying a kindle paper white, i realized that these features were not working on the paper white. i hope fire tab enables these features using screen reader.

[@bluetech7753]

Hey Sam great video I just ordered this tablet I was wondering about the accessibility so I searched and found your video. I do believe that you can sideload the Google Play Store if this is true I would believe that you could then install knfb reader and all the other familiar Android accessibility apps. The Voice view is really nice I like it I actually have it on my Amazon Fire TV stick. I can agree it is definitely way better than TalkBack. Hopefully through software upgrade steak and provide a quick access feature for turning the screen reader on and off I like that feature on my phone I can actually do that by holding both volume rocker switches at the same time for 2 seconds that allows me to instantly suspend TalkBack and resume it as well. Anyway great video thanks a lot.

[@VisionOptional]

You can toggle VoiceView on/off by tripple clicking the power button. Also, yes, side-loading the Google Play store works fine. It requires downloading four apps including Google Play, but worth it if you are looking for access to more apps. Idrees.

[@kenny2278]

@@VisionOptional where can I get to play store

[@randomthoughtsbyty9871]

If you want Alexa to tern on or off voice view on your tablet try telling her to go to settings when she opens up settings then tell her to tern on voice view.

[@homebizforretirees1990]

Thanks for this review. I hve been using the Fire tablet for years now. But that two finger tap to stop the reading is not in my two year old tablet. Does Amazon update old fire tablets?

[@norinemclennan131]

Hi Sam I came across this sight while trying to find how to make life easier for my mother who is 87 and loosing her sight. Do you have any recommendations for a speaker that will operate my mothers TV. Is there anything that will turn it on and off and change the channel? I'm not sure if her TV is a smart TV or not but I do know it doesn't have amazon assistant.

[@pageboy1974]

Great review, sounds like it doesn't have a 'select and speak' style function, which is a shame, but nice to see tech companies making an effort on accessibility. It would be good to see Microsoft raise their game on this.

[@theblindlife]

Not right out of the box but it does support accessibility services like that so you may be able to find something on the App Store that would work

[@MrBlindLife]

I am realy suprised about the voice. It sounds very nice

[@theblindlife]

That’s what I thought as well!

[@allanrosewarne1433]

Good video and review. Are you trying to makerefgret buyng my ipad. LOL

[@Scruffybeer22]

I'm not sure if amazon added this feature after your review, but if you triple tap the power button 3 times it willturn VoiceView on/off. There is an option under accessibility -> voiceView to make that possible.

[@theblindlife]

That’s great, thank you for letting me know!

[@wynslee4879]

Hi how do I download a Chinese void screen reader for the Amazon tablet? Thank you for your help in advance

[@Gamedaughter1]

Sam, I have a Galaxy S9+ and can't seem to find this magnifier you speak of. Is it carrier specific? I have Verizon. Thanks

[@GeoffreySalvage]

My Fire HD8 that I have owned for several years, was running slowly, so I formatted it and decided to start afresh again. However on the Connect to Wi-Fi orange page, my Fire will not connect to my existing Wi-Fi in my sitting room. Do I need to plug my Fire into a computer by USB initially to enable my Wi-Fi on my Fire? Thanks.

[@randomthoughtsbyty9871]

You should do a review on the voice view screen reader on the amazon fire tv stick. It is a great screen reader and there is a short cut to tern it on. To tern on voice view on the fire tv stick press and hold the back and menu buttons to tern on voice view.

[@theblindlife]

You must be psychic, I actually have that video coming out very soon! Lol! Thank you so much for being a member!

[@emelstreicher5922]

Will the Fire Tablet's voice commands also operate Whats App functions, especially Video Calls on WhatsApp? I want ti give a granny access to her grandchildren.

[@98CobraTurbo]

How well does the invert color option work? What is the contrast of the settings menus for example with the inverted colors on/off? If you invert the colors, does the desktop background change to white? Does the invert color option in settings have the option to choose what you want to invert? I thought I saw that somewhere. I’m just trying to get an idea of how it would work. Thanks!

[@theblindlife]

Unfortunately, I only had a demo unit for a short time to make the video. So I’m not able to check those things for you. Apologies

[@stephensonmatthew7]

Being a tech guy, I downloaded an app from XDA Developers called LauncherHijack and threw Nova Launcher Prime on my 2017 7” Fire. I’m not a fan of Amazon’s skin so I’m trying to install stock android or a custom ROM on mine.

[@theblindlife]

That’s awesome! Nova launcher is my favorite and I use it on all of my devices. In fact that was the first launch her I search for on this Amazon tablet. I mentioned in the video that you could sideload apps that weren’t available in the App Store but I ended up cutting it out of the final video.. XTA is amazing and if you could find a fast slim down ROM for this tablet, that would be great!

[@stephensonmatthew7]

The Blind Life I also installed the Google Play suite.

[@tabithajackson7758]

The installer I have is called Aptoide. It allows you to download apps that aren't on the Amazon app store. I've noticed with the apps from this installer though the apps work, but some of the features may be turned off.

[@wrestlingfanaticforever9633]

If you can get a stock android to run on the tablet. Then I would really appreciate you reach out to me privately off of KZbin. Because I’m a tech guy as well, and what would really be interesting is if we could get native Google android accessibility suite working on this tablet.

[@wujing369]

Thank you. My question is that if you know how to set up and connect a Braille display to Kindle Fire tablet? I am using Esys Euro Braille which is accessible to connect to Kindle fire. When I opened the display and tried to scan the device, just did not work at all. When I open bluetooth on Braille display, do I need to click anything ? Thanks a lot.

[@theblindlife]

I’m afraid I don’t have the Kindle fire tablet anymore so can’t test this for you. I would definitely recommend contacting Amazon‘s customer service and maybe they can help.

[@lindamoore9465]

Am I correct that the 8” Fire has the same accessibility options at $79.99?

[@theblindlife]

Yes, I should have mentioned in the video but they sell a 7 inch, 8 inch, and 10 inch version that all have the same accessibility.

[@markrochford897]

The only drawback I find with it is how fast the battery goes down. especially when streaming.

[@reinardusjoseph1017]

is this the biggest screen and best tablet for legally blind people? thanks so much mate, your videos are very helpful

[@hilaryweiner893]

There are 13.3" android tablets, but they are expensive. Same for the 12.9" iPad Pro. I have both the iPad Pro and 10" Fire tablet, and use the Fire for reading. You can adjust the font size, contrast, and anything else you need on both, but the iPad Pro costs more than 4x as much as the Fire. The only reason I have the iPad Pro is for reading sheet music, since the IOS apps are better for this.

[@theblindlife]

Yes, as Hillary said, there are larger screen tablets out there but they are much more expensive. I have the iPad Pro 12 inch as well and love it but it cost a lot of money! The Amazon tablets are a great deal when you take everything into consideration, performance and price.

[@CrownofJewells]

@@hilaryweiner893 how do you use the ipad to read sheet music? I would love to read music again.

[@hilaryweiner893]

@@CrownofJewells There are a number of different apps that can be used on iPad. Mostly I have to edit pdf scores that I have scanned or from IMSLP using a Windows program called Large Print Music so it is big enough for me. For the actual reading part, I use ForScore in half page mode with all the margins cropped to increase the size. I use a PageFlip bluetooth pedal to turn pages. This works for most of my music. Ed Dalton developed a horizontal scrolling program that works well for simple music, but not for more advanced music in an app called Music Zoom. It was available when I had iOS 10.3, but I couldn't find it in the app store when iOS 11 came out. I still have a legacy version of it, but don't use it much because it doesn't allow you to look ahead. It makes use of pictures you take of the music and can be useful for playing in a group. Lately I've been trying to make use of some of the newer apps that use MusicXML format and allow dynamic zoom. But there is very little available in this format and you need someone fully sighted to type the music in, or scan existing sheets using a music scanner. The results are pretty buggy for the music scanners I've tried, so more editing of something I just can't see very well. If you have someone who can help you with this, Newzik and Practice Bird are apps that leverage MusicXML files for dynamic zoom. Good luck to you in finding a solution that works for you!

[@leweezo33]

Great revie..Did Amazon ask you for a review of this so you could pass on any suggestions?

[@theblindlife]

Actually I approached Amazon because I knew that they had been improving their accessibility and I wanted to test it out.

[@Chinadoll1073]

Would anyone consider buying a kindle? I'm blind and yes, I already have an iPad and iPhone, but I want something that only downloads books.

[@susanl4911]

A very big down side for me. You can't do voice to text. I have never seen a tablet that didn't have that on a tablet. I do like the Voiceview system.

[@98CobraTurbo]

Wait! Are you serious? You can't do voice to text when composing an e-mail for example? That's a must for me and will definitely be a deal breaker.

[@KaraHynne]

I love Text To Speech, so easy. The problem is when I get an EPUB book I’m stuck with VoiceView, which drives me crazy. I’ve not been able to get it to read a whole page to me continuously, only paragraph to paragraph. I just want to put the book/Fire down and listen to my book. Anyone have the answer?

[@theblindlife]

VoiceView is Amazon’s version of talkback. In talkback, the gesture to read everything is a two finger swipe down. You could try that on your fire tablet and see if it has the same result.

[@lhamil64]

I think all those gestures can be setup in TalkBack (at least on my Pixel running Android Pie). The only one I couldn't find was the two finger tap to stop speaking.

[@TheHatter42]

On my Sony phone running Android 8, i can use the proximity Sensor at the top of the phone to make talkback stop reading. I think it's a native Android function and should work on most phones

[@lhamil64]

@@TheHatter42 Oh wow, I just tried it and that works! Neat!

[@theblindlife]

Yes, as I said in the video I was pretty sure it’s built on talk back because it shares a lot of the same jesters. It just seems to work more smoothly and reliably van talk back, at least in my experience it is. That being said, I haven’t tried talk back on a pixel phone. It may be a more pleasant experience on a stock android device.

[@lindawillis9548]

Can somebody help me or let me know how to take off parent control

[@faisal-pj2ei]

How to get a demo unit?

[@theblindlife]

It’s just a normal consumer products so you can’t really get a demo. But if you bought one and found out that it didn’t work you could always return it and get your money back.

[@metalrabbit09]

Check out TheLiquidationGuy on ebay. Not free but considerable discount on open box. I picked up a one year Square Trade warranty when I bought my Amazon Fire tablet from him. The warranty worked out very well for my phone. I think they cover battery change on tablet too, but check on that. www.ebay.com/usr/theliquidationguy?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

[@ChenPerry-dm5je]

影片的 8:05 可以聽到有正確報讀屬性

[@GaryMcIntosh100]

Hello I bought this tablet for my friend, and I m going through the settings, they ask for Amazon account, hi has to have amazon account? I don't know what to do!!!!!!🤔

[@theblindlife]

Unfortunately I don’t have the tablet anymore since it was just a review model. Not sure if you have to have an account or not. It wouldn’t surprise me if you did though since it’s an Amazon product. You can sign up though for free and it won’t cost anything.

[@GaryMcIntosh100]

@@theblindlife thank you so much

[@Raja-bz4yw]

What if you don't have an Alexa? Can you still use the voice over function?...oh well nevermind. Lol what kindle is this? What version? I didn't hear it

[@MarcosElMalo2]

I don’t own this product, but my understanding is that this GIVES you ALEXA if you don’t already use it-but it can also be disabled if you don’t want it. I’m investigating getting a fire tablet for my father, who has poor eyesight.

[@cookiemonster-mr4vq]

Does not support any Google products. So no Google maps google email google notes etc. For me that’s an absolute killer I might as well use an iPad or another android tablet with a real implementation that lets me use all the Google products. I would not recommend getting a Kindle for someone with bad on the Waze site.

[@kevingrainger2530]

Sir, why are you playing music in the background as you review an item for the blind ?What is it with Americans' that feel they must play music whilst narrating a review ?Don't you understand visually impaired people [VIP's] listen to your every word, not wanting to miss anything because of their vision ? The music is to make me feel better, it doesn't, it makes you feel better or more professional. Your review should be carried out for the least able, you inform with Accuracy, Brevity and Clarity. Your music was as loud if not more so, than the device. Make suggestions of improvements to Amazon, Accessibility should be at the TOP of the screen. There are 13million VIP's in the USA, 2 million in the UK. Thank you for the review, I am interested in this item because I am blind. Not all Accessibility functions were answered. I look forward to your next review. Kevin Grainger.

[@VisionOptional]

While I agree that it is always better to demo screen readers without background music, the volume wasn’t so bad that one could not hear VoiceView. Presentation does matter, and the review was on accessibility, not just the screen reader aspect of things. I understand what you are saying, but i have seen much worse. This review was well done. Idrees.

[@ceciliapotharst8315]

Kevin Grainger I agree. I hate that background music. I really think some don’tunderstand how difficult it is for add or cop or many others who HATE too much yammering...

[@jmhilde]

Those of us with hearing impairments also hate unnecessary background music. It makes hearing the narration so much harder.

[@phyllishartfiel2319]

A blind person cannot see the icons