How to Use Kindle Read Aloud

The Kindle store offers millions of eBooks, with hundreds of thousands of titles available to readers for free at any given time. For avid readers, downloading these books to their Kindle devices, or using any of the free Kindle reading apps, enables them to carry many books around wherever they go and read them whenever they please.

However, what about people who love books but have visual impairments? Or those who want the convenience of voice-activated features to make it easier to listen to content on the go? To meet these needs, Kindle has a range of accessibility features that allow people to navigate their devices through voice and have their books read aloud to them. These accessibility options, collectively known as Read Aloud, include VoiceView for Kindle eReaders and Fire tablets, TalkBack for Android and Samsung devices, and VoiceOver for iOS devices.

Steps to Enable VoiceView for Kindle

Enabling VoiceView on your Kindle eReader or Kindle Fire makes it easier for users to navigate their devices with broad on-screen gestures and vocal commands. VoiceView narrates what a user is touching on the screen, making it simple for people with vision impairments to explore their Kindle libraries, search for new content, and hear their books read aloud to them.

To enable VoiceView and customize the settings based on your preferences, follow these steps on your Kindle or Fire tablet:

Press and hold the power button until you hear the alert notification.
Hold two fingers slightly apart on the screen for five seconds to enable VoiceView.
When VoiceView is on, navigate to settings by swiping down from the top of the screen with three fingers and then double-tapping the “VoiceView” notification.
In settings, you can access VoiceView tutorials to help you become more familiar with the feature, as well as change these speech options:
- Reading speed.
- Verbosity (amount of information provided while navigating).
- Speech volume.
- Sound volume.
- Key echo (characters or words echoed after a user inputs them through text).
- Punctuation level (which punctuation marks are read aloud).
- Identify capital letters by raising pitch or saying “cap.”
- Turn Speech on or off by double tapping with three fingers.

How to Set Up TalkBack for Android

If you have downloaded the Kindle Reading app for Android, you can use TalkBack, an accessibility feature available through your device’s settings. TalkBack will allow you to navigate the Kindle Reading app with audio feedback and listen to books and other content with read aloud features. To set up TalkBack, go to the Settings section on your Android device and follow these steps:

Tap Accessibility, then tap TalkBack.
Turn TalkBack on. Spoken feedback should begin right away after enabling the feature.
After enabling TalkBack, you can change its settings to match your preferred reading experience. These custom settings include:
- Navigation shortcuts.
- Verbosity.
- Sound and/or vibration feedback.
- Reading speed.
- Keyboard echo.
- Proximity sensors.
- Sound volume.
- Narration pitch.
- Explore by touch options.

Guide to VoiceOver for iOS

Apple describes VoiceOver as “a gesture-based screen reader” that allows you to use your iPhone “even if you can’t see the screen.” The accessibility option narrates what you’re doing on your screen, from which apps your finger is touching to your phone’s battery percentage to which books are in your Kindle library. Like TalkBack and VoiceView, VoiceOver is also customizable when it comes to reading speed and pitch, and there is a broad range of on-screen gestures people may use to easily navigate through the device’s apps and settings.

To turn on VoiceOver and change the settings, turn on your iOS device and go to the Settings section before following these steps:

Beneath Settings, select “General.”
Hit Accessibility.
Beneath the Vision tab, select VoiceOver.
From here, you can customize the settings, including:
- Speaking language.
- Pitch and speed of narration.
- Verbosity.
- Notification frequency.
- What types of punctuation are read aloud.
- Sound volume.