[tomsem]

There is no way to disable swipe to turn pages. The latest Paperwhite has a Disable Touchscreen feature, but it does the opposite of what you are looking for: it means you must swipe to turn pages, while touching screen does nothing.

You could perhaps use a proxy for your finger to trace the screen (e.g. a pen with the tip retracted) and then use a fingertip to turn pages with a tap.

Alternatively you could put a guitar finger pick (I.e. one that slips on the end of your finger) on your tracing finger, and use a different fingertip to activate page turn.