Hi,
I just wanted to say thank-you to the Calibre tech team for their post on how to deal with the new Kindle update ( that happened without my permission!)
I have been using Calibre for a while now to convert the books I buy to epub - why - because I have recently become partially sighted, (thats is a nats whisker away from being blind for those who do not know, and why should you ;-)
The reason being that I need a TTS ( text To Speech) software to be able to "read" my books, that is the software reads the text, rather robotically, but allows me to enjoy the books I buy, from Amaon for Kindle and other places, I have been an avid reader since I was 4, and have no intention of letting a mere issue of not being ble to see, get in the way of me accessing my books
.
I started off with the super secret, not on the amazon website but official Amazon Kindle PC download for the blind which reads the text to you, as amazon and other publishers put their books in a format that TTS software cannot read - then that stopped working - on an update.
So I googled and chatted with other people with sight challenges and they recommended Calibre - and it was all working out fine until tonight when I bought, paid for and downloaded my new book from amazon, and when I opened up kindle it did an update, without asking, and when I went to convert the book it kept saying that it could not, so a quick search of the Calibre forum and a quick solution ( roll it back, find the hidden "automatically update without asking me button that is automatically set to on without the customer knowing" and turn it off.
and lo and behold I am able to convert the book and now able to have my TTS read it to me.
I know publishers like Amazon offer their own narrated versions of things, but having tried the free audible trial and finding that the narrator was so disinterested sounding, and got both the name of the main character and the title of the book wrong, repeatedly
, I uninstalled that very quickly.
I am baffled, having worked with t he government many moons ago on ensuring accessibility in all electronic means, and the total faff it was back then to code, so much easier now to comply, why major companies make it so darn hard for us to get access to things ( I was not blind as a bat back then, it was just part of my job - who knew, an untreated autoimmune disease and bobs your uncle and I am rather stuffed)
So, after all that waffle, I just wanted to say that I am ever so grateful to companies like Calibre who make life easier for us with disabilities, and not only that - keep on top of things and continue to offer advice and support, especially when those who should know better get up to nefarious activities.
