Many Fire tablet owners may not realize it, but the 2015 Fires (Fire tablets with Fire OS version 5 or higher) include some very helpful and supportive accessibility features for the vision-, hearing- and fine motor control-impaired.
For The Blind & Visually-Impaired
VoiceView, powered by IVONA Text-to-Speech
Our new screen reader, VoiceView, provides spoken feedback to describe the actions that take place on your screen and features IVONA’s award-winning natural language text-to-speech voices. To enable VoiceView, go to Settings > Accessibility > Voice View Screen Reader on your Fire tablet.
Explore by Touch
Explore content on your Fire tablet using accessibility gestures to navigate item-by-item as well as by touch. Fire tablet recognizes accessibility shortcut gestures that help you quickly navigate to home, go back, or access your notifications. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Screen Magnifier on your Fire tablet (turning this feature on enables use of accessibility shortcut gestures).
Adjustable Reading Speed
Control how fast VoiceView speaks. The rate at which VoiceView and Explore by Touch feedback is spoken can be set to one of eight different speeds of your choice. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Voice View Screen Reader on your Fire tablet.
VoiceView Tutorial
Fire tablet VoiceView tutorial helps you master useful gestures for operating your Fire tablet. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Voice View Screen Reader on your Fire tablet.
Braille Support
Fire tablet also works with popular Bluetooth refreshable braille displays. To enjoy a braille experience on your Fire tablet, download the free BrailleBack app from the Amazon Appstore for Android.
Screen Magnifier
Take a closer look with Screen Magnifier. Easily activated with a triple tap on the screen, Screen Magnifier allows you to pinch to adjust the zoom level on your tablet while the display is magnified, as well as swipe with two fingers to pan around the page. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Screen Magnifier on your Fire tablet.
Larger Font Sizes
Read easily by increasing the font size of menus and text throughout your Fire tablet. You can also choose from one of five font size options for your emails and one of 11 font size options when reading eBooks. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Font Size on your Fire tablet.
High Contrast
The text and background colors used on Fire tablet provide high-contrast color combinations to make it easier to view your content and use your tablet. Go to Settings > Accessibility > High Contrast Text on your Fire tablet.
For The Deaf & Hearing-Impaired
Closed Captioning
Watch your Amazon Instant Videos with closed captioning displayed. Look for the CC icon when shopping for movies and TV shows. Captions are not available for all titles.
You can also customize how your closed captions appear for Amazon Instant Videos and for web videos in the Silk Browser (when available for the title), including text color, size, opacity, font style, edge style, background color, and more.
Stereo to Mono Audio
If you are using a single ear bud or have hearing in one ear, simply switch the stereo audio setting to mono on your Fire tablet to direct the audio into a specific ear bud. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Convert Stereo to Mono on your Fire tablet.
For Those With Fine Motor Control Impairment
Bluetooth Navigation
The Fire HD and Fire HDX tablets come with enhanced support for Bluetooth keyboard navigation that enables screens, menus, and buttons to be accessed using an external keyboard.
Getting More Help With These Accessibility Features
You can view the Fire Accessibility User Guide on your Fire tablet by going to Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility User’s Guide. You can also view Amazon’s Accessibility for Fire HDX and Accessibility for Fire HD help sections on the Amazon site, or Connect to a Tech Adviser with the Mayday Button on your Mayday-enabled Fire tablet.
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