In the run up to Christmas one of the most popular items people are looking for is eBooks. There are now many different models on the market; however for people with smart phones, tablets and computers many of the manufacturers have free downloadable apps. Kobo is one of them. Kobo allows you to download and read books via an internet connection either on your smart phone, tablet or computer.
Where to get it
What's so great about Kobo?
If you like reading eBooks with speech, did you know the Kobo app is accessible with VoiceOver, and partly accessible with Narrator and Talkback? This is great news as the Kobo store has over 2 million books in it.
For those who use iBooks, the Kobo app uses all the same reading options. This means you can use the two finger swipe down gesture to start reading a book in continuous mode, or you can change to reading by word or character if you want pay more attention to something or hear how it's spelt.
Unlike iBooks, where the continuous read mode will continue to the end of the book if you don't stop it first, the Kobo app will only read to the end of a chapter. Then you have to move to the next page and do the continuous read again.
If you have a Bluetooth Braille display, you can use that as well as or instead of speech output.
The Kobo app is also partly accessible on Android phones running 4.1 Jelly Bean. You can only read a book by sentence, but the next version of TalkBack for Jelly Bean will feature a continuous read mode, and hopefully this will work for the Kobo app too.
Positives
The Kobo has a huge number of eBooks for download, and all of these are now available to be read with synthetic speech or Braille. The ability to use it with VoiceOver on an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad as well as other screen readers on a PC means it is available to many people.
Negatives
Whilst the Kobo app is accessible you need to visit a website to download the books, there is no way to download them via the app. Once an account has been made on the Kobo website you can then browse and download books.
Conclusion
The Kobo app is a great package. It is easy to use and navigate, and the interaction with screen readers and the same gestures as iBook on Apple devices makes learning how to use the app much easier. The variety of different platforms is also a huge plus as it provides a good basis for people with different preferences and needs to access the millions of books that Kobo have to offer.
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