Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) is a popular ebook reading application, being used by a number of libraries as well as publishers and booksellers like Waterstones, WH Smith and Mills & Boon.
Blind and partially sighted users have been poorly served by this software until now, as it did not honour Windows screen colour settings, did not work well with screen magnification software, and did not allow screen reading software to read the content of books.
A new release of the software, Adobe Digital Editions 1.8 Preview, takes a big step forward by providing solutions to these limitations. It uses standard Windows colours that change according to the theme chosen, and includes full keyboard navigation and a menu system. Most importantly, it allows screen reader access to and navigation of the content of books, on both Windows and Mac computers. Books can be read using synthetic speech, or with a braille display if you have one.
Screen reader access on Windows is limited to JAWS.
Overall, this is a great step in the right direction, and hopefully Adobe will expand accessibility to other screen readers in future releases.
Download or find out more about Adobe Digital Editions 1.8 Preview