EPUBTest.org Evaluate EasyReader for Accessibility

Lead by the DAISY Consortium and the book Industry Study Group, EPUBTest.org evaluates the accessibility of new and popular reading apps available for the widest range of mobile & reading devices.  Their suite of tests rigorously scores each reading app against a grid of 55 criteria, in 4 categories each chosen as being a key requirement for people with reading disabilities. These categories are:

  1. Basic Functionality
    These tests assess the basics of app navigation. Can the app provide reflowed page numbers? Is there a search feature? Can the reader add bookmarks and notes?
  2. Non-Visual Reading
    An important score for readers who are blind or who are relying on speech output; this function evaluates the app’s ability to initiate a ‘read from here’, read image descriptions, change the reading speed, add pauses to synthetic speech etc.
  3. Visual Adjustment Test
    Of particular importance to readers with low vision or dyslexia who might require a high contrast app, these tests assess the options to change font sizes, change background & foreground colours, change brightness etc.
  4. Read Aloud
    For readers with dyslexia or other specific learning disabilities, the tests in this part of the suite check that content is read aloud, reading speed can be adjusted, highlights can be applied etc.

EPUBTest.org recently put Dolphin’s EasyReader apps through their paces, evaluating their accessibility for users with low vision, blindness & dyslexia. All 3 EasyReader apps were evaluated: EasyReader for iOS, EasyReader for Android and EasyReader for Windows.

The full break down of the criteria, the reading tools and their score are available at http://epubtest.org/testsuite/accessibility/. Alternatively here are our short summaries of the reading tools and their scores for each of the 3 operating systems:

Reading Apps for iOS

Name AT Used in Test Basic Functionality Non-Visual Reading Visual Adjustment Read Aloud
Of particular interest to...   all readers blind readers low vision or dyslexic readers dyslexic readers
EasyReader v1.7 (iOS 11.2) Voiceover 100% 92.30% 75% 100%
Voicedream Voiceover 92.3% 69.2% 75% 100%
Kindle   84.6% 61.5% 100% 0%
iBooks Voiceover 76.9% 76.9% 100% 0%
Capti Voiceover 76.9% 69.2% 100% 100%
Play Books Voiceover 76.9% 69.2% 75% 0%

Reading Apps for Android

Name AT Used in Test Basic Functionality Non-Visual Reading Visual Adjustment Read Aloud
Of particular interest to...   all readers blind readers low vision or dyslexic readers dyslexic readers

EasyReader v1.1.311

Talkback 100% 84.60% 75% 100%
Voicedream Talkback 84.6% 38.5% 75% 100%
Kindle   84.6% 61.5% 100% 0%
Play Books   92.3% 69.2% 75% 75%

Reading Apps for Windows

Name AT Used in Test Basic Functionality Non-Visual Reading Visual Adjustment Read Aloud
Of particular interest to...   all readers blind readers low vision or dyslexic readers dyslexic readers

Dolphin EasyReader v7.0.6

NVDA 92.3% 92.3% 75% 100%
Vitalsource Bookshelf JAWs/NVDA 92.3% 100% Not tested 0%
Kindle for PC v1.20.1 JAWs 84.6% 69.2% 100% 75%

Dolphin EasyReader. Designed for readers with dyslexia and visual impairments.