M12Y



Barnes and Noble Nook for iOS Brings Accessibility Support

In Huge news this evening, the popular Nook e-book reader for iOS by Barnes & Noble has just been updated to version 3.3.0, and among its new features is accessibility for VoiceOver and Zoom. From the release notes:

  • Now leveraging Apple assistive technology, including screen magnification and VoiceOver, to be accessible to blind and low vision users

When the app launches, an accessibility tutorial which describes using it with VoiceOver is offered, explaining the apps functionality, which largely mimics that of Apple’s iBooks application.

The app works on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch devices and is free. Books may be purchased via the Nook Book Store.

This is an enormous leap forward for the accessibility of books to blind and visually impaired readers. There is only one of the three major ebook players on iOS left without VoiceOver support. (We are looking at you, Amazon Kindle).