Albinism Fellowship

Hi, does anybody know much about kindle eReaders ? I have a 5yr old with albinism ,would it be suitible him ? Thanks kate

I've had a brief look at a kindle, and my first impression was that it was a bit small.. so much that if you increased the font enough to be readable, you'd not be able to see many words on the screen, so you'd be flipping pages more than actually reading. I don't know how big the font goes, but it might not get large enough to be useful. There was a larger kindle, the Kindle DX, but it's not something that amazon uk sells, you might be able to import one from the US though.

Your best option is to take your son into PC World and have him see what one is like.

Hi Kate,

I use a Kindle myself, though I'm towards the better end of vision for people with albinism.
You can enlarge the font significantly (the letters are about 1.5cm high in the maximum size) but as Ade has mentioned, this limits the number of words you can get on the screen (I get about 6 lines).
You can also change the font style, the letter spacing and line spacing to get it as easy on the eye as possible.

I actually have mine set on a smaller font and use glasses with a magnifier in the lens to read it. This is how I'd read a paper book so it's what I'm used to and how I feel comfortable.

One thing to consider is that the Kindle doesn't have a backlight. This does means that you don't get eyestrain from the glare, but on the other hand, if you have it close up to your face, you can end up blocking out the light (and the contrast isn't quite as good as an ink and paper book). I find having good lighting is essential and usually read with a spotlight behind me, shining over my shoulder onto the kindle.

It will also depend on what types of books he's into. If he likes ones with lots of colour pictures, then the Kindle won't be able to reproduce these, but if it's text and black/white diagrams, it should be fine.

As Ade says, the best bet is probably to take your son to have a look at one and see how he gets on with it.

Finally, you might need to consider whether it would stand up well to a 5 yr old. (I don't know how well the screen would stand up to repeated attacks by sticky fingers etc). A screen protector and good case is probably a must.

Hope this is useful
Regards
Daniel

Hi,Thank you both very much for you help. I will take him to pc world . Cheers kate

Our 20 year old daughter who has albinism and nystagmus recently bought herself an iPad. She has not read a book since being in infants school (despite this she has just graduated from University!).

Having bought the iPad she tried out iBooks and found it was excellent. She is now downloading books and reading them from cover to cover! She looked at a Kindle but found that the screen was too small which meant that, when she increased the font size sufficiently, there we too few words on each page. The iPad has a much larger screen which offsets this.

It is a joy to my wife and I to see that she now has access to books - I don't think she'll ever be an avid reader but at least she now has the opportunity to read for pleasure

When I was 11, I was given a stand magnifier by my school headmaster, I still have it today 34 years later, and still use it daily and have read many thousands of books with it.

The lens is a "Cataract Aspheric Stand Reader" made by coil. http://www.coil.co.uk/products.html

This is the one I have.
http://www.oceandirect.co.uk/PBSCProduc ... ID=9608597

Hi

I use a Kindle, and although you do have to turn the page quite often, with my Kindle (it may be different on other models) you can turn pages by pushing a button on the side of the Kindle. This can be slow at first, but once you get used to it it is probably quicker than with a real book.