Amazon’s Recent Kindle Neurodiversity Survey
In marking Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Amazon published a blog post wherein the company shared details on a Kindle survey it recently conducted. The survey focused on reading tools available on the Kindle platform for neurodivergent readers.
“A new survey conducted by Amazon Kindle reveals that nearly two-thirds of neurodivergent readers report abandoning books they were genuinely interested in because of issues with reading formats, and over half of neurodivergent readers say their confidence drops when reading takes longer than others,” Amazon wrote.
Amazon goes on to report how, for neurodivergent people, the ability to customize the reading experience is integral to shaping a positive experience. The company said 30% of those in the neurodivergent community read for longer periods, whilst 32% say they feel more confident. One in five adults identify as neurodivergent, with Amazon noting “this means millions of adults are absorbing this friction when reading,impacting their enjoyment and ability to read.” Low confidence while reading is a barrier to accessibility; Amazon found over a third of people read only privately and almost two-thirds avoid reading in certain settings, like around other people, because they feel self-conscious. Finally, Amazon emphasizes the “time and energy” it takes for neurodivergent people to read, writing they “lose an average of eight minutes per reading session—nearly a whole day per year—re-reading sentences or paragraphs.”
“The barriers for neurodivergent readers often aren’t with their motivation—they are with how the book is delivered,” Peter Korn, Amazon’s director of accessibility for Amazon devices and services, said in the post. “When the book adapts to the individual, rather than the other way around, barriers melt away form any readers.”
Elsewhere, Amazon spotlights MissSunshine, a high school teacher and content creator who’s neurodivergent and has a prosthetic eye. Amazon describes her as “[understanding] the confidence struggle when reading,” with Sunshine telling the company she uses a Kindle Scribe to read, which empowers her to “adjust features, including fonts and lighting, to match how her brain processes text on any given day.” Sunshine is featured in Amazon’s “Unapologetica11y” campaign, billed by the company as “a series spotlighting real customers with disabilities using Amazon devices in their everyday lives.” The name is meant to “[honor] bold individuals living their life.”
“I use the OpenDyslexic text font on Kindle, which is where they adjust the font on the book to be one that is easier for people with dyslexia to read like myself,” Sunshine said to Amazon of her tech choices in an interview. “I also utilize the Assistive Reader feature, which is where the book itself will be read aloud to the scholar, whoever’s reading it, my student or myself. It makes a huge difference for me when reading.”
Amazon has posted a video on MissSunshine to YouTube.
