My wife suffered an accident a while back that left her with a brain injury. As a result of this injury she has great difficulty reading, which is a shame because she was an avid reader and finds life boring without her books.
We thought a Kindle might be an option because it has the text to speech (TTS) function so we wandered down to Dick Smith Electronics here in NZ (who have a monopoly on supply) to get some "hands/ears-on".
Unfortunately, the sales droid there didn't have a clue about how to operate the "demo unit" and it appeared as if the TTS option was grayed out and not available.
Eventually, with the aid of another customer, the TTS was enabled but due to the stereo on the other side of the store, which was blaring away so loudly the entire time we were in the store, we couldn't really hear the voice output and no headphones were offered to us.
By pressing my ear hard against the Kindle, I could hear the voice which was disappointingly monotone but I noted that the pace was too fast for my wife to keep up with.
So my questions to you Kindle owners are:
1. Is the TTS any good?
2. Can the speed of the TTS be adjusted (slowed) by the user?
A pre-emptive thanks from my wife on this one.