Reading is a relaxing and pleasant experience for most people, but if you have dyslexia, it can be a challenge. It is hard to read from one line to the next. In my experience, I can be reading a paragraph at the top of the page, jump to the one at the bottom and then end up back at the top. Or, I can be reading the same sentence a dozen times before I have to use my finger to force my eyes to move to the next line. It doesn’t matter if I am reading an e-book, or physical, I’m presented with the same challenges.
It wasn’t until last year that I learned I had dyslexia. My university helped me get a diagnosis but it has really helped me realise why I was struggling with reading some material and why I prefered to both listen and read at the same time. The university also gave me some great software that makes things easier for me, such as Claroread.
The other week, I realised there were some accessibility features on my Kindle App that I was unaware about, so I got thinking about other e-readers and how they help people with dyslexia.
E-reader Apps used for the test
I have chosen to test three e-reader apps, but there are more than the three in this test. Kindle and Kobo seem to be popular and both have their own e-reader device separate from the app. It was for this reason that I chose these two devices. I was also going to choose Nook for the same reason but the app is not available for ipad in the UK.
As I don’t have a Nook device and this is to do with e-reader apps anyway, I chose iBooks as my third e-reader app.
Before I talk about the test, I would like to talk about the different e-reader apps individually, including their interface and different features, and difficulties I personally find when I am reading.
Kindle
In terms of user-interface, kindle has a simple dashboard layout. It is an e-reader app and not much else. This will be great for some people who prefer a basic layout.
However, it can connect to Amazon’s other app, Audible, to perform Whispersync. Whispersync is when a reader wants to read and listen at the same time. It is great for someone who is dyslexic as it helps with problematic unphonetic words.
This app is also able to link to Goodreads, a reading-list library for the avid reader. Once a reader finishes a book, they are asked if they would like to give it a rating on Goodreads. I used to use this feature a lot and got out of the habit for some reason.
Kindle also has the ability to make book collections. However, it is not clear how to do this. It also has the option to choose a “light” or “dark” theme, changing the background of the app.
Reading on Kindle
Kindle has many accessible features:
- Ability to change font
- The ability to change font size
- Change background colour
- Continuous Scroll
- Open Dyslexic Font
- Screen Reader
The screen reader prevented me from losing my place and rereading the same content over and over again. I also liked the continuous scroll. I was able to combine the screen reader with the continuous scroll which meant I did not have to keep moving the screen reader when I finished a page. However, the app is not perfect.
One fault with this app is that there is no way to turn off hyphenated / line break words. Too many hyphenated words can make a text hard to read.
The image shows the word present broken onto two lines… this word in particular is challenging as pre-sent and pres-ent are pronounced differently… three different words spelt the same; the present time, a birthday present, to present a presentation. However, the hyphen forces someone with dyslexia to reread the broken word and remove the hyphen to understand the true context of the test.
Kobo
Kobo’s interface is clear. Unlike Kindle, it does more than the average e-reader. It has a built in:
- audiobooks tab
- tab to list by author
- tab to list by series
- ability to change dashboard background theme from 12 options
- reward system
- and collections tab.
The collection tab has a button that allows the user to quickly make a collection with very little effort.
It also has an award system and reading stats. I love this as I am quite competitive and also, for some reason, data obsessed.
Although it has a built in audiobooks tab, it does not have a similar feature to whispersync which means that audiobooks and e-books must be manually synced.
Reading on Kobo
Kobo has the same problem with hyphenated words and line breaks as Kindle. It also has less accessibility features than Kindle:
- ability to change font
- the ability to change font size
- and the ability to change background colour
iBooks
iBooks has a similar simple layout to Kindle, but it does have a few more features. It has built in audiobooks, search and bookstore tabs. It also has a clear way to create “collections” compared to Kindle.
Unlike the other two, iBooks allows its users to purchase books directly from the app. But there is no way to change the theme for the dashboard.
Reading on iBooks
Just like the other two, iBooks struggles with hyphenated words and line breaks. None of the apps have an option to turn this off. However, it does have better accessibility features than Kobo.
- Ability to change font
- Change font size
- Ability to change background colour
- Continuous scroll
Setting Up the Test
People with dyslexia typically […] read slowly and make mistakes. That can impact how well they comprehend what they read. But when other people read to them, they often have no problem understanding the text.
Understood
As reading speed is one of the challenges faced by someone with dyslexia, I felt testing how fast I read a chapter on each e-reader platform would be the easiest way to see which e-reader helped someone with dyslexia more.
It is important to understand that what works for me may not work for everyone. But I wanted to give this a go anyway as there are bound to be people who find the same things helpful.
So these are the factors that I used:
- the same font on all platforms: Georgia
- a similar size as possible on the platforms
- looked at Audible’s chapter-length time for each chapter.
- read the same book (different chapter) for each test
The factors I changed included:
- The order of the platforms I used first for each test
- Whether I read in portrait or landscape mode
- Extra accessibility features missing from other platforms.
I did three tests to determine the best app for me and my dyslexia. These tests are reading speeds in: landscape mode, portrait mode, and accessibility features
Avoiding Familiarity with Text
I chose Treasure Island for this test. It is out of copyright so I was able to get a free or cheap version on the e-reader apps, and I already had a copy on audible so I was able to get the chapter lengths and make note.
For each part of the test, I read a different chapter. Chapter 1 for landscape mode, chapter 2 for portrait, and chapter 3 for accessibility features. This will help me to avoid familiarity with the text and become naturally quicker by rereading the same information 9 times. It does not completely prevent familiarity, so to further prevent familiarity from affecting this test, I switched up the order of each test phrase. This means I did not read chapter 1 three times in a row.
I also made sure to switch the order of the e-reader platform I used in each test phrase.
There is one exception… I read Chapter 3 twice, but there was a few days grace between readings. The reason for this was because I was originally going to omit Kobo from the third test as there are no accessible features… However I felt it could be used to compare instead.
The Experiment
Before starting the test, I looked at audible’s read time for the three chapters for two reasons.
Most people read quicker silently than when reading aloud. If I read slower than the audible chapter, I would wonder why. But the main reason was for me to base my reading time on something. I hoped this would help me compare the e-reader platforms and I feel that it has.
Audible Times
- Landscape test | Chapter 1 – 12:56;
- Portrait test | Chapter 2 – 13:34;
- Accessibility test | Chapter 3 – 13:53;
Order of e-reader test
| E-Reader | Chapter | Test Type |
|---|---|---|
| Kobo | 1 | Landscape |
| Kindle | 2 | Portrait |
| Kindle | 1 | Landscape |
| iBooks | 2 | Portrait |
| iBooks | 3 | Accessibility Features |
| iBooks | 1 | Landscape |
| Kobo | 2 | Portrait |
| Kindle | 3 | Accessibility Features |
| Kobo | 3 | Accessibility Features (Control) |
Landscape Mode Test
For this test, I had columns turned off if possible. I could not find a setting to turn this off in iBooks or turn it on in Kobo. Now thinking about it, I should have done a fourth test between Kindle and iBooks for Column mode. However, I don’t feel it affected the results too much.
As the below table shows, for this test, I read chapter 1 first on Kobo, then on Kindle and lastly on iBooks.
I never really liked reading in columns, so iBooks was not a favourite of mine during the test and I did not like that I could not switch columns on or off unless I switched to scrolling view, but that was part of test three – accessibility and so did not feature in this test phrase.
Audible Time — 12:56
| Reading App | Reading Time (Mins:secs) | App Vs Audible (Mins:secs) |
|---|---|---|
| Kobo | 11:08 | 1:48 |
| Kindle | 10:34 | 2:22 |
| iBooks | 11:23 | 1:33 |
In the landscape test, Kindle won. I read 34 seconds faster than I did
There was 34 seconds between Kindle and Kobo, with Kindle beating the audible time by over 2 minutes. However, despite being last and iBook came last. In one way, I was pleased with this as it meant that I did avoid familiarity speeding up my reading but did not expect such a difference.
Portrait test
There were no different in-app set-ups for portrait. Or at least, there were none that were immediately obvious.
Audible Time — 13:34
| Reading App | Reading Time (Mins:secs) | App Vs Audible (Mins:secs) |
|---|---|---|
| Kindle | 10:43 | 2:39 |
| iBooks | 11:27 | 2:07 |
| Kobo | 10:28 | 3:04 |
I read faster in portrait mode than I did in landscape mode. I did not expect such a difference between the two modes. Kobo was over a minute quicker in this mode than it was in landscape mode, which helped it take over kindle in this mode. Kindle had the least increased time by 17 seconds. iBooks improved by over 30 seconds in this mode but still came out last.
As I read two other chapters between ibooks Chapter 2 and Kobo chapter two, I feel familiarity with the text had little effect on this speed.
Accessibility
Kindle is the only one of the three e-reading apps that has a built in screen-ruler for dyslexia. Kindle and iBooks both have continuous scrolling, whereas Kobo does not have either.
For the Accessibility test, I had the kindle screen ruler turned on and both e-readers had infinite scrolling.
Kindle also has a dyslexia font, which none of the other e-readers have but I personally found Georgia easier to read and so did not change the font for this test.
I remain in portrait mode for the Accessibility test.
Audible Time — 13:53
| Reading App | Reading Time (Mins:secs) | App Vs Audible (Mins:secs) |
|---|---|---|
| iBooks | 10:46 | 3:03 |
| Kindle | 10:06 | 3:47 |
| Kobo | 10:01 | 3:52 |
Like audible, Kobo is used in this test as a comparison. It does not have any accessible features such as continuous scroll or screen ruler. However, in the portrait test, Kindle was 35 seconds behind. This test was also in portrait mode and there are 5 seconds between the two e-readers.
This suggests that the continuous scroll and screen-ruler combined helped Kindle to close the reading gap, but it was still a little behind in reading speed despite Kobo having no accessibility features.
It also suggests that iBooks is the worst out of the three apps to read from in terms of speed. However, there was a minutes difference between iBooks and Kobo in the Portrait test, and 45 seconds for the accessibility test. This suggests that the scrolling feature does make some improvements to reading speed.
Test Conclusion
Kobo won the portrait mode. It was also fastest when Kindle and iBooks used their other features, making it the best to read for speed in portrait mode.
Kindle performed the best in landscape mode. It was less than a minute behind Kobo in portrait mode and less than 5 seconds behind when accessibility features were turned on. There is really not much difference between the two.
iBooks performed the worst.
So which app is the best?
It depends on what you are looking for. In reality, with all the accessibility features, Kindle was not far behind Kobo. Sure, Kobo won without the accessibility features, but I did not include the Open Dyslexia font in this… perhaps because I am not familiar with reading a font that looks like that.
It is also worth mentioning that just because I found Kobo the fastest, does not mean another person would. Personally, I prefer the accessibility features. I still lost my place in Kobo, whereas the accessibility features in iBooks and Kindle prevented that. iBooks because I could use the top of the screen to mark my next line in a continuous scroll. If I read more than one chapter in these settings, it is possible Kobo may not have performed so well.
Best for accessibility
Kindle was the best app for accessibility. The screen ruler seems unique to kindle, as is the dyslexic front. Kindle’s interface is simple, it connects to Goodreads, and it has whispersync for people who like to both read and listen. I find this particularly useful for books that have a lot of unphonetic words… George R. R. Martin for example.
Kobo had no extra accessibility features. It had the standard setting options such as page colour and font size. As well brightness, but the other two e-readers have this too. Despite this, it was the fastest to read on and so could arguably be considered the easiest to read on.
Best user interface
Kobo’s interface is engaging. It has a stats information and award system similar to audible. I love stats and awards, part of my competitive nature. This is a plus for me. It uses the same app for audiobooks as it does for e-readers, however, from what I have gathered with a google search, there is no whispersync for kobo e-books and audiobooks.
iBooks performed the worst in all the tests in terms of speed. It also forces readers to read in columns in landscape mode. But it does have a continuous scroll where Kobo does not. However, iBooks is limited to Apple devices.
All platforms have hyphenated words breaking onto another line which slows down reading.
There isn’t really much difference between Kindle and Kobo in terms of which one is best to read from for speed.
I like the ruler on Kindle. It makes it easier for me to follow, so I am probably going to stay with Kindle, but if Kobo had a ruler and continuous scroll, I think I would switch. In fact, it is really a close call for me.
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