Simply Reading Android App Getting Started Guide

Simply Reading app is an ebook reader for all. It is specially customized for the Talkback screen reader users. The app aims to provide a simple to use interface accessible to all for reading books on touch screen devices. It also connects to online accessible libraries and supports reading on connected Braille displays in all major languages of the world.

Download Simply Reading app from Google Play Store

The Simply Reading app has been developed by the DAISY Consortium in collaboration with Standard Chartered Bank’s global Seeing is Believing initiative to tackle avoidable (preventable or treatable) blindness.

• App Features
• Using the App with Talkback Screen Reader
• The Bookshelf
• Adding Books
• Adding Books from Device Memory
• Adding Books from the Bookshare Library
• Adding Books from Sugamya Pustakalaya
• Adding Books from Gutenberg
• Adding Books from Dropbox
• Reading Books
• Reading Books with Media Overlays or Recorded Audio
• Customizing the Text Display
• Gestures for Using Talkback with Simply Reading
• Navigation in Books
• Gestures Specific to Books with Digital Text
• Additional Talkback Gestures for Books with Audio
• Commands for Refreshable Braille Display

App Features

• Easy to use free app for reading books in EPUB and DAISY format, which can be downloaded from Google Play Store.
• Supports books available in device manager: has a built-in file browser that can access books stored in the local or extended memory of your phone
• Connects to popular online libraries – Bookshare, Sugamya Pustakalaya and Gutenberg.
• Books can be searched and downloaded from libraries connected with the app: provides a simple interface for using the online libraries.
• Supports Dropbox: books saved in Dropbox can be opened directly in the app.
• Highly accessible for visually impaired users: has advanced support for the Talkback screen Reader.
• Supports print page breaks, media overlays and synchronized text highlighting.
• Provides advanced navigation options while reading: users can choose from various navigation options e.g. Heading 1, Heading 2, Page, Phrase.
• Supports customization of visual display, font size, font style, text alignment and colour theme.
• User guide and gesture help is available within the app.

Using the App with Talkback Screen Reader

The Simply Reading app is for everyone. People without disabilities will also enjoy using this app to read books. An attempt has particularly been made to make the app work seamlessly with the Talkback screen reader which is used by persons with blindness and visual impairments.

Talkback users will notice that some of the regular gestures will work differently within the app; more information on such gestures is given in the sections below. They will be able to read and navigate the books using gestures only, and will not have to go through menus and dialog boxes for most needed functions.

The Bookshelf

The Bookshelf screen contains a vertical listing of all the books available in the app for reading. When you open the app, the Bookshelf screen will be shown. You will find only one book, the User Guide, in the Bookshelf after installation.

Books added from different sources will appear in the Bookshelf. The author and format of each book is shown with each title in the Bookshelf.

To open a book, tap on its name. A popup menu will open with two options – OPEN and DELETE. Tap again on OPEN to start reading the book. On tapping Delete, the book will be removed from the bookshelf.

If you are using Talkback, you can double tap on a book to open it for reading. Swipe right to move to the next available book and swipe left to go to the previous book in the Bookshelf.

Adding Books

Books can be added from different sources namely Device Memory, Bookshare, Sugamya Pustakalaya, Gutenberg and Dropbox. Once added, the book will be available in the Bookshelf screen.

Adding Books from Device Memory

You can copy books in EPUB and DAISY format from any source to your Android device and use the Simply Reading app to read them. Just place the .epub or the .zip file containing the DAISY format book at a place you can remember easily in the internal or external memory card. The following steps exemplify the process:

1. In the Bookshelf screen, tap on the top left menu button.
2. Now tap on Device Memory. The Internal Storage and External Storage such as a Memory Card if available in the device will be listed here.
3. Tap on the desired source to reveal the folders inside it. Tap on the folder which contains your books.
4. Multiple books can be added at once to the app. Check the checkbox shown with the different book file names and then tap on the UPLOAD button available at the top right corner of the screen.
5. The app will display a confirmation message and will return the focus to the Bookshelf screen. The books you added will be available at the top of the list.

Adding Books from the Bookshare Library

Bookshare – www.bookshare.org is one of the world’s largest online library of accessible books. You should be a member of the Bookshare online library to download books from this source. To connect to the Bookshare library from the Simply Reading app, you will be asked to provide the username and password once. Note that internet connection will be required to login, search and download books. Once the books are downloaded, internet connection will not be required for reading.

Follow the steps listed below to login to Bookshare and download your first book.

1. In the Bookshelf screen, tap on the OPEN DRAWER, the menu button on top left of the screen.
2. Tap on Bookshare.
3. Tap on Bookshare login and provide your email ID and password and tap on Login button.
4. If the login credentials are accepted by Bookshare, your name and “LOGOUT” will be displayed in place of the Login button.
5. Now you can use any of the available options – Search Books, Latest Books, Popular Books or Book Categories to find the book you are interested in.
6. On using any of the above options, you will be shown a list of books. Tap on the book you want to download. The book details will be shown in the next screen.
7. Tap on the DOWNLOAD button in the top right corner to add this book to the Bookshelf app. Note that large books may take time to download.
8. Go to the Bookshelf by using the BACK button on top left or the BOOKSHELF button on top right corner of the screen.
9. You can now open this book to start reading.

Steps 3 and 4 listed above will not need to be performed next time. The login credentials provided by you are saved by the app.

Adding Books from Sugamya Pustakalaya

Sugamya Pustakalaya – www.sugamyapustakalaya.in is the online library of accessible books in India. You will need to be a member of the Sugamya Pustakalaya to download books from this source. The username and password will need to be provided once. Internet connection will be required to login, search and download books. After the books are downloaded, internet connection will not be required for reading.

The following steps explicate the process of connecting to Sugamya Pustakalaya and downloading a book.

1. In the Bookshelf screen, tap on the top left menu button.
2. Tap on Sugamya Pustakalaya
3. Tap on LOGIN. Provide your numeric User ID and password and tap on Login button.
4. If the login credentials are accepted by Sugamya Pustakalaya, your name will be shown and the login button will change to LOGOUT
5. Now you can use any of the available options – Search Books, Latest Books, Popular Books or Book Categories to find the book you are interested in.
6. On using any of the above options, you will be shown a list of books. Tap on the book you want to read. A popup menu will be displayed. Tap again on DOWNLOAD.
7. A message “Your download request has been registered successfully, you will be notified when the book is ready for download” will be displayed.
8. Now tap on the DOWNLOADS button in the Sugamya Pustakalaya screen.
9. The list of those books for which you have placed download request will be displayed here. Tap on the book you want to start downloading. In case of large books, particularly books with audio, you may have to wait for a maximum of two hours before it is ready to download. You will receive a message on the registered email ID and mobile phone when the requested book is available to download. In case of small text only books, the download should start on tapping on its name in the list.
10. Tap on the BOOKSHELF button on top right corner of the screen.
11. The downloaded book will now be available here in BOOKSHELF. You can open this book by tapping on its title to start reading.

Steps 3 and 4 listed above will not need to be performed next time. The login credentials provided by you are saved by the app.

Adding Books from Gutenberg

Gutenberg – www.gutenberg.org has a large collection of free books. No membership or login is required to use this book source. Internet connection will be required to search and download books. Once the books are downloaded, internet connection will not be required for reading.

The steps below list the process of connecting to Gutenberg and downloading a book.

1. In the Bookshelf screen, tap on the top left menu button.
2. Tap on Gutenberg.
3. Tap on either Search by title or Search by Author.
4. Provide the name of the book or the name of the author you are interested in. A list of books matching your search term will be displayed.
5. Tap on the book you are interested in. The formats available to download will be displayed. You may choose EPUB for best reading experience. The book will start downloading.
6. After the book is downloaded, a confirmation will be shown on the screen.
7. Go to the Bookshelf by using the BACK button on top left.
8. The book will now be available at the top of BOOKSHELF.

Adding Books from Dropbox

Dropbox – www.dropbox.com is a popular file sharing service. If you have a Dropbox account then you can use it within the Simply Reading app. You can save ebooks in the Dropbox folder on any device such as a laptop computer and then open the same book in Simply Reading app. The Dropbox login information will be required to use this book source.

The steps below explicate the process of connecting to Dropbox and downloading a book.

1. In the Bookshelf screen, tap on the top left menu button.
2. Tap on Dropbox.
3. Tap on Dropbox LOGIN.
4. Provide the Dropbox login information in the next screens. When the login credentials are authenticated, the files saved in your Dropbox folder will be shown in the app.
5. Select an EPUB file or a DAISY format book from the Dropbox folders. The download will start, and when finished, the selected book will be added to the BOOKSHELF.

Steps 3 and 4 listed above will not need to be performed next time. The login credentials provided by you are saved by the app.

Reading Books

On opening a book from the BOOKSHELF, the Reading Screen is displayed. The top Toolbar of this screen has the BACK button on the left, the title of the book in the middle, and the BOOKMARK and MORE OPTIONS button on the right corner.

The bottom Toolbar has the TABLE OF CONTENTS button in the left. If the book has pre-recorded audio then the AUDIO NAVIGATION buttons are placed in the middle and the NAVIGATION OPTIONS button is in the right corner.

If you are using TALKBACK, you can use the gestures listed in the section “Gestures for using Talkback with Simply Reading” to read the book content. Without Talkback, gestures will work as in any other app.

• Tapping the TABLE OF CONTENTS button brings up the list of sections in the book in a new screen. You can tap on the section you want to read. The TOC will close and the focus will be on the chosen section.
• If you wish to place a bookmark on the current page, tap the BOOKMARK button.
• The MORE OPTIONS button provides a drop down menu, which gives access to the following – Search, Bookmarks & Notes list, Go to Page and TTS Settings. The DISPLAY SETTINGS are also in this menu. They are described below in the section “Customizing the text display.

The Simply Reading app remembers the last read location. When the book is opened again, the last read page is displayed.

Reading Books with Media Overlays or Recorded Audio

When the book contains pre-recorded audio, the bottom toolbar of the Reading screen displays the AUDIO NAVIGATION buttons and the NAVIGATION OPTIONS button. Their functionality is as follows:

• To choose a navigation mode, tap on the NAVIGATION OPTIONS button. A popup window is displayed showing items such as Phrase, Page, Heading 1, Heading 2, and so on. The options displayed here are dependent upon the mark-up of the book. You will see more navigation options in a highly structured book as compared to a short story book. You can set the navigation option by tapping on it.
• The PLAY NEXT and PLAY PREVIOUS buttons will now work as per the chosen navigation option. If you had chosen page, then these buttons can be used to go to next and previous page respectively.
• The PLAY button toggles between Play and pause. Tap on this button to start or stop the playback.

Customizing the Text Display

The text displayed in the book reading screen can be customized using different app features as follows:

• Tap on the MORE OPTIONS button on top right corner to open the menu.
• To increase or decrease the size of text, Tap on Font Size. On tapping this menu item, a popup window will open with a slider to change the font size.
• To change Font tap on Font Style. The options available are – Arial, Courier New, Times New Roman and Default.
• To change the horizontal positioning of text tap on Text Alignment. You can choose between Default, Right, Left and Justified.
• To change the colour themes, tap on Theme in the menu. The options available are Sepia, Night Mode and Default.

Gestures for Using Talkback with Simply Reading

You can use the Gesture help anytime to get information on all the gestures that work with Talkback in the app. To activate Gesture Help use Two finger diagonal swipe from bottom left to top right. Use the BACK button to close Gesture Help.

Navigation in Books

Gestures Specific to Books with Digital Text

Additional Talkback Gestures for Books with Audio

In addition to the gestures mentioned above, the following will work in EPUB and DAISY format books that have pre-recorded audio.

Commands for Refreshable Braille Display

Digital text of the book opened in Simply Reading app can be read on a connected Refreshable Braille Display using Braille-back. Language and grade-1/grade-2 can be set through Braille-back settings. Note that the Talkback screen reader needs to be switched on for the Braille-back to work.

The following features are available in this mode:

• Display next Braille text: Use down panning/scroll key. When you reach the end of current page, this command will display the first line of next page.
• Display previous braille text: Use up panning/scroll key. When you reach the beginning of current page, this command will display the last line of previous page.
• Go to table of content from reading screen: “t”.
• Go to menu from reading screen: “m”.
• Back: “b”.
• Go to next page: “n”.
• Go to previous page: “p”.
• Find text: “f”.
• Help: “h”.
• Where am I?: “w”.