Amazon.com (AMZN -1.64%) updated its Kindle app for iOS today, adding new features for blind and visually impaired users. The update is for the iPhone and iPad Kindle reading app, and includes new accessibility features like:

  • Utilizing Apple's VoiceOver technology to make over 1.8 million books available to be read aloud
  • Improved navigation within Kindle books 
  • Searching for a book within a user's library or searching for text within a book
  • Adding and deleting notes
  • Using the X-Ray feature
  • Facebook and Twitter sharing
  • Looking up word definitions
  • Ability to use iOS accessibility features, as well as peripheral braille displays

Vice President of Amazon Kindle, Dorothy Nicholls, said in a press release, "We're excited to introduce these new features to our Kindle for iOS app, making it easier than ever for our blind and visually impaired customers to access the vast selection of over 1.8 million books in the Kindle Store on their iPhone or iPad."

Amazon said in a statement that the features will be available on other platforms soon, but didn't specify when.