alt Hacker NewsWhat is the purpose of this outside people with disabilities? Why do you need word highlighting, it's like those TikToks and IG reels where they show one word at a time to keep you hooked.
Surely, if you need this to read a book (again, besides any disabilities), you should stop your current habits.
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It's helpful for learning a foreign language to read a text while simultaneously listening to it. But when you're not very good at the language yet, you'll likely often fall behind. Word highlighting makes it easy to get back on track. I assume people just learning to read their first language would similarly benefit.
Even if you don't use the immersive reading feature, it's really nice to be able to switch back & forth from reading to listening. It's nice to be able to start reading right from the sentence where you left off listening to the audiobook. Storyteller is a great e-reader and audiobook player regardless of if you use the immersive reading.
Also, it's just fun to have the audio narration as you read. I typically set the speed to like 2.5x when doing readaloud.
Well, first of all, lots of people specifically do use this because they have print disabilities or neurodivergence that makes it challenging to read long stretches of text.
Also, disability isn't binary? Some people have an easier time reading text than others — is your argument that books should remain less accessible to those people for whom it's harder because you don't personally feel like they should need it?
And then there are _lots_ of people that just enjoy reading this way. Audiobook production is its own art form, and many people like experiencing the text and the audio together. For some people it helps them focus in a noisy environment, for some people they find they can read faster with the narration, and some people just enjoy it.
Every single time I post about Storyteller, there are multiple people in the comments insisting that this shouldn't exist because no one should ever consume books differently from how they do. I don't understand it, honestly. If you don't want to read books this way, that's totally fine! You can even still use Storyteller — it works great with plain EPUBs. Why the need to make others feel bad for the way they engage with stories? The world is a better place if more people read more books — discouraging people from reading books in the way that feels pleasant and accessible to them makes the world worse.
I think if you feel compelled to instruct people you don't know to "stop their current habits" because you don't personally understand their needs or wants, perhaps you should reconsider your current habits, yourself.