Would Accessibility be a big deal?

[EightBitz]

I have a blind friend who would love to be able to use Hero Lab and Card Vault, but he's blind. He uses JAWS to interact with his computer.

http://www.freedomscientific.com/Products/Blindness/JAWS

He's tried Hero Lab and Card Vault, and JAWS cannot operate the user interface.

I think Accessibility would be a great feature to add to your programs. I think one of the great failings of technology is how often accessibility is overlooked by developers. You can bring a new dimension to the gaming experiences of blind geeks! How awesome would that be?

To all the Hero Lab users out there, just an informal poll. Would you be willing to contribute to a Kickstarter for this?

 

[Dervish]

I would support this whole heartedly

 

[Tekwych]

Accessibility should always be a big thing, in apps and online. Most web tools and many software development tools make it easier to include Accessibility. It's a lot of work for a small community but should be done as, in most cases, your help and guid systems for everyone improve significantly.

 

[liz]

@Eightbitz, thanks for posting this! We’ve had users with vision issues successfully use Hero Lab in the past, and this is the first we’ve heard feedback on integration with JAWS. Again, thanks for bringing this to our attention. The Hero Lab team is going to research options, now that we have this feedback.

 

[EightBitz]

@Eightbitz, thanks for posting this! We’ve had users with vision issues successfully use Hero Lab in the past, and this is the first we’ve heard feedback on integration with JAWS. Again, thanks for bringing this to our attention. The Hero Lab team is going to research options, now that we have this feedback.

Do you know what software the others used to make Hero Lab accessible?

 

[Colen]

As far as I'm aware, they didn't use anything beyond magnifiers / running at a lower resolution, so no special software was involved - it sounds like they may have had a different level of vision from what your friend does, so the situation may not be the same.

Edit: Also, by "operate the user interface", can you tell me more about what you'd be looking for JAWS to do? From a brief skimming of the documentation, it looks like (for internet explorer, at least) it uses custom hotkeys to let the app be accessed via the keyboard? Or would it just be used as a screen reader?

 

[EightBitz]

As far as I'm aware, they didn't use anything beyond magnifiers / running at a lower resolution, so no special software was involved - it sounds like they may have had a different level of vision from what your friend does, so the situation may not be the same.

Edit: Also, by "operate the user interface", can you tell me more about what you'd be looking for JAWS to do? From a brief skimming of the documentation, it looks like (for internet explorer, at least) it uses custom hotkeys to let the app be accessed via the keyboard? Or would it just be used as a screen reader?

So, I don't know, because I don't use JAWS, so I'm not sure how it works. What I do know is that he is completely blind, so magnifiers and resolutions would not matter.

Unplug your monitor and use Hero Lab. That's what he would need, be it through JAWS or some other means. But JAWS is what he's used to.

 

[UndeadDan]

That doesn't really help. Can you get your friend to write up a description of how the auditory interface works?

You've received a much warmer and welcoming reaction than I'd have guessed, so don't go wasting this opportunity with "I don't know"s. This is the time to step up and meet the dev team halfway so that they don't lose interest because of vague descriptions like "unplug your monitor and use Hero Lab". Asking them to reinvent the wheel, when there is an established, tested solution, is unfair.

 

[EightBitz]

That doesn't really help. Can you get your friend to write up a description of how the auditory interface works?

You've received a much warmer and welcoming reaction than I'd have guessed, so don't go wasting this opportunity with "I don't know"s. This is the time to step up and meet the dev team halfway so that they don't lose interest because of vague descriptions like "unplug your monitor and use Hero Lab". Asking them to reinvent the wheel, when there is an established, tested solution, is unfair.

Sure. All I meant by "unplug your monitor" was, that's his experience. I didn't literally mean, "you should unplug your monitors".

Sorry if that wasn't clear.

EDIT: Just emailed him to request more info. I'll post his response here.

 

[Tekwych]

Whenever we have questions about what the barriers need to be addressed by our products we go to the source. Ask the local Association for the Blind for assistance. They will tell us what they need in the interface what resources already exist and how to connect to them and even review our product and give constructive feedback. They have never charged us but we do donate to them.

 

[EightBitz]

As far as I'm aware, they didn't use anything beyond magnifiers / running at a lower resolution, so no special software was involved - it sounds like they may have had a different level of vision from what your friend does, so the situation may not be the same.

Edit: Also, by "operate the user interface", can you tell me more about what you'd be looking for JAWS to do? From a brief skimming of the documentation, it looks like (for internet explorer, at least) it uses custom hotkeys to let the app be accessed via the keyboard? Or would it just be used as a screen reader?

My friend's reply was rather long, so I emailed it to support rather than post it here.

 

[Colen]

Sure. All I meant by "unplug your monitor" was, that's his experience. I didn't literally mean, "you should unplug your monitors".

Sorry if that wasn't clear.

EDIT: Just emailed him to request more info. I'll post his response here.

Thanks. From my (very brief) scanning of the JAWS web site, it appears to do 2 things:

1) Screen reader - based on the position of the cursor (and maybe the mouse, but I'm not sure?) it speaks what's "nearby".

2) Keyboard-based UI control - using keys on your keyboard, you can control an app that would normally require a mouse. (I'm not sure if this is a "standard" thing they do, or something specific to a web browser.)

It's unlikely we can do anything about #2, but it's possible we can address #1, depending on how exactly JAWS works. (There doesn't seem to be any developer documentation on their site, so I'm trying to figure out exactly what we'd need to do before getting in touch with them.)

PS: "You should unplug your monitor" sounds like some sort of odd backhanded insult.

 

[EightBitz]

Thanks. From my (very brief) scanning of the JAWS web site, it appears to do 2 things:

1) Screen reader - based on the position of the cursor (and maybe the mouse, but I'm not sure?) it speaks what's "nearby".

2) Keyboard-based UI control - using keys on your keyboard, you can control an app that would normally require a mouse. (I'm not sure if this is a "standard" thing they do, or something specific to a web browser.)

It's unlikely we can do anything about #2, but it's possible we can address #1, depending on how exactly JAWS works. (There doesn't seem to be any developer documentation on their site, so I'm trying to figure out exactly what we'd need to do before getting in touch with them.)

PS: "You should unplug your monitor" sounds like some sort of odd backhanded insult.

I apologize for that. I didn't mean it that way. I only meant it to be a clear contrast between someone with low vision who could make use of magnification, and someone who's completely blind.

 

[EightBitz]

Thanks. From my (very brief) scanning of the JAWS web site, it appears to do 2 things:

1) Screen reader - based on the position of the cursor (and maybe the mouse, but I'm not sure?) it speaks what's "nearby".

2) Keyboard-based UI control - using keys on your keyboard, you can control an app that would normally require a mouse. (I'm not sure if this is a "standard" thing they do, or something specific to a web browser.)

It's unlikely we can do anything about #2, but it's possible we can address #1, depending on how exactly JAWS works. (There doesn't seem to be any developer documentation on their site, so I'm trying to figure out exactly what we'd need to do before getting in touch with them.)

PS: "You should unplug your monitor" sounds like some sort of odd backhanded insult.

In his reply to me (which I emailed to the support email), he indicated that you can get a free version of JAWS with a limitation that it only works for up to 40 minutes at a time. There is also a developer's license which would have to be negotiated.

 

[Alistair]

One of my computer science professors used JAWS when he had to use a GUI (which he avoided if at all possible) due to complete sightlessness. I never saw him use a mouse. It was all keyboard navigation. With your UI paradigm, let's just say should you undertake this task, it would be something I would think of to comfort myself when one of my projects is going sideways to feel better by comparison.

 

[Colen]

I apologize for that. I didn't mean it that way. I only meant it to be a clear contrast between someone with low vision who could make use of magnification, and someone who's completely blind.

No problem, I didn't take it that way at all, I just thought it was kinda funny.

Thanks for forwarding the email. At a first glance, it looks like reworking Hero Lab to improve accessibility with JAWS would involve basically redoing the entire UI, which is not something we can tackle in the near-term. I'll try running JAWS myself and see what I find.

 

[Alistair]

JAWS works best if you are using system windows and user interface components and don't stray very far off of it. For example, the vanilla Java UI of "that Open Source program" probably works pretty well with JAWS.