Screenreaders and Glulx interpreters

[Erik Temple]

I'm entertaining an idea for a simple extension to make I7/Glulx graphics
windows accessible to screenreaders (not directly, of course). Basically,
this extension would do two things:

(1) Add a text/indexed text property to objects of Flexible Windows's
g-window class; this property would contain author-provided text
describing the contents of the window, as the ALT attribute of HTML image
tags.

(2) After ascertaining that the player wishes to use a screenreader, this
text will be printed to the screen whenever a graphics window is updated,
so that it becomes accessible to the screenreader.

There are at least four ways to implement point 2, all of them possible
(and none very difficult):

(a) Print the text(s) related to graphics windows to the main window,
where it would be interleaved with other output;
(b) Open a new text window that consolidates the "ALT" text for all
graphics windows in one place, separate from the contents of the main
window;
(c) Since Flexible Windows uses a property to define the type of window,
we can change graphics windows to text buffer windows before opening them.
Once open, each "graphics" window would in fact be a text window,
displaying the "ALT" text appropriate to the graphical content originally
intended for the window;
(d) Alternatively, we open a small (e.g., 1 pixel or row high) text buffer
window adjacent to each graphics window that contains that window's ALT
text, effectively acting as a caption visible (ideally) only to the
screenreader.

My question is: which of these options is better from the user's point of
view? I've never used a screen reader, so I'm not sure how these impact
the user's experience. Would segregating ALT text into different windows,
a la options (c) and (d), be helpful or chaotic? It seems to me that (a)
would be annoying, in that ALT text could be tossed into the midst of
standard textual output--is that correct? Are there situations where (c)
becomes unacceptable, because we have lost any graphical output?

Another question, affecting mostly options (b), (c), and (d): Should
scrollback be preserved, or would it be better to clear the ALT text
window before each update?

Any thoughts or responses to these questions appreciated!

Thanks,
Erik

[James Jolley]

I can say that using a mac with VoiceOVer, having the graphical
alt-text open up in a different glulxe window would be fine. Many
glulxe games use multiple windows for status type things and these seem
to work well under Zoom at least.

Best

-James-

[Erik Temple]

On Dec 29, 9:33 pm, James Jolley <jrjol...@me.com> wrote:

Thanks, James. Opening a single new text window that contains the alt
text for all graphics windows is also one of the easiest of the
options I presented, so this is probably what I'll do. It's also quite
helpful to know that there's already a screenreader on my Mac
(Voiceover, as you mentioned), that I can use to test this a bit.

--Erik

[James Jolley]

Yes, if yu need assistance in navigating with VO, just email me direct
and we can do some testing if needed.

Best

-James-

[Erik Temple]

On Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:04:27 -0600, James Jolley <jrjo...@me.com> wrote:

> Yes, if yu need assistance in navigating with VO, just email me direct
> and we can do some testing if needed.
>
> Best
>
> -James-

Thanks! This is on a to-do list for now, but I will probably take you up
on your offer once I get to it!

--Erik