Re: Text Map
Hi gjp1311.
Generally for screen readers, trying to display any sort of information in a spacial way doesn't work, because screen reading programs actually speak the text.
For example if you wrote a three x three map like this:
Corridor, pit, staircase,
Room, pit, corridor,
Room, entrance, pit.
The screen reader would just speak all the words together in a line e.g
Corridor, pit, staircase, room, pit, corridor, room, entrance, pit.
Thus a person would have to mentally break down the list of things and put them into a map which is pretty difficult when you get to very large layouts.
This btw is also why ascii roguelike games are extremely difficult to play since having to listen to your screen reader say dot hash dot dot dot at dot m dot hash line isn't exactly illuminating .
Even if you include coordinates on the map you run into a similar problem, especially if the map is very large.
what it's best to do, is have ways for the player to find out where they are and what is around them in the map from the room they're currently in.
Thus, have a way to speak the coordinates of the current room, be told what exits the room has, and be told whether they've been in that room before or not.
You could also include some ways of pinpointing specific rooms, if the player gains information throughout the game, so for example if the player uses a "detect monster" spell the player could be told "goblin four east one south" or if the player has found the xit they could be told Exit ten east seven north"
You could even optionally include abilities for players to get the exact route to a given thing on the map, e.g "nearest fountain is five north, two east, one south, three west and one north" though this would be more a luxury than a necessity since most blind players are well used to working out routes from the basic directions given information about where they are and what is around them.
Hth.
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