Hello everyone, I'm reaching out to seek advice regarding FreeDOS and its accessibility, particularly for blind users like myself who rely on a screen reader.
I’m using the Orca screen reader on Raspberry Pi OS, and I also have access to a Mac with the VoiceOver screen reader. I’m interested in experimenting with DOS and retro technology, including playing older text-based games, but I’ve encountered many accessibility challenges. I have tried to use other emulators such as DOSBox and DOSEMU. DOSBox doesn’t support sending output to the terminal and will send all output to a GUI that my screen readers can’t interact with. I’ve heard DOSEMU has this option, but I don’t have a Linux computer that can support it. After some experimentation, I managed to get the FreeDOS installer to output to the terminal using QEMU, which is currently the only method I’ve found that works with my screen readers. With this method, I am able to type DOS commands and have their output spoken by the screen reader. I'm running QEMU in no graphics mode to avoid opening another window and to redirect all output to the terminal. However, I’m encountering an issue during the installation of FreeDOS. DOS prompts me to partition the virtual drive and requires a restart, giving me a yes or no prompt. Once I type Y and the system restarts, the terminal displays the normal boot sequence and doesn’t respond to any further commands. From my research, I believe this issue is related to the virtual serial interface that sends output to the terminal, but I’m not familiar with how DOS handles this, as I am new to DOS. Since I can get the installer to work, is it possible to copy all the installer files to a virtual QEMU disk and make it bootable, without the disadvantage that the system will be read-only? How could I do this? Alternatively, can I use DOS as is, using only the ISO image? Finally, what unique text-based DOS games / software do you recommend I try when installation succeeds? I appreciate any insights or guidance you can offer. Sincerely, Lawrence Sent from my iPhone _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
