Implementing native VO accessibility isn't as easy as you might think,
especially if you're dealing with as different platforms as iOS and
Android, and you wrote an engine to support both without having to
rewrite your code.
iOS and Android have their own UI kits and accessibility API's. On
android, developers can use the OS's TTS features, on iOS they need to
get an external synth like Acapela or Flight to support it. There are
however cross platform libraries to support graphics, audio and input,
but because they are cross platform they have their own way of
displaying the interface. If jellyvision wanted to do what you're
suggesting here, they'd have to write the interface with native iOS
widgits, which wouldn't make a difference for sighted people and would
have added development time and cost them more money.
On 2013-02-06 06:17, Dakotah Rickard wrote:
I was definitely disappointed, as though I have never watched the
show, the game was recommended to me by a friend. I thought the ads
were funny though, so I didn't delete it right away.
It's really sad how many games are not accessible, despite the fact
that Voiceover is such an accessible product and the app development
kit highly supports it.
The only thing I cdan say is that it is disrespectful and lazy. I also
find that it is often the bigger companies and more well-known
concepts and apps that are as inaccessible as they are. Not that there
aren't independent apps which lack accessibility, but consider the
majority of big name apps. Many of them are inaccessible, and it's
frankly disgusting to me that, despite the many features and
encouragements to make an app useable by the blind community, there
are still those who, either through laziness, ignorance, or those who
are lacking in insight or foresightstill don't develop accessibly.
I know that this is a rant, but frankly I'm not entirely certain that
it shouldn't be. Why, I ask myself, is this game inaccessible? It
doesn't, in my opinion, or under what meager knowledge I possess, need
to be inaccessible. The same experience could be had under a more
accessible regime.
If only I could, and if someone else wants to do this they have my
blessing, full support, and voluntary time, I would start an
organization whose purpose, at least in the beginning, to provide
reasonable information on accessibility. Too long has the blind
community been divided, without organized leadership in the field of
gaming. Why, this list might be a haven, a breeding ground for such an
organization, but it is not. For far too long have we responded
greedily or with jaded cynnicism to those very few stodgy
organizations who feel they are giving their blind members justice and
fair representation while failing to hear them out in matters like
gaming.
You Don't Know Jack is one game, one app which, though fun, is
relatively unimportant in the scheme of things. However, why, in its
relative unimportance, is it fully inaccessible on one of the most
accessible platforms to date?
The answer is simple, almost staggeringly so. The answer is because we
have allowed inaccessibility to continue. We say "This app is
inaccessible." The developer may or may not care, but how do they fix
it? We are uninformed as to the methods of development, the facets
which make such apps inaccessible. If only I could, I would set us on
the path to knowledge. Perhaps rather than saying, "This doesn't
work," we should consider asking "Why does this app not work for us?"
I hope this message gets through, as it's rather long, and I do
appologize for its being more than a little off-topic at times, but
it's important, and I hope it passes inspection, as I feel it may hold
the key, or perhaps the tap, to a greater understanding and therefore
a better future.
Signed:
Dakotah Rickard
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