Hello everyone!
I read this email from the Qt's mailing list for accessibility and I think
it would be very helpfull when I get to the part of adding Braille display
support. I thought I should share this informations with all of you.
Have a great day!
Andrei Tuicu
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Steve Clarke <trumpto...@trumpton.org.uk>
Date: 2014-05-26 23:14 GMT+03:00
Subject: [Accessibility] Three Screen Readers and Braille Display Emulation
with Windows
To: accessibil...@qt-project.org
Dear All,
It's great to see positive work being done in enabling and enhancing QT
application accessibility.
My name is Steve Clarke, and I'm an electronic engineer in the Space
industry by day, but by night, I find myself tinkering with various bits of
software.
My other half is blind, and uses Windows, Jaws screen-reader and a Pacmate
braille display, and I do whatever I can to make her life easier - this
currently means developing applications using QT.
I thought I'd share different ways QT applications can be tested for
accessibility, particularly with the screen readers and braille displays -
most of which are extraordinarily expensive (you won't get much change out
of €3500 for a reasonable display and screen reader, and that only lets you
see a 40 character window of the entire page at any one time! - it's like
looking at the internet through a letterbox).
WINDOWS SCREEN READERS
There are several screen-readers available, each of which can drive a large
number of braille displays, in addition to speaking the menus / screen
positions - I'll quickly introduce three of them ...
NVDA (Non Visual Desktop Access) - www.nvaccess.org
This is a comprehensive screen-reader written by two blind enthusiasts, who
were appalled by the cost of accessibility features / applications. It
supports the IAccessible2 protocol, and is a free download / install / use.
Jaws - www.freedomscientific.com
This is a professional screen-reader, that is not at all cheap. I believe
this to use the MSAA protocol. The demonstration version is a free
download, and runs for 40 minutes at a time.
Windows Eyes - www.gwmicro.com
This is another professional screen-reader. It also has a demonstration
version, which runs for 60 days.
DEBUGGING AND DEVELOPMENT
Unfortunately, each of the screen-readers shown above, presents information
differently / works to different levels of success with different widgets,
and, may work correctly with the spoken output, then promptly fails when
reading on a braille display.
As the programs and displays are expensive, an alternative approach to
testing must be sought - taking these in reverse order ...
Windows Eyes
This program has a simulator, that can be enabled. This simulator shows
what comes up on the braille display.
https://bugreports.qt-project.org/secure/attachment/40350/BrailleEmulatorExample_XP_WindowsEyes.png
Jaws
If you use version 14, rather than version 15, you can also use the braille
emulator.
https://bugreports.qt-project.org/secure/attachment/40348/BrailleEmulatorExample_XP_Jaws14_BrailleViewer.png
Non Visual Desktop Access
This one is much more complex. It doesn't have a simulator, and the only
way to see what would be output to a braille display is to look at the log
files, but nothing is written in the log files unless a braille display is
connected.
A work-around is to use BRLTTY, which is a braille emulator/driver for
console terminals, and you can enable the simulator in BRLTTY. The problem
that most then discover is that BRLTTY only displays the text if the
terminal is active - NVDA, however, does log everything it is trying to
send to the braille display.
https://bugreports.qt-project.org/secure/attachment/40349/BrailleEmulatorExample_XP_NVDA_BRLTTY.png
That's it from me - hopefully, I can get back to doing some useful testing
- just got a bathroom suite to install - there just aren't enough hours in
the day :-(
Steve
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http://lists.qt-project.org/mailman/listinfo/accessibility
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