2014-02-03, 20:08
Hi,
I have family members with sight problems (including blindness) and think the problem may be split into the following pieces.
1) Event mirroring
It appears as if there is already and event server in XBMC that communicates with clients, remotely. What is required (which is not present currently) is for the even server to "echo/reply" to the client.
2) Alternate Text/Multi language
In the same way as HTML has an "<alt> tag, perhaps XBMC could adopt this. This would be a simple method of including "isolated text" which would probably present the correct information to screen readers and the like. By default this could be the normal screen information, but in principle, it could be finer tuned to provide an entirely alternate interface.
I am not an XBMC coder at all, but I have a coding background. Would it be possible to define for every visual element an "alt" tag and then have the event server simply(
) "echo" the value as a event?
Hence wherever the "active pointer" rested on the screen, a client would be able to request "echo" and the underlying object would present the "alt" tag.
This could be a very important feature for XBMC as it has a huge following and is an amazingly effective piece of software. To @byron27, possibly one of the reasons there is not much feedback is because even technically motivated people like myself, with family members having this disability, it is extremely difficult to contribute effectively without a considerable "Read in" time.
With the increasing age of the population, this disability will become ever more important.
Perhaps another way of looking at it is "hands free" mode, or "eyes free" mode. So you don't have to be disable to appreciate it...!!
To summarise I think many of the components are nearly there, but need a bit of focus to instantiate them.
P.
I have family members with sight problems (including blindness) and think the problem may be split into the following pieces.
1) Event mirroring
It appears as if there is already and event server in XBMC that communicates with clients, remotely. What is required (which is not present currently) is for the even server to "echo/reply" to the client.
2) Alternate Text/Multi language
In the same way as HTML has an "<alt> tag, perhaps XBMC could adopt this. This would be a simple method of including "isolated text" which would probably present the correct information to screen readers and the like. By default this could be the normal screen information, but in principle, it could be finer tuned to provide an entirely alternate interface.
I am not an XBMC coder at all, but I have a coding background. Would it be possible to define for every visual element an "alt" tag and then have the event server simply(
) "echo" the value as a event?Hence wherever the "active pointer" rested on the screen, a client would be able to request "echo" and the underlying object would present the "alt" tag.
This could be a very important feature for XBMC as it has a huge following and is an amazingly effective piece of software. To @byron27, possibly one of the reasons there is not much feedback is because even technically motivated people like myself, with family members having this disability, it is extremely difficult to contribute effectively without a considerable "Read in" time.
With the increasing age of the population, this disability will become ever more important.
Perhaps another way of looking at it is "hands free" mode, or "eyes free" mode. So you don't have to be disable to appreciate it...!!
To summarise I think many of the components are nearly there, but need a bit of focus to instantiate them.
P.
