[RWP] Reaper accessibility in general [was changing tempo in reaper.]

[James Teh]

On 25/05/2010 2:16 AM, Scott Chesworth wrote:
> I've taken a poke about on the Mac side with VoiceOver. Believe it or
> not, it's more accessible than the Windows build was out of the box
> before the ReaAccess plugin existed. All the menu structure, the
> actions list, the preferences, every actual dialog leading from a menu
> that I have tested has been pretty much flawlessly accessible.
I'd argue the Windows build is pretty much the same without ReaAccess.

> The big
> gap, as with so many programs and VO, is that the actual main content
> area of the track window just doesn't show up in any way.
Same as in Windows.

> Seeing as
> the Reaper SDK is cross platform though, it makes me wonder whether a
> much cleverer person than myself would somehow be able to hook into
> the Apple Accessibility API and get us up and running on the Mac side
> too.
Personally, I'd prefer to see API based accessibility in Windows as 
well, rather than having an accessibility plugin "speak" via a screen 
reader, which requires screen reader specific code and doesn't cover 
other forms of output (e.g. Braille). I've considered trying to write a 
Reaper plugin to expose the interface via MSAA/IAccessible2. However, 
the problem is that trying to come up with a useful/useable way of 
exposing a DAW interface via accessibility APIs is very tricky, as 
normal UI concepts (buttons, lists, tables, trees, etc.) don't seem to 
fit parts of the DAW paradigm. I think the best UI concept for the track 
view is probably a table, but that doesn't quite cover items, takes, 
etc. In addition, doing this doesn't necessarily give the most optimal 
feedback; e.g. a screen reader mightn't know to speak that the mute 
checkbox for a track has become unchecked, and it would be read as a 
checkbox, not as "unmute". Exposing it via the Mac accessibility API 
will involve similar tricky considerations.

Jamie

-- 
James Teh
Email/MSN Messenger/Jabber: jamie at jantrid.net
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