Digital Workshop

Is it possible to 'Tab' from one object to the next?

I know you can do this with text input.

I need to make my apps a little more accessible.

I'm having problems with menus, buttons and check boxes at the moment.

It would also be good if there was a way to have an 'alt' tag for images - like there is with HTML, MS Word, PDFs etc.

Hi Jez,

There's no reason why you cannot implement a tabbing system for any element. Opus allows you to access the nodes in the organiser tree and therefore if you keep these in the sequence you require - you could simply traverse the tree.

As for the second issue, not sure what you mean, but if the alt tag is to show text when Opus doesn't find an image file simply use the file exists command.

Mack

Hi Mack

I guess the 'Alt' tag is more of a wish list item.

The 'Alt' tag in HTML triggers the popup text box when hovered by the mouse in the browser. It's also used by screen readers.
The same goes for pdf files and word docs.

When a screen reader (for the blind) such as Jaws, finds an image it simply reads the alt tag for a description. It would be good if opus could be designed support this.

With the tab key, I would like to design my apps so that a user can tab their way through the whole program. (Like you can in IE)
It would also help when creating forms.

For example:

If a user starts filling in a form, opus can send the input cursor to the first text input box, they can then tab to the next input. But if there's a checkbox button or a submit button, they then need to use the mouse.

Mack, you say there is a way to implement a tabbing system, how would you go about doing this?

Hi Jez,

I would have thought that screen readers would have to be designed to handle different applications and it would depend on how it 'reads' the value from the alt tag - that would determine whether it could be implemented.

You could add TTS that would read aloud text and image descriptions as the mouse passed over or other triggers. We use it for both our talking classroom clock and hundred square to help both students who are visually impaired as well as those with English as an alternative language.

As for the tabbing system - this is definitely one for the advanced section - you need to be able to script. If you're happy with that, posted ther question there and I'm sure people will give pointers.

Mack

I designed a talking bar code scanner for blind/visually impaired users. The way I got round menu selections was to use a tablet input device (pen) with a plastic template fitted over the tablet, then mapped the menu buttons to the cutouts on the tablet. It worked extremely well!!. I had a training section which showed the user how to use the tablet device. When they touched the different button areas, the program told them which button they were selecting.
However if you are designing an appliication to distribute to visually impaired users, the pen input is probably not an option.
As Mack suggests. TTS is a very good way of doing it. The system I designed was a bar code scanner for visually impaired users, it had a database containing EAN numbers, so the user could scan a can of food and the system told them what it was using Text Aloud TTS. It works very well with Opus. They could also add items to the database, then print a barcode to attach to items of clothing for example.The system was for my MSc dissertation. If you want a copy, you are welcome. It might give you some ideas. Oh...and I also did a talking alarm clock, but that was just used the keyboard for input.

Have there been any improvements to accessible output in the latest version of opus?