PneumaPilot
March 22nd, 2009, 14:16
One of the guys who plays Hunter (New World of Darkness Ruleset) with us is totally blind. Right now, he just connects with Ventrilo with the rest of us, and I log him into FG on my machine by connecting another instance of the software via localhost. That lets the rest of us see his character's portrait in the top left, and it lets me as the Storyteller have access to his stats, etc. I use Windows Messenger to send private messages to him, since he can't read the chat pad (because he isn't actually running FG, I'm running it for him).
All this has me thinking about some accessibility functionality, because I would really like him to get his own copy of FG and be able to read the chat pad and roll his own dice there (currently, he uses a computerized dice roller for blind people that speaks the results to him). Here's my current list of desired features - some of them can be instantly implemented, others might need some help from the developers:
Slash commands that report the value of a desired stat on the character sheet (eg. /strength)
An overall 'Blind Mode' that when enabled (eg. /blind) will dump information into the chat pad for that player that other players just see naturally. The main thing I'm thinking about here is a way to put a description on an image to be shared so that the description is dumped to the chat pad for all players with /blind enabled as soon as the image is displayed to the rest of the players.
A change to the dice roller for all /blind users that only reports the final results of other players' rolls (eg. "5 Successes" or "21") instead of printing out each die result. This keeps the handicapped player's screen reader from speaking the result of each die. Now, each die result SHOULD be displayed when the /blind player rolls.
A good way to iterate through a windowlist through the chat pad. For instance, in the nWoD ruleset, there is a windowlist for Equipment. I want them to be able to type '/equipment' and have it give them the first item on the list. If they press 'n' it should immediately give them the next item on the list, if they press 'y' it should give them all the rest of the information about that item. Here's an example: "/weapon [enter] Sig Sauer P229 [wait for response] [presses n - no enter] Springfield M4 [wait for response] [presses y - no enter] Springfield M4, Damage 4, Range 200/400/800, etc. etc."
I think I have some good ideas about how to do some of this, but I'm not entirely sure about how to make it easy for the Storyteller (DM, GM, whatever) to add text descriptions to images. It should require no XML editing. There ought to be some kind of right-click to add field or something.
I'd like to hear some other ideas about this. And I'd especially love to hear if anyone has attempted this before. I know that there is a sizable blind gaming community, and if FG had something like this, it might immediately allow it to pick up a good number of new users.
All this has me thinking about some accessibility functionality, because I would really like him to get his own copy of FG and be able to read the chat pad and roll his own dice there (currently, he uses a computerized dice roller for blind people that speaks the results to him). Here's my current list of desired features - some of them can be instantly implemented, others might need some help from the developers:
Slash commands that report the value of a desired stat on the character sheet (eg. /strength)
An overall 'Blind Mode' that when enabled (eg. /blind) will dump information into the chat pad for that player that other players just see naturally. The main thing I'm thinking about here is a way to put a description on an image to be shared so that the description is dumped to the chat pad for all players with /blind enabled as soon as the image is displayed to the rest of the players.
A change to the dice roller for all /blind users that only reports the final results of other players' rolls (eg. "5 Successes" or "21") instead of printing out each die result. This keeps the handicapped player's screen reader from speaking the result of each die. Now, each die result SHOULD be displayed when the /blind player rolls.
A good way to iterate through a windowlist through the chat pad. For instance, in the nWoD ruleset, there is a windowlist for Equipment. I want them to be able to type '/equipment' and have it give them the first item on the list. If they press 'n' it should immediately give them the next item on the list, if they press 'y' it should give them all the rest of the information about that item. Here's an example: "/weapon [enter] Sig Sauer P229 [wait for response] [presses n - no enter] Springfield M4 [wait for response] [presses y - no enter] Springfield M4, Damage 4, Range 200/400/800, etc. etc."
I think I have some good ideas about how to do some of this, but I'm not entirely sure about how to make it easy for the Storyteller (DM, GM, whatever) to add text descriptions to images. It should require no XML editing. There ought to be some kind of right-click to add field or something.
I'd like to hear some other ideas about this. And I'd especially love to hear if anyone has attempted this before. I know that there is a sizable blind gaming community, and if FG had something like this, it might immediately allow it to pick up a good number of new users.