Note  60  Osse         (09/19/21 12:52)  Accessibility Initiative Recap

    The initial phase of accessibility improvements to The Two Towers
is now complete. Here is a synopsis of these changes, all of which 
apply for players with the accessibility setting toggled on:
 
1) Addition of the new 'accessibility' setting, which can be toggled
    via the 'settings' command or 'set accessibility on'
 
2) The new character creation process has been tweaked to prompt new
	players using screen readers to turn the accessibility setting on.
	Alt text has been added for ASCII art in that sequence, for those
	who do.
 
3) New help files, 'help accessibiity' and 'help screenreader', which
	explain the accessibility setting and provides guidance on other
	settings and tweaks to make to maximize screenreader playing.
 
4) Added plain-language output for the 'map' command, to provide 
	descriptions of the surrounding area instead of the ASCII symbol map.
 
5) Tweaked the 'score', 'skills' and 'tradeskills' commands to add
    puctuation to the tabular output, to cause screenreaders to pause
    after reading values, so that it is more understandable.
 
6) Fireworks and Thunderstorm wizard spells now output alt text instead
    of ASCII, as does the rune set and a number of other quests and areas

    in the game that used ASCII art have been tweaked to have alternate 
    plain-language text output.
 
7) The auction list output presents its information in more of a plain-
	language style, instead of the previous tabular format.
 
8) The 'warscape' command now displays which regions are 'free' or 
	'evil' in plain-language rather than a list of hard-to-decipher
	codes.
 
9) The 'exits' command, which was originally added in 2009 to assist 
	visually impaired players in finding their way, has been improved
	to also show a short description of the room on the other side of
	each exit, if the exit is one you could normally look or glance 
	through.
 
    We will continue to add alt text for in-game ASCII art as it is 
found and reported (please file an 'idea' report if you find some).
 
I would like to thank the folks in our VI player community who helped
guide me through this project, patiently answering my questions and
sharing ideas and insights on what would actually help - it was through
listening to what was needed, instead of just assuming what I thought
would help, that this came to fruition.  Also, thanks to Vildoran and
Ghorin for helping me with the trickier code bits (especially Ghorin
for changing the map system), and to everyone who has helped point out
examples of ASCII text and non-screenreader-friendly items in the
game.
 
Osse