GW2 and Accessibility for Disabled People

[nyah.7586]

17 hours ago, Leo.3428 said:

@Mungrul.9358 - This is set under the game's Graphics options: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Options

DPI Scaling - Enables additional scaling of the UI according to your system settings. Check-box, on or off.

 

There might be a reasonably simple way for ANet to make in-game text more accessible: An API (similar to the Mumble API) that outputs the text from the active tooltip, active chat tab, etc., making it possible for all kinds of external tools to turn it into speech, onto an electronic braille board, display an enlarged text, accessing the wiki...

Yeah, I already have that checkbox active, but it doesn't change anything for me - maybe it affects different system settings than I use, I don't know I prefer to only enlarge text and not the whole windoes interface cause everything gets messed up and even more complicated for me, when I do so. Well I'll play around with it and see what it does when I have the patience for that.

Thank you  anyway ^^

[nyah.7586]

6 hours ago, Strider Pj.2193 said:

As someone who is NOT visually challenged, I find this thread fascinating.

 

It’s great to see all of the methods people are using to be able to play.  
 

I plan on book marking this thread, as others may ask about it.  
 

I wonder if any of the moderators @Moderator.2406 

Could maybe sticky this?  Maybe even under players helping players?

 

Seems like a cool idea! I'd love more attention on topics like this anyway. Thank you.

[Strider Pj.2193]

8 minutes ago, nyah.7586 said:

 

Seems like a cool idea! I'd love more attention on topics like this anyway. Thank you.

I guess my thought is it may be a place for player generated solutions that they have utilized.  
 

Of for nothing else, then as a repository for suggestions.

 

Anyway, thank you for your OP.  🙂

[Mungrul.9358]

3 hours ago, nyah.7586 said:

Yeah, I already have that checkbox active, but it doesn't change anything for me

Ah, then I suspect it might only help with higher resolutions than 1920x1080.

It scales up the UI and text on my monitor, but I'm running at 2560x1440. With DPI scaling turned off, the UI's quite small. Still playable though on a good day for me.

I would imagine it's barely legible even for people with 20-20 vision at 4K.

[Rogue.8235]

6 hours ago, nyah.7586 said:

That looks interesting. But as well as many devices it's not easy to get where I live. Not impossible, though, I'll just need very good reasons for why I need it. From my experience, it always ends up in a legal dispute *sigh* not sure if it's worth it

So I fixed ZoomText and the game is incredibly laggy when running it - so I think I can't use it for that with my current setup. Sad, but that shows why you suggested physical magnifier setups.

Thanks for your help again!

Yep, I run into hardware limitations myself.  Screen readers are resource intensive!

 

I looked up the code of federal regulations concerning acquisition of personal adaptive devices and ran into this:

28 C.F.R. § 35.135  

Quote

This part does not require a public entity to provide to individuals with disabilities personal devices, such as wheelchairs; individually prescribed devices, such as prescription eyeglasses or hearing aids; readers for personal use or study; or services of a personal nature including assistance in eating, toileting, or dressing.

This sucks because it supersedes the provisions of  28 C.F.R. § 35.130 (b), which gave you protections concerning giving the disabled access to such aids and services to allow for equal participation and equal results.

If you hear anything about the above regulations, you know what to advocate for so that state agencies will need to comply with section 35.130(b) and grant you personal devices in a more liberal manner.

Barring that,  being a persistent squeaky wheel is about the only thing you can do.  

 

I had no idea about the market for haptic devices that @Tekoneiric.6817 mentioned.  Maybe there are some affordable options out there you can get in the mean time for maximum gaming fun.

 

 

[Tekoneiric.6817]

36 minutes ago, Rogue.8235 said:

I had no idea about the market for haptic devices that @Tekoneiric.6817 mentioned.  Maybe there are some affordable options out there you can get in the mean time for maximum gaming fun.

 

 

 

I found it. If the game's API supports external location information, with some programming expertise something like this could be adapted for a visually impaired player.

Haptic Compass Belt Vibrates Northward

[Leo.3428]

Yes, the game supports the Mumble API: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/API:MumbleLink

This gives you the direction your character is facing.

 

I was advocating for an additional API that outputs the in-game texts, to process externally for accessibility.

[sasya neko.1985]

they don't even add an option to auto-complete hearts, for someone with ADD the blinking mid battle is so frikin frustrating yet they simply don't care.

[Strider Pj.2193]

1 hour ago, sorudo.9054 said:

they don't even add an option to auto-complete hearts, for someone with ADD the blinking mid battle is so frikin frustrating yet they simply don't care.

So..  I am having a hard time understanding what you actually are asking for:

 

-  I get needing a way to shut off the flashing lights, and maybe other player effects.  It’s been asked for a lot.  
 

-  I sooo don’t understand what you mean by ‘Auto completing’ hearts.  I mean, Hearts suck.., but I have a hard time expecting anything to be  Auto complete…

 

 

[Linken.6345]

11 hours ago, Strider Pj.2193 said:

So..  I am having a hard time understanding what you actually are asking for:

 

-  I get needing a way to shut off the flashing lights, and maybe other player effects.  It’s been asked for a lot.  
 

-  I sooo don’t understand what you mean by ‘Auto completing’ hearts.  I mean, Hearts suck.., but I have a hard time expecting anything to be  Auto complete…

 

 

I think it is when you complete it and it is on the right side above your mini map blinking like the daily login chest.

The poster want that to auto complete and go away I guess.

[Strider Pj.2193]

5 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

I think it is when you complete it and it is on the right side above your mini map blinking like the daily login chest.

The poster want that to auto complete and go away I guess.

Thank you for explaining what might be the issue.  I guess because of my experience I would not have seen that as a problem as ‘right clicking’ on it gets rid of it.  Not having ADD also means that I don’t have their experience.  
 

Again, thanks.

[sasya neko.1985]

9 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

I think it is when you complete it and it is on the right side above your mini map blinking like the daily login chest.

The poster want that to auto complete and go away I guess.

exactly that, it used to be that way but for some reason Anet loves torture.

[Maikimaik.1974]

1 hour ago, sorudo.9054 said:

exactly that, it used to be that way but for some reason Anet loves torture.

Just right click it and it'll go away.

[Leo.3428]

I just made a small app that reads the Mumble link and gets the direction the character is facing. What different outputs should it produce, for instance displaying a large "horizontal band" compass for players with low vision, or playing voice tracks or sound effects when crossing a cardinal direction, or triggering a feedback device (the belt that was discussed for instance).

For the band compass to display within the game, I don't think that GW2 offers any addon mechanism, so it would be some complicated transparent DirectX layer that tracks the game window's position and size and displays over it (an overlay).

Sound effects are easier to make.

External devices would require studying the manager or driver software for these.

I wonder if TacO, the Tactical Overlay add-on, could be expanded with accessibility features. It already has an option to display a compass around the character but I'm not sure it is large enough.

Thoughts?

Edited October 5, 2021 by Leo.3428

[Rogue.8235]

13 minutes ago, Leo.3428 said:

I just made a small app that reads the Mumble link and gets the direction the character is facing. What different outputs should it produce, for instance displaying a large "horizontal band" compass for players with low vision, or playing voice tracks or sound effects when crossing a cardinal direction, or triggering a feedback device (the belt that was discussed for instance).

For the band compass to display within the game, I don't think that GW2 offers any addon mechanism, so it would be some complicated transparent DirectX layer that tracks the game window's position and size and displays over it (an overlay).

Sound effects are easier to make.

External devices would require studying the manager or driver software for these.

I wonder if TacO, the Tactical Overlay add-on, could be expanded with accessibility features. It already has an option to display a compass around the character but I'm not sure it is large enough.

Thoughts?

 

OMG a sound indication of cardinal direction would be amazing.  If the compass passes north and plays a voice "North" that would be such a huge quality of life improvement for navigation.  I'm able to track cardinal directions at all time in real life, but I don't have a good way to do it in the game.  THis would would be such a massive improvement.

 

For those with other visual impairments, they'd have to weigh in on the visual aspects you propose. @nyah.7586 @Fuchslein.8639 @Mungrul.9358

 

I'm sorry but I know next to nothing of haptic devices.  I've never had an opportunity to try one.  Wish I could provide more useful feedback here.

 

[Leo.3428]

22 hours ago, Rogue.8235 said:

OMG a sound indication of cardinal direction would be amazing.  If the compass passes north and plays a voice "North" that would be such a huge quality of life improvement for navigation.  I'm able to track cardinal directions at all time in real life, but I don't have a good way to do it in the game.  THis would would be such a massive improvement.

Hi Rogue, let's try to complete this part first then! I made the app go ping when passing North, and I moved around to test. When running due North with some zigzagging, it's pinging all the time, which is obnoxious. Even when it plays voice audio it will be obnoxious too, I guess. This needs some tweaking. The app could remember not just the last direction, but a longer history of the directions, and suppress the signal when staying within a certain angle from North. Or it could decide based on the time since the signal was played last time. Or both. Or some other trick?

It is going to take some time to clean up the code, add all the license disclaimers on it and post it on GitHub; also to make sure it works on any Windows version. But if you want to be an early tester, I can share the executable with you on some cloud system. Let me know here or by PM. Thanks!

 

Edited October 6, 2021 by Leo.3428

[Maikimaik.1974]

23 hours ago, SexyMofo.8923 said:

As much as I would like to agree, if your eyes are that bad, I would’t waste it on a game.  Go enjoy the world before you lose your eyesight completely. 

Or, you know, do what you enjoy doing, including gaming...

Edited October 6, 2021 by Maikimaik.1974

[Leo.3428]

@Rogue.8235 - Let me know about the offer to beta test in my 10/6 message above. I'm refining the system little by little; getting there.

[Rogue.8235]

2 hours ago, Leo.3428 said:

@Rogue.8235 - Let me know about the offer to beta test in my 10/6 message above. I'm refining the system little by little; getting there.

 

Yep willing to test it!  As far as pinging, I was thinking it shouldn't be annoying, but if I'm fighting something andpassing over north several times a second that could get annoying.

 

I'm trying to think of all use cases to see what the best limitation of pinging would be.  I'd, for now, don't wowrry about it until I can get some useful testing out of it.  

 

Is it possible to ping west, south, and east?  They can be 4 different pitches for quick identification, and a ping executes faster than voice.  

 

JAWS uses different tones to indicate different kinds of information, and gets pretty complex (not just pings).  So, 4 different pings with 4 different tones isn't hard to differentiate and is easy to use.

 

Can't wait to test it out!  Thank you so much!

[Leo.3428]

@Rogue.8235 - Thank you for all the ideas!

I'm trying a simple mechanism to prevent the ping from triggering too often, just by establishing an angle sentry around the cardinal points.

I tested pinging south as well, and it could indeed be different sounds for all four directions. Best would be to synthesize the sounds on the fly. That's a bit more complex to code, and it would not be in the initial stage.

I just found a group of blind players willing to test as well - the app could work with any game that supports Mumble. Here is the link to the discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/disabledgamers/comments/pzsm4p/accessibility_mods/

The player character always has a horizontal forward vector in GW2's Mumble link data and this simplifies the calculation of the orientation, it may be trickier in other games though.

I'm striving to finish the app this week end and send you the source code and executable.

Is JAWS able to access anything from the game? I suppose that JAWS at its best uses the accessibility API that allows accessing interface elements from within, but I'm not sure GW2 provides anything like that.

Edited October 9, 2021 by Leo.3428

[Leo.3428]

PS: Not sure if the forum is screenreader-friendly enough to tell you that I sent you a private message yesterday night with a link to the app.

There is another bit of info in the Mumble data that tells when one is in combat. Would a ping help knowing when you are exiting combat state? It's not always obvious.

[Rogue.8235]

The forum is extremely screen reader friendly.  enough that I know I chose the skritt avatar based on the descriptive graphics.  

 

I'm also going to look at any interactions JAWS may have with the program to use its features rather than doing everything from scrathch.  I'll update when I've explored it.

 

Testing it this weekend, I'll have feedback soon!

[Rogue.8235]

Some initial thoughts after testing.

 

The sound is pretty hard.  I'm used to softer sounds as indicators.  I'm not talking about volume and I'm sorry but I really don't know how else to word this.  I imagine smoothing the edges of the sound to make it softer.

The other thing, it's a 3 note ping.  Only one note is needed for an indicator.  That is my personal opinion and others would need to weigh in on that.  

 

It is easy to replace the sound file, though, so these are self-correcting issues.

 

I like that it pings when the character faces north and not me, necessarily.  As in, the camera doesn't trigger the ping only character orientation, which is something I didn't think of.  It works out very well and provides more useful information.

 

If there is a way to track whether or not you're in combat, is it possible to add a setting to disable all cardinal direction pings in combat?  

For me, personally, I am not concerned about cardinal direction in combat, only positioning and orientation relative to my targets.  This is done through 3d sound already built into the game.  

Id est, it doesn't matter if I know where north is, only that I know where my enemy is relative to my location.

 

As far as integrating a delay into the system, I'm still not sure what kind of delay would work best.  There have been times where I needed to hear the ping in quick succession, though this was rarely needed.    I have also yet to come across an instance where I needed to know  north in such a narrow arc.  

I'm thinking silencing the pings within x degrees of north may be best, though I'm still messing around with it.

[Leo.3428]

Thank you Rogue!

The sample ping was a tricky choice, I didn't know how to make it so it can be heard in the middle of all the sound effects of the game. There definitely are better, softer sounds on repositories with a monthly subscription. I would also like to synthesize the wave forms on the fly but that's a lot more programming. It will also allow to control the volume.

The Mumble data provides the character's position/orientation separately from the camera's position/orientation, I went with the character only, thinking it was the most relevant information. However, when spinning the camera while staying put, the camera direction would be good to have, as it tells where the character is going to run toward. Something to explore.

It is definitely possible to suppress the compass when in combat, great idea! I will add this option.

The version that you tested suppresses the ping in a 45 degree each side of North, which means that once it has pinged North, it won't repeat until you turn farther than North-East or North-West and come back to North. I was thinking that maybe it would also be useful to have a hotkey that reads the direction whenever you press it: North-northwest, etc.

 

Until we have a user interface with accessibility tagging to edit the options, there will be a configuration file, a plain text file hopefully easy to edit on a screen reader, something like this:

 

north: file north.wav
east: silent
south: beep 500Hz 300ms
west: silent
suppression angle: 45
suppress when in combat: yes
query: F9
into combat: silent
out of combat: file out-of-combat.wav
 

Now to finish all this and put it on GitHub. We might then have to take the discussion to Community Creations.

Edited October 12, 2021 by Leo.3428

[Leo.3428]

Update: We had a private message exchange early this week with a software developer who specialized in accessibility, and I'm reorganizing the source code files to make the project more manageable.

 

I switched from sound files to more responsive short beeps, one length/frequency combination per cardinal point, suppressed while in combat.

 

I am late making a screenreader-ready configuration UI with saving (that's most of the work, because the tracking and signaling mechanism itself is very simple) but I can send the app and source code to anyone willing to test this new version.