What is missing..

Yes it has been suggested. I do know that the google and Amazon smart tv
add on sticks are in fact testing inbuilt screenreaders, but the problem is
that the rest of the tv needs to be done as well.

I certainly think its possible but the last time I asked rnib about it they
said that like the Portset device the price would be beyond what people
would accept.
As for programming, NVDA is mostly programmed by blind programmers.
There is an app module under development for it for visual studio, and to
some extent some of the other programming environments can be used as well.

Brian

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"Adrian Caspersz" wrote in message
...
On 25/09/16 16:22, Robin wrote:

I suspect the number of potential customers for such a box is too small
to make it economically viable. Bear in mind the proportion of
potential users who live with people who do want a screen.

What might make more sense is a RNIB sponsored re-use scheme. People
with a TV with a screen fault could offer it for re-use by those who
don't care so long as the rest works. RNIB could facilitate with a
website etc


Years upon years of school kids go to electronics and computing lessons,
and even first degree courses, and spend very little effort to choose
anything but 'yet another function generator[1]' as their course
assessment project.

Charities should actively engage with these kids and something worthwhile
should come out of it.

And while I'm at it...

How accessible are software development environments for the visually
impaired? Could an operating system be written for a computer that as well
as running say voice operation applications, can also be used to create
new applications?

Ok, some answers here,

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1...if-youre-blind

Brian is asking for a set-top box. Well, the hardware is easy - a DVB-T
USB stick and a raspberry-PI. It's only the software required, build it!

[1] Or something equally dumb

--
Adrian C

Yes but none of these will talk their internal menus, that is the issue
here. As I say, if this stuff exists, can we have a voice please. its not
difficult these days is it, you get all sorts of talking gadgets which use
proper phoneme based speech so are capable of saying anything you like.
Brian

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"the dog from that film you saw" wrote in
message ...
On 25/09/2016 09:48, Brian Gaff wrote:
Is component tv/audio like we used to get for hi fi.
I was reminded of this when I heard an advert by Samsung for their new
range of TVs, all, apparently, having a nice voice on the menus and
program
guide to help the older person and those with poor sight use them. Ah the
old grey pound wheeze again you see.
I can only applauded them for it of course, but I got to thinking when
I
poked about on line, would it not be nice to have a box with all of this
in,
like a set top box, and then you could save money by not having a visual
display at all. ideal for me of course, but it seems there is not such a
thing.
To me this defies logic, as if you follow this thread, the whole point of
having a voice assist is because its hard to read stuff on screen,
right?So
if you cannot see the screen properly, why have it at all?

Or am I missing something here....
Brian




well maybe you are.
you can have a television with a separate tuner box - such as a sky box or
a freesat pvr connected to an av amp or soundbar.
if that's not using separate components i don't know what is.

--
Gareth.
That fly.... Is your magic wand.

Not even that, I have no screen on this pc here. I use nvda and get to know
all the windows shortcuts. Can you create a new folder with shift/control/n?


The art of screenreader design is attempting to use the accessible apis and
limit what is spoken to what changes and what might be expected to be
important to know without been over verbose. If you let it chat too much you
would never get anything done.
I have no mouse either, a very annoying device as it can push your focus
who knows where if you nudge it by accident.
However there are programs that look wonderful, and are just not accessible
as the programmer has simply not exposed the api to the system. Look at the
latest version of Revo uninstaller for instance. I'm sure its great but none
of us can use it any more we can use the old one.
Many anti virus solutions are now totally inaccessible only a couple are,
one being Microsoft's own.
Even remote desktop which support often uses is not accessible as the api
text hooks do not get sent along with the graphics to the remote computer
making that job effectively a no go area for blind techs.
You would need a screenreader on every computer to avoid this problem,
which would not be practical when dealing with random machines owned by the
great unwashed.

So, although things are looking up there are still many issues to solve for
the blind.
One of the most pressing for the ordinary person who has sight issues is
the way appliances are gaining touch screens and lcd menus and no tactile
knobs or buttons any more.
I know at least one washing machine you can control with your phone.
Luckily smart phones from Apple and Android stables do now have inbuilt
screenreaders and a mode where it is not needed for you to be able to
actually see the screen. if this can be done on phones, it surely should be
on appliances as well, as to me it seems daft to need a 500 quid Iphone to
control a 200 quid washing machine if you are blind.
The world has gone mad I tell you.

What next, feed the hamster remotely from your phone?
I see there is now an App for browsing a sperm bank.
I rest my case.
Brian

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"Roderick Stewart" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 25 Sep 2016 22:47:05 +0100, Roger Mills
wrote:

Or am I missing something here....
Brian




well maybe you are.
you can have a television with a separate tuner box - such as a sky box
or a freesat pvr connected to an av amp or soundbar.
if that's not using separate components i don't know what is.


Indeed. Not sure that they would have spoken menus or voice control,
though.

i think it would be very difficult to control a PVR if it wasn't
connected to a screen to tell you what it's doing.

You'd think it would be very difficult to control a computer running
Windows if you couldn't see what it was doing, yet somehow some people
manage to do this, so it ought to be possible with a PVR too. During
my stint on a tech support desk I'd occasionally get to speak to
someone who was clearly relying on something that appeared to be
reading out everything on the screen every time they performed any
operation. Presumably they were making a lot of use of the tab key and
listening till they heard that the focus had shifted to the button
they wanted. I could hear this software rabbiting away in the
background all the time, and I don't know how anyone could use it
without going mad, never mind use it at the same time as holding a
telephone conversation, but I guess if you really want to do something
you can find a way. Maybe the PVR manufacturers could be persuaded to
adopt the same attitude.

Rod.