Accessibility to screen readers (for the visually impaired)

[SteveJG]

I expect you will get some comments with respect to accessibility issues related to App Inventor from MIT. They have been aware of screen reader issues from both the point of view of visually challenged developers using App Inventor and software designed or usable for blind individuals as apps.

In the meanwhile here are several community discussions regarding blind and visually impaired individuals that might interest you:

Accessibility blinded students

There's work being done on making Blockly (the software that creates App Inventor's blocks-based coding editor) accessible to screen readers, but it's still got a ways to go! Last I heard (Oct 2019) it was still in the testing phases at the University of North Texas. Unfortunately, App Inventor is even a little bit further behind than that because they're running a version of Blockly that's a few years old. So in short, no. At the moment there's not really way to make App Inventor screen-reade…

For the Blind and Visually Impared

What do you have in mind Royce? Two existing components should already help individuals develop an app helping develop something like this: TextToSpeech component to make your app speak and SpreechRecognizer, so the app can be controlled with vocal commands. This is not a tutorial in helping the visually impaired but it could be adapted.: HOW TO: Program the native SpeechRecognizer for Continuous Dictation and to do things Here are some resources to help you learn to use the AI2 tools. A ver…

Wikipedia api with Plain Text Search Results

How to use the Wikipedia api to produce search responses as plain text and display the result in a Label. How to use the Wikipedia api to produce html search responses using the WebViewer is discussed in Making sense of the Wikipedia API - #4 by SteveJG . [wikipediaChristmas] The Wikipedia api with Plain Text Search Results app shows how to display search results as text. [wikiChristmas] The example Making sense of the Wikipedia API - #4 by SteveJG produces a WebViewer html and can not pr…

How do you make an action happen when you slide your finger onto a sprite?

Hi there! I'm trying to make a game for blind people. Right now as a test, I'm making the device vibrate when the person slides their finger onto a square sprite. So the user would start with their finger down at any point on the canvas, then would slide their finger across the screen without lifting it up. When it is anywhere within the boundary of the square, the device should vibrate continuously. I've half-managed it using the 'draggedAnySprite' property, but it continues vibrating even wh…

Ten to fifteen years ago, I worked on several Projects using JAWS and amateur radio with an EE and for people with other disabilities (Windows programming). I am aware of many issues facing those struggling to use modern tools.

Regardless of screen readers, App Inventor developers do have several tools that can help make their apps friendly to people with vision issues. Perhaps MIT will be able to add the necessary tags to the source code to be more user friendly with respect to screen readers; mean while, there are things developers can do just by coding sensibly.

--Steve