When people are using Eclipse for editting Java, something on the
screen turns "red" when they type something wrong. I would like to
know that.
This is true in NetBeans as well and we actually just finished
implementing this into our custom language as well. We're thinking
about how to indicate this in audio as well, but haven't finished
implementation of our ideas yet.
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
] On Behalf Of Homme, James
Sent: Friday, August 28, 2009 1:01 PM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Auditory interface ideas, what would help?
Hi,
If I knew how to get in touch with Will Pearson, I’d ask him these
questions. Maybe our moderator will be able to dig up his address.
From a usability viewpoint, I’d like to be able to have everything a
toggle. The user should be able to turn every single audio aspect of
the system on and off.
If this is only about writing Java code, I don’t know how much
useful information you can get from the rest of this message, but
I’ll try to give you some general ideas.
· I’d want a sound that indicates which part of the system
the next spoken message is coming from. For example, there’d be a
sound that indicates that the next spoken message is coming from the
debugger, then a spoken message from the debugger. There’d also be a
training mode where the user could learn what the sounds mean. The
debugger sound would play along with the spoken word debugger. Once
the user got used to the sound that means debugger, the user could
turn off the training mode.
· All spoken prompts could have a short and a long version.
· There could be the option to send messages to your screen
reader, and another to make Netbeans speak messages with one of the
voices already on the computer.
That’s all I can think of for now.
Thanks.
Jim
----------
Jim Homme
Usability Services
412-544-1810
james.homme@xxxxxxxxxxxx
"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an
indomitable will." -- Mahatma Gandhi
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
] On Behalf Of Andreas Stefik
Sent: Friday, August 28, 2009 12:37 PM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; Sodbeans
Subject: Auditory interface ideas, what would help?
Hello folks,
We're getting pretty close here in our netbeans tools, possibly
within the next few months, to adding some very nice auditory
enhancements to NetBeans for blind users. I've got an overwhelming
number of ideas about what could help, but I can't implement them
all and would like to get some feedback from the community.
Specifically, we're looking for some ideas in two main areas, code
completion and auditory navigation.
1. Code completion --- Whenever I've talked to folks in the past
about code completion with audio, people have suggested that one of
the most annoying issues with code completion is changes in focus.
Anyone have ideas about auditory code completion? Besides managing
focus better, anyone have any ideas on how to make it more accessible?
2. Auditory navigation --- I have a graduate student currently
working on a blind code navigation system. Right now, the system
allows you to jump around the source window and find variable
declarations, method declarations, and other similar things, but we
want to expand the navigation to make things easier.
One idea I had, for example, was to make the navigation window
"debugger sensitive" so that if you are navigating around while your
code is executing, there will be audio that tells you more
information about what you've browsed to. For example, if you
navigate and land on a variable, it might tell you its name, type,
and if the debugger is running, what its value is, or other
information, depending on how much useful audio we can put into a
short cue.
But really, we're doing this project for this community. We
genuinely want to make our tools as accessible as humanly possible,
and we're going out of our way to make it so. If anyone has any
ideas about what kind of tools would help you, go ahead and put them
here, I'd love to hear about them!
Obviously, we have limited development time, so it's unlikely we'll
implement every suggestion, but brainstorming helps.
Andreas Stefik, Ph.D.
Department of Computer Science
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
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Andreas Stefik, Ph.D.
Department of Computer Science
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
