[games_access] Unity and screenreaders issue

[Ian Hamilton]

Yep to make Unity itself accessible to blind game developers. But if you want to get behind that, this is one to vote for - https://feedback.unity3d.com/suggestions/screen-reader-accessibility

________________________________
From: games_access <games_access-bounces at lists.igda.org> on behalf of Chad Elstad <chad at smartmarbles.com>
Sent: 26 January 2018 23:29
To: Shawn at shawnflanagan.com
Cc: games_access at lists.igda.org
Subject: Re: [games_access] Unity and screenreaders issue

Sadly it looks like all of those is to fix the Unity IDE, not the games created with Unity.

On Jan 26, 2018 5:05 PM, "Shawn at ShawnFlanagan.com" <Shawn at shawnflanagan.com> wrote:
You can vote for ideas on the Unity Feedback site.

There are numerous screen reader ideas already listed: https://unity3d.com/search?refinement=feedback&gq=screen%20readers<https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Funity3d.com%2Fsearch%3Frefinement%3Dfeedback%26gq%3Dscreen%2520readers&data=02%7C01%7C%7C76564aa1fa52480a65a608d56514c125%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636526062164239565&sdata=4p0tNas0rvLkL%2FMWdHxhlS00%2FTZxTKu0pdhqrOSk6bQ%3D&reserved=0>
Do we want to all focus our votes on a certain one of the ideas to see if it gets Unity's attention?

On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 4:37 PM, Chad Elstad <chad at smartmarbles.com<mailto:chad at smartmarbles.com>> wrote:
Where can we submit a feature request for this? Is there a legitimate location?
Thanks again,
-Chad

On Jan 26, 2018 4:16 PM, Thomas Westin <thomas at westin.nu<mailto:thomas at westin.nu>> wrote:
Yes, I’ve been nagging Unity at several occasions since around 2009 about this. So, maybe it is more than just priorities, I fear that attitudes may also be part of the problem. It it isn’t reasonable that one of the biggest game engines can’t fix this in 9 years. Or maybe I’ve been talking to the wrong people. And yes, CVAA may definitely help.
I will nag Unity and the other engine devs at GDC (again)
Best,
Thomas

On 25Jan 2018, at 11:42, Ian Hamilton <i_h at hotmail.com<mailto:i_h at hotmail.com>> wrote:


They should hire Michelle 😊

But I 100% agree that it needs to be in there at engine level, and enabled by default. Like how it is for developing natively on mobile, where UI element names are automatically exposed and picked up, meaning lots of games that are accidentally blind accessible. Requests from gamers are then more along the lines of "can you give a better label to this button please" rather than "can you make your game blind accessible please".

The barrier really is priorities. I think there are two ways around that barrier;

1. The work, or at least an initial chunk of the work, is done outside of the usual backlogs. E.g. prototype built for hackathon, EA Sports style
2. Enough developers get behind the feature for it to justify taking the place of others on the backlog. In previous years this has been straight up impossible, but CVAA's requirement for blind accessible comms-related UIs may get more people onboard.

Ian

________________________________
From: games_access <games_access-bounces at lists.igda.org<mailto:games_access-bounces at lists.igda.org>> on behalf of Chad Elstad <chad at smartmarbles.com<mailto:chad at smartmarbles.com>>
Sent: 25 January 2018 00:30
To: games_access at lists.igda.org<mailto:games_access at lists.igda.org>
Subject: [games_access] Unity and screenreaders issue

All -
How can we get any traction with the Unity developers to fix the issue that would allow screenreaders to work with Unity games without a plugin (which more or less just mimics them). My understanding of the issue is that Unity puts a layer above the games UI which prevents screenreaders from natively being able to read the UI elements.
I completely respect and applaud the work Michelle at MetalPopGames has done with the Unity Accessibility Plugin. I am already planning to purchase it now that I'm pushing to make a game that is accessible based on a presentation I made last year.
https://www.glitchcon.mn/project/reducing-player-barriers-with-accessible-design/<https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.glitchcon.mn%2Fproject%2Freducing-player-barriers-with-accessible-design%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7C76564aa1fa52480a65a608d56514c125%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636526062164239565&sdata=4i92upJUZuRO45WlJMw0f6nqGC17FlNo5pwKqVN8Ogk%3D&reserved=0>
This year, I want to walk the walk since last year I talked the talk. ;) Possibly present a how to implement instead of an academic: here's what it is and here are things we should do.
I have posted in the Unity forums a couple of times on this topic, but nothing but crickets.

Making the Unity IDE accessible is a different animal to tackle. But I wanted to acknowledge it as a need from the visuallly impaired community.

Thanks in advance. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
-Chad Elstad
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