Can GS use Apple's VoiceOver for blind people?

fogarty

A couple of people have asked if my game, Grammar Pop, is accessible to the blind. They pointed me to Apple's VoiceOver technology and seemed to think I should be able to use that (http://www.apple.com/accessibility/ios/voiceover/). I don't even know where to begin. Has anyone done this? Is it even possible with GameSalad?

Thanks!

TheGabfather

You can actually give it a try yourself, as it is a feature of your iOS and not something you will have to program into an App: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5018?viewlocale=en_US

Beware though, it changes the way you interact with your device's interface @-)
My iPhone's Home button has been bugging out so I've been making do with the Assistive Touch Menu, but enabling Voice Over was really a pain and took a while before I could turn it off successfully.

Anyway, I tried it with a game I made with GS, and right in the Main Menu I have this Play button, as well as a button that opens an External URL, and a Twitter TweetSheet button -- none of them worked. I am not sure about the cause, but I kept tapping and nothing happens.

I was hoping I'd get far enough into the app to test it with Actors that use the Display Text Behaviour.

edit: Ok after playing with the feature some more, it seems to only be able to recognise text (Headings, Characters, etc) present in iOS native (?) objects like buttons, text fields, etc. Someone correct me if I am mistaken, but I get the impression that Gamesalad Actors with text laid on top of them will not be read. Maybe when you are using the Fullscreen Keyboard input it will work, as well as when you're typing a Tweet.

fogarty

Thanks, @TheGabfather.

I believe it doesn't currently work because I got a complaint from a blind person who bought it and said it didn't work for him.

It looks as if this is something that needs to be implemented, but it all seems very vague to me. Here's some info from Apple's page:

"Apple’s Accessibility APIs define how iOS apps can make their user interface available to an external assistive app or service. Apple strongly encourages developers to support these APIs in all of their apps so they are compatible with features built into iOS such as VoiceOver. Xcode makes it easy to ADD ACCESSIBILITY LABELS and information to standard controls. Interface Builder, for example, has an inspector that allows you to ENTER DESCRIPTIONS supported by VoiceOver for controls in the user interface."

https://developer.apple.com/technologies/ios/accessibility.html

Since GameSalad users don't develop in Xcode, I don't know whether it's possible to add labels and enter descriptions.

TheGabfather

Oh so there are provisions like that that are part of the Accessibility API! I'm glad you linked me (and everyone else) to it should prove helpful in the non-GS apps some of us create.

edit: read more on it. So that's what those Accessibility Identity fields are for..!

I do agree that this is something which GS ought to consider somewhere down the road, but to be honest I do not see it getting much attention any time soon. Perhaps some time after GS is finally out of Beta. But it's not a bad thing to suggest -- I'm sure if one of the Head Chefs see this thread they'll definitely add it to their Feature Requests list (if they haven't already).

fogarty

OK, so if I understand correctly, this isn't something that is possible with GS right now. I just want to know so I can tell the people who are asking that I can't do it for them right now. @TheGabfather.

RP

Unfortunately no. No access to root functions such as accessibility. It's not just GS. It would be a nice feature though eh?