ongoing accessibility efforts in radioboss

[derek]

As an introduction, my intention is to raise awareness of the ongoing efforts to make RadioBoss accessible to screen reading software used by blind engineers and broadcasters. I aim to contribute by proposing an idea that could expedite this process and make it easier. Currently, the main barrier is that only some controls in RadioBoss are labeled, allowing screen reading software to speak their names.

I'm sure that manually labeling all controls in the source code is a time-consuming task, especially since some windows contain a mix of labeled and unlabeled controls. After investigating with the NVDA console, I discovered an example of an edit field without a spoken label:

Example of an edit field with no spoken label:
windowClassName: 'TButtonedEdit'
windowControlID: 69808
windowStyle: 1409351872
extendedWindowStyle: 512
windowThreadID: 8584
windowText: '120'
displayText: '120'
IAccessibleObject: <POINTER(IAccessible) ptr=0xab08e50 at 90a37b0>
IAccessibleChildID: 0
IAccessible event parameters: windowHandle=69808, objectID=-4, childID=0
IAccessible accName: None
IAccessible accRole: ROLE_SYSTEM_TEXT
IAccessible accState: STATE_SYSTEM_FOCUSED, STATE_SYSTEM_FOCUSABLE, STATE_SYSTEM_VALID (1048580)
IAccessible accDescription: None
IAccessible accValue: '120'


Here's an example of an edit field that can be read:
windowClassName: 'TDKNumberBox'
windowControlID: 70014
windowStyle: 1409351874
extendedWindowStyle: 512
windowThreadID: 9384
windowText: '2.5'
displayText: '2.5'
IAccessibleObject: <POINTER(IAccessible) ptr=0xab4ac58 at 5e87c60>
IAccessibleChildID: 0
IAccessible event parameters: windowHandle=70014, objectID=-4, childID=0
IAccessible accName: 'Amount of track overlap'
IAccessible accRole: ROLE_SYSTEM_TEXT
IAccessible accState: STATE_SYSTEM_FOCUSED, STATE_SYSTEM_VALID (4)
IAccessible accDescription: None
IAccessible accValue: '2.5'


These examples are from the Settings tab of the Playlist Manager in RadioBoss.

My question is whether there is a tool that could generate a list of all defined controls that have not been assigned "IAccessible" attributes, to streamline the process of making RadioBoss more accessible? I know very little about software development, and understand that I'm possibly oversimplifying a major undertaking by asking this question, but I thought it may be worth your consideration.

 

[djsoft]

These examples are from the Settings tab of the Playlist Manager in RadioBoss.

Did you mean the Playlist Generator?

My question is whether there is a tool that could generate a list of all defined controls that have not been assigned "IAccessible" attributes, to streamline the process of making RadioBoss more accessible?

I don't think it will really work. RadioBOSS has lots of controls, and checking all of them in a list will be extremely time consuming. I think more practical approach would be to report any issues that you find while using the software.

 

[derek]

Did you mean the Playlist Generator?


I don't think it will really work. RadioBOSS has lots of controls, and checking all of them in a list will be extremely time consuming. I think more practical approach would be to report any issues that you find while using the software.

Most of the unlabeled controls are in the external applications: add scheduler, the music library, the report viewer, and the track tool.
The track tool is the most accessible of these all, but the edit fields and lists are not labeled yet. It's easy to infer most of the fields in this part of radioboss because of the check boxes that are labeled.
However, once you get past the check boxes, it's unknown from there.
If I load a track that is tagged, that helps with a bit more context as well, but trying to memorize everything isn't something that is practical, especially if we're working and its crunch time.
By the way, I did not mention the segue editor in the list above because you said in other posts that you were working on the accessibility issues there.

 

[djsoft]

are in the external applications: add scheduler

Apart from the Grid, what is not accessible there?

the music library

It's almost fully accessible as far as I'm aware, can you please be more specific?

the report viewer

There are some unlabeled items, this is known, will be fixed soon.

The track tool is the most accessible of these all, but the edit fields and lists are not labeled yet. It's easy to infer most of the fields in this part of radioboss because of the check boxes that are labeled.

This is how it's supposed to be - the checkbox defines the meaning.

By the way, I did not mention the segue editor in the list above because you said in other posts that you were working on the accessibility issues there.

Problem with the Segue Editor is that it's fully custom built, and supposed to be fully graphic, operated by mouse. It's possible to make it accessible, but this will be a lot of effort so honestly I'm not sure when it's going to happen.
One thing I'd like to note is that main mode of operation in RadioBOSS is automatic and in some cases unattended. This means using of the Segue Editor and Track Tool is not necessary in most cases, as you can configure general crossfade rules, and pre-process tracks automatically from the Music Library.