Better support for visually impaired

[musikBear]

Edited Apr 8th @tresf, improved description, fixed link
TomVal wrote:

Hello,

I'm a music teacher, my eyes are anything but good. When I create music, I can't constantly hunt for a mouse pointer, so I'd like to be able to just use my PC keyboard for creating new music. Is this possible in LMMS? Is there any effort to make LMMS accessible for people with low vision, who still can use their sight, but not as much as sighted people? Is it possible to enter music in Musescore way? Are various panes accessible for keyboard-only navigation? Is there an alternate interface for VST plugins, accessible for people who can't use a mouse comfortably? You know, constant hunting for a mouse pointer is real pain for my eyes.

You might want to adapt LMMS for 7" Windows tablets, so that we, people with low vision, could use such layout on our 20"+ screens to get everything comfortably large :)

[...]

Well, as I said, my eyes hurt if I have to hunt for a mous pointer too long. I have to be only less than an inch away of the screen if I have to use a mouse. So that means heavy hunting for a mouse pointer is quite neck-intensive as well. And since I can see only a little section of a screen at a given time, it means working with mouse is like this:

1. Locate the control you wish to manipulate, often moving my head
2. Locate the mouse pointer, which is left somewhere on screen.
3. Move the mouse pointer to a desired control, being very close to a mouse pointer.

Can you imagine having such a workflow for several hours??? My eyes (and neck) would be very sore.

So it's quite weird - sound is a natural means of self-expression of blind people, but sound manipulation software is heavily mouse oriented, thus inaccessible for such people. Very sad :(

Original post forums/#2258

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First i would ask you to read this:
http://lmms.io/forum/posting.php?mode=quote&f=15&p=8643

http://lmms.io/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2258
Especially this

So it's quite weird - sound is a natural means of self-expression of blind people, but sound manipulation software is heavily mouse oriented, thus inaccessible for such people. Very sad :(

really made me think. 'How right he is'
What are your opinion on this?
Could lmms be the first and only daw, that actually focused this, and gave sight-impaired users, a chance to make music on computer?
For my self, i have to say, that a lot of font-sizes and color-schemes, are just about to be issues, and i also often have to bend forward, in order to read a bar-posistion, or a readout from a dial, but those kind of issues could be addressed with more css-options, and are completely insignificant, compared to what OP tell us about.

[Sti2nd]

I doubt LMMS will evolve into a DAW for blind people, but allowing to jump around with some keys (and then blind persons can hear the description text being read by the OS) is within reach.

[musikBear]

I think that anything that could facilitate music-making to sight-impaired, would be highly interesting, but there are so much else that is wanted in lmms, i know that..

[tresf]

After reading the original request, it seems to have a lot of similarities with #1421 (albeit many other accessibility improvements to meet the OPs needs)

P.S. @musikBear please post correct links when linking to the forums. In addition, this whole bug report should be cleaned up. The OPs question needs not be paraphrased in this case. Please take better care when submitting bug reports. We're already inundated with 5-10 new bugs each day, the least you could do is put more than 30 seconds into writing it (or direct the users here, as the OP seems to better appreciate proper formatting technique).

[musikBear]

P.S. @musikBear please post correct links when linking to the forums. In addition, this whole bug report should be cleaned up. The OPs question needs not be paraphrased in this case. Please take better care when submitting bug reports. We're already inundated with 5-10 new bugs each day, the least you could do is put more than 30 seconds into writing it (or direct the users here, as the OP seems to better appreciate proper formatting technique).

C'ON -the link was correct - @Sti2nd followed it - now it's bugged, but that has to be the forum
Does it really look like i spend <30 sec ?!

[tresf]

the link was correct - @Sti2nd followed it

No, it is clearly wrong. I left the old one around so you can try it. Paste it into a private/incognito window. It doesn't work. @Sti2nd had to log in for it to work for him (as did for me).

[tresf]

Does it really look like i spend <30 sec ?!

I'm sorry if this came off as crude, but the formatting you use for your bug reports often makes them hard to read. In this case, TomVal's description of his problem was much easier to read then yours.

His description:

Is there any effort to make LMMS accessible for people with low vision, who still can use their sight, but not as much as sighted people?

Your description:

Could lmms be the first and only daw, that actually focused this, and gave sight-impaired users, a chance to make music on computer?

👍

[unfa]

I guess we'd need a small team of dedicated developers who would work just on this. As we're generally short on coding people, this is probably not happening very soon :(

[musikBear]

This is one lmms could do something better rather fast

When loudness is dimmed, it is as if the notes blend in with the scale-display, and the notes are really difficult to see -Even for peeps with normal sight
pop-quiz: How many notes in picture?
a simple style-sheet option could fix this?
(if the style-sheet gave options for clean-colors for scale-displaying, then we automatically had 'note-identifying' by color, as well as scale-indication -just a thought)

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Lets add one more picture

Can YOU read this?

and btw - why do lmms default use size 8 in project-notes ? -At least 10 would be a better choice. I believe most editors has 12 as default?

[tresf]

This is one lmms could do something better rather fast

Knock yourself out. :)

[Spekular]

I think a voice describing the current position could make piano roll very accessible for the vision impaired. It shouldn't require too many voice lines (150 words could cover quite a bit depending on how you count), and could be very configurable.

State the current note:

• When my selected note or position (time) changes
• When my selected note changes
• When I press the Speak key

State the current position

• When my selected note or position changes
• When my selected position changes
• When I press the Speak key

State the current bar

• When my selected note or position changes
• When my selected position changes
• When moving from one bar to another
• When I press the Speak key

[] Play a beep when a change occurs without speech

[] Simplify position (Two sixteenths -> One eight)

[OzancanKaratas]

Please update Qt framework to latest version. Qt 5 is containing accessibility objects, like IAccessible 2.

[tresf]

We have #2611.

[musikBear]

Today i learned that win10 at least has a screen-doubler-feature.
It is activated with
WinKey then tab '+' sign
This launch a generalized Accessibility-gadget:

It is the first part
' - 100% +
That can help a lot!
Each click enhances the screen 100%!
This works quite good with lmms
Here is a screenie with 0% enhancement:

200%

Ha! There are no difference between a screenie shot in 100 or 500%!
That is .. odd
Well..
LMMS-UI scrolls willingly as the mouse get close to the edge, and it is significantly better for the eyes.
I believe this very simple tool is extremely valuable for sight-impaired like my self, trying to use LMMS.