[gui-talk] Different plan of attack

[Wayne Merritt]

Despite your strong desire to make this work, I'm afraid that you will
run into the thinking from the screen reader manufacturers of how this
fits into an employment/job/career focus with their various screen
readers. Among FS, GW Micro, Serotek, and NVDA, Serotek has been the
only ones thus far that have embraced the "active digital lifestyle"
and have gone beyond the traditional employment arena into
entertainment and other genres of screen reader use. Even with Windows
Media Center, which among other things allows the common user to
record and play live TV shows, FS has stated at blindness conventions
that there are no plans to make this accessible since it doesn't
really tie into getting and keeping jobs, and the like. Though people
have made this particular application work with JAWS or Narator, it's
not a high priority with FS. IMO, you may have better luck pitching
this gaming idea to Serotek than you might with the other screen
reader manufacturers, provided you can sell the idea of blind people
participating in a gaming site. I know that blind people like gaming,
and there have been some acessible gaming sites such as All inPlay
that have popped up in recent years, but I don't know of many that
have saught to jump into gaming from arenas such as the Game Show
network. This could be because it's not accessible, but there may be
another hurtle to jump over in that regard. I don't have any ideas for
you, just wanted to throw out some food for thought. Perhaps if
Serotek started going in that direction, then the other screen reader
vendors would start paying attention, or at least takenote.

Good luck,
Wayne

On 1/22/10, kenlawrence124 at aol.com <kenlawrence124 at aol.com> wrote:
>
> Hi List members.  Cross posting this question to get different  feedback on
> this topic.  I've been sending messages of complaint to GSN  formerly Game
> Show network saying that I'm not able to play the games on the  site and
> therefore don't have the same chance to win the Oodles points sighted
> people
> can win to cash in for prizes.  I can only answer the daily  questions and
> therefore win 50/100 oodles at a time.  It would take me a  thousand days
> straight just to win enough oodles to cash in for some prizes and  that is
> if I
> get all questions right.  I can't even enter the chat during  GSN live and
> the only way I can play a game connected to the channel is to enter  the GSN
> live games every day.  They say they can't program the site they  say since
> flash is the standard on game sites they are obviously sticking with  it.
> It's funny how they say in replies thanks for being a part of the GSN
> community.  I sure feel like a second class citizen.  AOL did the  right
> thing so
> why can't the people at GSN?  even when the National  federation of the
> blind and gw Micro or Freedom scientific are brought to their  attention
> nothing
> changes.  I will not accept the fact that I will never  ever be able to win
> all that money on bingo blitz, Yeah I can't even enter those  drawings.  So
> rather than keep harping to deaf ears, the thought I had in  mind is what
> can we do to help make GSN accessible from the screen readers point  of
> view?
>  Rather than making the site accessible, what can we do to make  the screen
> reader accessible to the site.  One of the advantages of using  flash is
> that it is smaller in terms of drive space.  A version of the  Adobe flash
> player is less than two MB, Whereas the windows media player or the  real
> player are close to or even over 20 MB.  Flash does provide better  quality
> audio
> and video in a smaller player.  So I'd like the opinion of  Jaws,
> Window-eyes, and NVDA users how we can make the screen readers work on the
> GSN site
> and play the games there.  We can lick the recent CD baby issue as  well as
> the Pandora issue too.  of course part of my problem is dial up  connection,
> and I'm working on going broadband so that will be taken care of  soon.  So
> the question is, if GSN, CD baby,or Pandora won't make the sites  work with
> a screen reader, what can we do to make it work the other way  around?  how
> can we develop screen reading software to work with their  sites?  This is
> going to take people with site to do it, but I think  especially with an
> Open source Screen reader like NVDA we can do it.  If  they won't make sites
> accessible, let's try it the other way around.  Many  of my friends and the
> members of the computer talk club of NJ are worried that  the developers of
> assistive technology won't be able to keep up and in a couple  years we'll
> no
> longer have any access to anything on the Internet.  More  and more sites
> are going this direction and I think it's up to us to change  it.  What can
> we
> do about this issue?  I would ask that some of you  take a look at that
> site _www.gsn.com_ (http://www.gsn.com/)  and if  you are already
> registered,
> take a look at the wonder wheel and other games  especially the versions of
> games that aren't generally visual like  Jeopardy.  There is no reason why
> that isn't accessible when the show  clearly is.  They had blind players on
> it.  Family Feud too and why is  the version of Deal or no Deal not
> accessible.  Clearly the show is.   Tell me how a blind player couldn't go
> on that
> show Huh?  Let's tackle this  one together.  Thanks Ken.
>
> I pledge to  participate actively in the efforts of the national federation
> of the blind to  achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind;
> to support the  policies and programs of the federation; and abide by it's
> constitution.
>
>
> I pledge to  participate actively in the efforts of the national federation
> of the blind to  achieve equality, opportunity, and security for the blind;
> to support the  policies and programs of the federation; and abide by it's
> constitution.
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