Designing for Accessibility (Happy Disability Pride Month!)

Engaging this topic for the first time, and really feeling my way through this. In addition to

I also tumbled onto Accessibility and Usability Notes for Authors , and was helpfully pointed to this thread. Trying to synthesize it all, some high level conclusions for my TADS work:

  • Take advantage of (meaning don’t neuter, even if you want fancy ‘defaults’) interpereter font/color customization capabilities
  • Alt text like you are being paid per word
  • Consider sound cues for major updates, which I had not previously
  • Walkthrough/hints and content warnings are just good IF citizenship, across the board
  • Quick Travel is something I’ll need to look at seriously

Two items felt like outliers that I’m interested in hearing how others attack:

  • From IFTF report: Provide a Command Guide.
    Having a hard time digesting if this is particularly helpful for accessibility, or “just” more generally a recommended practice from IF ambassadors to the muggles.
  • From a crying-for-more-engagement TADS Cookbook Wiki, there is a recommendation to reconfigure the default Status Banner for screen readers. It surprised me a bit that this did not show up in other lists. Has screen reader technology made this moot, or is this still a Good Practice ™?
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