[cjakeman]

A potential user has been in touch (via the website) asking for help in using Open Rails as he is blind.

Not being visually impaired myself, I'm not sure how much satisfaction a blind person can gain from using Open Rails, but it would be good to support people who have this impairment.

There are some very simple things that would help, such as a welcome chime once the graphics has loaded. Another option is to get Windows to read out the Control Confirmations. Windows also supports accessibility by making objects which have been registered as accessible available to screen readers such as Jaws, NVDA and Windows Narrator.

This could be an interesting project. If you are interested, then send me a PM.

[Weter]

Hello, Chris.
Sound /w subwoofer, physical vibrations and force feedback, I think.

[Genma Saotome]

How about a voice giving status comments, not at all unlike what the second man in a cab does. This probably would appear to the vast majority of players. The words in the black bar display would be a good place for ideas... what comes immediately to mind is this:

Engineer control:
- change of speed
- change of brakes

Train information:
- signal indication
- speed limit
- milepost
- Platform Name

Volunteers could be solicited for recording the above and the audio files stored by language.

Is it practical to consider an audio thread for this? Program initialization defines the language so the thread interaction should be only an integer value to index the audio file.

[Weter]

Modern TCS has voice indication IRL:
For instance, it anounces with female voice:
"Attention: crossing ahead!"
"Signal!"
"Speed limit is..."
etc.

[Genma Saotome]

Weter, on 30 January 2022 - 12:25 PM, said:

For instance, it anounces with female voice:

AFAIK this dates to the mid 1950's, at least in the US, when "Sexy Sally" gave warnings to airforce pilots. This choice was, in part, inspired by female voices doing ground control instructions at air bases in WWII. Years later the voice was known as Bitchin' Betty and it appeared in the movie Top Gun. A Betty voice was included in every F-16 sold overseas. Betty was retired by the airforce in 2016... some other voice is still in use.

Research showed a male voice resulted in more accurate responses but pilots wanted a female voice for warnings because almost all of the voices they routinely heard were male and the female voice stood out as "you had better listen".

At our household the female voice giving driving instructions from google is known just as Betty. The adjective was dropped because when it was introduced there were small children in the car and we didn't want a 7 or 8 year old explaining at school that "Bitchin' Betty tells us where to go".

My brother-in-law heard us using it and liked the explanation so he carried it back to his household where it is also used.

[Weter]

Yes.
As driver's assistant in locos, MiG29 had speech informer Natasha, which adviced to Pilot, if he engaged with a battle, (so can't see gauges constantly) about fuel amount, critical angle of attac, terrain ahead and so on. As we can see in combat flight simulators with F16 too.

[Niknak]

I think for a blind person that ingame sounds generally would be an asset. For example Carlo's excellent DemoAutoSounds for travelling over a switch or around a curve etc.

[Weter]

Hi, Chris.
These are about blind teenager, who is locomotive enthusiast.
I hope, this would give You some insight in Your project.
Please, turn subtitles on, then chose translate to English for understanding.
https://www.youtube....h?v=7OBWy4NyvfE
https://www.youtube....h?v=9wZ1Mwrb5Dk
https://www.youtube....h?v=B4c_VUGKsBs
https://www.youtube....h?v=iiazIZRsiyw
The third one shows an excursion to depot, including interaction with cab controls.
The latter one proofs, that he was accepted to railroad colledge, finished two last school grades in one year.
Thanking donations from channel subscribers, his parents were able to buy reabilitation devices.