I am putting all of my DOS projects, questions, and links here in case someone sees this and can help me with one or more of them.
@tspivey I am including you in the discussion because I think 3 will be of special interest to you. Please fee free to untag yourself from this if you don't wish to participate in the discussion. You may also message me privately if you would rather talk that way.

I am a DOS user with a great ambition and also a few questions. Disclaimer: I am not a programmer, so I would either need to find someone who is or to try that vibe coding everyone is talking about. I would rather not do the latter, but I really have no knowledge on the subject, other than as a user of such software.

1. I wish to update an existing screen reader for use with modern versions of DOS. Ideally, though, I would like a modern version to be made fully accessible including installer. I wrote about this here. I am also interested in whether or not a true software synthesizer can be used with DOS, not via Windows. The SoundBlaster sounds interesting, but it might require actual hardware or a specific sort of computer.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BlindAndFine/comments/1ni8l6w/fully_accessible_dos/?solution=502bcfc197a3f4a6502bcfc197a3f4a6&js_challenge=1&token=7afd7253fec22262ff1c52b1703fe9ec49fb20d8ff85bbf021b7afda7224ce2a&jsc_orig_r=

2. In order to do this, I would rather update an existing screen reader than create a new one. It appears that Vispero now owns both JAWS for DOS and Vocal-Eyes, though whether they would make either of them open source I cannot say. I believe the original creator of ASAP, Larry Skutchan, is still alive. I recall writing to him some time ago, long before I had this idea, jhust to see if I could purchase the full version from him. If memory serves, he said he no longer has the software. But perhaps, he would permit me to reverse engineer it and update it. I would never do so without his permission. I know Provox is open source, but it's an extremely complicated system with no menus, etc. No matter what screen reader I use, it would all be open source. I have no interest in making money from this.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BlindAndFine/comments/1u8nw93/a_little_history_and_a_question_about_screen/

3. Right now, I am using Talking DosBox and would like to know if there is any way of updating it. It seems that it might be using a version of VreeDOS. When I use the ver command, it says 5.0, but when I start edit, it says something about FreeDOS. I know they're up to version 1.4 right now, which has several improvements, but I'm not sure if this can be upgraded directly in Talking DOSBox or if a new machine must be created. I would love to be able to just use a virtual machine in VMWare Workstation, but I can't install it without speech and don't know how to connnect it to the BNS driver, even if I could. I do have an MS-DOS virtual machine, but I can't get it to work for some reason, either under 32-bit or 64-bit. I installed Com0Com but nothing works. I have a wonderful mp3 with instructions somewhere, but I must find it in my files!

https://www.reddit.com/r/BlindAndFine/comments/1u5vtxv/talking_dosbox_questions/

4. I am interested in learning QuickBasic 4.5. However, I heard of something called QB64 that can work with Windows XP through 7 and maybe later. I downloaded it, but the ide (interface) is completely inaccessible. I decided to just learn 4.5. for now, because the way to make QB64 work with a native Windows interface is a bit complicated and right now, I just want to start learning and practising. But if anyone can help with creating a native Windows version of QuickBasic (preferably one that works with Windows 7), that would be great!

#accessibility #ASAP #blind #DOS #Dosbox #FreeDOS #JAWS #MS-DOS #programming #Provox #QB64 #QuickBasic #ScreenReaders #SpeechSynthesizers #TalkingDOSBox #technology #VirtualMachines #VMWare #Vocal-Eyes #Windows7

#Development #Explainers
The siren song of ariaNotify() · A dangerously convenient way to talk to screen readers https://ilo.im/16ducg

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#Notifications #Accessibility #ScreenReaders #ARIA #AriaNotify #LiveRegions #APIs #Browsers #WebDev #Frontend #JavaScript

I finally! found the perfect technology group for me, and at the bottom it says "This Group Cannot Add Any More Members Log In If You Are Already A Member"! I don't understand the policies of groups.io, but is anyone here a member who is willing to unsubscribe? Perhaps, you joined and forgot, or never post or read things, or you just find it to be boring. If none of that is possible, can someone please point me to a similar group somewhere on the Internet?

https://groups.io/g/bvtc

#blind #computers #computing #DOS #groups #groups.io #OldTechnology #ScreenReaders #vintage #VintageTechnology #Windows

Today, I decided to review the manual for a program called Noteworthy, so that I could reacquaint myself with it for use in my study of QuickBasic. While doing so, I found several references to a screen reader called Screen-Talk. More research led me to a man named Bill Grimm and a company called Computer Aids Corporation. Apparently, they closed and then evolved into GW Micro, with which I am very familiar, since they are the makers of Vocal-Eyes, my favourite DOS screen reader. They merged with a company called Ai Squared, which also appears to have disappeared, since they mentioned Zoom Text, which is now owned, like JAWS, by Vispero. Would all of this mean that they now own the rights to Vocal-Eyes as well? If so, I will contact them, in order to learn if it can be made open source. I would like to try as many screen reader manufacturers as possible, in the hopes that one will give me a positive answer, but JAWS, Vocal-EYES, and ASAP would probably be the best choices, due to their allowing for the creation of set files that make various programs accessible. I have a feeling that they'll say no to JAWS, though, since the name is still used for the Windows software. If you can think of other screen readers that I can try, please let me know. I don't want anything that is tied to a specific synthesizer, such as Vert.

For those who are unaware of what I am doing, I wish to be able to use the modern versions of DOS, but I also want a screen reader that can be updated to do so, just in case the system or newer programs don't work well with the screen reader itself. In some cases, set files/scripts can be used, but I'm not sure how much has changed, and I think it's better to be prepared. Rather than create my own screen reader from scratch (I am not a programmer and am just starting to learn QuickBasic/see above), I thought it would be better to start with one that is already created so that I can ask for help, or if worse comes to worst, use artificial intelligence to help with the updates.

#accessibility #ASAP #BillGrimm #blind #DOS #GWMicro #JAWS #LarrySkutchan #MicroTalk #MSDOS #ScreenReaders #technology #Vispero

The Siren Song of “ariaNotify()”, by @Wilto (@csstricks):

https://css-tricks.com/the-siren-song-of-arianotify/?ref=frontenddogma.com

#javascript #aria #notifications #attributes #html #jaws #nvda #voiceover #screenreaders #accessibility

For some strange reason, the versions reported in the Version of Talking DOSBox that I'm using says 5.0. I thought it would be at least 6.22 or even 7.1. But another odd thing happened as well. I needed to edit the autoexec.bat file, and it said something about FreeDOS instead of the usual MSEdit. If this is true, then it means that FreeDOS can, indeed, be used with Talking DOSBox. The questions are now these. Can it be upgraded to the latest version, and can other versions of dos be used? If so, I have no idea how it would work i.e. how this machine is set up so that it uses synthesizers like SoundBlaster. Can anyone help me with this? It doesn't really affect my learning QuickBasic, but if I can play with other DOS versions, particularly modern ones, I would enjoy that very much, since my main goal, aside from programming, is to explore the operating system, including any updates that have been added since the Microsoft version was discontinued.

As a side note, I know how to use Com0Com with regular DOS in a virtual machine, but being totally blind, I cannot install DOS on my own that way, since there would be no speech. Even if I could, I would then need to install a screen reader before it would start speaking. I do remember, however, someone booting a skeleton of DOS with just autoexec.bat, config.sys, and command.com, combined with ASAP. The port.exe program was then used to find my synthesizer, and we were able to troubleshoot the machine from there, almost like using a Windows PE disk. However, that was with a real hardware synthesizer. I'm not sure if this can be done with iso files and com0com. I'm not even sure how I got such a virtual machine to work years ago, even though I still have the machine in question! But it could have been DOS through Windows 95 or some such. It wasn't DOSBox, however. It was definitely used with VMWare.

#accessibility #blind #DOS #DOSBox #FreeDOS #MSDOS #ScreenReaders #TalkingDOSBox #technology #VirtualMachines #VMWare

How Good Is Browser Support for the ARIA Notify API?, by @alex86:

https://www.oidaisdes.org/blog/aria-notify-browser-support/?ref=frontenddogma.com

#aria #notifications #apis #accessibility #support #browsers #screenreaders

I have been quietly working on something for a couple of years, and I want to start talking about it.

It comes from a problem I keep hitting in my accessibility work. Reporting a bug or filing an issue the right way is a mess, and if you use a screen reader, a lot of it is not usable at all.

I have been trying to fix this for years. I think I finally have. Not ready to say what it is yet.

If you have lived this, tell me. Reply or DM, and follow along.

#Accessibility #A11y #ScreenReaders