Florian3d ago

Given this is now released, I'm happy to report that the third-party control client for the Elgato Streamdeck, called OpenDeck, is now a lot more accessible for #screenReader and keyboard-only users.
These devices have always had a huge #accessibility barrier in that the only way to assign an action to a key was through a drag-and-drop interface. Elgato has been notified about this, but proved ... let's say ... less than ehtusiastic to fix it. So, I did.

While I can't claim 100% accessibility, primarily because that isn't a thing, I can say I made sure everything I could find was labeled, and that there's now a keyboard-only way of associating buttons, knobs, and touch controls with actions, something the official client does not, and probably will not, support.

I'll be making a video on the ViewpointUnseen youtube channel with all the details soon.

https://github.com/nekename/opendeck

Show threadJay Pellis3d ago
@jackf723 @zersiax I don't know anything about these, which model to start with ETC. Have heard of and have always been interested. I have an audient evo 16 and all I want to do is stream live music with or without NVDA on the stream. I have a camera too but not sure if I want to get that involved, depending on what these controllers can do. Any suggestions?
Show threadFlorian3d ago
@jpellis2008 @jackf723 Not really the same thing, this is a device that lets you map physical buttons to actions on your computer. As for what you want to do, probably just send that audient's signal into OBS or some other streaming or recording tool. NVDA can either go through one of the outs (if Windows lets you select that) or through a separate audio device
Show threadJay Pellis2d ago
@zersiax @jackf723 Ok here is an odd question. My wife has arthritis and the ergonomic keyboard that was purchased for her is not that good. Can she use a deck to basically define a bunch of shortcut keys, select all, copy/paste for word, maybe some stuff for chrome, record/raise hand in zoom, ETC? Non streaming keys?
Show threadFlorian2d ago
@jpellis2008 @jackf723 Certainly for some of those, yes. I'm pretty sure there's a Zoom plugin, so you should in theory be able to make a Raise Hand button, but I honestly haven't tried, your mileage may vary
Show threadJay Pellis2d ago
@zersiax @jackf723 But do they have to use plug ins? What about as I said just remapping regular keys, copy/paste, even say something from jaws?
Show threadFlorian2d ago
@jpellis2008 @jackf723 you can do that too, yes, there's a "simulate mouse and keyboard" action where you just type the keys to press
Show threadJay Pellis2d ago
@zersiax @jackf723 Ok cool thanks. So I just install the open deck software, plug in a deck and go from there? Anything else to be aware of?
Show threadFlorian
@jpellis2008 @jackf723 that's mostly it. You assign actions through ctrl+c from the action list, then ctrl+v on the key you want it on. For each key, tabbing from the key will place you in that action's edit window which lets you set the parameters for the action, so that could be the keystrokes to press for example. Most of these have an explanation of how you're supposed to use them in the window, good to give that a look as sometimes you need special syntax, but it's usually very simple and the vast majority of things just give you checkboxes and dropdowns
Apr 4 at 10:16pmWeb
Show threadJay Pellis2d ago
@zersiax @jackf723 I installed it to give it a try, of course without anything connected, it is limited. Are those explanations you mentione read out automatically or would you have to use object nav or something? Sorry about all the questions, I really appreciate the help. This could help my wife so so so much with zoom meetings, word, recording youtube videos, eventually doing streams, all kinds of shortcuts!
Show threadFlorian2d ago
@jpellis2008 @jackf723 it's just a web app :) so you can use browse mode to read those explanations, focus mode to deal with the interactive bits
Show threadJay Pellis2d ago
@zersiax @jackf723 Oh ok yes I saw that. I thought there may be extra things that may not read on their own ETC. I am very excited!