[BlindRUG] Text-based progress bars and screen readers?

[Godfrey, Jonathan]

In addition, I'd point out that screen readers on Windows generally filter repeated characters so that a string of 10 = signs will be read as "===".  

The addition of a single character on the end of a string will/might generate audio for each addition, but replacement of the whole string will/might result in much more audible garbage.

I know that at least one screen reader allows the user the ability to choose the level of filtering, but to be honest, the average user probably doesn't go changing this sort of setting. In my experience, the blind user who must know exactly how many characters are repeated as a string, would almost certainly not be working audio alone.

Jonathan
 
-----Original Message-----
From: BlindRUG <blindrug-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Voica Gavrilut via BlindRUG
Sent: Thursday, 23 May 2019 2:08 AM
To: Blind R Users Group <blindrug at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Voica Gavrilut <voica.gavrilut at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [BlindRUG] Text-based progress bars and screen readers?

Hey Henrik,

I think that it depends on screen reader and on how this is
configured. The first 2 alternatives will beep with an increased pitch
for me ( by NVDA) and with the third alternative in addition of beeps
I would have the possibility to read the text.

All best
Voica
On 5/22/19, Henrik Bengtsson via BlindRUG <blindrug at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm interested in how text-based progress bars in the terminal works
> with screen readers.  I'm hoping someone with experience with R and
> screen readers can comment on this.  In short, do these text-based
> progress bars play well with screen readers or are they painful to
> listen too?  What would be a better alternative for auditory feedback
> on progress be?
>
> Detailed questions:
>
> In R, we have utils::txtProgressBar() for producing progress bars in
> the terminal.  Like other solutions, it works by outputting a
> single-line of symbols where the number of symbols relative to the
> width of the terminal reflects the amount of progress.  Calling:
>
> example("txtProgressBar", package="utils")
>
> illustrates three kinds of progress bars typically used.  I can
> imagine several issues with these when using screen readers because
> they are designed to be perceived visually.  For example,
>
> Q1. The screen reader will read out every single symbol as is, i.e. a
> sequence of 20 equal signs (the symbol used by default) will be a long
> repetitive readout.  Here is an example of such a progress bar at
> length 20:
>
> ====================
>
> Here is the same progress bar of length 40:
>
> ========================================
>
> How well do these convey progress when used with a screen reader?
>
> Q2. Some progress bars will append to the existing output as it grows.
> This means that there will be 80 equal signs outputted if the maximum
> width is 80.  Other solutions will rewrite the whole line at each
> update, which is down by skipping back to the first position and
> outputting the whole line.  If each of the 80 steps is outputted, I
> can imagine the screen reader will first render a progress bar of
> length 1, then redo the same of length 2, and so on.  That is a lot of
> voiced output if that is what happens.  Is that the case?
>
>
> Q3. Other progress bars output includes both a visual bar and textual
> information.  Here is an example of a progress bar at 40% completion:
>
>   |============                  |  40%
>
> How does this kind of progress bar work with screen readers?
>
> Best,
>
> Henrik
>
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>
> Look for help using R commands by reading the accessible e-book "Let's Use R
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> http://R-Resources.massey.ac.nz/lurn/front.html
>

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http://R-Resources.massey.ac.nz/lurn/front.html