Having used dos with screen readers for nearly 20 years, I can honestly
say, if you get a plain dos install working, you will run into programs
that work well, some that work enough to get the job done, and some that
won't work at all, (just like on any other platform). Generally, if
they use bios to write to the screen, tehy'll work just fine. (although,
even those can talk too much in a few circumstances). If they use
direct screen writes, they still work, only you need to do the reading,
since the synthesizer (generally) won't do it for you, although ASAP was
pretty good at reading those kinds of screens. If they're graphical
screens, they're likely not to talk at all, or if they do, it won't be
enough to reliably use the program. The only exception I ever found to
this rule was a program used to make greeting cards, posters, and
similar. I can't remember it's name, it was from Borland I think, and
was called print something I think. (of course, I'd recognize if it if
I see it). That program was amazing, you could choose all the items for
the greeting cards, type in your text, and even design the borders and
images included with the card. I've never seen anything since that's
even remotely as accessible as that program was.
We used to use it all the time for practically everything.
But, I digress (as usual). Depending on the screen reader you're using,
(and there are some free ones), you should be able to play any of the
text adventure games out there, as well as games like nethack and it's
clones such as rogue, angband and the like. There are also some
text/graphic hybrid games that still work with screen readers under dos,
because the graphics were only for displaying pictures, and not used to
make the text fancy looking.
In general, any program that starts in a graphics mode won't work, just
about anything else will to some degree, it's just a matter of how
accessible you need it to get the task done.
On 9/23/2024 7:46 PM, Lawrence Perez via Freedos-user wrote:
Hello everyone,
I'm reaching out to seek advice regarding FreeDOS and its accessibility,
particularly for blind users like myself who rely on a screen reader.
I’m using the Orca screen reader on Raspberry Pi OS, and I also have access to
a Mac with the VoiceOver screen reader. I’m interested in experimenting with
DOS and retro technology, including playing older text-based games, but I’ve
encountered many accessibility challenges.
I have tried to use other emulators such as DOSBox and DOSEMU. DOSBox doesn’t
support sending output to the terminal and will send all output to a GUI that
my screen readers can’t interact with. I’ve heard DOSEMU has this option, but I
don’t have a Linux computer that can support it.
After some experimentation, I managed to get the FreeDOS installer to output to
the terminal using QEMU, which is currently the only method I’ve found that
works with my screen readers. With this method, I am able to type DOS commands
and have their output spoken by the screen reader. I'm running QEMU in no
graphics mode to avoid opening another window and to redirect all output to the
terminal.
However, I’m encountering an issue during the installation of FreeDOS. DOS
prompts me to partition the virtual drive and requires a restart, giving me a
yes or no prompt. Once I type Y and the system restarts, the terminal displays
the normal boot sequence and doesn’t respond to any further commands. From my
research, I believe this issue is related to the virtual serial interface that
sends output to the terminal, but I’m not familiar with how DOS handles this,
as I am new to DOS.
Since I can get the installer to work, is it possible to copy all the installer
files to a virtual QEMU disk and make it bootable, without the disadvantage
that the system will be read-only? How could I do this? Alternatively, can I
use DOS as is, using only the ISO image? Finally, what unique text-based DOS
games / software do you recommend I try when installation succeeds?
I appreciate any insights or guidance you can offer.
Sincerely,
Lawrence
Sent from my iPhone
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