Hello I'm sorry I'm going the other way here talking about screen readers under DOS, instead of the "installing FreeDOS with a screen reader" topic.
IBM used to have a technology for blind people that used to run on DOS and OS/2. It was called the IBM Screen Reader. What is the issue here? It required some specific synthesizer cards and a special numeric keypad. I never saw this running on OS/2 or DOS, I'm looking forward to eventually seeing a YouTube video about this. Or even someone trying to run this old IBM software under FreeDOS and/or vintage hardware. I only have some information: - https://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php?title=Screen_Reader/2 - https://knowbility.org/blog/2021/a-brief-history-of-screen-readers - https://archive.org/download/IBMScreenReader Regards On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 2:51 PM Lawrence Perez via Freedos-user < freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> 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 > > _______________________________________________ > Freedos-user mailing list > Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user > -- Martín Itúrbide http://www.os2world.com mar...@os2world.com martiniturb...@gmail.com Quito - Ecuador
_______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
