aaron

2 months ago

aaron
2 months ago

Steam just added screen reader support in the latest Big Picture Mode beta. On the Deck. On SteamOS. On Linux.
Not hacked in. Not community-patched. Built-in. From Valve.
There's an accessibility tab. There's a screen reader. There's high-contrast mode, UI scaling, color filters, reduced motion, and more.
I can’t believe I’m saying this but: I need a Steam Deck now.
Accessibility isn’t just coming to gaming — it’s here, and it’s official.
Let’s make some noise so they keep going.
🔗 theverge.com/games/689922/stea…
#Accessibility #Gaming #SteamDeck #ScreenReader #Linux #valve

Steam is adding screen reader support and other accessibility tools

Valve’s latest Steam beta adds new accessibility features to Big Picture mode and SteamOS.

^{Adi Robertson (The Verge)}

#Accessibility #linux #gaming #screenreader #SteamDeck #valve

This entry was edited (2 months ago)

reshared this

in reply to aaron

Devin Prater :blind:

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

Wonder if there's a way to turn on the screen reader without sighted assistance?

This entry was edited (2 months ago)

in reply to Devin Prater :blind:

aaron

in reply to Devin Prater :blind: 2 months ago

@pixelate There is, but on the website it's not obvious how.

@Devin Prater :blind:

in reply to aaron

Jonathan

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

Yeah, a Steam Deck is in my consideration range now as well, I mean why not? Would surely elevate my gaming experience a lot. Always nice to have something else than the generic audio game, and maybe I can even use my eyes a little bit, who knows.

in reply to aaron

Devin Prater :blind:

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

Oh, it can be enabled at any time by pressing... image + image.

in reply to Devin Prater :blind:

aaron

in reply to Devin Prater :blind: 2 months ago

@pixelate Yeah. that's... not great.

@Devin Prater :blind:

in reply to aaron

Devin Prater :blind:

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

According to AI, The screen reader can be enabled and disabled by pressing the "Steam" button and the "X" button simultaneously.

in reply to Devin Prater :blind:

Leaf Eriksen

in reply to Devin Prater :blind: 2 months ago

@pixelate The AI got the "steam" button right, that is the one below the left trackpad. The button that the AI identified as "x" is called the "view" button and is located above the left joystick and d-pad.

@Devin Prater :blind:

in reply to Leaf Eriksen

aaron

in reply to Leaf Eriksen 2 months ago

@leaferiksen @pixelate thank you!

@Leaf Eriksen @Devin Prater :blind:

in reply to aaron

Matt Campbell

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

Are there still any parts of the installation and setup process for Steam on Windows that aren't accessible?

in reply to Matt Campbell

Matt Campbell

in reply to Matt Campbell 2 months ago

I've avoided buying games from Steam because my understanding was that some workarounds were necessary to use the Steam client with a screen reader. But maybe that knowledge is outdated? I hope so.

in reply to Matt Campbell

aaron

in reply to Matt Campbell 2 months ago

@matt I use steam on windows without issues, no command-line hacks required any more. It's clunky, but no worse than other web apps.

@Matt Campbell

Matt Campbell reshared this.

in reply to aaron

aaron

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

@matt It's sometimes easier to buy a game through the website and then install through the app, or just tell it to install on your machine via the site, but it's workable.

@Matt Campbell

in reply to Matt Campbell

Tammy

in reply to Matt Campbell 2 months ago

@matt I use steam all the time for games, and it works just fine.

@Matt Campbell

in reply to aaron

clew

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

Took me a WHILE to understand “dropped” in that sentence

Dropped *with* accessibility? This is good news?

@fireborn

@aaron

in reply to clew

aaron

in reply to clew 2 months ago

@clew Yes, sorry. as in, they just added it. This is huge. and new. It's really the first time they've talked about accessibility and it's not just a happy accident it works.

@clew

in reply to aaron

Ritchie

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

Fuckin' aye. ❤

I bought my Steam Deck at launch, then my vision degraded past the point where I can actually read the screen. So I've not been able to use it for months, not even enough to find the system update menu.

This would help. A lot.

in reply to aaron

Twink Prime

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

Dropped

I interpreted that as removedIt took me a bit to realize it was added
:p

in reply to Twink Prime

aaron

in reply to Twink Prime 2 months ago

@theking Sorry about that. I'll edit.

@Twink Prime

in reply to aaron

sodiboo

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

Maybe just replace dropped (added) with added. I was confused too reading it, even seeing only the edited version; and took me reading the rest of the post for me to realize "dropped" = "released"

in reply to sodiboo

aaron

in reply to sodiboo 2 months ago

@sodiboo @theking Done.

@Twink Prime @sodiboo

in reply to aaron

em♡⁠

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

omg that’s amazing
hopefully their work is applicable outside of steam too

in reply to em♡⁠

aaron

in reply to em♡⁠ 2 months ago

@em I don't know any more than is on their explanation page. I'm hopeful, too.

@em♡⁠

in reply to aaron

aaron

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

I updated it. I have no idea what happened here.

in reply to aaron

LeonianUniverse😁

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

@pixelate Hell yeah, now I want a steam deck.

@Devin Prater :blind:

in reply to aaron

🍯bug

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

hmm is this like a fork or config of orca or something new ? and if new, is it open source ?

in reply to 🍯bug

aaron

in reply to 🍯bug 2 months ago

@bug I don't know anything other than what they disclosed. I don't have a deck yet to poke at it.

@🍯bug

in reply to aaron

Alex

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

this is great news!

in reply to aaron

Phil

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

did they use orca? Or which screen reader is it?

in reply to Phil

Emmanuele Bassi

in reply to Phil 2 months ago

@Isofruit it’s Orca

@Phil

aaron reshared this.

in reply to Emmanuele Bassi

Phil

in reply to Emmanuele Bassi 2 months ago

in that case fingers crossed for valve furthering orca development or general work on newton!

This entry was edited (2 months ago)

aaron reshared this.

in reply to aaron

aaron

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

I don't know yet. I would think something custom but I'm not sure yet.

in reply to aaron

aaron

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

It defaults to it if you install with a screen reader. I'm not sure beyond that. Debian has packages that are older than I am, so I wouldn't worry about them dropping it any time soon.

in reply to aaron

RejZoR

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

I think I'll get myself Steam Deck 2 when it's released one day (Steam Deck is a bit on the outdated side now). I actually never owned any handheld console ever, no Gameboys and stuff. Only thing I ever owned was those 99 in 1 hand consoles from the 90s that are just 99 variants of Tetris in different modes.

Unknown parent

aaron

Unknown parent 2 months ago

@biou It's super exciting. I have hope that the EAA will encourage real change.

@biou

in reply to aaron

Andre Louis

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

I wonder if they did it because the Switch 2 also has it?

in reply to Andre Louis

aaron

in reply to Andre Louis 2 months ago

@FreakyFwoof Very possibly. I haven't used it to see how fleshed out it is to ague that.

@Andre Louis

in reply to aaron

Andre Louis

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

Have you heard my demo of the Nintendo offerings?

in reply to Andre Louis

aaron

in reply to Andre Louis 2 months ago

@FreakyFwoof I have. It could certainly be better but it's a good start.

@Andre Louis

in reply to aaron

Andre Louis

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

Yep, I check for all the things with each system update.

in reply to aaron

Bri😻

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

oh my God, no shit!

in reply to Bri😻

aaron

in reply to Bri😻 2 months ago

@Brynify Yeah, it's really exciting stuff.

@Bri😻

in reply to aaron

James Dean

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

This is a huge turn-around. Valve historicly hasn't cared about Accessibility much if at all. Big Picture Mode is already usable, nice that they're really making it work!

in reply to aaron

Mckensie parker

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

Going to guess they're using ESpeak for the TTS engine?

in reply to Mckensie parker

aaron

in reply to Mckensie parker 2 months ago

@mckensie I would guess so.

@Mckensie parker

in reply to aaron

Mckensie parker

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

Either that or they might use some compact version of Google TTS or something. The nintendo switch uses the neospeech voices. They could be using some other engine like Amazon or Google but you never know

in reply to Mckensie parker

aaron

in reply to Mckensie parker 2 months ago

@mckensie I highly doubt it, they're using Orca and speech-dispatcher

@Mckensie parker

in reply to aaron

Mckensie parker

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

Or they could be using something like Dectalk. But I mean you could get it on there if wanted to either way

in reply to Mckensie parker

aaron

in reply to Mckensie parker 2 months ago

@mckensie There is no way they would use something legally dubious as DECTalk

@Mckensie parker

in reply to aaron

Mckensie parker

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

I hope they don't use festival because that. just, no

Unknown parent

aaron

Unknown parent 2 months ago

@BrodieOnLinux @mjdxp Yeah, it is super cool. It's using Orca too, so maybe we'll see Valve contribute upstream. Per EAA, I think they will have to do something to make apps/games running under proton accessible, as they ship proton on the device.

@Brodie Robertson @Credit card

in reply to aaron

delta

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

wonder if steam will provide games an api for accessibility settings at some point too, where a game can just see that you've enabled prefer reduce motion and automatically enable its equivalent when you start the game for the first time, without having to first go through the games settings to find it

in reply to delta

yuki - queen of the snow

in reply to delta 2 months ago

if we go this route, i'd love to see them add like, "accessibility ratings" to games, or something like that!

in reply to yuki - queen of the snow

aaron

in reply to yuki - queen of the snow 2 months ago

@yukijoou @delta I heard something about adding accessibility features to the sidebar of the store when viewing a game.

@delta @yuki - queen of the snow

in reply to yuki - queen of the snow

🌸 lily 🏳️‍⚧️ θΔ ⋐ & ∞

in reply to yuki - queen of the snow 2 months ago

they did! look:

in reply to 🌸 lily 🏳️‍⚧️ θΔ ⋐ & ∞

yuki - queen of the snow

in reply to 🌸 lily 🏳️‍⚧️ θΔ ⋐ & ∞ 2 months ago

amazing!!!!

in reply to yuki - queen of the snow

aaron

in reply to yuki - queen of the snow 2 months ago

@yukijoou @delta @tauon the first time Valve has really talked about accessibility at all.

@delta @🌸 lily 🏳️‍⚧️ θΔ ⋐ & ∞ @yuki - queen of the snow

in reply to aaron

Michael DK1MI/N1BSD

in reply to aaron 2 months ago

This is really great! As a classic Doom player, I also find this here absolutely brilliant: youtu.be/AGVLrQfgi5o?si=8x6ddq…

Toby Accessibility Mod | Doom Wad Showcase

We check out the Toby Accessibility mod and take out some demons with the power of sound!Toby Accessibility Mod by Alando1https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.p...

^YouTube