[Accessibility-testing] 2018 goals review

[Andrew Plotkin]

On Tue, 6 Feb 2018, deborah.kaplan at suberic.net wrote:

> I also am very much in favor of either developing or finding a minimal game 
> that has all the features we are worried about. From talking to Jason, I 
> understand that the classic test game is old-school IF, and wouldn't give us 
> the ability to test images or that kind of screen-changing interaction I kept 
> describing to Jason as "you know, all that AJAXy stuff."

The ideal small testing game in Twine will look very different from the 
ideal small testing game in a parser-based IF system. I wouldn't try to 
port the same game (content) to each system.

(The whole reason behind Cloak of Darkness was to exercise a range of 
features of a parser and parser-based world model. That's all that's in 
it. It predates common support for sound/graphics in parser dev tools, so 
it doesn't try to exercise those features.)

It also doesn't have to be a winnable game with puzzles and an ending. 
It's easier and probably more effective to just provide the interaction.
"Here's a photograph; when you EXAMINE it, you should get the following 
image with the following text alt description."

I'm willing to take on the work of building the appropriate Inform game
when we reach that point.

> The X-axis is IF play platforms: Quixe, Parchment, Gargoyle, Lectrote,
> Sugarcube, Harlowe, ChoiceScript, et cetera, noting the versions of all
> software involved.

Also Inform and Twine as development tools.

> I am in favor of finding some way to compensate testers, if possible. I have 
> become a stronger and stronger advocate of the idea that we should pay people 
> for their work, especially people from communities underrepresented in the 
> industry.  When  disabled users do accessibility testing for commercial 
> sites, there's usually an Amazon gift card or PayPal honorarium. For the 
> for-profit sites, that honorarium usually ranges between $50-$150; maybe 
> something less than that would be possible?

As I've said, we can allocate a budget of $500 without asking questions, 
higher if we run it by the Board. When we start writing down The Matrix, 
we should think about how many testers will be involved.

Austin wrote:

>  I wonder if we could send a feelie in keeping with tradition. I really 
> enjoyed the copper coins from Get Lamp. I know in the real world people 
> want money, but I just had that fun thought.

A feelie would be fun, but money is way easier to manage. We're already 
set up to Paypal money to a list of people -- I figured that out when we 
did the IFComp prizes last year.

--Z

-- 
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*