[Accessibility-testing] both games and voice/keyboard accessibility

[Andrew Plotkin]

Attached is the Tester's Guide I just wrote for the Inform game.

--Z

-- 
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
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_A Night Below the Opera_ is a sample game for testing accessibility of IF parser tools and interfaces. It tries to display a variety of common IF formatting and interface conventions, while also sticking to best practices for accessibility in Inform 7.

(These two goals aren't exactly compatible, as we will see.)

You should be familiar with the basics of parser IF before you play. If you aren't, try this introduction: http://www.brasslantern.org/beginners/beginnersguide.html

The game has seven rooms, with several puzzles or tasks scattered throughout. I will describe each of them, with the accessibility goals and intended outcomes. After that I will give a "spoiler" section, which describes exactly what to do. If accessibility problem prevent you from finishing a task, the spoilers will explain exactly how to do it.

* MOVING AROUND

You begin in the Kitchen.
The Washroom is east of the Kitchen.
The Storage Room is west of the Kitchen.
The Smoking Room is south of the Kitchen.
The Rear Corridor is southwest of the Kitchen. It is also south of the Storage Room and west of the Smoking Room. (These four rooms form a small square.)
The Basement is down from the Rear Corridor.
The Dance Floor is east of the Basement. (You can move around to different positions on the Dance Floor; it forms a four-by-three grid of locations.)

* READING VARIOUS LANGUAGES

In the Washroom is a notice board with several signs on it. You can read any of the signs and see a message in one of several languages, plus fonts (demonstrating font styles) and emoji.

* OBSERVING SCORE

In the Washroom, pulling the shiny lever allows you to wash your hands. Every time you do this, your score increases. The total score should be readable at all times.

* READING TEXT AFTER THE SCREEN IS CLEARED

In the Smoking Room is a book. When you read the book, the game prompts you to "hit any key to continue", prints a text passage, and then prompts to hit another key.

* MENU SELECTION

In the Rear Corridor is a slide projector. When you turn this on, you will see a menu of six slides. You can navigate this menu with the arrow keys; hit Enter to display a description of one slide.

The sixth slide describes a location to look to find an item.

* BOX QUOTES

In the Rear Corridor is a brass plaque. Clean it, then examine it. You will see a pane containing a verse, which gives instructions on how to obtain an item.

* IMAGES

In the Smoking Room, the case contains three photographs. The console photo gives a clue about how to open a secret compartment on the control console in the Basement.

* SOUNDS

In the Storage Room is a holiday card. When opened, this plays an audio sample which gives a clue about buttons to push on the control console in the Basement.

* ASCII ART

In the Storage Room is a crumpled note. This shows an ASCII-art map, which gives a sequence of directions to move on the Dance Floor.

* FINISHING THE GAME

In the Storage Room is a parcel. If you unwrap it, you will find clues for a goal which involves the items found in the other puzzles. Once you have all five items, you can leave the game area and end the story.


*** SPOILERS ***

* MOVING AROUND

You should be able to reach all the rooms using the standard movement commands.

* READING VARIOUS LANGUAGES

In the Washroom:

> EXAMINE BOARD
The notice board has signs telling you to wash your hands in all sorts of languages. You see an English sign, a font sign, a German sign, an Arabic sign, a Hebrew sign, a Russian sign, a Japanese sign, and an emoji sign.

Each sign says "Employees must wash hands" in a different language.

The font sign is written in English, but the word "must" should be boldface and "hands" should be italicized.

The Arabic and Hebrew signs should display right-to-left, with the closing period on the left.

* OBSERVING SCORE

In the Washroom:

> PULL LEVER
Water blasts into the sink. You virtuously wash your hands some more.
[Your score has just gone up by one point.]

Each time you wash your hands, the score increases by one. The score is always readable on the right side of the status window.

* READING TEXT AFTER THE SCREEN IS CLEARED

In the Smoking Room:

> READ BOOK

The book's title is described as "A History of the Ampersand in Ancient and Modern Literature." The text of the book is a paragraph from "The Aleph" by Jorge Luis Borges, with the word "Aleph" replaced by "Ampersand".

* MENU SELECTION

In the Rear Corridor:

> TURN ON PROJECTOR

Use the arrow keys (or "N" and "P" for next and previous) to select "Slide VI: The location of the prize". Hit Enter.

A photograph of the smoking chamber is projected onto the wall. The glass photography case has been circled in red ink, and the words "LOOK UNDER" scrawled on top. Huh.

Hit Escape (or "Q") to exit the menu.

In the Smoking Room:

> LOOK UNDER CASE

You acquire the Left Glove of Darkness.

* BOX QUOTES

In the Rear Corridor:

> CLEAN PLAQUE
You scrub at the brass until letters emerge from beneath the grime.
> READ PLAQUE
The plaque is still grungy, but you puzzle out the text.
  A verse in the air
  caught in cold brass
  Knock three times
  What might come to pass?
> KNOCK ON PLAQUE
You rap sharply on the plaque.
> KNOCK ON PLAQUE
You rap sharply on the plaque again.
> KNOCK ON PLAQUE
You rap on the plaque again, and something falls to the floor. It's the Earring of Darkness!
> TAKE EARRING

* IMAGES

In the Smoking Room:

> EXAMINE CONSOLE PHOTO

The photograph shows a console with buttons marked 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9.

In the Basement:

The console has buttons numbered 1 through 6.

> TURN BUTTON 6
You give the 6 button a gentle twist, and are startled to find that it rotates in its socket. When the button has rotated a half turn, you feel a click from within the console. A hidden compartment pops open, revealing the Cravat of Darkness!
> TAKE CRAVAT

* SOUNDS

In the Storage Room:

> TAKE CARD
> OPEN CARD
You open the card. Its audio chip plays for a few seconds, but it's not a melody in B-flat minor, or any other key.

The audio sample contains three clicks, then two clicks, then five clicks, then one click.

In the Basement:

> PUSH 3
> PUSH 2
> PUSH 5
> PUSH 1
A harsh white spotlight stabs down at the southeast corner of the dance floor.

> SOUTHEAST
> EAST
> EAST
> EAST

You discover the Leg-Warmer of Darkness. 

> TAKE WARMER

* ASCII ART

First, an apology. I don't see any practical way in which the map can be made accessible to screen-reader technology. So this puzzle is probably just unsolvable for some players.

Why did I include it? Several reasons:

- It is a fairly common IF trope. By including it in our test, we can include the results in our report. At worst, we will be able to educate authors that this trope is inherently inaccessible.
- It reinforces the message that we are testing many forms of accessibility, not just text-to-speech.
- Who knows, maybe there's a screen-reader which can make sense of it! I'd rather test it than make assumptions.

Okay, on with the spoilers. In the Storage Room:

> READ NOTE

The map should be displayed in a fixed-width font. The directions, starting at the cross, are: E, SW, E, NE, NW, E, SE.

In the Basement:

> EAST

This puts you on the Dance Floor, at the cross.

> E
> SW
> E
> NE
> NW
> E
> SE

You discover the Right Sandal of Darkness.

> TAKE SANDAL

* FINISHING THE GAME

In the Storage Room:

> OPEN PARCEL
You rip open the parcel, revealing a lovely violet crystal vase! You also notice something written on the red foil wrapping.
> EXAMINE VASE
It's a cut-crystal vase of a fetching violet hue.
> READ FOIL
The scrap of wrapping foil has words written on the inside: "Please place this vase in the Smoking Room to honor the memory of Melvin, this theater's most indispensible member."

In the Smoking Room:

> DROP VASE
You position the vase on a side table. It looks very elegant there.
You feel a sudden chill, and then a sense of being watched... by something... some voiceless presence.
> EXAMINE PRESENCE
You can't tell what sort of presence it is, or what it wants.
> FEEL PRESENCE
It's nothing but a chill in the air.
> PUT ROSE IN VASE

You will hear a message from Melvin the janitor, asking you to put all five Items of Darkness in the storage room.

Once you have all five Items of Darkness, go to the Storage Room.

> DROP ALL
You feel a sudden, peaceful sense of tidiness and order. It's probably time to head home.

In the Kitchen:

> NORTH
You walk through the Opera Bar and out into the night, mulling over the satisfaction of a job well done.
    *** You have tidied ***