[Accessibility-testing] Updated draft of a recommendations list

[Andrew Plotkin]

On Tue, 26 Mar 2019, Jason McIntosh wrote:

> Here is my updated stab at a list of community recommendations, as a 
> plain-text outline. It includes various points folks raised during our 
> March 11 call, and it also works in the names of APX design patterns 
> that various recommendations map to.

This list is a mix of recommendations to interpreter authors, 
recommendations to compiler developers (Graham for Inform), and 
recommendations to game authors. And, now that I think of it, 
recommendations to the maintainer of the virtual machine spec (me for 
Inform.)

However, categorizing the recommendations isn't as easy as you think!

For example, "list exit options" can be implemented in most games without 
too much trouble, but it's traditionally considered the author's decision. 
Graham could build it into Inform as a default, but the default would be 
wrong for some games, so this would require extra attention from the 
author.

(Inform historically comes down on the side of "don't make the author pay 
attention to every possible feature; default to simplicity.")

Displaying room description and inventory in separate panes also requires 
help from the author. It gets tangled up with the author's ability to put 
text or images in different panes. (Most games don't do this, but 
Counterfeit Monkey, for example, does.)

On the other end of the scale, "support display of alt text for sound" is 
actually not possible right now, because the virtual machine doesn't offer 
access to that information. I could fix that, and then it would have to be 
implemented by interpreter authors *and* Graham to work reliably.

"Volume/mute controls" should almost certainly be implemented by the 
interpreter supporter, not the game author. (It should behave consistently 
across games and the author should not be able to opt out.)

These are just examples. The whole feature ecosystem is a lot messier than 
newcomers, and even IF authors, thing.

--Z

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