Let me start by saying that I enjoy CLI applications. I use many of them, and in my small Python projects, to make my life easier and, admittedly, due to a lack of expertise, I tend to avoid developing any GUIs. Beyond having simpler code, CLI programs are undoubtedly more accessible because screen readers—software that converts screen content into synthetic speech and Braille—have no issues reading console content, whereas they might struggle with graphical window objects. This largely depends on how those objects were programmed.
In general, the more standard the objects are, such as those created with the wxPython library, the more accessible they are. On the other hand, some libraries create objects that are not detectable by the assistive technologies I use.
I mention this to emphasize that if there were no alternatives, I’m already prepared to stay in the terminal, and this wouldn’t be an issue. By the way, I just read online that there’s a VSCode extension for CSound. VSCode is my IDE, so I’ll undoubtedly be writing my source code using that extension, which would be amazing if it could assist with autocompletion.
Now, onto my question: Do you know of any Windows frontend application that implements accessibility features?
Thank you all in advance. Wishing you a wonderful day!
Gabe
Hi Gabe,
I have read somewhere that Cabbage has accessibility support now. I don't know if that has been tested by blind users before. Cabbage is used to develop audio plugins, like VST or AU for Logic.
If you are happy with writing code, I still think your best bet is a good editor or general development IDE and pure Csound. I do love my terminal though. So, if you have a relatively modern system go and explore the others. The webIDE would probably be my starting point.
There are various: CsoundQt, Cabbage, Blue, and the WebIDE, for example. Look in csound.com.
Hello and thanks for your answer.
Yep, I saw them but I was hoping to read some opinions before to install them to try. Anyway, doing that is maybe the only way to know about their accessibility level. I'll try Cabage whichis based on QT6 library.
By the way, the spelling of the name of the system is Csound not CSound.
Whatever accessibility features that are in the current version of Cabbage, version 2, are provided by the JUCE library and have never been tested as far as I am aware. I am not sure it will make a good fit. I think vs-code and the csound-plugin extension are the best way forward here. Cabbage 3 will be a vscode extension too, so once that drops you’ll have a way to develop interfaces using JSON code and won’t need to change editor.
Hi Gabe,
with the latest JUCE support and Cabbage 3 you may have more luck. I know that JUCE has implemented accessibility in the latest versions, but it will only work on Windows. So, perhaps wait for Cabbage 3.