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People keep bringing up accessibility whenever UI toolkits are mentioned, but wouldn't it be simpler to just have a CLI interface for whatever your program is d

by ginko 5y ago

People keep bringing up accessibility whenever UI toolkits are mentioned, but wouldn't it be simpler to just have a CLI interface for whatever your program is doing?

yoz-y 5y ago
Depends, accessibility is a spectrum. Most people don't need a fully voice/gesture based interface but can get by with good contrast controls and font sizing (as in, the fonts need to be able to get huge). Accessibility is also being able to use the interface only with a keyboard, or only with a mouse or specialized controller with 2 buttons.
dagmx 5y ago
How would that work for something that needs to display an image or other media?
pqb 5y ago
Funny you mention that, it reminds the post I have read few seconds ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26224197 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26224197 I am person, who in last few days tried out to use VoiceOver and move responsibility on it to navigate me and read contents, when I could code while I had closed eyes. Ironically the most annoying interface was CLI, because I had to extend my focus on contents of the terminal. Imagine running docker-compose up and you are going to spammed with reading all logs. Next, usually I had problem to find some relative point that I could mark a "milestone" in my head, which will be further point from I will be reading. Also, not all commands are read after executing them. Such command is silly pwd. Everytime I write it down I had to move the VO cursor to read the contents. Also many characters I would recognize as a programmer VO reads differently. Nano editor was complete unusable for me. While in vim I had notable problem to recognize indentations characters (sometimes they are read and sometimes they don't) and to know in what mode am I actually. brew update+upgrade was a nightmare for me. All kind of separators like #### are read as "number", "number" spam. The same situation was with "clear" command. It was read a hundreds of "space", "space", "space"... I was starting to think I am going to the Moon or I play Portal 2 [0]. I could continue writing down my disappointment about the CLI interface that was among my favorites in past but now after this week with VoiceOver I think it is terrible to be blind, because most of time I had to use my eyes to help myself to recognize where I am and what I need to click to move to next element. I was very surprised by the rofi-like find of elements that are on the screen (named as Rotor feature, CapsLock+U). With VO I don't any longer needed to use mouse, which for anybody who has problem with wrists is also a nice thing to consider. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiaxOkyKbDI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiaxOkyKbDI

by ginko 5y ago

People keep bringing up accessibility whenever UI toolkits are mentioned, but wouldn't it be simpler to just have a CLI interface for whatever your program is doing?

yoz-y 5y ago

Depends, accessibility is a spectrum. Most people don't need a fully voice/gesture based interface but can get by with good contrast controls and font sizing (as in, the fonts need to be able to get huge). Accessibility is also being able to use the interface only with a keyboard, or only with a mouse or specialized controller with 2 buttons.

dagmx 5y ago

How would that work for something that needs to display an image or other media?

pqb 5y ago

Funny you mention that, it reminds the post I have read few seconds ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26224197 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26224197 I am person, who in last few days tried out to use VoiceOver and move responsibility on it to navigate me and read contents, when I could code while I had closed eyes. Ironically the most annoying interface was CLI, because I had to extend my focus on contents of the terminal. Imagine running docker-compose up and you are going to spammed with reading all logs. Next, usually I had problem to find some relative point that I could mark a "milestone" in my head, which will be further point from I will be reading. Also, not all commands are read after executing them. Such command is silly pwd. Everytime I write it down I had to move the VO cursor to read the contents. Also many characters I would recognize as a programmer VO reads differently. Nano editor was complete unusable for me. While in vim I had notable problem to recognize indentations characters (sometimes they are read and sometimes they don't) and to know in what mode am I actually. brew update+upgrade was a nightmare for me. All kind of separators like #### are read as "number", "number" spam. The same situation was with "clear" command. It was read a hundreds of "space", "space", "space"... I was starting to think I am going to the Moon or I play Portal 2 [0]. I could continue writing down my disappointment about the CLI interface that was among my favorites in past but now after this week with VoiceOver I think it is terrible to be blind, because most of time I had to use my eyes to help myself to recognize where I am and what I need to click to move to next element. I was very surprised by the rofi-like find of elements that are on the screen (named as Rotor feature, CapsLock+U). With VO I don't any longer needed to use mouse, which for anybody who has problem with wrists is also a nice thing to consider. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiaxOkyKbDI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiaxOkyKbDI