extremely confused about accessibility

[camaro76]

Hi,
First of all, I'm blind and use NVDA as my primary screen reader.
I downloaded the FSX Special Edition demo version last night to make sure I wanted to buy it.
I'm not sure how to use it at all. First thing I noticed was that generating a flightplan had me start somewhere in the UK which I don't want. Problem is I could not figure out how to do that. I went to the flight generator dialog to see if that would help, but barely any of the checkboxes and other controls have labels, so it's really hard to use.
I guess my main question is is the accessibility included in the demo version?

[Steve Waite]

Hi,

Accessibility is included in the new version currently at preview 16.
Please download the preview from the New Builds section and Update.

The demo version is limited in functionality.

Remember to read the walk through, which explains why you are currently located at an airport in Ideal Flight. It is not a hub airport, rather simply, it is your current location. From there the program finds where you can get to with your full set of preferences, from plane to plan.

It's easy to set up where you want to start and what aircraft you want to use. There's a Profile page and an Aircraft Selection page. When NVDA is active on the system the pages include headings and description unavailable to the sighted user.

However I suggest you use the stock aircraft and do the walkthrough before moving on to more serious pursuits as you will probably get lost in the workings. It's sort of like real life whereby you are currently located somewhere and you fly from there to somewhere else.

Ideal Flight is not the same as other add-ons because it has to do as much as it can for us.

When we get in to Ideal Flight we realise we will be flying more than usual. It really does do a job of making things easy, you have to understand what that means to a program that can give you freedom in any way you want with flying any aircraft. There will be considerations to how you currently do things to how you might do it with IF.


Best regards Steve

[Steve Waite]

More experienced users of ideal Flight realise that the program can be used just as we might any planner by simply Pasting in to Ideal Flight the departure and destination.

The paste-in box (CTRL+V) pops up even if there is no content in the Windows Clipboard. In that case just type in the two ICAO's.

The program creates a full-fat plan and flight file that the simulator is started with. That's done with the common shell, program start, by file type associated. Otherwise Ideal Flight does nothing to the simulator unless weather and AI traffic are included. The aircraft should be able to start from flight saved with that aircraft as the user vehicle.

Ideal Flight is also a tool that will show up any problems with the simulation.

[Steve Waite]

New users of Ideal Flight notice that it does not guess fuel used. Fuel is measured when we fly.

Fuel in Ideal Flight is determined by what we actually use in that plane in our sim.

This is not the same as real life aircraft. This enables the developer of aircraft to evaluate and adjust the fuel scalars to best simulate the aircraft fuelling behaviour. And that would have to be done with careful simulator setup and also careful flying.

If the aircraft uses more fuel than it is supposed to, then we look at our flying, the weather, the add-on. We use Ideal Flight to tell us what we used and from that, by the available fuel load, the aircraft fuel Range.

We put the Range into the Aircraft Flight Parameters page when we have an idea what it will be. We can start by choosing what the manufacturer states on the aircraft website, for example. Or our guess. Ideal Flight makes a guess to start with based on engine power, count, and total drag of the aircraft. So don't expect the out-of-the-box Range to be much good when we load a new aircraft.

[Steve Waite]

Messages in the simulator are not all available to screen readers. Special programs and other methods of speaking must be employed to make things more accessible in the simulators.

In the next phase of accessibility upgrades, Ideal Flight will be including a component that reads out descriptions where Screen Readers have trouble.

Exactly what is possible within the framework of Ideal Flight is yet to be determined. However IF is one of the most sophisticated programs for flight sim available, there will be quite a lot of things we can do. Stay tuned, and thank you for the support.

Note: The additional Screen Reader component will be available only to Flight 1 Special Edition and Professional versions of IF.

[Steve Waite]

When we complete a flight we are presented with a de-brief. This contains information such as stopping distance. We can look them up in the Records page.

We can find out the fuel we used in the de-brief. The Range determined from that flight is shown as the maximum range, irrespective of the flight time recorded. Using that value for the flight parameter is quite often what our flights are about, since we are flying for a similar time and similar loads.

Using Ideal Flight becomes easier as we use it, since as each value is set in to our preferences we hardly ever change them. If we do, we have only minor items to set as the rest are already in.

[Steve Waite]

Accessibility from the main airport or home page is made via the menu.

Press ESCAPE key for the menu. Please press F1 for contextual Help in the Browser.

After changing a setting in an editable box or list selection, we can use ESCAPE to defer back to the value we had before entering the control.

We edit a control and move to the next with TAB, or enter the value with ENTER key, before pressing ESCAPE.

[Steve Waite]

In the help system please go to the Index. That help index is a good study of the sections available in Ideal Flight.

Don't waste time being confused about Ideal Flight, come to the forum instead.

Consider what is trying to be done if bumping into an issue. Is it aircraft or scenery specific? Does it happen with all planes and airports. Generally when a problem is encountered, it is not long before the issue is resolved not within Ideal Flight but within the simulator and setup of add-ons.

Several copies of Ideal Flight are going out a week. Yet as can be seen on the forums there is next to no activity in the Support Department of Ideal Flight. Basically none.

We don't need specially prepared systems or Windows settings, security tweaks, admin privileges (outside of install/removal) or magic wands, to run the simulator, or Ideal Flight. Those are problems of other programs and add-ons.

Ideal Flight is deliberately designed for non-interference with the simulator.

Avoiding problems is the game of the best software available. That game requires the best experience and greatest expertise in the field of problem solving on Windows systems - codelegend.com.

[Steve Waite]

With Narrator and NVDA, Ideal Flight recognises these when they are active and arranges the messaging to suit them. They work in slightly different ways.

Mostly with IF they work the same, but when Narrator is in use, even if NVDA is in use as well, the Narrator mode is used. In that case NVDA works with less help by IF.

When inside a control, press ENTER to get the reader to re-read the description. Pressing ENTER also assigns an Edit in that control as done. In that case ESCAPE key does not restore the Edit.

[Steve Waite]

With programs designed purely for Screen Readers it would be sensible to avoid Disabled controls. Since Disabled controls are likely to be missed. With TAccessible controls in Ideal Flight, Disabled controls can be TAB-ed into. The IF Disabled control will react differently in the description and they do not accept changes.