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Hi all,

Figured I'd open a discussion regarding the next phase of IF accessibility and features.

FSTramp 8.0 is out in a few days, and we've been waiting for three months. What we thought was going to be a huge update because... its 8.0, ends up being a rotating map while you fly. Wow, that's it? And we have to pay a subscription for this when in reality we should only be paying a one-time purchase like most sim utility apps.

So my hope for IF all phases is when complete, we can avoid using both Tramp and FSX Pilot because both have their flaws. Tramp developer refuses to consider even the smallest accessibility change. FSX pilot doesn't use the actual aircraft autopilot, which means you have to tweak it and you ultimately spend more time number crunching and tweaking rather than flying.

The biggest concern I have re: autopilot things in general is those planes that don't use the standard simulator autopilot and disables the main sim one. Tramp created its custom autopilot feature to get around this.

However, that might be phase 3 or 4 things. To start off, what speech features and perhaps others are planned for this next upcoming preview to begin phase 2? We can discuss that first.

Thank. I am in experimentation, I will get something going, maybe doing some callouts, then we can progress from there.

Hi Steve
would be great for blind and partially sighted people to have tts like a virtual 1st officer for example using tts to set radios headings etc
Just a thought

Garry

Hi Garry, thanks.
I'll be checking out that side of things later and other methods of input.

It's been a while since I looked at the IF copyright information in briefings and such. I noticed something new in that information that I'm curious about. TAccessible.

Is that the name you gave to your custom accessibility code?

Yes, it's the extended functionality UI components for Narrator and NVDA.

How's the experimenting going? Anything we can do to help?

Thanks!. Nothing for testing at the moment. I've had some other stuff to do and have been on hols for a couple of weeks. It will be few weeks yet before I have something.

Just having to mention that some other things have been sidetracking me so expect a few more weeks yet before I can have something worth uploading.

It is coming, I've not paused on it and I'm working right now on the new system while multi-tasking other stuff.

In the mean time, can this discussion be used for the purpose of listing what callouts might be high on the list. Things like calling out when flaps or gear are set, location information requests, altitude changes and so on.

Callouts I'd say are of utmost priority are:

1. Whether the parking brakes are set or released.

2. Altitude changes by the thousand, climbrate and perhaps the current wind direction announced with that.

3. Announce flap increments/decrements by both position and degrees. E.G. position 1 I've come to understand is 5 deg in a 737. So "Flaps position 1, 5degrees"

4. When doing an ILS approach, announce when the glideslope and localizer are alive, and when the glideslope has been captured.

5. AGL altitudes when approaching the ground. 2500, 1000, 500, etc. There are gauges that can do this, but if Ideal Flight had them, no need to configure anything. I hope.

I think that covers the essentials I'd like to see the most right now.