Hi Dark, Well, I just talked to Dolphin support today and while they don't have any issue with me using the API it apparently is under a NDA type license. Therefore they are going to send me some forms to fill out including a non-disclosure agreement before I get to see the documentation, headers, and libraries. So, yeah, they are treating this API like top secret information. Personally, I'm not so sure what Dolphin is worried about.
So far the APIs for the various screen readers are very very simple. Take the JFW API for exampl here. If I want to send some text to Jaws I need to include jfwapi.h and jfwapi.lib to a Visual C++ application and use the JFWSayString() function. To silence/stop speech use JFWStopSpeech(). There is nothing there to be secretive about. So why is Freedom Sientific treating it like proprietary top secret information? GW Micro on the other hand has been very cooperative and helpful today. They gave me some links to their developer resources, gave me a link to get the Window-Eyes SDK, and pointed me to some source examples. Great! That's exactly the kind of response I expect to get from a screen reader developer. Especially, since its their job to insure Windows applications are A, accessible, and B, works with their screen reader. Being all proprietary and secretive like Dolphin and Freedom Scientific are being is a good reason why a developer might choose not to support their screen reader and customers. NV Access---as I mentioned yesterday--is similarly cooperative and helpful. In fact, NVDA was the first screen reader the G3D Engine fully supported just because the information and help was there from the start. NVDA is open source so there is no NDA agreements to sign, no proprietary information to gard, and nothing to be secretive about. Everything is right there in the open and the developer is available for assistance if needed. No wonder NVDA is becoming the most popular screen reader next to Jaws. Besides being free and open source I'm finding it is very easy to support either directly or via Python modules. That's a totally different approach to what the commercial screen readers are doing which inhibits accessibility through proprietary and exclusive licenses in my opinion. Cheers! On 11/1/11, dark <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Tom. > > Well I'm hoping that the supernova api won't be that! secret, sinse I have > pointed out to dolphin that it is necessary to get this support going in > Supernova as well. > > Hopefully they'll release it soon, but we'll see. > > Beware the gRue! > > Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
