Audacity multi-track editor: accessibility enhancement - user manual

Author: paulber19 (paulber19@laposte.net)

URL: https://github.com/paulber19/audacityAccessEnhancementNVDAAddon.git

Download:

Compatibility:

Summary

1. Introduction

Sorry, This manual is based on a french user manual's automatic translation .

1.1. Features

This add-on provides the folowing scripts:

As well as accessibility improvements:

By default, the stable version is updated with a stable version more recent (higher version number). But it is possible to update the stable version running with a development version of the next stable version. Just check the option "Update also update the stable release to the versions of development" located in the "Update" category of extension settings.

A development version is updated:

The button "Search for update" placed in the extension settings, menu item "Update", allows you to search immediately for an update.

The "View history" button, placed in this same category, allows you to display the history of the current version in the browser.

In the case of an automatic update and if a new version is detected, the "Update" dialog box is displayed to suggest:

In the case of an automatic update and if a new version is detected, the "Update" dialog box is displayed to suggest:

1.2. Compatibility

1.3. Necessary configuration

For proper operation of the module, it is necessary to :

other configuration recommendations:

1.4. Activation scripts

Each script can be activated in two ways:

In the NVDA "Input gestures" dialog, the scripts provided by the module are placed in the category named "Audacity multi-track editor: accessibility enhancement".

For scripts that can be launched by a command interpreter, the command is indicated following the description of the script.

By default, the vast majority of scripts that can be run by the shell are not assigned to any input gesture .

The command interpreter is launched using the gesture command "NVDA + Space" . A beep sound is audible.

Today, the commands are not modifiable.

The command "h" of the interpreter lists all of the commands and the command "g" displays the user manual of the module.

The shell stops is:

2. Module's Configuration

The module installs in the NVDA's "Preferences" menu, the "Audacity multi-track editor: accessibility enhancement add-on - settings ..." sub-menu.

It allows you to display the configuration dialog settings of the module, namely:

This configuration is saved in the file "audacityAccessEnhancementAddon.ini" in the NVDA's user configuration folder.

3. Scripts

3.1. Report audio position

To use this script, it is necessary that the focus is in the tracks view.

This script is triggered by the command "a" of the interpreter.

No gesture of command assigned by default.

It announces the time indicated in the "audio position" edit spin box of the "Time" toolbar.

3.2. Report informations's selection

To use this script, it is necessary that the focus is in the tracks view.

The selection toolbar presents two edit spin boxes which give according to the choice made using the "Selection Toolbar Setup" button:

With the following scripts, it is possible to announce the time indicated by these two boxes without having to move the focus in the "Selection" toolbar:

By default, No input gesture is affected.

3.3. Report pressed state of the "Pause", "play" or" record" buttons

To use this script, it is necessary that the focus is in the tracks view.

It is triggered by the command "f5" of the interpreter.

By default, no input gesture is assigned.

It announces the state "Pressed"of the "Play", "Pause" and "Record" buttons.

In the case where no button is pressed, the announcement "No button pressed" is vocalized.

3.4. Report the level of playback or recording meter peak

Audacity présente meters for playback and recording to monitor the peaks of playback or recording with dropdown button.

The following scripts make it possible to know the levels of these vu-meters, without moving the focus to the view of the tracks:

By default, no input gesture is assigned.

3.5. Report the level of the playback and record'sslider

The toolbar "Audacity mixer Toolbar" presents the playback and record's sliders allowing you to adjust the levels of playback or recording.

The following scripts make it possible to know the levels of these sliders without moving the focus to the view of the tracks:

3.6. Report the playback speed

It is launched by the "f11" command of the interpreter.

By default, it has no control gesture assigned to it.

This script announces the level of the "Playback speed" slider of the "Play-at-Speed" Speed" group.

3.7. Display Audacity's guide

This script is triggered by the command "control+g" of the interpreter.

By default, no input gesture is assigned.

It allows you to view the guide of Audacity written by David Bailes for the users of the Jaws (c) screen reader and Audacity v2.2.

4. Accessibility improvements

4.1. Automatic announcement of the audio position

In audio playback or not, the following shortcuts from Audacity (set by default) allow you to set or move the cursor audio:

In stopped audio playback and after activating the shortcut, the information in the "audio position" edit spin box of the "Time" toolbar is automatically announced if a change has taken place and in the form:

The return of the audio position in the beginning of the selection is reported.

These shortcuts can be modified by the user without impacting the operation.

4.2. Automatic Announcement of the selection

The following shortcuts from Audacity (set by default) allow you to set or move the start and end of the selection:

If the option "Automatically announce selection changes" in the "Options" category of the extension settings is checked, In stopped playback and after activating one of the previous shortcuts, selection changes are announced Depending on the type of shortcut, one or/and the other of the numeric selection boxes of the "Selection" toolbar are announced in the form:

As all the labels advertised are those that are displayed by Audacity, there may be inconsistencies due to the translation or at the coding .

These shortcuts can be modified by the user without impacting the operation.

The command "f4" shell module allows you to enable or disable the announcement of the selection changes when it becomes annoying. It toggles the state of the option "Report automatically the selection changes" to the state "checked" to "unchecked" or vice versa.

4.3. Use the space bar or the Enter key to press a button

In Audacity, the bar space is provided to start or stop the audio playback, but not for pressing a button .

To press the button, it is necessary to use the "Enter" key, but this moves the focus to the next item in the window and no status change of the button is vocalized.

If the option "Use space bar or Enter key to press a button" located in "Options" category of extension settings is checked, it is then possible to press a button with the space bar or the Enter key and the state changes are announced.

4.4. Vocalization of the Audacity time's edit spin boxes

This feature is not available in Audacity versions 3.3.x.

Audacity shows some edit spin boxes for editing time like, for exemple: audio position, selection start, selection end, selection center, selection length .

These selection boxes present the information according to the format defined by the user using the contextual menu of the box.

The information is a sequence of numbers. Each digit belongs to a group of digits such as hours, minutes, seconds, etc.

To change this time, it is necessary to be placed on the digit to modify (for right or left arrow) and the increase or the decrease with the arrows high or low.

By default, this extension allows better vocalization by indicating a time in hours, minutes and seconds, indicating the nature of the digit that is selected and the value of the group of the digit modified for the digital selection boxes cited as an example above.

This feature can be desactivated by unchecking the "Edit spin box enhanced announcement" check box located in "Options" category of extension settings.

But only the following format are taken into account:

The "NVDA + upArrow" key command allows you to vocalize the full-time.

The same mechanisms are put in place in other edit spin boxes which are areas of editing time in the same style as the "timer Record" dialog.

4.5. Other adapttations

5. History

The version history of this add-on is in the file: "changes.html"