Solo Traveller, sub sector maps, and Blindnes

[BlindGuy]

Hi all,
I'm pretty new to Traveller in general, though i've dived in enough to get a few supplements from Mongoose as well as the complete T5. Sad to say, the latter isn't very accessible with my screen reading program.

I was wondering if y'all had any suggestions for getting started in the solo traveller hobby. As a totally blind player, sub sector maps are kind of useless for me, but raw sub sector data is also a bit intimidating. I guess I'm looking for a reasonably accessible, preferably web-based or Mac compatible program to do most of the grunt work for me. Is there anything which might put things like worlds in an easily browsed format which isn't graphical?
Beyond that, any general tips would be helpful. Mark miller himself has told me that T5 is kind of impossible to put into any more accessible format. I guess I'm just wondering if you guys agree with that assessment, its kind of disheartening.

Sorry for the somewhat rambling nature of this post, I'm sure I'l have more specific questions as I get farther in.

Thanks much for any input.

 

[Vladika]

Hi and welcome!

Your issues are rapidly becoming my own. I'm blind in one eye and the other is going. I don't have any advice or help to offer but did want to let you know you aren't totally alone.

Hang in there and my best wishes for you.

 

[aramis]

Text equivalents to subsector and sector maps are pretty easy. I'll put one in for you to see if it's something you could use in braille...

zz represents an empty hex, numbers represent system hex number (as a two place, rather than the usual 4 place. All UWP's have been rendered into lower case to keep the formatting when in braille. Print the material inside the code block in braille and see if it's a workable format. I have used commas as spacers to preserve formatting. The map section is supposed to have double spaces.

Elestrial Trace Subsector (©2010,2013 William Hostman, All rights reserved,
Begin Map
  81  zz  zz  zz  zz  zz  zz  zz  zz  zz
zz  zz  zz  zz  75  zz  zz  zz  zz  zz
  zz  62  zz  zz  65  66  67  zz  zz  zz
zz  zz  zz  zz  zz  zz  zz  58  59  zz
  41  42  43  44  zz  zz  zz  zz  49  zz
zz  32  33  34  35  zz  37  zz  zz  zz
  21  zz  23  24  25  zz  zz  zz  zz  zz
zz  12  13  zz  15  zz  zz  18  19  1A
End Map
Begin List
Sys Name  , , , , , UWP , , , , Bases
12 , Han  , , , , , , c-401688-8 , sp
13 , Bogie  , , , , , c-632868-5 , c
15 , Reject , , , , , c-64569b-c , hc
18 , (Unnamed) , , , , x-xxxxxx-x , x
19 , (Unnamed) , , , , x-xxxxxx-x , x
21 , (Unnamed) , , , , x-xxxxxx-x , x
23 , Homeworld , , , , a-867b9b-b , nshcr
24 , Hunt 7  , , , , , x-89a000-0 , x	
25 , Nada 1  , , , , , x-000000-0 , x	
20 , Comedia , , , , , c-65789b-8 , x	
32 , Schola  , , , , , c-4aa845-9 , r	
33 , Amanda  , , , , , x-200366-8 , x	
34 , Novus Terram , , c-553430-4 , x	
35 , Matter  , , , , , d-3a9521-9 , x	
37 , Stepping Stone , b-611300-8 , x	
41 , Hooter  , , , , , e-8ca310-a , x	
42 , (Unnamed) , , , , d-6a8778-8 , x	
43 , (Unnamed) , , , , e-4a5435-8 , x	
44 , Landfill  , , , , x-b67300-1 , x	
49 , Kamaj , , , , , , a-5689aa-a , nshl	
51 , (Unnamed) , , , , x-xxxxxx-x , x	
58 , Alfar , , , , , , e-538536-8 , x	
59 , Ryokan  , , , , , e-300000-0 , x	
62 , Crane , , , , , , c-6529b9-7 , x	
65 , Racine  , , , , , d-654585-2 , x	
66 , Elestrial , , , , a-ab8655-9 , cl	
67 , Quetzal , , , , , a-300979-b , shrl	
60 , Eddie , , , , , , c-558556-7 , x	
75 , Aurora  , , , , , x-200310-8 , x	
81 , Duck  , , , , , , e-p00455-8 , p
End System List

If that works, I'd say start at Kamaj or Elestrial, and work the trace. Use a Jump one ship and a merchant character you've generated.

Also note: the map is rotated 90° counterclockwise from normal - coreward is left, rimward right, spinward down, and trailing up.

The Trace is the setting of my last campaign.

For the non-braille familiar - the reason for lower case is that braille uppercase letters are two-space characters. That's why it may look a little ragged; I've accounted for the braille uppercase marker.

 

[BlindGuy]

Thanks, this works, except;

I don't have ready access to a Braille printer. They're fairly expensive bits of hardware. It does seem a lot more comprehensible than the other ascii-based maps I've seen. Thanks for the notion and the work involved in converting it.
Edit: I do have a Braille display, though that's only one line at a time. Pain in the neck to scroll around, but maybe…

 

[esampson]

Could you tell us what kind of setup you use for reading? I'm not very familiar with what assistance devices but I'm sure given a make and model I could probably look it up. Knowing how the device works might help me figure some things out.

 

[SpaceBadger]

Do you have any sort of app that speaks out loud the text from an area that you touch on a touch screen? Then you'd just need some volunteers (I'd be one!) to put some subsectors into a format where you could touch the screen and have your app speak the text to you.

Or maybe that wouldn't be helpful - it is sometimes hard for us sighted folks to imagine information-transfer methods that would work for someone who can't see. Throw some ideas at us and lets try to figure out what we can do for you! As esampson noted, it would help to have an idea what kind of setup you have available.

 

[BlindGuy]

My Setup

I have access to a Mac with the latest version of OS X, and the built-in screen reader Apple provides, called VoiceOvre. I note that this is kind of lacking in some areas, notably the ability to read PDF in a comprehensible way, though in fairness PDF is a horrible format for accessibility as it stands. My biggest problem when I initially got the mongoose traveller core book was the tables, which no screen reader I knew of would render in a readable format. I had to get a copy in MS Word format to solve that.

I also have access to an iPad with IOS seven. This is not as crazy as it sounds, Apple has actually done a great job with making touch screens usable. There is a subsystem called VoiceOver under Settings/General/Accessibility, which will speak whatever area of the screen you touch, among many other things. Is there by chance some kind of Imperium Atlas iOS app in the pipeline?

So to some up, I have a couple of screen readers, a Braille display—basically a one-line output device, and some supplements with unreadable tables. (I could only get the core book in Word format…) This leaves out T5, which is a whole new kettle of fish.
Thanks for all the help and enthusiasm,
Zack.

 

[inexorabletash]

Would a web page that gives you a full interpretation of one world's data, then short summaries that are also links to several nearby worlds within a given jump distance be useful?

It would be like the old TRADER or even Text Elite trading games, minus the trading.

I can think of a few developers here who could pull that off.

 

[inexorabletash]

Speaking of text elite - http://www.calormen.com/l33t/jselite.htm might be entertaining.

 

[BlindGuy]

Very Useful

Would a web page that gives you a full interpretation of one world's data, then short summaries that are also links to several nearby worlds within a given jump distance be useful?

It would be like the old TRADER or even Text Elite trading games, minus the trading.

I can think of a few developers here who could pull that off.

That sounds like just the sort of thing I'd be interested in. Thanks for the idea. I'll have to check out the link you sent as well, always wanted to play Elite, though I gather this isn't quite the same thing.

As an aside, I stumbled across a link to a Megatraveller character generator yesterday, written in Javascript. It was the most user-friendly such program I've found to date. I wish I had a Mongoose equivalent.

 

[SpaceBadger]

I also have access to an iPad with IOS seven. This is not as crazy as it sounds, Apple has actually done a great job with making touch screens usable. There is a subsystem called VoiceOver under Settings/General/Accessibility, which will speak whatever area of the screen you touch, among many other things. Is there by chance some kind of Imperium Atlas iOS app in the pipeline?

I don't know about any Atlas app, but if the VoiceOver subsystem works with your web browser, try it out on an image-mapped subsector map like the one I did for Urlaqqash Subsector in my SBRD campaign. If your VoiceOver will read you the system names on a map like that, we could use the same technique to make subsector maps that would read the Extended UWP or other info for you. It wouldn't exactly open up the whole Imperium for you, but could make parts of it more accessible, one subsector at a time.

 

[BlindGuy]

Yes, in fact, it does read those. This is another promising technique. Thanks for suggesting it. In general, the screen reader will read things coded in reasonably standard ways, or using standard controls.
All the best,
Zack.

 

[thalassogen]

Can you check my Website and tell me if it is accessible to you or what I need to change to let you access it? http://heldenhaufen.de/T5

 

[BlindGuy]

Can you check my Website and tell me if it is accessible to you or what I need to change to let you access it? http://heldenhaufen.de/T5

It looks pretty good from a cursory glance. Is there a character generator there? If so, I can't seem to find it. The one thing I'd say is that some of the links aren't very clearly labeled.

This doesn't really solve my general problem with T5, which has to do with its formatting. I'm not sure what if anything can be done about that, but web apps are certainly nice.

 

[thalassogen]

Sorry, currently no character generator yet. But I have it on my todo list.

Do you mean the links in the header menu? Or generally?

 

[BlindGuy]

Header links in particular. The main body was pretty understandable.

 

[aramis]

For everyone else's reference, Zach noted that braille printers are expensive.... The cheapest I could find was about $900... ouch.

And that lead me to noting the size limits of the printed braille 11x11 inch page...
Typically 34 wide and 18-25 rows. coded in two letter pairs.

And numbers add a leading character. So do capitals. Makes the UWP format inconsistent.

So, a subsector map for braille should probably use lowercase letter codes. (I learned a little braille many years ago - can't read it at all...) Traveller's reliance upon column formatted data is a major issue. So is the use of "Travellerecimal" (the use of letters for number values of 10-34).

Sounds like a fun challenge to lay out a subsector usefully. Zach - up for helping me develop a UWP format for braille users?

The hex locations need to change - lettered instead of numbered. keeps them even-width

UWP probably should go to a two line format.

Zach - how well do UWP's read? can you pick out space delimited formats?

 

[BlindGuy]

Happy to Help However

For everyone else's reference, Zach noted that braille printers are expensive.... The cheapest I could find was about $900... ouch.

And that lead me to noting the size limits of the printed braille 11x11 inch page...
Typically 34 wide and 18-25 rows. coded in two letter pairs.

And numbers add a leading character. So do capitals. Makes the UWP format inconsistent.

So, a subsector map for braille should probably use lowercase letter codes. (I learned a little braille many years ago - can't read it at all...) Traveller's reliance upon column formatted data is a major issue. So is the use of "Travellerecimal" (the use of letters for number values of 10-34).

Sounds like a fun challenge to lay out a subsector usefully. Zach - up for helping me develop a UWP format for braille users?

The hex locations need to change - lettered instead of numbered. keeps them even-width

UWP probably should go to a two line format.

Zach - how well do UWP's read? can you pick out space delimited formats?

I'm happy to help however I can. UWPs are generally readable, at least I understand what they're trying to convey. I note that I generally use speech with my Traveller stuff, which has fewer limitations, to a point.
The biggest problem with interpreting UWPs is the same one sighted folk have, remembering what position stands for what characteristic.
I'd be happy to help with more specific questions if anybody has them.
Best,
Zack.

 

[thalassogen]

Header links in particular. The main body was pretty understandable.

Hi Zack,

I changed the header links and am hoping that they are more understandable now. Please let me know if you encounter any other issues.

 

[BlindGuy]

Hi Zack,

I changed the header links and am hoping that they are more understandable now. Please let me know if you encounter any other issues.

This is much more understandable, thanks. I like your sector generator, by the way. I just need to read up on T5 a lot more and maybe i"ll understand most of the info it's trying to convey.