Issue with screen readers trying to schedule a recording

[Stavros]

Hi there.
When I try to schedule a recording using the web app, I am unable to use the keyboard to select which TV channel I want to record.  As soon as I try to expand the channel category, my NVDA cursor enters into a search box, and the up and down arrow keys have no effect, I am forced to use the mousekeys to try and scroll down to click on the right channel to record the show, and this is very difficult.
I am totally blind and I use a text to speech screen reader called NVDA, along with the latest version of firefox, 144.0 (64-bit) on windows 10.
Are you able to make the web app more accessible?
Thanks

[Stavros]

Hi.
I'd also like to mention that with the desktop app, the interface is unable to be read by my screen reader at all, as soon as the window is brought up, NVDA freezes. I have a feeling there are some settings in the desktop app that aren't there in the web interface, because I've had a cursory look at the config.xml file. Can anyone confirm this?
I can remember that with the last version of nextPVR for windows XP, I was able to right click and access the settings, and scan for channels and access other settings, because the GUI was a standard windows interface, but with the latest version I downloaded yesterday, it doesn't seem to be the case. It would really be good if NextPVR could be made more accessible to screen readers.

[mvallevand]

I can confirm that setup and the right click channel tuning in the desktop app were removed in v5, over five years ago. The desktop app and UI clients are totally GUI

I have not tried it but Kodi has a text to speech maybe try here https://feuerbacher.us/repo/CONTENTS.html (hopefully that page is reader friendly)

You won't be able to setup NextPVR you you can watch, schedule etc in Kodi.

Martin

[Stavros]

Unfortunately, I can't navigate the kodi interface to install the addon, because my screen reader can't read the setup. Is there a way I can manually unzip the file and install the addon? the instructions aren't very clear

[mvallevand]

I posted a question on the Kodi forum to see if we can help you.

I did try to see if NextPVR could support this using the translation interface and Google TTS but as you might hear here https://youtu.be/ZBf45BPlRKQ it just keeping reading the page and it is not dynamic at all.

I think adding voice would be major development

Martin.

[Stavros]

I hope the developer of NextPVR will chime in and find a way to at least, make the web interface more accessible we don't need to worry about TTS at this stage.

[BrettB]

I have a feeling there are some settings in the desktop app that aren't there in the web interface, because I've had a cursory look at the config.xml file.  Can anyone confirm this?
I can remember that with the last version of nextPVR for windows XP, I was able to right click and access the settings, and scan for channels and access other settings, because the GUI was a standard windows interface, but with the latest version I downloaded yesterday, it doesn't seem to be the case.

When NextPVR v5 was developed as a multi-platform system (Windows, linux, MacOS, etc.), all of the setup/configuration for the server was moved to the web interface and all of that was removed from the NextPVR.exe client. The only settings still in the NextPVR.exe client are client-specific settings like renderers and decoders.

There are several settings in config.xml which are not exposed in the web interface. Sometimes that is because they are legacy settings (often not even used any more) and sometimes because they are more advanced settings. In the latter case, you must manually edit the config.xml file to change the settings.

[BrettB]

When I try to schedule a recording using the web app, I am unable to use the keyboard to select which TV channel I want to record.  As soon as I try to expand the channel category, my NVDA cursor enters into a search box, and the up and down arrow keys have no effect, I am forced to use the mousekeys to try and scroll down to click on the right channel to record the show, and this is very difficult.
I am totally blind and I use a text to speech screen reader called NVDA, along with the latest version of firefox, 144.0 (64-bit) on windows 10.
Are you able to make the web app more accessible?

There might be some "simple" changes that could be made to make the web app a bit more accessible, but I wouldn't expect a major development effort to fully support a screen reader. If there are a few place where changes would help, the developer would need to know specifically which pages/options are being used and what the "problems" are.

From your description, I am guessing that you are not using an EPG (tv guide listing) to try to schedule a recording, but rather you are trying to use the "+" button on the Scheduler menu option to create a new manual recording entry where you know the specific channel, start time, and duration. I do see in that case where when you get to the Channel field, it brings up a pop-up which also has text search box at the top which I believe is your problem. The other fields are pick lists where I think that your up and down arrows would work. Does the Date/Time picker work ok with NVDA?

Once recordings are saved, are you able to navigate the Recordings list and play those recordings OK with the NVDA screen reader?

[Stavros]

The time date picker is a little finicky , but I can manually input the time and date into the edit field which is good
PS: How do I export or input my recording schedule.
Thanks.

[Stavros]

OK, if the author is watching, here is an area to improve the web interface. When picking which channels to delete, my screen reader won't read which channels are marked for deletion.
The files that need changing are located here.
c:\Program Files\NextPVR\wwwroot\digital.html
You can download the NVDA screen reader for free, and the latest version of firefox to test it out.
c:\Program Files\NextPVR\wwwroot\settings.html does not need changing, as I can read the checkbox that says to keep tuners primed.
Curiously, if I scan for channels, I can read the checkboxes and turn them on or off accordingly. It just seems that the checkboxes are inaccessible inn one part of the interface, where you choose which channels you want to delete.