For @support.
For some time I have been wanting to try out Roon. Today I setup my account and downloaded the 32 bit Windows Roon application. I am blind so I need to use a screen reader to access the information on the computer, smartphone or other device. Unfortunately the Roon app itself is as screen reader unfriendly as possible. The text cannot be read out by the screen reader, the only solution is to used a built in OCR function to get the information from the screen. This way I managed to accept the licens terms, but selecting between managing library or using the pc as remote, is not possible.
As long as the screen reader cannot get access to the text in the regular way, and you cannot navigate the program without a mouse, Roon is not an option for me. I will probably check out the mac version, but in my daily life I much prefer using Windows. The next step would be to look at the apps for iOS and Android, but that makes no sense before I can manage to ssetup the Roon core application.
Hi Claus,
Thank you for this heads up. I am sure that, if possible, the devs would like to do something about it. Given the cross-platform nature of Roon and the graphics engine, however, I suspect there could be limits to what is possible.
You describe some of the things which are needed for you to use a program. Can you provide links to programs that get it right ?
I have to take my hat off to those with with a disability like blindness for raising these kinds of things, and for that matter just the process of doing so must be a challenge. Wish I was talented enough to be able to offer suggestions, but I’m sure if it’s doable the developers here would do their best to make it so…props for making some noise.
Hi,
One way to get an idea about how an application can be used without a mouse, is to Open settings on a Windows 10 machine WindowsKey+i. Tab to the list of categories, press the enter key on a category and tab through all the options in the category. Here all the different types of controls can be changed, and the screen reader can tell what the control is doing and the state of buttons or what is selected in dropdown boxes.
To make this "more “realistic” you can turn on the screen reader that ships with Windows10 called Narator, press WindowsKey+enter to start narator.
The mmost important problem is that the text is not visible at all in the Roon application. Depending on how Roon is programmed, there may be information about how to make the application more screen reader friendly. using the specific development tools., or even better other programmers that has knowledge about how to do it.
I suspect that there’s a fundamental issue here. The Roon developers have remarked several times in the forum that the Roon UI is built more like a video game (using Open GL) than a traditional Windows or Mac application. So it may be difficult to extend the application as it stands into access by users such as yourself.
However, that’s just speculation on my part; someone from Roon should be along shortly to give us the definitive answer.
Hi @Claus_Thogersen – thanks for the question, and sorry for the trouble here.
Unfortunately, Geoff’s description is pretty dead-on, and screen readers that depend on reading what’s rendered in standard Windows text areas are not going to work. While there may be screen readers out there that could work (by using real time OCR), we’re not aware of any yet. You can find some more details about this in this thread.
Thanks for checking, and sorry that we don’t have a better answer on this right now. 
Several blind and visual impaired users have over the years asked for the ability to use Roon with a screen reader. The usual answer is oh sorry we use the wrong platform for development and accesibility iis too hard. Most likely nothing has changed since the last forum thread on this one, but it cannot heard to ask again. If something has changed it would be wworth trying Roon out again iwith the black Friday offer. But no if I need sighted help to install, configure or run Roon the anser is no way!!!
There has been no change. The Roon UI uses Roon Labs own graphics engine built on OpenGL and as such cannot be connected to a screen reader.
I do think it’s a terrible shame Roon cannot be used by the visually impaired.
Obviously I’ve no idea of the cost or complexity in making it so but I would like to believe (and hear) that Roon are at least attempting to move in the direction of accessibility for the visually impaired.
.sjb