Dear R-Experts, a student of mine tries to use the Windows-Rconsole with screen reading software (she is blind), and cannot access the command line (Menus are ok). The company which produces her screen reader tells her that this is due to the cursor used in Rconsole, which is static, not blinking. They maintain that if the cursor could be changed to a blinking one, she should be able to access the command line and outputs. For my last exam she used R in a Dosbox as workaround, but encountered other problems, esp. with scrolling. So: Is it possible to change the cursor type/behavior in R-Console? She uses R 2.8.1, Windows 2000, and screenreader Virgo 4.6 from Baum Retec, if that is any help. Your assistance with this problem and any other tips for teaching R to blind users will be much appreciated, Rainer Scheuchenpflug Dr. Rainer Scheuchenpflug Lehrstuhl f?r Psychologie III R?ntgenring 11 97070 W?rzburg Tel: 0931-31-82185 Fax: 0931-31-82616 Mail: scheuchenpflug at psychologie.uni-wuerzburg.de Web: http://www.izvw.de
On 04/05/2010 9:41 AM, Rainer Scheuchenpflug wrote:> Dear R-Experts, > > a student of mine tries to use the Windows-Rconsole with screen reading > software (she is blind), and cannot access the command line (Menus are ok). > The company which produces her screen reader tells her that this is due to > the cursor used in Rconsole, which is static, not blinking. They maintain > that if the cursor could be changed to a blinking one, she should be able to > access the command line and outputs. > > For my last exam she used R in a Dosbox as workaround, but encountered other > problems, esp. with scrolling. So: Is it possible to change the cursor > type/behavior in R-Console? > She uses R 2.8.1, Windows 2000, and screenreader Virgo 4.6 from Baum Retec, > if that is any help. > > Your assistance with this problem and any other tips for teaching R to blind > users will be much appreciated, > Rainer ScheuchenpflugWe are aware of problems when using the Windows Rgui with screen reading software, but nobody in R Core has expertise in this area. If you know of any programmers who do and who could contribute code to the project, I think we'd appreciate it. In the meantime, using Rterm in a command window is one solution. There are also other front ends available that may work: running R from within Emacs, or using the JGR front end (see the article on p. 9 of http://stat-computing.org/newsletter/issues/scgn-16-2.pdf). Duncan Murdoch
Rainer Scheuchenpflug wrote:> Dear R-Experts, > > a student of mine tries to use the Windows-Rconsole with screen reading > software (she is blind), and cannot access the command line (Menus are ok). > The company which produces her screen reader tells her that this is due to > the cursor used in Rconsole, which is static, not blinking. They maintain > that if the cursor could be changed to a blinking one, she should be able to > access the command line and outputs. >With help from Thomas Friehoff, I've added a blinking cursor to the Windows Rgui in R-devel, to become 2.12.0. The default is a partially blinking one. Optionally the current solid cursor or a fully blinking one can be used. Duncan Murdoch> For my last exam she used R in a Dosbox as workaround, but encountered other > problems, esp. with scrolling. So: Is it possible to change the cursor > type/behavior in R-Console? > She uses R 2.8.1, Windows 2000, and screenreader Virgo 4.6 from Baum Retec, > if that is any help. > > Your assistance with this problem and any other tips for teaching R to blind > users will be much appreciated, > Rainer Scheuchenpflug > > Dr. Rainer Scheuchenpflug > Lehrstuhl f?r Psychologie III > R?ntgenring 11 > 97070 W?rzburg > Tel: 0931-31-82185 > Fax: 0931-31-82616 > Mail: scheuchenpflug at psychologie.uni-wuerzburg.de > Web: http://www.izvw.de > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. >
Hi,
I use R with a screen reader to do statistical and financial analysis.
There are a couple of things that your student can do.
R was created on Linux, and then ported to Windows. So she can use R under Linux
where the CLI is perfectly accessible.
There are 2 main screen readers for Linux: Speakup for the text console and Orca
for the Gnome Desktop.
Also, ESS, an extension to Emacs can be used as well.
On Windows, the accessibility of R console can vary from screen reader to screen
reader.
I mainly work on the R terminal found in C:\Program Files\R\R-2.10.0\bin. You
could create a desktop shortcut for the Rterm.exe file.
If she is not comfortable typing directly on the R console, then a text editor
can be used for the R code.
Any text editor can do, though I use Tinn-R, which is fairly accessible.
Tinn-R can be found here.
http://www.sciviews.org/Tinn-R/
The code can either be pasted in R or can be run directly by using the source
function.
source("C:/Test.r")
See ?source
R output can be sent to a text file using sink()
# Open the connection
sink("sink-Test.txt")
# Enter something
x <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
mean(x)
# End the connection
sink()
More helpful would be ?sink and ?capture.output
Depending on what she has to do, R can also be used through Excel which is again
accessible.
Regards
Roopakshi from India
------------------------------>
> Message: 29
> Date: Tue, 4 May 2010 15:41:41 +0200
> From: "Rainer Scheuchenpflug"
> ??? <scheuchenpflug at psychologie.uni-wuerzburg.de>
> To: <r-help at r-project.org>
> Subject: [R] Using R with screenreading software
> Message-ID:
> <002e01caeb8f$8736b2c0$95a41840$@uni-wuerzburg.de>
> Content-Type: text/plain;???
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Dear R-Experts,
>
> a student of mine tries to use the Windows-Rconsole with
> screen reading
> software (she is blind), and cannot access the command line
> (Menus are ok).
> The company which produces her screen reader tells her that
> this is due to
> the cursor used in Rconsole, which is static, not blinking.
> They maintain
> that if the cursor could be changed to a blinking one, she
> should be able to
> access the command line and outputs.
>
> For my last exam she used R in a Dosbox as workaround, but
> encountered other
> problems, esp. with scrolling. So: Is it possible to change
> the cursor
> type/behavior in R-Console?
> She uses R 2.8.1, Windows 2000, and screenreader Virgo 4.6
> from Baum Retec,
> if that is any help.
>
> Your assistance with this problem and any other tips for
> teaching R to blind
> users will be much appreciated,
> Rainer Scheuchenpflug
>
> Dr. Rainer Scheuchenpflug
> Lehrstuhl f?r Psychologie III
> R?ntgenring 11
> 97070 W?rzburg
> Tel:???0931-31-82185
> Fax:???0931-31-82616
> Mail:? scheuchenpflug at psychologie.uni-wuerzburg.de
> Web:? ? ? http://www.izvw.de