I received an email personally from an Ancient Anguish admin/wizard about making changes to accessibility. I personally love this mud and don't get me wrong, it is newbie friendly, lots of players answered stupid questions that they shouldn't answer, due to the fact that I'm blind, don't know how to get around, and the maps being in ascii doesn't make it any better. Blindness is beside the point. Now, I do have to rant just a bit about something here. I don't like muds which don't save equipment. If AA saved equipment, I would probably still be playing it. I remember when it had over 100 players, and I think sadly this has decreased. Anyhow, about Mac Users, there is absolutely no full-featured 100 percent VOiceOver friendly (VoiceOver is the screen reader for Mac) mud client yet. This makes me very mad that I have to switch to windows just because there are no accessible mudding clients. There have been two attempts to make one, although several features are lacking in that VoiceOver is not being used, it's the system voice, (AKA Sapi on Windows), and there are lots of disadvantages there, like not being able to stop the voice from speaking one thing so that it can keep up with all of the information. For instance, on AA, I'd be dead in combat depending on who I was fighting in a matter of seconds dependong on my guild, lets take mage. I'd be killed in seconds because mages are weeker than most classes. I'm not sure about what you saying about VipMud. Were you saying that you haven't tested it? Well, it's pretty good, and I don't think you'll have to do anything server side to make the mud accessible. If you were saying that VipMud is for Macs, it's not. I wish it was, however. But for accessibility, you should converse with the admins into making a way to convert ascii maps into plane text directions that dynamically change depending on where I am. Offentimes in games muds, I want to get to an important place, such as my guildhall, or in the case of AA after dying, the church. But where is that from so and so location? What I'm looking for is just the ascii maps, with each place marked on the map as plane directions as to how to get there from my current location, whereever that may be. I always never knew what to do after login and since I had no equipment, I didn't know how to get that either. I was still a newbie when I left and was still using newbie equipment, and then there was the problem of getting packages delivered on time, half the time I eventually found the place, an hour or so after I was supposed to deliver it. And these are just my personal problems. Other blind players take a tour around a city and memorize it immediately. Me? I don't. That's why I wish we had maps, in an accessible format. If sighted players don't have to memorize where every location is, I shouldn't have to either. and perhaps this may be the goal of some sighted players, to attempt to memorize every area in the game, this is certainly not mine. My goal is simply to be successful, and inaccessible maps creates a barrior that many muds just simply disregard because blind and visually impaired people don't take the time to act, because they learn by memory. But that's the thing, what if I don't want to learn by memory and want maps available, this is what frustrates me, why people aren't reaching out and telling these developers about the problems we face. I bet even blind mudders want a map from time to time for those extremely big areas. Come on, admit it.

Sorry guys. The AA staff members message is below. I added my comments to this one. If this mud gets accessible maps I just might try it out again. Don't know what I'll do regarding equipment, though. But that's the thing, if I know where to go to get equipment, and or ask, at least I could ask, "Where can I get equipment for this session?" instead of, "Can anyone take me to get some good equipment for this session?" etc. Suggesting equipment is one thing. Finding it in-game is another. Which is why I stress accessible maps, with directions instead of ascii characters, which means absolutely nothing to a screen reader when it reads. Ah, sorry again, I just reread your message, and I see you're a mac user. Well, right now if you were using a screen reader you'd have to use windows. And what's the most annoying feature I hate in muds? Muds with overhead maps, which makes it even harder, muds with prompts, which is just simply annoying. (I know I could gag it), but that's not the point. I shouldn't know how to gag something, I should just have a simple command to turn it off. Also, score can list everything, but I'd rather type "hp" for hitpoints and that's what it'd display, for example "14/100", MP, etc.

I'll get off my soapbox, now. Anyone want to get on there's and rant some about mud accessibility? It's all yours. Just in case the AA admin isn't getting this via email I'll send all posts related to this to her.

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