libretro / libretro/RetroArch

Issues with the Accessibility Narrator in non-English languages

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accessibility
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C
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Description

Description

I've done some tests of the Accessibility Narrator on Windows 10, with Spanish (Spain) Cortana, and I've found a couple of minor issues.

Expected behavior

When moving the menu to a menu line that contains accented characters, the narrator should read them properly, reading stuff like "Energía" or "Listas de reproducción".

When reading a Settings function that has an On/Off switch, the switch should read something like, "Accessibilidad activado" or, hopefully, "Accessibilidad activada".

When the Narrator reads a long Setting, it should read each element with a punctuation separator, like a comma or a colon. "Ajustes, Interfaz de usuario, Vistas"

Actual behavior

When moving the menu to a menu line that contains accented characters, the narrator doesn't identify them properly, reading "Energía" as "Energa" or "Listas de reproducción" as "Listas de reproducc-superíndice3 (note: that's ³)-n". Seems like there's a text encoding issue.

Also, when reading a Settings function that has an On/Off switch, the switch is read in English, as on or off, instead of using a translatable equivalent.

Reading a long Settings line will cause the Narrator to read it like it's a long, unpunctuated line. "Ajustes interfaz de usuario vistas".

Steps to reproduce the bug
  1. Use Windows 10 with Cortana in a non-English setup.
  2. Boot RetroArch with the corresponding language.
  3. Enable the Accessibility Enable feature.
  4. Make Cortana read a line that has accented characters or an On/Off toggle.
Bisect Results
Version/Commit
  • RetroArch: 1.8.2 stable
Environment information
  • OS: Windows 10 Pro x64, Spanish language, ver 1809
Additional comments

If you want to avoid the huge can of worms that is adding a custom on/off line per option line and per language to make sure each setting has the properly gendered, you could make the Narrator say something like: "Setting: Setting Enabled/Disabled". For example, "Accessibility Enable: Setting Enabled".

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

The report names no files, tests, or implementation entry points. Start by reproducing the Spanish Windows 10 case with Accessibility Enable and the Narrator, then locate the code handling accented text, translated On/Off labels, and punctuation in long Settings lines. Done means those three behaviors are corrected without regressing English output.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
c
Domain
accessibility, desktop, localization
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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