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Comment by whatshisface | Hacker News Reader

I don't see why screen readers can't just be extended to handle characters that look like F.

Because they have uses outside of the abuse. If you always expect that they're being used improperly, then you mess up the actual use cases.

What would be an example of a string like "𝕙𝕖𝕝𝕝𝕠" appearing in a context where the screen reader should not attempt to pronounce it? Note that in math usage, a lone ℝ should be pronounced exactly the same way as a lone R.

Someone using a screen reader to learn a new language.

There are no natural languages that use mathematical blackboard bold script, although you are right that screen readers probably shouldn't try to read Cyrillic according to what English letter the characters look the most like.

In math usage an ℝ might be "the Regular set" and involved in equations that use a variable R. It's not unusual, and in fact, sometimes important, when reciting math as speech to make it clear which is the "bold" or "set" or "group" R, versus which is the ordinary R.

Well, because it's not an F, and how would you deal with this: 𓃓 I mean it's a bull symbol.

I think mapping common lookalikes to their corresponding Latin-1 glyphs would be a broad improvement, and with websites like this collecting them it may not even be all that much work.

Although, like you say, it would be nice if screenreaders could produce verbal descriptions of iconographic symbols. That would be a lot of work but it would be helpful.

𓃓 = 𝕓𝕦𝕝𝕝

Depending on context it may not actually mean "F". Screen readers are not yet capable of fully understanding the meaning behind the text they are reading.

If for example someone uses this to write a mathematical formula, having a screen reader says "F" changes the entire meaning.

Could this be done, absolutely, but it is something to be aware of and is something I noticed on Twitter where blind users were complaining that they were unable to "read" Twitter messages using this, thereby making them second class citizens all over again.

If I were to write a math formula in ASCII, it would probably have strings of multiplied variables that would be indistinguishable from English words to a screenreader that didn't know anything about meaning. The only way it would know to sound out the letters is if they had spaces or asterisks between them. The additional glyphs would do nothing to change this.

Screen readers should faithfully render characters as sound so people with limited/no eyesight can engage with written language, not make a guess that you meant to write cursed/fancy text instead of what those characters are for.

What do you think the general development budget for a screen reader is compared to the development budget for Google Search services?

Compared to the marginal cost of implementing this small additional input sanitization, both budgets are infinite.

NVDA is open source https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda for me it would be an inordinately expensive use of my time, but for you?

at any rate, both budgets are not infinite, and it's infuriating to hear the described as such.

They certainly could, but resources are limited and they probably have more important tasks.

ኾᥱΛ᜶ұ, you don't?

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