visually impaired players

SugaComa · July 25

VCAP2 – Voice Chat Announcer Plus
A Practical Accessibility Tool for Visually‑Impaired Players

VCAP2 is not a cosmetic addon.
It is an **accessibility layer** for ESO’s built‑in screen narrator (PS5/Xbox/Gamepad UI).
Its purpose is simple: **reduce narrator noise and make spoken chat usable** for players who rely on narration.

🎯 What VCAP2 Does

ESO’s narrator reads *everything* by default — guild spam, addon alerts, system messages, whispers, zone chat, and even debug lines.
For visually‑impaired players, this creates overwhelming audio clutter.

VCAP2 fixes this by:
• Filtering narration (not chat)
• Allowing or blocking spoken messages per category
• Auto‑detecting addon tags like [CombatAlerts]
• Letting players choose which addons get narrated
• Cleaning names for clearer speech
• Removing color codes and symbols
• Preventing narrator stutter

🔍 How It Works

VCAP2 hooks the narrator safely and checks:
• Chat category (zone, group, guild, whisper, etc.)
• Whether the message came from an addon
• Whether the message has a leading [Tag]
• Whether the user has enabled narration for that tag
• Whether the message should be spoken or silenced

It never alters chat.
It only controls what the narrator speaks.

🧩 Automatic Addon Tag Discovery

If an addon prints:
[CombatAlerts] Dodge now!

VCAP2 automatically:
• Detects the tag
• Registers it
• Adds it to the settings menu
• Defaults narration to OFF
• Lets the user enable narration for that specific addon

This prevents the narrator from reading every addon alert unless the player wants it.

🧠 Why This Matters

For players with low vision, ESO’s narrator is essential — but without filtering, it becomes unusable.
VCAP2 restores control, clarity, and sanity.

It helps players who:
• Rely on narration to play
• Struggle with visual clutter
• Need structured audio feedback
• Want addon alerts spoken only when useful
• Need cleaner, simpler spoken names

⚙️ Key Features

• Full narration filtering
• Per‑category toggles
• Per‑addon narration toggles
• Auto‑tag discovery
• Name sanitisation
• Safe hooks (no loops, no spam)
• Dynamic settings menu
• Console‑friendly (no XML)

💬 Final Notes

VCAP2 is built for accessibility first.
It doesn’t change chat.
It doesn’t change UI.
It simply makes ESO’s narrator **usable** for the players who need it most.

Feedback from visually‑impaired players is especially welcome.
Accessibility improves fastest when the community speaks up.

📢 Important Note for Addon Developers

VCAP2 uses an accessibility‑first model:
If your addon sends chat messages without a leading [Tag], those messages are automatically silenced by the narrator.

This is not a punishment — it is a protection for visually‑impaired players.
Without filtering, the narrator will read every addon alert, debug line, and status message, creating overwhelming audio clutter.

To support accessibility, developers are strongly encouraged to:
• Add a leading [Tag] to all addon-generated chat messages
• Use meaningful, readable tags (e.g., [CombatAlerts], [HarvestMap], [MyAddon])
• Use different tags for different message types if needed
(Example: [Alerts], [Warnings], [Info], [Debug])

This gives visually‑impaired players full control over:
• Which addons get narrated
• Which types of messages are spoken
• How granular their narration preferences can be

A simple tag gives players choice — and choice is accessibility.

Baertram · July 27

Good idea, as we wrote over here already (https://www.esoui.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11706), but not as another addon one needs to use but rather include such features in already widely used chat related libraries like LibChatMessage.

SugaComa · July 28

Baertram wrote: »

Good idea, as we wrote over here already (https://www.esoui.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11706), but not as another addon one needs to use but rather include such features in already widely used chat related libraries like LibChatMessage.

I really feel like your being paid to stalk and comment in way that is totally designed to belittle my posts

I honestly do not think you comprehend what I am suggesting

Libchatmessage is designed to help developers PRINT messages to chat when on console and you switch on chat nations you can choose chat, and to include or exclude zone chat that means everything going to chat is spoken by the narration engine

I have already built the addon that fine filters that not only by every available written channel but it also looks at the name in [] and if it doesn't recognise them it registers them

User can then choose which addons they want to hear

Such as
[autoloot] off
[LazyWritCrafter] OFF
[Combat Alerts] On

The only thing I am asking from other developers is if you are making your addon post to chat

Do not use

BattleBot9 instead use [BattleBot9] this give users the choice to have your chat narrated when printed

Right now the can have Vcap not installed Accessibility Narrator on and they have to listen to everything or they have to turn off messages being printed to silence them leasing the experience

Or the can install vcap2 contoll any add that has [] around it's chat name and it can safely be filtered on or off , for those who choose not make [] an industry standard for chat Vcap will just silence you so you can still print to chat but for those of us why are visually impaired and use the narrator to read out messages well we will not be made to lessen our enjoyment of the great game for the sake of adding [] to your chat output.

Baertram · July 29

I really feel like your being paid to stalk and comment in way that is totally designed to belittle my posts

:'( Not sure why you write such allegiation nonsense here?
1st of all I do not stalk anyone and if anyon is ever going to say that again I'm reporting the posts to the forum mods.
This is NO FUN AT ALL!

Please remove that lines of text from your message.

2nd I'm not getting paid for anything here or on esoui or elsewhere related to keeping the ESO addon community and addons running smooth together.

I wonder even more why you do not "change this false allegation above" after we had talked about the topic of "Chat channels for visibly impaired users" already over on esoui, in detail, in the forums and private messages?

I honestly do not think you comprehend what I am suggesting

Actually it was the other way around

-Summary-
Noone ever said your idea using a standard chat tag/channel (your "AMIC" format idea) should be changed, or not used.
I fully support this idea, to create a standard that addons can use to write chat messages, which the ZOs accessibility chat reader can detect and then react on them.

What you did missunderstand was, how LibChatMessage came into the idea there. Sirinsidiator said it is already exisitng to handle chat related topcis, and we were telling you aboutthe idea to rather use LibChatMessage instead of any "solo addon" to make that new chat features ([] tag scanning and accessibility chat reader code) work. I'll therefor copy over what I answered you on ESOUI already:

-For that case, as I tried to describe, my idea was an "overall ON/OFF" switch in the library settings (if your are using accessibility UI mode and chat reader is enabled) so that users can choose to get all [...] messages read out with some default values (always silence [] tags/channels; always read them).
-Or the "per addon" settings would be on-top for "more granularity" (register an addon and control it for that addon AND for a special tag/channel of the addon)
-> We already had similar implementations for the group data sharing libraries in the past e.g.

That way you have a simple solution which comes enabled and rolls-out with a well-spread already existing library which many addons use.
Visually imparied users benefit from that automatically if the "general ON/OFF" flag is set to On by default e.g. (as long as no "non-visually impaired users enable the accessibility mode AND the chat reader -> they never notice!).

Yes, if LibChatMessage is disabled this wont work, but the very same applies to any other addon/lib doing that chat parsing routines
If off -> then no code executed.

Solution:
In the end you need something implemented that parses the chat for that AMIC format, and controls the output.
No matter if that is a lib, an addon or whatever. Implementing this independently in/for each addon does not make sense (only maybe in rare cases)!
That's why a library (and here an already used and wide spread library) which can be reused (even standalone -> Once installed and feature enabled: It works) was the best idea, imho.

Noone attacked you, noone said anything wrong, we just tried to tell you what the community approach would look like to support your idea!
That was the reason why you asked on ESOUI forums, at least your posts said so.
Hope everything is clear now.

SugaComa · July 30

This is why I also sent yo7 an apology on esoui for this post want meant to sound like rant was meant to be comical

Baertram · July 31

Now I get what you meant with your ESOUI pm, you should have added where it belonged to! I thought you were referring to the esoui posts...

Next time maybe add a smiley after the "comical" or "sarcastic" text so one get's a chance to understand it.
I usually perfectly speak irony, but this time it was definately not detectable

SugaComa · August 2

Dude .. last week I've been averaging 2 x 30 minutes naps a day .... What's funny in my head isn't always funny on paper

I'm from yorkshire ... The only way I can state what I was trying to do is

You bump into a neighbour in a supermarket and then it's every aisle you have to acknowledge each other or it feels awkward

Well we tend accusing them of stalking us and make silly comments about fearing for our lives ... It was an attempt at the same thing but more relevent to our posts the shopping aisles

I am truly sorry

Baertram · August 2

SugaComa wrote: »

Dude .. last week I've been averaging 2 x 30 minutes naps a day .... What's funny in my head isn't always funny on paper

I'm from yorkshire ... The only way I can state what I was trying to do is

You bump into a neighbour in a supermarket and then it's every aisle you have to acknowledge each other or it feels awkward

Well we tend accusing them of stalking us and make silly comments about fearing for our lives ... It was an attempt at the same thing but more relevent to our posts the shopping aisles

I am truly sorry

Gotcha now, thanks for the update.
No worries.