alchemist-accessibility/accessibility/README.md

# Accessibility mod — Sulphur Memories: Alchemist

Blind-accessibility mod adding screen-reader speech, an object tracker, tile
exploration and directional wall tones.

Speech goes through **Tolk**, so it uses your running screen reader (NVDA, JAWS,
System Access) and falls back to SAPI 5 if none is running.

## Running

```
"C:\Program Files\LOVE\love.exe" "D:\code\Sulphur Memories Alchemist 0.4.2 sanctified"
```

Use `lovec.exe` instead of `love.exe` to get a console window — every spoken line
is mirrored there, which is useful for reporting bugs.

The TTS libraries live in `accessibility/lib/` and are loaded by absolute path,
so nothing needs installing or copying into Program Files.

If speech does not work, check the console for the startup self-test:

```
[accessibility] TTS: available
[accessibility] speech channel: yes
```

`speech channel: NO` means Tolk loaded but found no screen reader and no SAPI.

---

## Keys added by the mod

All of these are **in addition to** the game's own controls, and none of them
replace a key the game uses.

### Reading the message log

| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| `[` | Previous message |
| `]` | Next message |
| `Shift+[` | Oldest message |
| `Shift+]` | Newest message (and resume following new messages) |
| `\` | Repeat the current message |
| `Shift+\` | Copy the current message to the clipboard |

New messages are spoken automatically. Pressing any key that does something in
the game cancels whatever is still queued, so you are never stuck listening to a
backlog. While you are moving through the history, new messages do **not** drag
the cursor away — press `Shift+]` to return to the newest.

### Looking around

| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| `/` | Scan all eight neighbouring tiles, clockwise from north |
| `Shift+/` | Cycle automatic announcements of what comes in and out of view |
| `;` | Where am I — area name, in-game date and time, coordinates |
| `Ctrl` + numpad `1`–`9` | Describe the tile in that direction without moving |
| `Ctrl` + numpad `5` | Describe the tile you are standing on |

#### Announcing things as they come into view (`Shift+/`)

`/` tells you what is around you *now*. `Shift+/` decides how much of that
happens by itself as you walk, cycling three settings:

- **View announcements when you stop** *(the default)* — changes pile up while
  you are moving and are read out once you have stood still for a moment. A
  single step reports as soon as the step lands. A ten-tile walk gives you **one
  combined summary at the end** rather than ten reports on top of each other,
  and it is a *net* change: something that came into view halfway along and went
  out again before you stopped is not mentioned.
- **View announcements on every step** — each step reports its own change. Best
  when you are creeping along carefully; too talkative for crossing a room.
- **View announcements off**.

You hear things arriving — `In view: a rat, 4 tiles north-east. barrel, 3,
nearest 2 tiles east` — and creatures leaving: `Out of view: a rat`. Only
creatures are reported when they leave. Furniture drops out of sight constantly
as walls come between you and it, and being told the bed is out of view every
other step would bury everything useful; a creature you can no longer see is
worth knowing about.

These announcements are queued rather than urgent, so anything you asked for
yourself is spoken first, and any key that acts in the game clears them.

Nothing outside your current field of view is ever reported.

The game's own examine mode (**`x`**) is also fully spoken: the arrow keys move a
cursor around the map and each tile is described with its distance and direction
from you. Press `f` in examine mode to jump between exits.

### Object tracker

Finds everything you have seen, sorted by distance.

| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| `Ctrl+PageUp` / `Ctrl+PageDown` | Previous / next **category** |
| `PageUp` / `PageDown` | Previous / next **kind** of thing in that category |
| `Shift+PageUp` / `Shift+PageDown` | Previous / next **instance** of that kind |
| `Home` | Distance, direction, and number of steps by path |
| `Ctrl+Home` | Walk to it |

Categories: Creatures, Items, Alchemy, Interactables, Exits, Terrain features.

So `Ctrl+PageDown` to reach "Creatures", `PageDown` to move between rat / beetle
/ guard, and `Shift+PageDown` to step through the individual rats. `Home` gives
you the walking distance, which indoors is often very different from the
straight-line distance.

`Ctrl+Home` does exactly what left-clicking the tile does with a mouse: it queues
a walk along the game's own path. If the thing itself cannot be stood on — a
creature, a chest, a bed — you walk to the nearest tile beside it instead, and
the announcement says "next to" rather than "to". As with a mouse click, the walk
stops early if something interrupts you, and while an enemy is in view the game
only ever commits one step at a time.

Your selection sticks. The list is rebuilt and re-sorted by distance every turn,
but the tracker follows the thing you picked rather than the slot it was in, so a
rat you are tracking stays selected as it moves around. It is only let go when it
genuinely stops being visible.

The tracker only ever reports things you have actually seen.

### The journal (`j`)

The journal has three parts, and all three are spoken:

| Key | Moves |
|---|---|
| `q` / `e` | Between tabs — Quests, Lore, Bestiary, Components, Recipes, Tutorials |
| Up / Down | Between entries in the current tab |
| Left / Right | Between pages of the selected entry |

Selecting an entry reads its title, its position in the list, and then the text
of the page itself. The tab name is only spoken when you change tabs, and the
title only when you change entry, so flipping pages doesn't make you sit through
the heading again.

Long entries run to several pages; you are told `page 2 of 3` when there is more
than one. The page text also goes into the message history, so `[` and `]` will
walk back through it and `\` re-reads a line — useful for a long lore entry you
want to take in a piece at a time.

### The inventory (`i`)

Moving the cursor reads the item under it, or `empty`, plus the slot number:
`a torch, slot 3`. `q` / `e` change tab, and the tab name is spoken when it
changes. An item you are currently wearing, wielding or have switched on is read
as `equipped`.

Pressing enter (or `z`) on an item opens a small menu of the things you can do
with *that* item right now — the list is different for every item, and changes
with its state. It is read as, for example:

```
a torch, actions, Switch on, 1 of 2
```

Up and Down move through the actions, enter performs the selected one, and any
other key closes the menu without doing anything. After the action runs you hear
the item again, so `Switch on` is followed by `a torch, equipped, slot 3` — that
is your confirmation it worked.

Some items have no actions at all (plain crafting reagents, for instance). For
those, enter does nothing whatsoever in the base game — not even a click — so the
mod says `a pinch of sulphur, no actions` rather than leaving you wondering
whether the key registered.

Common actions include Activate, Wield, Unwield, Wear, Take off, Switch on,
Switch off, Drink, Eat, Apply, Read, Open, and Prepare for throwing / Pack away.
**Equipping is done from here** — there is no separate equipment screen.

### Your character

| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| `'` | Health and active effects |
| `,` | Currently selected action |

You are also told automatically when you take damage or are healed.

### Wall tones

Each step you take, a tone sounds from the direction of any wall within five
tiles, positioned in 3D so you can hear where it is. Further walls are louder.

---

## Reporting problems

Run with `lovec.exe` and include the console output. Lines beginning `[speech]`
show exactly what was spoken and when:

- `[speech]!` — interrupted whatever was being said
- `[speech]*` — urgent alert, spoken immediately
- `[speech] ` — queued normally

If something is **silent that should not be**, that is the most useful thing to
report, together with the screen you were on and the key you pressed.

---

## For developers

See `accessibility/docs/` — start with `docs/README.md`, and read
`docs/scratch.md` first if you are picking the work up mid-stream.