New Accessibility Plugin for SDR#

In the past we've seen several SDR# plugins released by Eddie MacDonald, and now thanks to recent updates to the core of SDR#, he's been able to work on and release a new accessibility plugin for SDR#. Eddie writes -

I have created a new plugin which provides keyboard shortcuts, an on screen display and a new improved toolbar for the new native toolbar area that Prog has provided to plugin developers.

There are many new and improved toolbar buttons available.

Many, many keyboard shortcuts including the ability to directly enter the frequency easily from the keyboard.

I am currently working on incorporating a screen reader into the plugin to aid the blind in using SDR#.

The plugin is available from his website at https://sdrplugins.com/downloads

New SDR# Accessibility Plugin
New SDR# Accessibility Plugin
Keyboard Shortcuts in the Accessibility Plugin
Keyboard Shortcuts in the Accessibility Plugin
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

28 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
mak

hello, i was quite excited when i found this post unfortunately the plugin link does not work anymore , i wouldnt mind just running an old version of sdr .. just something that could work for a blind person. thank you for reading Mak

René

Hello!
I just came accross this post and wanted to download the plugin for Screen Readers, but it seems it is no longer available at the given link.
Neither did I see it listed in the installed plugins of the community Edition.
Do you happen to know if this plug in is still functional and available from somewhere?
I am totally blind and I only just received an RTL-SDR USB Stick. I am a bit confused trying to navigateht the SDR# software. Thus I hope an accessibility plugin may help.
Thanks for the awesome work! Best Regards, René

Eddie

Hi REne, It’s Eddie from SDrplugins.com can you send me your email again please?

alexander

Hi Eddie,

site is down, have you please the plugin for keyboard for sdr#1.0.0. ?
TNX in advance !

alexander

site is down, have someone please the plugin for keyboard for sdr#1.0.0. ?
TNX in advance !

Glenn

Hello, the link to the accessible plugin did not work, does this mean that there is no longer an accessibility plugin? If there were just keyboard shortcuts, I think my existing screenreader can do the rest. I remember using it years back, but haven’t tried it in a long time, and would like to get it going again, for myself, and a fellow Blind radio enthusiast.

Hank Smith

can you contact me off list at [email protected] I am having trouble getting the plugin working. I am using sdrsharp dotnet4 version fore some reason dotnet5 is installed but it flat out refuses to run so I am needing to get this working under the dotnet4 version. thanks Hank

Tim

Is there any plan to update this plugin to work with the latest revision of SDR# (1810)? This is such a useful plugin and would be a shame to lose it due to the updated software.

Eddie

Yes. I am in the process of recoding 4henpkugin from scratch in the new .NET 5 framework. I am about half finished. Thanks for your patience.

Tim

Hi Eddie

Is there any progress on this?

alexander

I was very happy when I read about a plugins that can made to work the keyboard shortcuts but,
that it was for a short time until I try it, because my controller USB HID who send the CORRECT keyboard signs (to say Z+ for zoom in) do it… nothing. and, it work perfect with HDSDR and GQRX and SDRplay and so on..
except Sharp 🙁
just from laptop keyboard is work.

Mike

Sorry – sdrsharp has become hopeless. I did try. There is no setup appearing, it keeps shouting at me. It’s gone, for good this time.

Mike

So it seems there is a problem with all these plugins included in the community edition. There are no menus appearing so it’s impossible to manage. You can select a receiver type but not where it is connected. Also the screen is appearing at very low quality, as if it were not high DPI monitor aware, though I assume it actually is. That’s probably connected to the non-appearance of controls. Finally the installer it installs Zadig by default. That’s a really BAD idea. Zadig is fine in the right hands, but not for beginners as it’s far too easy to do serious harm if you don’t know what you are doing. That should be an option you have to select rather than on by default.

Jordan Quinn Mckenzie

every time i install SDR sharp on a new computer i have to goto the local files and delete the freakin DLL 😛
its so annoying to constantly have it shouting at me.

SDRplugins.com

Hello Jordan,

I designed the login for the blind and seeing impaired who specifically requested the plugin be enabled by default. SDR# is very hard for them to navigate.

The author of SDR# has been making many many changes to the API for the past month or so, as a result alot of 3rd party plugins, including mine are not operating correctly. Most of us are actively updating the plugins as we can, but I personally am waiting for the API changes to stabilize first, as programming and updating numerous plugins every day is very tedious.
I am sorry for the problems your having. I would suggest the best way to avoid this is to only install the default plugins when installing the community package. (The community plugin package is maintained by someone else and I have nothing to do with it).

Sorry again for the inconvenience.

Angus

Well explained and kudos for taking the time and effort to help others. No need for apologies.

Jordan

yeah! no need to apologize!
its a lot easier for me to disable it than it would be for a visually impaired person to enable it.
its a funny event that happens to me sometimes – nothing bad at all 😛
thanks for all you do man, its excellent work.

CoolKoon

Just a comment: since this wretched screen reader cannot be turned off when installed (e.g. when the full community package is installed), you have to remove the SDRSharp.ScreenReader.dll file from the installation directory (and restart SDR#) in order to make the incredibly annoying screen reading aloud stop.

EDDIE

Yes, I am just finishing up the new controls for the plugin. I had to record everything from scratch. Sorry for the delay

question

Is there a hotkey to temporarily disable this? I saw that “it may not work until radio is playing” so I stopped the radio yet was unable to just Add a newgroup/name a station because it just starts activating all the shortcuts ha! Anyway around this?

Eddie

yes, the newest version allow you to use the CONTROL KEY + X to toggle the shortcuts off / on

SDRplugins.com

Unless of course you simply disable the CLEARLY labeled option on the plugin control panel which reads “Enable Plugin”.

something magical happens when you do. Its stop screen reading. Also, if you did not just rush through the installer for the community package you would see there is an option to choose which plugins you do and do not want installed. Perhaps take the time to RTFM before blasting the creator of FREE PLUGiNS. As in ME the guy who spent 3 moths creating that WRETCHED plugin.

CoolKoon

Well, clicking on the “Plugin Manager Suite” option throws an exception. I can’t see any other option for adjusting the plugins. And the reason I opted to install all the plug-ins was because I honestly didn’t expect all of them to be automatically activated and even if it did, I didn’t expect the plug-ins to automatically do something I honestly didn’t ask for. And just before you start another rant: it isn’t only about your precious plugin that you “spent 3 moths creating”. The Audio Processor plugin automatically turns the “bandpass filter” on as well, which is almost as annoying as the reading out loud thing and I’m thinking about deleting that plugin as well. But you’re right: next time I’ll explicitly disable those plugins during installation time to save me the nerves. Having to deal with faulty USB cables was more than enough, I really don’t need the extra “adrenaline” from SW as well.

Edward MacDonald

Well then I would advise you of two things:

Start building the plugins yourself the way you want them to operate…

AND if you could have perhaps Googled your problem, the first I hit I got comes to a post which clearly states that the SDR# API no longer works the same. It has been changed. Plugins will not longer work properly, may throw errors or cause SDR# to stop working.

Each developer is responsible for updating their plugins. Which takes time when the API is changing every other day for the past 3 weeks.

Another thing. The screen reader plugin is made for / under the direction of blind users. Most blind users have a hard time navigating through SDR# so THEY asked me to have the plugin automatically initialize during start up.

You would get a lot more help from this community if you started asking questions civilly instead of being a pompas jerk.

jose

your smart @ss reply is not helpful and it is wrong for many users simply clicking diable does not actually stop the stupid voice.

Anonymous

Well Jose, we all have opinions. The screen reader plugin was designed for blind and seeing impaired users who can not navigate SDR# due to the fact it is not accessable. The only way to ensure the plugin worked for them was to have it enabled at start up. So therefore I weighted the decision on those who would be using it not those who wouldn’t. The plugin IS OPTIONAL. The user had a choice of installing it or not and no one forced them to install it. My “smart ass” comment is out if frustration of entitled people who think free software should adhere to their arbitrary whims because they so demand it. Its one thing to critique and yet another to bash someone because you don’t like the way something works that you chose to use in the first place.
If you don’t want to use the plugin DONT install it.

Anonymous

Don’t waste time answering to assholes; You can fix code but you can’t fix stupidity !

Marek

Fantastic. I believe the SDR# itself could have these shortcuts built-in, it would make life a lot easier not only for blind users.
The screen reader functionality is also very much welcome here. Looking forward to it.