Some more accessibility in NetHack 3.7-to-be: It can now optionally notify when you spot a monster. No need to look through the map anymore. Combined with the message location information, it looks like this:
(3north): You see a newt.
@paxed This is awesome! Your work on Nethack accessibility is greatly appreciated! i'll definitely need to revisit this version once it's released, orsooner if it's ready for testing. I used to play under DOS. One of the biggest challenges I used to have in Windows was that Windows screen readers didn't provide reliable coordinates for objects on the map. Sounds like you're working to address that!
@alpuzz Thanks. It's sometimes hard to know what to change to make the game more accessible - this was part of the stuff that is shown on map but not anywhere else, and more is needed on that front.
The source code is available on github, but there are no precompiled binaries yet. I don't use Windows, so can't do those, but cross-compiling to DOS is simple - although I've tested the DOS version only under DOSbox, not sure if it runs on Windows...
@paxed Good to know the DOS version still exists. I primarily used to play under DOS. This was easier back in the day because DOS screen readers were aware of the 25x80 column layout. I could find any object on the screen and query its location, and understand its relationship to any other object. Windows screen readers give location info in terms of pixels, which is useless in Nethack.
@paxed That said, the majority of perspective players today will not be spinning up DOS virtual machines just to play Nethack, so making the Windows version more accessible would be a major win.