Accessibility

JustGammon is designed to support mouse, touch, keyboard, and screen-reader play. The board exposes meaningful names and states instead of relying only on its visual appearance.

You can use the interaction method that best fits your device and assistive technology.

For an overview of how interaction differs between Web, installed Android and iOS applications, and console variants for Windows, macOS, and Linux, see Platforms and Interaction.

Blind and sighted players use the same JustGammon match and the same live board state. One player can use the graphical board with mouse or touch while the other uses a screen reader and keyboard or touch-screen-reader gestures. Moves made through either interaction method update the same points, checkers, dice, score, and game history for both players.

The accessible board is not a separate text-only or audio-only game. Its semantic controls represent the same board that is drawn visually:

Every point exposes its checker occupancy and relevant state.
The bars and bear-off trays are identifiable and operable.
Dice expose their values and whether they have been used.
Selected points and legal destinations are communicated without relying only on color.
Visual, pointer, touch, keyboard, and screen-reader actions use the same game rules and move validation.

Many graphical board games are implemented primarily with images or canvas drawing. Unless the application also provides a semantic representation, a screen reader cannot discover the individual positions and pieces inside that drawing. JustGammon builds that representation into the board so players do not need a separate accessible edition or another person to describe the current position.

On a touch screen

JustGammon uses a landscape layout, so hold your phone or tablet sideways, with the longer edge horizontal. If you usually use your phone in portrait orientation, exploring the board sideways may feel unfamiliar at first. Take time to locate the points, central bar, dice-reading edges, and bear-off tray before playing. Their positions become more familiar with practice.

With VoiceOver, TalkBack, or Jieshuo Plus, explore the board by moving a finger across the screen.

The accessible layout follows the visual board closely. As you explore, the screen reader identifies:

Board points and their checker occupancy
White and Black checkers
The upper and lower bar
Bear-off trays
Dice values and whether each die has been used
Selected points and possible destinations

Activate an item with your screen reader’s standard gesture, usually a double-tap. For a normal board move, select a checker first and then activate a legal destination. Re-entering and bearing off have the shortcuts described below.

Rolling the dice

When it is your turn and the dice have not yet been rolled, explore any board point, then double-tap to activate it and roll. This works with VoiceOver, TalkBack, and Jieshuo Plus. Touching a point to hear its label only explores it; the double-tap performs the action. Once the dice have been rolled, activate points to select a checker and its destination.

You can also activate the Roll Dice button, or enable More → Settings → Gameplay → Auto-roll dice to roll automatically on your turns.

Reading the dice

Explore the outside left edge of the board to read the dice:

Left upper edge reports the first die.
Left lower edge reports the second die.

These edges are separate from the central bar where hit checkers wait to re-enter. After a roll, each edge reports the die’s value and whether it is unused, used, or partially used.

With doubles, the rolled value can be played four times. Each displayed die represents two of those uses: unused means neither has been consumed, partially used means one has been consumed, and used means both have been consumed. For example, “Die 4, partially used. Left upper edge” means one of the two uses represented by the first die has been consumed.

Re-entering from the bar

When you have checkers on the central bar and the dice have been rolled, explore a legal entry point and double-tap it to re-enter a checker. You do not need to activate the bar first; JustGammon selects a bar checker automatically. Repeat as needed: all your checkers must leave the bar before you can move other checkers. The entry point must match an available die and must not contain two or more opposing checkers.

Bearing off

Once all your remaining checkers are in your home board, explore a point containing a checker that can legally bear off and double-tap it. If bearing off is its only available type of move, the checker is removed automatically.

If the checker can also make a legal move within the board, activating its point only selects it. To bear it off, explore the Lower bear-off tray at the bottom right of the board and double-tap it. You can instead activate a legal board destination to move the selected checker there. These actions work with VoiceOver, TalkBack, and Jieshuo Plus.

In a desktop screen reader’s normal web-navigation mode, JustGammon behaves like a web page:

Controls are labeled by purpose.
Board points, bars, trays, and board edges are exposed as buttons.
The screen reader announces occupancy and relevant states.
You can move through controls using Tab, Shift+Tab, or your screen reader’s navigation commands.
Activate the focused board location with Enter or Space.

This method is useful when you want to inspect the board element by element using familiar web-navigation commands.

Direct keyboard mode

Direct keyboard mode makes board navigation feel closer to a desktop game. JustGammon keeps keyboard focus on the board and moves its own virtual board cursor in two dimensions.

To begin:

If you use a screen reader, switch it to the mode that passes individual keys to the web application.
From the game screen, press Z to focus the board.
Use the Arrow keys to move JustGammon’s virtual cursor.
Press Enter, Space, or M to activate the current point.
Use the dedicated information and game-action shortcuts as needed.

The virtual cursor follows the two rows of the physical board. It announces the current point, checker occupancy, and relevant state after movement.

In the iOS app with VoiceOver, responses to virtual-board keyboard commands interrupt previous speech and can be interrupted by the next keyboard response. You can move quickly between points or request information without waiting for earlier descriptions to finish. Automatic game announcements remain polite.

This is a JustGammon feature and is separate from a screen reader’s own virtual cursor or browse mode.

The first time each signed-in account reaches a playable board on a device, JustGammon announces a short introduction to fast keyboard play. The introduction is also added to the Game history channel so it can be read again during that game.

Board labels and point names

When a board location is spoken, JustGammon builds the label from several parts:

the point name, if position names are enabled
the number and color of checkers on that location
the current state, such as selected or possible destination

For example, a point may be announced as 13 5 black, B11, 5 black, or B11, 5 black, selected, depending on your accessibility settings and the current board state.

Point names can use either numeric names (1–24) or A/B names (A1–A12, B1–B12). A/B names can be useful when navigating the two rows of the board, while numeric names match standard backgammon point numbers.

Some screen readers may run the point name and checker count together, especially on touch devices. If B11 5 black is spoken too much like one combined value, open More → Settings → Accessibility → Separator in board labels and choose a clearer separator such as comma, period, semicolon, or a custom one-character separator.

Passing keys to the game

Screen readers use different names for the mode that allows a web application to receive letter and Arrow keys:

Screen reader	Common command	Result
NVDA	`NVDA+Space`	Switch between Browse Mode and Focus Mode
JAWS	`JAWS+Z`	Turn the Virtual PC Cursor off or on
Orca	`Orca+A`	Switch between Browse Mode and Focus Mode
VoiceOver on macOS	Left Arrow + Right Arrow	Turn Quick Nav off or on
VoiceOver on iOS with an external keyboard	Left Arrow + Right Arrow	Turn Quick Nav off or on

VoiceOver users need Quick Nav off when the Arrow keys should reach the game. Depending on the current VoiceOver position, you may first need to interact with the board using standard VoiceOver commands.

Commands can vary with screen-reader version, keyboard layout, and user configuration. When you finish direct board interaction, return to your normal navigation mode.

For iPhone keyboard commands and Quick Nav, see Apple’s VoiceOver external-keyboard guide.

Spoken game information

Open More → Game info to request these details from a keyboard or touch screen. Selecting an item closes the menu, displays its current value, and announces it to a screen reader. Board keyboard shortcuts provide the same information directly.

On the board, activate the upper-right bear-off edge to open the same Game information dialog. The lower-right edge remains available for bearing off checkers.

The upper-left and lower-left board edges, which also provide dice information to screen-reader users, can repeat and cycle through Game information. After a pause longer than 3.5 seconds, either edge repeats the current item. Further activations within 3.5 seconds move backward from the upper-left edge or forward from the lower-left edge. With the board focused, Shift+Up Arrow and Shift+Down Arrow provide the same previous and next controls. Dice is the initial item, and selecting an item from the dialog makes it current.

Available information includes:

Turn and timer information
Dice and match score
Players and player details
Bar, home-board, and borne-off checkers
Possible moves
Pip counts, hits, vulnerable checkers, dice averages, and efficiency

The virtual cursor position and game and chat history remain available through their dedicated keyboard commands.

See Keyboard Shortcuts for the complete reference.

Accessibility preferences

Use the Accessibility setup wizard for guided configuration, or change each option directly under More → Settings → Accessibility. The wizard can be run again at any time from that section.

Open More → Settings → Accessibility to choose:

Whether JustGammon’s additional screen-reader assistance is Automatic, On, or Off
Whether the dice roll, checker moves, and other animations are on or off
Numeric point names (1–24) or A/B names (A1–A12, B1–B12)
Whether position names are announced while navigating
Whether empty points are announced
Which separator is used inside spoken board labels

Screen reader mode does not turn your device’s screen reader on or off. See Settings for the mode choices and complete setup-wizard details.

Animation carries no information in JustGammon — the dice value, checker positions, and score are identical with animations on or off, and turn and game timers run on the server either way. If you turn screen reader mode On and have not already chosen an animations preference, JustGammon turns animations off for you automatically; see Animations to change it independently at any time.

Reports and replay

Post-game comparisons use tables and text values. The Game report’s Summary includes a Show as table alternative for the pip-count chart. In Replay, Show position as text describes occupied points, the bar, and borne-off checkers; the decorative board graphic is hidden from screen readers.

Replay controls have accessible names, the position slider describes its current step, and manual navigation announces the selected move. Automatic playback announces the start of each turn rather than every checker move. Spoken point names follow your point-naming setting. See Game History and Replay for access, controls, and recording limits.

Spectating

The same navigation and information commands can be used while spectating. The board is read-only, so JustGammon announces that moves are unavailable when an activation command is used.