BBO Visual Assist
Assists visually challenged users to play Bridge on the BBO (BridgeBase Online) website by:
1. Supporting voice commands and keyboard shortcuts.
2. Reading cards, bids, score etc. under the mouse cursor.
3. Reading chat messages and other unsolicited messages
4. Introducing each board, the vulnerability, and the dealer.
5. Giving a brief description of your hand and dummy’s.
6. Describing actions such as bids, cards played, alerts and claims.
The extension can be tailored to the required level of assistance by enabling or disabling the appropriate functions using the extension’s pop-up window.
Full documentation is available via the extension's pop-up window. Use the jigsaw symbol in the top right toolbar of Google Chrome to display the pop-up window and to pin the pop-up window to the toolbar.
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Version 6.8 (4th Mar 2024)
• Cache of out-of-date elements cleared on logoff so now possible to log back in without refreshing the browser page.
Version 6.7 (14th Feb 2024)
• Required updated since BBO changed so some elements are not available until after the user logs into BBO.
Version 6.6 (6th Sept 2023)
• Reading out of the cards in a suit slowed down.
Version 6.5 (14th July 2023)
• Board described again if player re-joins a board.
• Fixed bug which left the microphone active if no speech for 9 seconds
Version 6.4 (22nd Jun 2023)
• Voice command 'Auction' corrected to report 3 passes if you're in the pass-out seat.
• Cut and Paste commands will not be beeped; similar for other standard keys.
• Can no longer used Ctrl+F5 to hear dummy's spades prior to start of the board.
• Voice commands to play cards patched so suit isn’t always required.
Version 6.3 (18th Jun 2023)
• Fixed auction speech actions that stopped working due to BBO changing the internal layout of the auction box.
• During testing detected that the speech recognition fails to recognise numbers from one to ten unless followed by the suit. This could not be fixed as it appears to be a problem with the Chrome API so will need to be further investigated.
• Pressing the <Enter> key will now just perform a single action even if a dialogue box is open.
Version 6.2 (22nd Jan 2023)
• Bug Fix: Mouse clicks within the phrase translation page stopped working under latest Chrome Build 109.0.5414.75
Version 6.1
• Bug Fix: Mouse clicks stopped working under latest Chrome Build 109.0.5414.75
Version 6.0
• Keyboard entry for bids and card playing.
• Voice commands to repeat bids or the cards played.
• Voice commands to announce who’s turn it is to play and the number of tricks won.
• Voice command to announce the number of minutes remaining in the current round.
• Additional error messages.
Latest reviews
- (2023-09-02) James Nelson-Parker: Thank you so much for this wonderful extension. A French friend of ours recently and suddendly lost her sight and is now completely blind. Bridge online, in the club and at national level was her life - she's in the top 7% of players in France. When I came across this extension I knew I could give her hope that she could continue to play bridge even though she is blind. Although she plays with an international group, English is something she needs to improve. But ... we have had 2 seesions with friends on BBO and, although she has some challenges, they were a great success and she is thrilled at the prospect that she can play bridge on BBO, despite the challenges she will face to do it without me as her assistant. Thank you again for giving our friend HOPE. It's going to be a long and difficult journey but now we know, the goal is achievable thanks to this extension.
- (2023-06-12) Dominique Custers: Although I am not visually impaired I just love this extension - to be honest I have gotten a bit lazy and now also annoyed when playing at the club since no one is reading out my HCP and Losing Trick Count ;-) Dominique / dbx
- (2023-02-12) Ville Lamminen: I really appreciate this extension!!! Thank you!
- (2020-11-24) Jim B Bushey: Great addition to online BBO sessions for visually impaired folks.