IRC INFO for ALL +
Welcome to my page on adapting Internet Relay Chat, making IRC more accessible to those with low or strained vision and people who use speech or Braille output devices. There's something here for everyone who uses IRCII.
The script files that are available from here are intended for those
who are using a shell account on a UNIX system (or ISP that runs on a UNIX
operating system). If your Internet Service Provider uses SunOS UNIX (as
does dorsai.org) it's all the better. If you aren't certain whether or
not your ISP uses UNIX look carefully at what comes on your screen while
logging in and if you're *still* not sure, contact your provider's
technical support staff.
Give the appropriate script a try and see what happens. I see no
way in which any of these scripts can damage any files, clients or
servers. I've been told that all three of them are quite useful for the
people who need them. Others have commented that even IRC users
with normal vision can benefit from using these files.
/load irctalk
If irctalk is in a directory other than your root directory be
sure to put that directory name before irctalk so your .ircrc can find it.
After you've saved your .ircrc file just run irc and you should notice the
difference immediately. Irctalk can be modified with a standard text
editor (Just remember to save the original BEFORE you edit Hehehe).
The result of our original idea and my subsequent hours of trial, error and colourful language is called ircons. Its job is to highlight important events in an IRC session such as private messages, notifications and channel mode changes. Most Windows IRC clients highlight events with different colours, text and/or sound. Not much in the sound department with ircons, but it brings the eye to events quite well. I've also added time marks to some of the events for convenience. Ircons is primarily for people with low or strained vision who want or need these events in a more "eye-catching" format than most standard IRCII server/client output provides.
If you wish to modify ircons with an editor BE SURE to use one
that will retain the embedded control characters in the file. Otherwise
the instructions for using ircons are identical to the ones for using
irctalk. All you need is to download ircons and
add it to your .ircrc file in the same way as I've described for irctalk.
Simple. Just as with irctalk once you've started using ircons you should
notice the difference sraight away.
About this time I'm sure that many people are reaching for that old mouse or those arrow keys, ready to blow this page away because they don't think that any of the three scripts I am offering apply to them. Before you hit that Left-Arrow or click that mouse button however, stop a moment and think. Have you ever suffered from eye strain from being on IRC too long? Ever find yourself missing an important IRC event because you've been distracted in some way and haven't been able to keep up with what's going on in the channel(s)? Did you ever wish that screen output could catch your eye better? Are you tired of the extra scroll you have to deal with because someone's using colours?
If the answer to any of the above questions is "yes" or if you
know anyone who might answer these questions that way the scripts here are
a great solution. You don't need a special computer to run ANY of them.
You don't need different hardware or an expensive software upgrade. All
you need to do is download these scripts and put them in your .ircrc file.
That's it. I can't charge money for these, and wouldn't if I could.
They're free. If you don't like them, simply delete the pertinent line(s)
from your .ircrc file and erase the script you downloaded from here.
Everything will return to the way it was before you loaded the script.
Send an email 
to me or Return
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Home Page.