# accessible irc solusions these days

Category: Geeks r Us

## Post 1 by bmisch (Veteran Zoner) on Monday, 22-Aug-2011 22:08:58

Hey guys i know mirc4life used to be out. is that better these days and if not, what is a great solution for using irc with a screen reader like nvda, and system access and even jaws and window-eyes on windows 7? thanks.

## Post 2 by Dave_H (the boringest guy you'll ever know) on Tuesday, 23-Aug-2011 21:26:06

You might try using a multi-protocol thing like Miranda or Pidgin. Both offer irc, as well as many instant messenger capabilities. On my Linux machine, I use Pidgin, on the house iMac, I use Adium. If you try Miranda, Pidgin, or Instant Bird's irc services, let us know your results.

## Post 3 by bmisch (Veteran Zoner) on Tuesday, 23-Aug-2011 21:47:40

ok thanks will try that. i know those work with nvda but haven't found anything that works with system access. I know mirc 4 life did but don't know what happened with that project. Hope someone can fill me in on that.

## Post 4 by Dave_H (the boringest guy you'll ever know) on Wednesday, 24-Aug-2011 0:32:03

Mirc for Life was just Mirc, with some extensions, right? What of talkingirc and mircspeech? Those, too, are just Mirc with extra script. If you can find either of those, give it a try.

## Post 5 by louisa (move over school!) on Wednesday, 24-Aug-2011 9:52:21

Hello, after a long time, I once tried using irc with mircspeech. For some reason, it wouldn't work, I use jaws and windows xp. I remember with irc, you could select a list of servers, but with the others, you couldn't. Is irc, stil popular these days or has it died out? Just curious.

## Post 6 by Dave_H (the boringest guy you'll ever know) on Wednesday, 24-Aug-2011 12:02:46

I think irc is fading. Many of the channels I used to frequent are either empty or just full of bots or nobody talks.

## Post 7 by louisa (move over school!) on Thursday, 25-Aug-2011 8:41:09

That's a pity, it used to be fun.

## Post 8 by kool_turk (This site is so "educational") on Friday, 26-Aug-2011 1:54:42

There's also a plugin for firefox called Chatzilla that will connect you to irc servers.
The chat history window is a HTML page so it's easy to refer back.
If I have to use irc for what ever reason I just use that plugin.

## Post 9 by bmisch (Veteran Zoner) on Friday, 26-Aug-2011 12:18:33

i used that with a program called sea monkey that has chatzilla built in. it worked with nvda.

## Post 10 by Dave_H (the boringest guy you'll ever know) on Friday, 26-Aug-2011 12:20:02

Chatzilla is a great suggestion; I forgot about it; thanks for the reminder! What's more, if you're using a screen reader that supports Aria live regions, you can have the conversation automatically spoken as it comes in, just like it would be with one of those speech-enabled mIrc solutions.