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Woohoo! It's a pity I haven't tried the #tuba #fedi client built with #gnome technologies earlier. It's verry accessible with a #screenreader. I am running it on the desktop using the keyboard to navigate.


Nice article in czech describing latest advancemend in developing czech and slovak voices for #RHVoice portal-pelion.cz/rodina-zdarma…


Hello #accessibility experts and #screenReader users. I am trying to find out a wordpress addon that might provide self-hostable and screen reader accessible reservation system. The features I am looking for is ability to integrate this with google calendar or any other caldav based self-hostable calendaring solution. Email notifications for both visitors and administrators is a plus. I need this to be accessible to both visitors as well as administrators.
Also recently I think I have seen a mention of croutfunding campaign where the aim is to build open-source accessible booking system. I'd be happy to look at it too if you can remind me of it.


During latest two days I have attempted a minimal #a11y related hacking in #rust with #matrix #fractal code base. While working on it I found this tech note by @Hubert Figuière on subclassing #GTK4 widgets verry help full.
Let's see if I have done it right. At least I am back to chatting now.

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Pred pár dňami sme vďaka @Zvonimir Stanecic a ďalším dobrovoľníkom zverejnili prvý slovenský ženský hlas pre #rhvoice. Hlas dostal aj pekné netradičné meno Jasietka. K dispozícii sú hlasy pre #Windows #nvdasr #android aj #linux . Aktualizácie sa zároveň dočkala aj celková podpora pre slovenčinu, vrátane už skôr zverejneného slovenského hlasu Ondro. Ak potrebujete #tts #textToSpeech k čítaču obrazovky, na čítanie kníh, inštrukcie pre GPS navigáciu, pozrite si prosím podrobnosti na jednoduchom webe.

hlas.ondrosik.sk/

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Quite number of things have happened since I have mentioned my occassional usage of #emacS:
* @Termux is trying to update its compatibility with recent #android versions returning into the Google play in the process.
* speechd-el the app that acts as a built-in screen reader for emacs got some polishing and fixes recently.
* Touch and speech have recently released an update to Corvus, suite of assistive apps for #android that also feature great liblouis powered braille keyboard that can emulate alt, ctrl and shift keys allowing me to use emacs keybindings on the braille touch keyboard.
* I'm on holiday these days and I can benefit from having a screenreader accessible linux terminal with powerfull tools inside my pocket.

So here is a short article I wrote on the matter last week

pvagner.sk/2024/emacs-a11y-tip…

in reply to Paweł Masarczyk

@Piciok Thanks for sharing the instructions. Now the voice output of Emacs also works on my Android smartphone. Together with the mobile Braille keyboard metabraille, this is very practical.

Peter Vágner reshared this.

in reply to Oskar

@Oskar @Paweł Masarczyk Do you guys have more details about @Projekt Define Is it really this hardware mobile phone case with braille keyboard included? I know all the documentation is available online for the do it yourself project, but is there someone who is making these units? gitlab.com/metabraille/metabra…
in reply to Peter Vágner

@define @Piciok Metabraille is a mobile Braille-Keyboard. You can connect it via Bluetooth to a Smartphone or a Computer. We are developing and producing them.
in reply to Oskar

@Oskar @Projekt Define @Paweł Masarczyk Can you please try to describe how it looks like? Is it built into the smartphone case? Is there a place to order it from? What's the price for an individual user? Does it use liblouis for the back translation from braille? I don't seem to be able to find out these details on the website or should I be looking at something else?
in reply to Peter Vágner

@define @Piciok Metabraille is built like a house with a roof. 8 buttons in the front and two buttons on the roof instead of windows. You hold the house with both hands between your palms and type with the fingers on the front and with your thumbs on the roof. It is like holding a keyboard upside down in the air with your palms and typing on the backside. 12 cm long, 10 cm width, 2.6 cm depth. it is a standalone device, not built in the smartphone case.
in reply to Peter Vágner

@define @Piciok Metabraille does not use liblouis. The translation happens in the device. Liblouis is not ported to the microcrontroller and not used.
in reply to Oskar

@define @Piciok unified english braille is not supported yet. we support german braille for the moment. but we will implement unified english braille.
in reply to Oskar

@Oskar @Projekt Define @Paweł Masarczyk Hmmm, while adopting we'll have to implement different braille codes. e.g. For some serious typing I'd like to have slovak braille code. Newertheless it sounds very interesting. With this keyboard can you fully operate your smartphone?
in reply to Peter Vágner

@define @Piciok We want to implement all European languages step by step. Metabraille is a full keyboard replacement. You can fully operate your smartphone with this keyboard.
in reply to Peter Vágner

@define @Piciok metabraille is optimized to be assembled by people with visual impairments or blindness. the assembly kit costs about 180 Euro
in reply to Peter Vágner

On iOS we have ISH which is an awesome piece of software. Its a full emulator of Linux kernel. Emulator, not a VM. Reading through its code is an adventure full of twists and turns, but very rewarding if you like such things.


Dear !Friendica Support I'm sometimes reading my #friendica timeline from the @Tusky app on #android.
I am having an issue that some parts of the timeline are not loaded into the @Tusky app at all.
I have figured out when replies are added into a thread, the post is being repositioned in the list of posts returned by the #Mastodon compatible API. @Tusky is not fetching older posts when the one that has already been requested is found while syncing new posts. That is causing gaps in my timeline I can read on the phone.
It really sounds complicated. Do you understand what's my issue?


A friend just reminded me today that #braille watches for the #blind inspired by the soviet braille watch tradition are still being produced nowadays. I have found an eshop with world wide shipping meranom.com/en/vostok/vostok-t…
Also there is a nice article on the history of these watches: mroatman.wixsite.com/watches-o…

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What a nice discovery. I am an occasional #emacs user and latelly I have found out built-in tramp can be used with #rclone to work with files on rclone remotes.

wwarner reshared this.



Today I have found out when enabling subtitles on #youtube the area where the subtitle track is playing is no longer configured as so called live region so youtube subtitles are no longer read automatically with a #screenReader if it's running. I've also looked at #invidious which has aria-live set to off. This is unfortunate as I was expecting this to just work. It can be tested on this video if you like youtu.be/watch?v=3i7gkN-1sAI yewtu.be/watch?v=3i7gkN-1sAI


Dnes si dovolím odkázať na veľmi vydarený český hlas pre hlasový výstup #TTS #RHVoice. Sám autor o tom píše tu: groups.io/g/Blind-android/mess… . O použití pre #Windows #Linux a #Android sa dočítate aj na jednoduchej komunitnej stránke hlas.ondrosik.sk/ . Gro používateľov sú ťažko zrakovo postihnutí používatelia, ktorí si bez kvalitného hlasového výstupu a čítača obrazovky nedokážu svoj digitálny život predstaviť, možno ale aj vám by sa mohol hodiť takýto hlas pre váš počítač či smartfón nezávislí od obrovských korporácií. Mohli by ste ho napr. použiť na čítanie kníh alebo počas navigácii cez GPS.



@Arch Linux packages #ffmpeg 4.4 in order to satisfy some dependencies. Funy thing today, now using pacman, I am just updating to ffmpeg4.4-4.4.4-4


Oh damn, why I have missed such well written and amazing message regarding #Accessibility state of linux desktop last year?
It's written by @RastislavKish and here it is: freelists.org/post/orca/Can-be…


I am about to install @Arch Linux on a new laptop. This time I am attempting to look into the #secureBoot properly. Trying to boot #archBoot or manually adding #preloader into the install media fails with secure boot violation error. I understand I should enroll loader hashes into the mok list in the nvram. I can't use EFI shell, hashtool.efi, keytool.efi and similar since at that stage of the boot process there's no accessibility support and I can't handle that on my own with OCR snapshots of the laptop screen. Am I missunderstanding the secure boot concept or is that yet another thing I can't overcome no matter how much I am trying to prepare for the task? Of course windows is booting and I do have a screen reader running. But I can't find windows tools capable of manipulating EFI variables. #secureBoot #fail #Accessibility




in reply to Peter Vágner

This one was just the beginning, the message list needs much love, but likely after Fosdem...




I am just testing @Jami with a #screenreader on both linux desktop and android for #accessibility.
Initial setup is accessible on both the platforms.
Listing conversations I can't really say as I only have single contact.
Audio calling is working fine. I am impressed that the call setup took just a moment. On android controls like microphone toggle, speaker / earpiece toggle and hangup button are working fine.
I am unable to find out in call controls with the keyboard on linux.
On both desktop and android I can write messages.
On android I can read messages, find and execute additional actions in the popup menu.
On the desktop I can't read incoming and outgoing messages with a screen reader. I haven't discovered on how to copy them.

In conclusion comparing this to the tox chat the Jami is more accessible with a screen reader. Perhaps I will be able to figure out how to handle the calls with a keyboard shortcuts however the fact message text is not readable with a screen reader on desktop linux and perhaps other platforms sounds dissapointing. The idea and decentralized nature of this communication app sounds really amazing.

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in reply to Peter Vágner

Exploring @Jami further I think I can post a few more observations.
The desktop app uses QT6 for the UI. Apart of some ounlabelled buttons such as Accept / Reject incoming call and some tab controls on the main window most of the UI elements are clearly labelled and accessible from the keyboard.
The desktop app has a keyboard shortcuts button on the main screen which opens a tabbed dialog with accessible lists of keyboard shortcuts. I haven't yet discovered if these can be tweaked but the default ones are working well for me. For calls it's ctrl+y for accepting and ctrl+d for rejecting / hanging up. Letter m alone can be used for muting / unmuting the microphone.
I need to find out if there is a way to create global shortcuts or do some actions using commandline switches. If either of this turned out to be possible it would perfectly integrate with the desktop.
Sending and receiving files is something I'm going to try next.
@Jami


Priatelia, poznáte simplemobiletools.com ? Je to sada veľmi jednoduchých ale funkčných open-source aplikácií pre android. Za projektom stojí slovenský vývojár Tibor Kaputa, čo som doteraz veľmi rád všade zdôrazňoval, kde to bolo možné. Sám autor v komentári potvrdzuje, že napozadí prebieha predaj týchto aplikácií resp. nie ani tak aplikácií a značky simple mobile tools ako používateľskej základne v obchode google play spoločnosti ZipoApps. Už tu na fediverse som zhliadol vtipné komentáre, že v kontexte autorovho priezviska, týmto aplikáciám je kaput. github.com/SimpleMobileTools/G…


Zaujímavý článok z histórie dopravy v čechách a na slovensku autobible.euro.cz/clanky/karos…


I have just found out up to date version of #rclone can be used on non-rooted #android devices thanks to the #round-sync app. github.com/newhinton/Round-Syn… cc @IzzyOnDroid ✅

Steffen reshared this.

in reply to Peter Vágner

Die App kann es gar nicht geben. Die kommt doch aus einem Phantom-Ort:

certificate DN: C=de, ST=NRW, L=Bielefeld, O=Nüsse IT, OU=dev, CN=Felix Nüsse

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bielefel…

Aber wenn Du darauf bestehst: warte einfach auf den nächsten #AndroidAppRain :awesome:

Danke für den Hinweis!



What a discovery: LMI interface for changing bios settings from the userspace on modern Lenovo laptops is a thing for quite some time already. It's built into the linux kernel since 5.17. I have supported Lenovo laptop for a few months and I have only found about it today. It's nice for IT professionals but for blind users like me it's great too.


I've just discovered @Accrescent An open-source Android app store focused on security, privacy, and usability. accrescent.app/


I have just discovered #narrowlink. It looks interesting especially with P2P mode introduced in the v0.2 version. For accessing services behind a nat it looks to have better bandwidth requirements as compared to traditional VPNs. narrowlink.com/blog/Hello-Worl…


Hey all music lovers especially those of us who are using #screenreader apps to control music playback. #Foobar2000 for #android now features so called Non skinned playback controls view that can be activated by unchecking the Skinned playback screen checkbox in its advanced settings. This improvement is available in the beta version so far. See the mobile changelog at wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?…


My task was to wrote a custom import module in #python that can read data from an excel xlsx document. I had end up implementing it by using #xlrd module initially and later on I discovered it no longer handles xlsx files thus I converted it to use #openpyxl instead.


I am back in the fediverse after almost three months of downtime.


Recently I've found a lightweight modern #opensource #audio #recorder app for #Android called #RecordYou. I like it that much so I've attempted to submit some #screenReader #accessibility improvements.
Let me know how do you like it once it's accepted.
github.com/Bnyro/RecordYou/pul…
This is my first experience with #Jetpack #Compose so bear with me and try to suggest improvements if you can please.

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Dear @Thunderbird ,
I know you are changing for the better. However while testing Thunderbird 111 daily I would like to see some gradual improvements so it becomes ready for most userf of Thunderbird 115 in terms of #screenreader #accessibility once it's declared stable.

Positive things I have noticed:

We have brand new message list that no longer renders all the messages in selected folder at once but only those that are visible on the screen and ready for the user interaction. From my point of view it looks similar to infinite lists on mobile platforms. Most importantly it almost fully elliminates enormous lag when browsing huge message lists on linux with #orca #screenreader running. I was curious enough and I have tested imap folder with up to 75000 messages inside.

It is still possible to use F6 and shift+F6 to move the keyboard focus from the folder tree to the message list and back.

Message list has headers that are used for sorting and a popup menu for setting up visible columns almost from the begining of Thunderbird existence. From now on these controls are finally accessible to screenreader users. And we are now able to configure sorting and show / hide individual columns.

We can still use ctrl+shift+k to show / hide the filter entry. Also there are accessible buttons alongside the filter entry that allow quick filtering the list such as labelled messages, messages with attachments, starred messages, messages from addressbook contacts, unread messages, even ability to keep the filter active when changing folders. Some of these features were already there earlier but now these are accessible to keyboard users including screenreader users.

Now features that need some polishing:

It appears we can now open individual message folders on a new tab / in a new window however this feature needs some fixes. For example when navigating using up and down arrow keys in the folder tree, pressing shift+F10 first moves focus to the parent folder and displays popup menu for that parent item instead of currently selected one.

When navigating in huge list new selection is not properly reported to assistive technologies while scrolling. For example press end to move to the last message. Now press up arrow key several times to navigate back a message and notice how screenreader is reporting new selection as it happens. Now press the page up key to move the selection by the larger increment. New message is highlighted but the selection changed event is not fired properly or it's getting mixed with some spurious focus event on an unlabelled pannel. Some screen readers are able to filter out these but I think it would be nice to address it at the source rather than working it around.

Now the main window has a lot of focusable controls and it is no longer comfortable to use tab and shift+tab to navigate. It would be nice if buttons were grouped in a toolbar like controls implementing toolbar pattern the way it's explained at
w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/patterns/t…

It's nice that ability to reconfigure message list columns is now fully accessible to keyboard and screen reader users however accessible name of each item in the message list does not yet respect these settings. Subject is the only content that is communicated to assistive tools when navigating in the list using arrow keys. This is major issue and will likely be considered as a regression if it won't be addressed before releasing the stable version.

When navigating in the list of messages it is possible to select multiple messages for executing actions on them. I am afraid the fact multiple messages are selected or not selected is not properly communicated to assistive tools. This is major issue for screenreader users.

It is no longer possible to use applications key / shift+f10 to inwoke a popup menu in the message list.

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in reply to Peter Vágner

@ondrosik I'm testing it right now and I seem to be unable to locate the text entry field after hitting the reply button, so I need to investigate. #Pinafore is even listed as a supported client app in the #Friendica FAQ


Clickup


Do you use #Clickup or do you know someone who uses it for managing projects and task? Seems that #accessibility is broken and I am looking for better alternatives or maybe workarrounds how to use it. #A11Y

Peter Vágner reshared this.



Eset has something called Keyboard protection in v16 of its flagship products. It's suitable for preventing keyloggers to do its thing, however reportedly it also affects screen reader experience. Here is an article in czech about this thing


Yesterday I have discovered this amazing call recording app for #Android. It's called #BCR. Apart of its settings it has no UI, it detects both incoming and outgoing calls when they are picked up not when you are making them, it supports storage access framework, it uses android system decoders, it has quick tile toggle, it generates consistent file names with optional contact names, it can be installed as a magisk module. Ihave translated it into slovak. It's really very light on resources and works great. github.com/chenxiaolong/BCR/

Peter Vágner reshared this.



What a joy. There is a speech-dispatcher package on termux for quite some time already. Just install it with apt-get install speechd and It'll start working with espeak included. github.com/termux/termux-packa…



Dear @Thunderbird in version 102 you have added spaces toolbar. In version 107 nightly you have added list button on the message list toolbar that can be used to reorder message list columns. Would you consider moving these to the view menu where these make perfect sense in order to make keyboard only users happier? I know you would like to make them easier to discover but discoverability is short term goal and usability is here to stay.