mastodon - Link to source

“Hacking Accessible Pedestrian Signals is Not a Joke: It’s a Civil Rights Violation” from @LFLegal lflegal.com/2025/04/aps-hack/

Yeah, not only is this bad form it’s also potentially deadly. Lainey does a good job of laying out the history and what went into originally getting these in place. These jerks undermined it all.

#accessibility #a11y


Hacking Accessible Pedestrian Signals is Not a Joke: It's a Civil Rights Violation

On April 12, 2025 the top story on the Palo Alto (California) online news site was "Silicon Valley Crosswalk Buttons Apparently Hacked to Imitate Musk, Zuckerberg Voices" It told the story, covered by other media too, of how someone hacked into audi…
Law Office of Lainey Feingold
#a11y #Accessibility @Lainey Feingold

mastodon - Link to source

I've been in talks with #TheCrowHillCompany, makers of The Vertical Piano, Vaults (free), String Murmurations and so on.
They wanted to find out about people's use of accessible music-making tools such as NKS, so I said I'd forward their email to other VI musicians.
Your feedback would really help them, so if you've a mind, please do fill it out.

The Crow Hill Company are readying a re-launch of our entire catalogue.
As such as are looking to improve our accessibility across our full instrument and effects range.

We would love to discover more from the community on how they interact with software based instruments and the tools they use to do so.

We have included a short survey link below, and as a token of gratitude have included a £20 (GBP) off coupon code for anyone who takes part in the survey.
The coupon has no expiration date and we have plenty of instruments under this limit coming out in the months ahead for you to enjoy.

Thanks again
The Crow Hill Company

Survey Link
forms.gle/yzBq56AZidNUA2cw7

You can also reach us directly at help@thecrowhillcompany.com


Accessibility Feedback

Thank you for taking the time to help us in our continual endeavour to improve accessibility in music-making. As a token of our gratitude, we have also included an unrestricted coupon code at the end of this survey. Thanks The Crow Hill Team. x
Google Docs
#thecrowhillcompany

reshared this

in reply to Pitermach

mastodon - Link to source

Onj 🎶

@pitermach It's using Juce, but with a lot of unlabelled buttons. They do know about it, as I had a meeting with them this morning and was able to screen-share and let them know that lots of stuff doesn't work.
It seems that they're using the Ujam libraries, so it's up to Ujam to modify their code to allow accessibility, but they can pass this feedback to them.
Rodes also use the same framework.

If you've got any libraries where the main sample content uses the .blob format, then you've used Ujam's UI's.

@Pitermach

mastodon - Link to source

Oh boo hoo! Someone doesn't like the new alt text warning on Mastodon!

> This warning is extremely annoying, I wish I could get rid of it and be allowed to post images without alt text if I want to without being asked every time like every other website. I know it is not ideal for accessibility, but I'm not going to add alt text because the warning tells me too, I'm too busy already procrastinating my life in other ways.

Go cry me a fucking river.

How can we make assholes like this even more mad?

github.com/mastodon/mastodon/i…

#AltText #Mastodon #Fediverse


Add warning before posting a media without alt-text · Issue #5644 · mastodon/mastodon

With #117, Mastodon now allows users to add an alternative text to media in order to improve accessibility for visually impaired people. However, many people, including me, too often forget to do s...
GitHub
#fediverse #Mastodon #AltText
in reply to Zach Bennoui

mastodon - Link to source

Reg

@ZBennoui
That's fair comment, but the OP is highlighting the fact that Google (and others) are deliberately making it difficult to opt out of using these AI models, presumably to drive adoption and encourage engagement for training purposes.

This obvious subterfuge combined with what we already know about echo chambers and social media herding leaves me wondering whether those who refuse to use AI will end up being the last free-thinkers in the West.

Picture of the Gemini opt-in or opt-in page with the opt-out option rediced to a small 'x' in the top right corner, alongside the text 'Google is so sneaky. This prompt inside Gmail gives you three options. The two most visible options (number 1 is 'Try it now' and number 2 is 'Continue') basically mean 'Enable Gemini AI to write emails.' The third option cancels it which is hidden well. Google, you could do better than this. This is a perfect example of a dark pattern. For those who want AI to write basic emails can enable it but there is not need to do this kind of "shady" stuff.'
@Zach Bennoui

mastodon - Link to source

NVDA 2025.1 beta 1 is now available for testing! 2025.1 includes NVDA Remote, OneCore & SAPI 4 & 5 improvements, OCR, Microsoft & LibreOffice improvements, Add-on store improvements, Braille updates & new tables plus heaps more! Download from: nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2025-1b…

Please note the "What's new" link doesn't currently work, we're fixing it, but in the meantime, run the installer & open what's new from the NVDA menu.
#NVDA #NVDAsr #Beta #News #Update #PreRelease #FOSS #FLOSS #OpenSource


NVDA 2025.1beta1 available for testing

Beta1 of NVDA 2025.1 is now available for download and testing. For anyone who is interested in trying out what the next version of NVDA has to offer before it is officially released, we welcome yo…
NV Access
#foss #opensource #floss #nvdasr #News #update #nvda #beta #prerelease

reshared this

in reply to NV Access

mastodon - Link to source

Dave Taylor

2024.4 had the same behaviour as 2024.1, but I have easier access to the latter I'm using the same browser for both tests, although I am finding that NVDA with Edge seems to be becoming problematic on more and more sites, and similarly with NVDA and Firefox. It's getting to the point where most sites seem to work with one or the other but not both. I doubyt that is NVDAs fault, but it's getting harder and harder
in reply to Dave Taylor

mastodon - Link to source

NV Access

@davetaylor2112 Configuration Profiles are actually very useful for giving you different settings in different contexts. Here is a blog piece we wrote on using configuration profiles between programs: nvaccess.org/post/in-process-1… You can also set keystrokes to configuration profiles to use, for instance, on different websites within the one browser

In-Process 19th August 2021

In recent editions, we’ve covered some of the new features in NVDA 2021.1. The exciting news this time, is we’re already up to a beta of NVDA 2021.2! NVDA 2021.2 Beta 1 NVDA 2021.2 Beta 1 is …
NV Access
@Dave Taylor

mastodon - Link to source
NV Access | NVDA 2025.1beta1 available for testing nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2025-1b…

NVDA 2025.1beta1 available for testing

Beta1 of NVDA 2025.1 is now available for download and testing. For anyone who is interested in trying out what the next version of NVDA has to offer before it is officially released, we welcome yo…
NV Access

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source
How to Watch Babylon 5 in 2025: Free and Premium Streaming Options Abound cordcuttersnews.com/how-to-wat…

How to Watch Babylon 5 in 2025: Free and Premium Streaming Options Abound | Cord Cutters News

For sci-fi fans eager to revisit the interstellar saga of Babylon 5 or discover it for the first time, 2025 offers a wealth of ways to stream the beloved 1990s series. All five seasons of J.
Luke Bouma (Cord Cutters News)

mastodon - Link to source
❝ For example, researchers from four universities analyzed short snippets of audio transcribed by Whisper, and found completely fabricated sentences, with some transcripts inventing the races of the people being spoken about, and others even attributing murder to them. In one case a recording that said, “He, the boy, was going to, I’m not sure exactly, take the umbrella” was transcribed with additions including: “He took a big piece of a cross, a teeny, small piece.... I’m sure he didn’t have a terror knife so he killed a number of people.” In another example, “two other girls and one lady” was transcribed as “two other girls and one lady, um, which were Black.” ❞ dair-community.social/@timnitG…

Timnit Gebru (she/her) (@timnitGebru@dair-community.social)

In this Op-ed for Scientific American, Asmelash Teka & I discuss one of the many reasons the idea of replacing US federal workers with so-called generative AI systems should terrify us.
Distributed AI Research Community

mastodon - Link to source
Hi all. Just released a beta for my weather app. Feel free to try if it interests you. I made it to view NOAA weather discussions on the desktop, but you can get forecast and alerts as well for locations you add.
github.com/Orinks/AccessiWeath…

Release AccessiWeather v0.9.0 Beta · Orinks/AccessiWeather

AccessiWeather Beta Release (v0.9.0) We're excited to announce the beta release of AccessiWeather, an accessible weather application using NOAA data with a focus on screen reader compatibility! Wha...
GitHub

reshared this

gotosocial - Link to source

I don't think I've ever seen the video for this, although I half wore out a CD of Bloody Kisses and had such a hard on for this song and the self-conscious blasphemy of claiming the role of a sexually attractive Christ that I incorporated its lyrics into one of my first pseudonyms.

Videomaker obviously working on making the most of Peter Steele's impressive physical form by casting him as an incubus/erotic Christ stand-in, although I feel that we could at least have got some lower body shots in there.

Type O Negative - Christian Woman
youtube.com/watch?v=3sMALbhJU6…


Type O Negative - Christian Woman (OFFICIAL VIDEO) [HD Remaster]

Type O Negative's video for 'Christian Woman' remastered in HD off the album Bloody Kisses - available now on Roadrunner Records. © 2007 WMG Purchase Bloody ...
YouTube
This entry was edited (8 months ago)

mastodon - Link to source
@thunderbird Just wanted to let you know that the donation forms on your website don't work in Firefox. Neither updates.thunderbird.net/nl/thu… nor thunderbird.net/nl/donate/?for… shows the form.

Slechts 3% van de gebruikers ondersteunt Thunderbird

Thunderbird is een gratis e-mailtoepassing die eenvoudig ingesteld en aangepast kan worden – en het zit vol met handige functies!
Thunderbird
@Thunderbird: Free Your Inbox

mastodon - Link to source
figured after four years it was time for another exhaustive survey of #rustlang desktop GUI libraries boringcactus.com/2025/04/13/20…

A 2025 Survey of Rust GUI Libraries

I did this in 2020 and then again in 2021, but I’m in the mood to look around again. Let’s look through Are We GUI Yet? and see what’s up these days.
www.boringcactus.com
#RustLang

mastodon - Link to source
Can't believe the official AMI BIOS Flash update utility worked to get my MSI BIOS flashed, wow! I really wasn't sure if I had bricked my desktop by applying the .BE0 file of my Motherboard's BIOS, but I wasn't going to futs around with the M-flash tool and get a sighted person to read me the screen and get me in the right menus to update it. The MSI Center app is garbage and crashes when I hit "feature sets for all components", so nope. Command-line to the rescue! If you're blind and have an MSI Mobo, maybe it can help you too. AFUWINGUIx64.EXE is the graphical user-interface version which can be helpful - and of course, it requires an AMI-based BIOS.
f.hubspotusercontent10.net/hub…

mastodon - Link to source
As I end-of-life my Mastodon sunrise/sunset bot, it seems an appropriate time to vent my complaints about Mastodon as a platform. v.cx/2025/04/mastodon-exit-int…

Mastodon Exit Interview

I am currently winding down the Mastodon bots I used to post sunrise and sunset times. The precipitating event is that the admin of the instance hosting the associated accounts demanded they be made nigh-undiscoverable, but the underlying cause is th…
Rob’s Posts
in reply to Jiří Eischmann

mastodon - Link to source

Rob Shearer

@sesivany "Bluesky is exploding in popularity" is a fact, and that the growth is being led by the already-mature US market makes it more impressive, not less. That said, roughly half of Bluesky users are outside the US, with particular popularity in Brazil and Japan. "But it's not popular in *my* neighborhood, and that's what matters!" is the parochial view.
@Jiří Eischmann
in reply to Rob Shearer

mastodon - Link to source

Jiří Eischmann

since we're talking facts, look at the activity graphs. In fact it exploded in popularity after the US presidential election. Since then it's been going down in pretty much every activity metric (with an exception of a spike after inauguration): bsky.jazco.dev/stats
The fact that the main changes in Bluesky activity follow events in US politics says quite a lot about how US-centric it is.

Atlas - Engagement-Based Social Graph for Bluesky by Jaz (jaz.bsky.social)

bsky.jazco.dev
in reply to Jiří Eischmann

mastodon - Link to source

Christiaan Moleman

@sesivany People wanting nothing to do with twitter anymore (and therefore flocking to alternatives) due to its owner being a key architect of the USA's dismantling of democracy and descent into fascism is not specific to the US. Musk is hated around the globe. Timing coinciding with the US election is only because this is the point where it became unavoidably clear.
@Jiří Eischmann
in reply to Christiaan Moleman

mastodon - Link to source

Jiří Eischmann

@ninjadodo Not US specific, but very much US centric. If it wasn't, you'd see a spike in activity now when the US administration is imposing tariffs on other countries, Musk threatening entire countries that Starlink would be switched off for them. But the trend is rather the opposite.
Look, I just wanted to provide a perspective of someone from Europe. That what may feel like booming activity to someone in the US feels fairly dead to someone elsewhere unless they're interested in US events.
I'm on Bluesky, it's not just my social graph. I follow a feed that aggregates ALL posts in Czech. And that one can easily follow all posts in a language of 12 million people is quite telling. But apparently I'm in denial and lying to myself, nevermind, I'll show myself out.
@Christiaan Moleman

mastodon - Link to source

Thank you, Harvard University. You have the money to do the right thing. Let’s hope it’ll also help those with less cash.

„No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” said Alan Garber, Harvard’s president, in a statement to the university on Monday.“

(Gift link) nytimes.com/2025/04/14/us/harv…

New York Times headline: “Harvard says it won’t comply with Trump’s demands”

Harvard Will Not Comply With a List of Trump Administration Demands

Federal officials said Harvard must enact “merit-based reform” in hiring and admissions and report international students who broke rules, among other steps. Harvard called the demands unlawful.
Vimal Patel (The New York Times)
This entry was edited (8 months ago)
⇧