mastodon - Link to source
I'd be interested to know how fellow blind (especially blind-from-birth) cane users manage with independent travel.
For my part, my spatial orientation/brain mapping abilities are shocking, and I can't walk in a straight line, so the immediate fear of my support network is I won't be safe. Does anyone else have this problem? If so how do you, or did you, get around it? Or is it something I'll just have to accept?

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in reply to Day Garwood

mastodon - Link to source

Serena 🏳️‍🌈

@FreakyFwoof From what I’ve heard that is quite common, although my guess is you could work on improving it somehow, although I could not tell you how for sure. For me, I wasn’t blind at birth, but I did lose it very early on. However growing up in the north of Australia meant that we tended to be left to our own devices quite a lot, so exploring environments was quite common to me and those I grew up around even cited people. As a result, my spatial perception is very good. Mine is actually quite unusual even for people that didn’t lose their vision early on, probably due to my upbringing and the environment I lived in. It also helped that my parents weren’t helicopter parents, and pretty much allowed me to explore, and get injured, which very quickly trained me in understanding my surroundings. But I have heard research into people who are born blind, having issues with spatial perception, and from what I understand is to do with the neurological development stages early on in a child’s life, it doesn’t get that spatial training, and therefore it has no understanding of space around. My guess is to some degree everyone’s neurology is plastic, therefore some kind of training should be possible. But it would likely take a good bit of effort. I have other friends who were born blind and have similar issues. There are a couple however that have very good spatial perception, so it could be to do with a lot of things like environment and situations.
@Andre Louis
in reply to Castopod

mastodon - Link to source

Castopod

We hope all podcasters will keep on podcasting in 2026, and that many new creators will give it a try.
Podcasting is one of the last social networks not entirely controlled by a big corporation.
We need diversity, not algorithms! 📻
Thank you to all podcasters who trust us with hosting their creations on Castopod.
It means the world to us!
[…]

mastodon - Link to source

Web Performance Calendar day 31 article 2/5: Keerthana Krishnan on making friends with Chrome DevTools and transforming it into a powerful tool for deep understanding, debugging, and improving of real-world web performance

calendar.perfplanet.com/2025/c…


Chrome DevTools Features I Use All the Time (and Why You Should Too)

Most developers open Chrome DevTools, check a couple of network requests, maybe refresh the page once or twice — and that's it. I used to do the same. Over time, DevTools became something else entirely for me.
Web Performance Calendar
in reply to GNOME

mastodon - Link to source

GNOME

# Thank You to Our Global Community

None of this progress would be possible without our contributors, volunteers, organizers, and users, including developers, designers, translators, mentors, and advocates.
Your passion and commitment to free software continue to drive GNOME forward.

Here’s to an even more innovative and inclusive 2026!

#GNOME #OpenSource #Community #GNOME49 #GUADEC2025 #GNOMEAsia #GNOMELatam #YearInReview

#opensource #gnome #community #gnomeasia #gnomelatam #guadec2025 #yearinreview #gnome49
This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)

mastodon - Link to source

I tried to enable the #GNOME screen reader (aka orca) to test the #accessibility of some application.

I have little experience with screen readers, but the GNOME experience after enabling the screen reader appears to be super bad. I can barely understand the voice. The speech synthesis is horrible, I have heard better in the 90s.

Is this the expected state of free software screen readers? How can I get something usable?

#Accessibility #gnome

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in reply to André Polykanine

mastodon - Link to source

outsidecontext 🇺🇦🕊️

@menelion it really sounds like that you need to use commercial systems if you have to rely on a screen reader. In all honesty I had expected the situation to be better in the free software world. Not necessarily great, but at least somewhat usable.

As it stands out of the box you are basically lost. At best you need someone with vision and a lot of Linux administration experience to set something workable up for you. At least that's the impression I got.

@André Polykanine

André Polykanine reshared this.

in reply to outsidecontext 🇺🇦🕊️

mastodon - Link to source

André Polykanine

that's it. Nice to talk to you because you are asking adequate questions and take adequate outcomes. Unfortunately, most of the FOSS developers are like… "You need accessibility? Fix it on your own". If you have some time, read this article. This man, the author, is very knowledgeable and he's also on Mastodon @fireborn: fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-w…

I Want to Love Linux. It Doesn’t Love Me Back: Post 1 – Built for Control, But Not for People — fireborn

fireborn.mataroa.blog
@aaron
in reply to André Polykanine

mastodon - Link to source

outsidecontext 🇺🇦🕊️

@menelion Thanks for the nice words. The article was very interesting. It even seems things have gotten worse in some areas.

To be honest, I can understand how especially screen reader accessibility is rather difficult for developers not currently affected by accessibility issues.

I have some experience with it from years ago, but not much. But I try to learn and improve.

@André Polykanine
in reply to outsidecontext 🇺🇦🕊️

mastodon - Link to source

André Polykanine

Yes, and I'm sincere because you are one of the very small amount of people who talk to me like this. I even once heard things like "Let's first ditch Windows, and then make Linux accessible". They simply don't understand that for us screen reader accessibility is the same as a display and a mouse for everyone else. If you want to improve something, ask Aaron, he's far more knowledgeable in Linux world than me (I'm a Windows-and-SSH-to-Linux guy). Also, there is Orca mailing list (I don't know the address but you might google for it). There you can find Joanmarie Diggs, an absolute gem of development, the main person who is behind Orca and continues the fight for years and years. Everyone will be grateful if people like you help her.
in reply to outsidecontext 🇺🇦🕊️

mastodon - Link to source

Jeff Fortin T. (風の庭園のNekohayo)

@menelion This year it was revolutionary for me to discover "Piper" voices that can be used with Orca (instead of the default espeak voice): mastodon.social/@nekohayo/1150…

Jeff Fortin T. (風の庭園のNekohayo) (@nekohayo@mastodon.social)

Attached: 1 video @joojmachine@ursal.zone Oh my god, Pied JUST WORKS! I can't believe my ears! :psyduck: I just installed Pied's flatpak package, let it install Piper, then downloaded the best English voice I could find ("Lessac", the basis for mos…
Jeff Fortin T. (風の庭園のNekohayo) (Mastodon)
@André Polykanine
This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)
in reply to André Polykanine

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Peter Vágner

@André Polykanine @Jeff Fortin T. (風の庭園のNekohayo) @outsidecontext 🇺🇦🕊️ For sure linux screen reader accessibility has issues but people who are using it for years can be productive with it.
For some languages eSpeak and RHvoice are standard TTS choices that serve the purpose.
I better like these opensource voices rather than voices by microsoft or google.
@André Polykanine @outsidecontext 🇺🇦🕊️ @Jeff Fortin T. (風の庭園のNekohayo)

mastodon - Link to source
Let's do the math. Experts estimate it takes 10,000 #AI queries to match the energy of one single car trip across town.
I don't have a car. I don't drive. So, until you stop driving to the store, maybe don't lecture a #Blind woman about the 'environmental cost' of having a family photo or a cat picture described to her. My #Accessibility tool costs the planet less energy in a year than your car does in a week.
#Accessibility #blind #AI

reshared this

glitchsoc - Link to source

Question to screen reader users, just because I'm curious:

If I write using the occasional homophone, perhaps to make a pun, is that something that is completely lost to you, unless something clues you in to the fact that there might be spelling shenanigans going on?

For example, if I had posted the other day, "I can't wait to see Santa's slay!", would you just have assumed that that last word was "sleigh", and never noticed that it was "slay"? #accessibility #ScreenReaders

#Accessibility #screenreaders

mastodon - Link to source
#Blind #Linux #Accessibility / #a11y folks, I need a #ScreenReader #accessible #email client that supports calendar and contacts integration with #Outlook and #GoogleWorkspace. Thunderbird is out because I cannot find reliable instructions on connecting it to my Outlook contacts. Anyone who suggests that I should either switch back to Windows or use my phone for email will be playfully booped over the head with a pool noodle. Kidding. Seriously though, recommendations welcome. Thanks. #BlindMasto #BlindMastodon #BlindFedi #MailClient #EmailClient
#a11y #Accessibility #accessible #linux #email #blind #screenreader #outlook #GoogleWorkspace #emailclient #blindmasto #blindmastodon #BlindFedi #mailclient

mastodon - Link to source

On this last day of the year, I want to congratulate France for its termination of the ARENH law 🥳

This law, in full "Accès régulé à l'électricité nucléaire historique" or "Regulated access to historic nuclear electricity" was a law that was introduced in 2010 by the then French government under president Sarkozy, that ostensibly aimed to introduce an "energy market" in France.

It worked like this: EDF was forced to make available 100 TWh annually to third party companies that could buy this for a mere 4 cents per kWh. These companies then sold it for "market prices" to consumers. You'd be correct to think that this was a massive forced subsidy by EDF to create its own competition.

To add insult to injury EDF was then forced to buy back the energy that these companies couldn't sell, 𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴.

Over the period that this law was in effect, from July 2011 to today, EDF accrued tens of billions of debt. Now that this law is expiring EDF can finally raise their prices, from 4 to 7 cents per kWh, and start investing again in new nuclear builds and pay off that debt.

It is perhaps hard to ascertain the intent of the lawmakers back in 2010, but this type of law would be ideal if you wanted to kill the nuclear sector, which almost succeeded!

Fortunately, this nightmare is now over and we now live in a world where the French value their nuclear assets and are set to expand it by building up to 14 more large reactors in the coming years.

Adieu ARENH 👋

More info on this law:

cre.fr/electricite/marche-de-g…


Accès régulé à l'électricité nucléaire historique (ARENH)

Le dispositif de l’accès régulé à l’électricité nucléaire historique (ARENH) a été instauré par la loi n° 2010-1488 du 7 décembre 2010 portant nouvelle organisation du marché de l’électricité (dite loi « NOME »).
CRE

hometown - Link to source

The whole point of society - all of this - is so that we are all enriched together, that collectively our lives should be better. We invented farms so folks wouldn’t starve.

But a couple thousand years ago a few assholes decided that personal enrichment is the most important thing. For the most part, we’re still going along with that bullshit.

The only way we survive is if we move back to shared enrichment. This coming year, think carefully about how you’re spending your money and labor.

This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)
in reply to Adrian Roselli, pH0

mastodon - Link to source

Adrian Roselli, pH0

More context for why I cite the bungholes of ‘AI’ grifters:
velvetshark.com/ai-company-log…

Why do AI company logos look like buttholes?

A humorous exploration of the uncanny resemblance between AI company logos and human anatomy. Discover why circular, gradient-based designs dominate the AI industry, and what this design convergence tells us about branding in tech.
Radek Sienkiewicz (VelvetShark)

mastodon - Link to source
Happy New Year's eve! I am off until Monday so can read and just relax.
My nail tech rescheduled my appointment and I got my nails done last night instead of this Saturday which makes me happy. My nails have a magnetic polish undercoat of blue with a little pattern and a blue sparkle overlay. They are very festive.
Tonight we'll go out for an early dinner of Thai food and then I'll just read until I get tired. Maybe I'll make it til midnight, maybe I won't! Smile.

mastodon - Link to source
Some friends who live down the street from me asked if I'd install Pi-hole on their network after seeing how flawlessly it works here. So, earlier this week, I brought a Raspberry Pi over to their place that i'd configured here. I assigned a static IP address once it was on their network, and it was off to the races. The most difficult part is working with ISP-supplied equipment and the limitations therein. Lots of fun manual configuration of DNS and the like.

mastodon - Link to source

As the year is closing by, I thought I will donate to the FOSS projects I'm using regularly. I chose 10 non-commercial projects to which I donated 10$ (or 10€) each, here is the list with a brief explanation:
- @Mastodon
- @openstreetmap
- Obtanium (github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium) - manage apps on GrapheneOS
- @freshrss - self-hosted RSS feed aggregator
- Read You (github.com/ReadYouApp/ReadYou) - RSS reader for Android
- Finamp (github.com/jmshrv/finamp/), @chaphasilor specifically - amazing Android client for Jellyfin media library
- Aegis (github.com/beemdevelopment/aeg…) - 2FA auth app for Android
- RethinkDNS (github.com/celzero/rethink-app) - intelligent DNS manager, VPN and Firewall for Android
- Syncthing (github.com/syncthing) - file synchronization app
- ntfy (github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy) - push notifications service I can self-host

Additionally I sent 10€ to @oscloud. I don't use their services regularly, but I like what they do (and enjoyed this years @openalt_konference streaming through @vhsky).

Thank to all working on #FOSS and making this world a better place!


GitHub - ImranR98/Obtainium: Get Android app updates straight from the source.

Get Android app updates straight from the source. Contribute to ImranR98/Obtainium development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHub
#foss @Mastodon @OpenStreetMap @Chaphasilor @Oscloud @Konference OpenAlt @VHSky.cz @FreshRSS

mastodon - Link to source
Pues para terminar bien el año con una muy buena noticia: ya tenemos disponible en la App Store para iPhone mi última aplicación para leer libros: Vox libri apps.apple.com/us/app/vox-libr…

Vox libri App - App Store

Download Vox libri by Jonatan Chacon Barbero on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more games like Vox libri.
App Store

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source
i'm sick and tired of things changing that I normally wouldn't care about. I don't wanna hear anything new about a ball drop or whatever, or my friends changing their plans last minute, or me not being able to do such and such or go wherever all the sudden even though I've planned for it to happen for a long period of time, I just want stuff to go as planned for five minutes I'm begging and pleading at this point I wanna finish my holiday break off at a good note and things aren't looking so good

mastodon - Link to source
my mom is helping me with my social media for my dj business advertising or whatever and I told her that I would prefer not to have an Instagram page because I don't agree with Instagram. we wanted to put emphasis on the fact that I'm blind so we can add some value for people hiring me and Instagram is a purely visual app and so I feel like it would be kind of counterproductive. so do you think that that's reasonable? because she told me that that's how I would get more advertising, and she knows what's best, and I need to expand outreach, but then again it's also my business that I'm running and I do not like Instagram as a platform
in reply to Alan

mastodon - Link to source

Jonathan

I think Instagram is kinda the Mastodon or Elten for Gen Z. It's difficult to describe, but yeah I think that a lot music-related stuff is also going on there, like artists connecting with their fans, posting stuff to their story, etc. People will probably check it more frequently or rather, specifically see your content if they follow you through the story rather than you know, dumb scrolling on TikTok or shorts. So I think for something like that IG might actually be useful, but I dislike Meta personally and have no account anymore. But there's the question whether you wanna stand with your values or try to gain attention. Since you guys use Meta anyway I guess go for it. I know several blind people using IG.

mastodon - Link to source
Am I the only one literally doing nothing on new Year’s Eve? like even considering just sleeping through like usual. The typical person spends this with their family, friends, or whatever sort of group, but honestly I'm not that kind of family person, my parents are going to friends but I don't see myself sitting around and eating for hours so well. Guess wasting my time nerding around in front of this computer, and recording some fireworks later. You know I'm actually bored of my own words at this point, I'm really not trying to make this sound like self-compassion all the time, but well, what can I say. It is how it is. I'm stuck in a weird state between hoping for 26, and not wanting to be naive and knowing stuff will probably stay the same.
This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)
in reply to Jonathan

mastodon - Link to source

Tech Singer

It's just another night. I don't do alcohol, am not big on people past a few who I already see daily, and like a quiet life. With respect, the only thing I would disagree with you on is that it's a bad thing. I'm sure many people love different ways of celebrating, and that's absolutely great, I'm all in favor of celebration/joy/pleasure. I hope everyone who enjoys partying does it for days and remembers it for decades. I'm overjoyed to see people happy doing that sort of thing. It just doesn't make me particularly happy to do it myself.

mastodon - Link to source

FLOSS #MaintainerLife public service advisory:
If you're filing a potential bug upstream in #GNOME, particularly on rapidly-improving apps like GNOME Calendar, please test the latest version, unmodified by third-parties. #Flatpak helps.

Don't come at me with a 4-years-old version cowboy-patched against our will by #Linux distros like Mint; I will send you downstream, like this: gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-c…

#FreeSoftware #OpenSource #QA #bugreporting #LinuxMint #Debian #Ubuntu #LTS #GNOMECalendar


Problems showing CalDAV event series with a modification with THISANDFUTURE set (#1526) · Issues · GNOME / gnome-calendar · GitLab

Affected version: 41.2 on Linux Mint 22 (Wilma) Bug summary A calendar event with...
GitLab
#FreeSoftware #linux #opensource #debian #gnome #linuxmint #Flatpak #ubuntu #lts #qa #maintainerlife #gnomecalendar #bugreporting
in reply to Jeff Fortin T. (風の庭園のNekohayo)

mastodon - Link to source

Jeff Fortin T. (風の庭園のNekohayo)

Runner up in "problematic downstream/distros packaging behavior" is #Canonical insisting on packaging old buggy versions in #Ubuntu using their endemic #Snap format. Ex.: snapcraft.io/gnome-calendar
It'd be really nice if they'd stop doing that, this is absolutely detrimental to the app's developers.

#SnapCraft creates confusion, until users eventually go out of their way to surgically remove it from their desktop OS in the same way Raiden rips out spines to acquire electrolytes.

#Snap #Linux


Snapcraft

Get the latest version of GNOME Calendar for Linux - Calendar for GNOME
Snapcraft
#linux #ubuntu #snap #canonical #snapcraft
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