How I use Padlet accessibility features with low vision, and tips for configuring Padlet designs so they are easier to read for students with visual impairments
Will be very interesting to see what this means for Accessibility. OpenAI Reportedly Launching ‘Operator’ That Can Control Your Computer This Week gizmodo.com/openai-reportedly-…
I do really like the @humanetech.bsky.social work, especially the #YourUndividedAttention #podcast. This week the Laughing at Power Episode is wonderful.
The Tactics4Change interactive website provides free access to information about more than 400 hundred cases of nonviolent dilemma actions, from all continents, and more than 100 countries.
On the Your Undivided Attention #podcast I heard about Tactics4Change tactics4change.org/ , a case guide to nonviolent dilemma actions and how to do activism with humor. This could be the year when activism is needed more than ever.
I've been slowly getting into making music in Reaper. This weekend, I made this trippy little thing. Me and @Evdog1245 called it Purple, because we both agreed it sounds purple. If you get it, you get it.
That's all for this week! Remember, these are just the *first line* of each blurb; there's a lot more to read about each one in the full post. You can read it all here:
Listening to these tracks is a great way to support these artists! If you find something you like, and can afford it, consider supporting these artists even more, by buying some of their work.
Similarly, you can support me and my efforts to share great music with the world by reading and sharing my posts, and if you appreciate these writeups and can afford it, you can consider supporting my work with a one time or recurring payment via Ko-FI:
Reminder: our BT Speak webinar takes place in a little less than an hour from now at 8 PM Eastern. Meet the Blazies: Deane Blazie, Chief Technology Officer Bryan Blazie, our CEO Chris and Stephen Blazie, Software Development Also, meet Steve Clower, volunteer software developer David Goldfield, Director of Marketing Stop by and say hello, ask questions about the BT Speak and our latest update. Here's the Zoom link. us02web.zoom.us/j/83910762102?…
Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems.
“Dismissal of charges, pardons after convictions, and commutations of sentences will not change the truth of what happened on January 6, 2021." - US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in dismissing charges against a previously convicted defendant. s3.documentcloud.org/documents…
If you too feel uneasy about the state of the world, and you too worry about losing access to one of the greatest knowledge treasure of the internet,
Know that you can download an offline copy of Wikipedia!
Here's how 📚👇
1. Download the free and open source software Kiwix (this will be your reader): kiwix.org/en/applications/
2. If you want smaller versions of Wikipedia, you can download them within Kiwix.
Within the app, go to "Categories" in the menu on the left, then browse to a topic/version you want. Scroll to the bottom for Wikipedia mini, for example. Click on it then click "Download" on the right
3. Once you have downloaded a database, click on "Opened" on the left > database you want to search > "Open Main Page" on the right.
4. You can use the Search field on the upper-right to find topics like on online Wikipedia! 🔍
5. If you want the full English version of Wikipedia (110GB), you might want to download it from the torrent file instead. Install a torrent client of your choice (I use Transmission).
Then, go to this page, click on "Download - 109.89 GB" blue button on the first result (size may vary overtime), then select "Torrent file": library.kiwix.org/#lang=eng&ca…
6. Once you have the torrent file, open it with your torrent client to start the download. This is BIG! Be patient! 📦
7. Once the download is completed, open your Wikipedia `.zim` file with Kiwix!
8. Magic! 📖✨
Extra Tip: You can download many other awesome knowledge files from the Kiwix Library! Personally, I also got the iFixit knowledge base! ⚒️
Discover Kiwix applications that enable offline access to knowledge on different platforms. Explore the convenience of accessing information without an internet connection
NASA moves swiftly to end DEI programs, ask employees to “report” violations "Failure to report this information within 10 days may result in adverse consequences." arstechnica.com/space/2025/01/…
American far-right plutocrats are now targeting Wikipedia because it's a platform they don't control.
The Wikimedia Foundation is an invaluable non-profit organisation that is not for sale. Please help keeping it that way by making a donation - big or small: donate.wikimedia.org
Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia and other crucial free knowledge projects. Each year, the generosity of the 2% of readers who donate allows us to expand the reach of Wikipedia and its sister projects.
An aspect of President Trump ending DEI programs that I haven’t seen getting much coverage: he’s not calling it DEI anymore. Now it’s DEIA. The a stands for–you guessed it–accessibility!
The Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), assisted by the Attorney General and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), shall coordinate the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear.
@vick21 The goal is to rescind Biden’s EO championing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in the federal workforce.
What it actually says, though, is “any DEIA program, mandate or policy, by any other name, is terminated.” The official OPM guidance even has an email address to rat out your colleagues for secretly doing the woke agenda in secret chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/…
So, sky’s the limit, basically. Nobody’s gonna want to work on anything with even the whiff of helping anyone other than white people.
@vick21 Yes, this is really giving me "Stasi in their infancy" vibes.
I mean, I'm not sure HOW they could implement "adverse actions for not reporting within 10 days", because there's no way to know if someone "knows" of a DEI hire or not, but I also know that this is about breeding fear, mistrust, and uncertainty.
@AquaTofana It's the same 2016 strategy. My bigger concern is that he now got more of his executors in various places. He was green then, now being lead by the nose -- the latter is worse, IMHO.
@vick21 Oh for sure it's going to be worse this time. Before, even his more Conservative cabinet appointees were willing to reign him in on some stuff when they uncomfortable.
Now, he's filling all his appointees with yes-men who see him as a path to more $$ for themselves, no matter what it costs the American people in the meantime.
@jpellis2008 Really wonder if NFB/ACB will go after this shit. Insane. Really want to get out of this Country now. Do you know if this has any effect on NLS?
No later than 5:00 pm EST on Friday, January 31, 2025, submit to OPM: a. a written plan for executing a reduction-in-force action regarding the employees who work in a DEIA office. Agencies should coordinate with OPM in preparing these plans, b. a list of all contract descriptions or personnel position descriptions that were changed since November 5, 2024 to obscure their connection to DEIA programs.
I have no idea what B means, I don’t think they do either, but the point is to scare anyone from doing anything even remotely “DEIA-like,” which will work. Like you said, lawsuits a-plenty, but they’ll have to get in line and their agency will fight them at every step.
@jpellis2008 If I’m reading it right the order gives 90 days for departments to comply before it is enforced. And yeah, there will most assuredly be lawsuits–there are lawsuits already, I believe. That doesn’t mean those lawsuits will succeed (and given this current SCOTUS, everything’s on the table) nor would they necessarily delay or block the implementation. We shall see.
@ZBennoui @jpellis2008 I’m sure one of them will, if for no other reason than to take the opposite position of whoever doesn’t. They have no other reason to exist.
Somebody else asked about NLS, I don’t think they are going anywhere. They are part of Congress so they would need to defund them through some bill or other, and no one seems to have anything against them that I know of.
The intent of the order is to rescind E.O 14035: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce. This was signed into law by President Biden in June 2021.
What the order actually says, though, is that any “DEIA programs, mandates or policies” are terminated. It doesn’t specify that this only apply to initiatives started in 2021, it says “or by any other name.” They are choosing to use the most expansive definition possible. And the implementation guidance from OPM takes the same view. In fact they have a hotline specifically for ratting out any secret DEIA colleagues secretly working on the DEIA in secret. What does this mean? I have no idea, and neither do they. But it’s pretty clear the intent is to chill anyone out of doing anything that helps any minority, including us. And they will get what they want.
From an anon OPM employee on Reddit. OPM employee here, we are not the bad guysHR (self.fednews) submitted 3 hours ago by Throwaway918284 I'm a current employee at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). This is a throwaway account for obvious...
An aspect of President Trump ending DEI programs that I haven’t seen getting much coverage: he’s not calling it DEI anymore. Now it’s DEIA. The a stands for–you guessed it–accessibility!Disabled pe...
I have the feeling the questions there lack context. Like IMO there are good values/parts encoded in tradition and religion, but that doesn't mean that I'd like to keep everything.
Or take the free market questions - a free market can only exist if there are no mono/oligopolies. If there are only a few big players that own everything there is no competition anymore and prices go up while quality goes down. government's task should be to even out the playing field when this happens.
Say, I could be for government intervention to ensure competition, while also being against the big government owning everything or controlling everything. If that makes sense. 🤔
Love this! A 22-page DIY web archiving zine that "shows you why everyone should participate in preserving the things on the web they care about, and how anyone can do so (no special expertise required!)".
Attached: 1 image
https://zinebakery.com/homemade-zines/bakeshop-2-diywebarchiving
by @quinnanya@mstdn.social, @Literature_Geek@hcommons.social et al.
See also: https://archivebox.io/
(thanks @jessienab@wetdry.world!)
💜✊
I did a new release of #GNOME #Crosswords. Almost all the changes were in the underlying code and the editor. It's the first version that I'm not embarrassed putting in front of crossword authors. You can read more in the release notes: blogs.gnome.org/jrb/2025/01/22…
This release features significantly faster autofill solver. That's been a challenge for a couple years now, and a new contributor showed up with a better algorithm for filling grids. There's still more room for optimization, but it already is a dramatic increase in the utility of the editor.
This release also adds a built-in dictionary to the application with definitions to assist writing clues. There is substring selection too, to help cryptic authors build clues from components. This video shows that in action.
TalkBack 15 on Galaxy S25 phones is compatible with Braille displays that use HID, thus saving users from additional set-up steps. TalkBack on the new devices will also use Gemini models for more detailed image descriptions. Not sure when these features will extend to older Samsung devices - hopefully soon: androidfaithful.com/android-ac… #Accessibility #Android #Samsung
So this 10000 MAH power bank is on sale for $11. Never heard of this brand before. INIU Portable Charger, 20W PD3.0 Fast Charging Slimmest 10000mAh Power Bank amazon.com/dp/B0C1MXWPF8
In light of US tech oligarchy setting its sights on Wikimedia Foundation, a historical detail I did not know before: #Wikipedia became the non-profit it is today partly as the result of a labour strike of Spanish Wikipedia editors who disagreed with the proposed inclusion of advertisements. Initially, it was not clear what revenue model Wikipedia would get, and Wales moved towards a for-profit model already a year after launch. However, rather than working for free, so Jimmy Wales could profit from their labour via advertising, Spanish contributors forked Spanish Wikipedia as the Encyclopedia Libre Universal. Under the threat of losing the editorial community of such a large language, Wales conceded and set up the non-profit.
That is to say, however imperfect they are, all the digital commons we have are the result of ongoing struggle and hard work to keep them as commons.
Wow this struck a chord, it seems I was not the only one who was not aware of this story!
Some additional info:
@teclista@mas.to shared that the protagonists are on the fedi as well (of course they are!):
https://mas.
2. Type the following command: watch -d -n 1 sensors
3. This command displays CPU, GPU, Wi-Fi, NVMe SSD, and HDD temperature data in real time. The -d option highlights the differences between updates, and the -n 1 option sets the interval to 1 second, running the sensors command every second. See cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-linux-… for more info.
Pixelfed and 
Loops and it already received over €13k!
victor tsaran
in reply to ThatRealBlindTechShow • • •ThatRealBlindTechShow
in reply to victor tsaran • • •