i recently started as executive director at the @gnome foundation. if your company, nonprofit, university, or government dept deploys gnome, i would really like to talk to you once i find my feet in this new job. 🙂
blogs.gnome.org/steven/2025/05…
firstname at gnome dot org
In this episode, we talk to Daniel Lubiner, creator of the BrailleDoodle, a two-sided tablet that teaches Braille through tactile feedback. We discuss the importance of Braille education, the challenges faced by blind adults, and the potential of AI.pgnpt (Unmute)
I wish folks would stop using this incorrect Clickbait title, 20 years of VoiceOver accessibility. It's the same as the other click bait topic title 35 years of Apple accessibility. As far as I know it's 20 years of Mac VoiceOver accessibility, and 16 years for iOS VoiceOver accessibility. Let's not get too carried away. People seem to drag out one or two stories about the Mac, and then spend the rest of the time saying how fantastic VoiceOver iOS is. Two completely different things. tweesecake.social/@doubletap/1…
Weekend reading: Apple is celebrating 20 years of Voiceover - I wrote an article about it based on the amazing chat I had with the man who brought it to life on the Mac, and also with people who use it on their iPhone every day. doubletaponair.com/20-years-of…20 Years of Apple Voiceover - Double Tap
In 2005, Apple introduced VoiceOver, a built-in screen reader that revolutionised accessibility for blind and low-vision users.Steven Scott (Double Tap)
Desktop application Accessibility improvements The Joplin 3.3 release introduces significant accessibility enhancements designed to make the application more inclusive and user-friendly. Users can ...joplinapp.org
Mastoart.social is a friendly creative Mastodon server that welcomes all skill levels of visual art, crafts, music, writing and more. (AI is not allowed.)
Languages on this server include English and German.
You can find out more at mastoart.social/about or contact the admins @artmin, @bestiaexmachina & @Kitty
#FeaturedServer #Creative #Art #VisualArt #Crafts #Music #Writing #Mastodon #Fediverse #FreeFediverse
mastoart.social is a creative space for you to share your art and be part of a friendly creative community. A Mastodon instance that's hosted in Germany and runs on 100% green energy.Mastodon hosted on mastoart.social
Welcome Fedi Friends to the episode 9 of Fireside Fedi! I'm your host ozoned. Fireside Fedi is a show about folks within the Fediverse. If you're seeing this, you are a part of the Fediverse.
With me today is Robert Kingett! Robert is a writer of fiction and nonfiction as well as a technical writer and accessibility specialist. Robert has been helping with disability access improvements in the Fediverse. His biggest contributions have been to the open source and federated book review application Bookwyrm. Robert is blind and has a stutter. He has very deep thoughts on old people, taxes, and animals. And finds Santa Claus to be very rude that he never responds to children's letters. So Robert I'm not disabled and haven't really worked around anyone that's been disabled, so if you have any suggestions for me going forward, please do not hesitate to help me learn.
sightlessscribbles.com
caneandable.social/@WeirdWrite…
spectra.video/c/robertkingett
sightlessscribbles.com/support…
spectra.video/w/5UL2NPGP5a1uH8…
EarHockey Demo
A slightly older demo I did of Ear Hockey for Windows wherein I play one game on extreme mode, showing how both blind and sighted gamers can play without sighted people needing the same accessibility features I need to play the game.
Forty-nine years ago today, on May 10, 1976, the iconic radio broadcaster Paul Harvey launched his daily syndicated program The Rest of the Story on the ABC Radio Networks, a show that would become a cornerstone of American radio and continue until h…Luke Bouma (Cord Cutters News)
I get a lot out of YouTube especially in terms of art videos, tutorials, that sort of thing.
Sometimes the background music doesn't seem to at all match the theme of the video, and it makes me laugh awkwardly, like whaaattt...?
Like this one, about printing photos at home....
🎶 "I would like to go there.....at the back of the house...where high school teacher....caught us when making out...." 🎶
youtube.com/watch?v=F-RXWxTkJy…
Everything you need to know to start printing your photographs perfectly today! Whether you’re using a lab or you’re own printer I’ve got some tips to really...YouTube
Gaming while blind is the highest difficulty. I like challenging experiences with intense naratives. Like The Last Of Us, or Alt Frequencies!Specs: I5-13600K, RX 3050, 16GB DDR4, Keycron K4 keyboard, PS5 controller and Madcats fightstick.Twitch
Despite clear effort , South of Midnight was not accessible. The pathing for the navigation gets you killed, the game does not audibly prompt you for when to jump, and you cannot avoid taking fall damage even on the lowest difficulty. Played for three hours and didn’t even get to any combat. It’s now refunded and I would advise not purchasing it.
On a related note, I no longer trust Victor Dima, and you shouldn’t either. I could sure use whatever crack he is smoking though, it’s clearly working for him. victordima.net/south-of-midnig…
There are games that entertain, games that impress, and then there are games like South of Midnight, titles that reach into your chest, grab hold of your heart and stay with you long after the cred…victordima.net
Let’s get one thing clear: South of Midnight is perfect. Yes, even though there are a few barriers that make the experience difficult for totally blind players, the game itself, on every other front, is flawless.
How deeply must you hate yourself to write something like that, leave it in your review, and then–this is the part that really gets me–publish it on the internet? People read that stuff, you know.
Deranged.
once I encountered precise platforming segments, I started to struggle. That’s when Alina joined in. I continued to handle exploration and combat, while she assisted with platforming and tricky navigation. This shared play experience didn’t take anything away from the game, it actually enhanced it. We felt like a team. And the game supported that dynamic effortlessly. Still, there’s one more feature that could take South of Midnight across the finish line in terms of full blind accessibility: a “Skip to Next Checkpoint” option. It’s already possible to skip boss fights, chase sequences, or entire combat arenas. But when a puzzle, traversal section, or spatial challenge becomes a roadblock, the experience can come to a halt.
“Game is perfect! 10/10! Well, unless you’re blind, but that’s only a problem if you’re me. I solved it by… not playing the game. My one request to the developers: if you could allow me to not play the entire game, rather than just most of the game, that would make it an even more perfect game. Then I’d give it eleven stars! Out of five.”
What a deeply disturbed individual. Hope no one in the industry takes him seriously, but we’re probably not that lucky.
I don't like the fact that he's promoting sighted assistance gameplay as being totally accessible. SK does the same thing but points out that ideally we need these features to be better for a more accessible experience. Victor saying that sighted assistance enhanced the gameplay honestly sounds like something AI would say if you prompt it to make a blog post better and paste your first draft into it.
Victor seems like he's just clout chasing at this point, whatever will get him more views. SK I think is doing the same thing but don't have hard evidence to point to.
@Orinks LOL one time I asked sightless if I could be on his sea of thieves crew and he said that he didn’t allow more than one blind person to play with him because of the extra burden it would place on the sighted members of the crew to manage the extra blind people.
These people hate themselves and their blindness. They are ashamed of it. It’s honestly quite sad.
@blindndangerous @Orinks @shaysters Same!! I was on her crew a few times, basically all we did was puke on each other, play music and launch ourselves out of cannons, but it was fun! And there was no issue with managing multiple blinds.
He also doesn’t allow any sort of promotion on his stream whatsoever, like, I was doing gears with him and said what I was going to stream next and he was like, please don’t do that.
The guy has actual mental problems.
If you're ever in an emergency and suspect someone is having a stroke, just remember the acronym FAST.McKenzie Dillon (CNET)
Zach Bennoui reshared this.
Apple unveils the $599+ iPhone 16e, with an A18 chip, a 48MP camera, Apple Intelligence, and an Apple-designed 5G cellular modem, the C1, shipping February 28 (Chance Miller/9to5Mac)
9to5mac.com/2025/02/19/apple-u…
techmeme.com/250219/p29#a25021…
Apple has officially taken the wraps off of the all-new iPhone 16e. The device features an all-new design paired with...Chance Miller (9to5Mac)
Listener Derek has raised a pressing concern about the increasing use of self-service kiosks and digital payment terminals, highlighting how their inaccessibility continues to create significant barriers for blind and visually impaired individuals.Steven Scott (Double Tap)
I want to say a big thank you to everyone who works on free and open-source accessibility projects. Your work helps many people and makes technology easier for everyone.
I can't list all the great projects here, but I want to mention a few:
NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) – A free, open-source screen reader for Windows. It allows blind and low-vision users to navigate and use their computers without needing expensive commercial screen readers. NVDA supports many applications, including web browsers, office software, and media players. It also has an add-on system for extra features.
Orca Screen Reader – A free and open-source screen reader for Linux. Developed by the GNOME Project, Orca allows blind and low-vision users to interact with graphical desktop environments.
OSARA (Open Source Accessibility for the REAPER Application) – A REAPER extension that provides full accessibility for blind users. Like most DAWs, REAPER does not natively support screen readers. OSARA bridges this gap by allowing screen reader users to access almost all functions in reaper, including track management, editing, effects, and automation.
ReaHotkey – A small auto hotkey tool that makes some virtual instruments accessible inside REAPER. It does not make REAPER itself accessible but helps interact with specific plugins.
REAPER Accessibility Hoard – A collection of scripts, resources, and other misc stuff that improve accessibility/usability for blind and low-vision users working with REAPER. It includes various scripts/tutorials/resources that help navigate plugins, edit audio more efficiently, and add missing accessibility features.
Pokémon Access – A project that makes Pokémon games playable with screen readers. Initially focused on Pokémon Crystal, it now supports multiple titles, allowing blind and visually impaired players to enjoy the classic series with text-to-speech support.
Links:
NVDA
nvaccess.org/
OSARA
osara.reaperaccessibility.com/
ReaHotkey
github.com/MatejGolian/ReaHotk…
REAPER Accessibility Hoard
hoard.reaperaccessibility.com
Orca Screen Reader
help.gnome.org/users/orca/stab…
Pokémon Access
github.com/nuive/pokemon-acces…
There are many more projects out there, each playing an important role in making technology more inclusive. To all the developers, testers, and contributors—thank you for your hard work!
An AutoHotkey script for blind musicians and REAPER users - MatejGolian/ReaHotkeyGitHub
#Ubuntu 25.04 will be released today (maybe it already is), so here is my look at this new update!
The TLDR is: I thought it wouldn't have that much, but it turns out that between #GNOME 48, APT 3.0, Nvidia dynamic boost, and a new default app, there's a lot to cover!
Also, props to Xubuntu for the move to XFCE 4.20, that's going to be a big change for Xubuntu users!
youtube.com/watch?v=RQXWComGfl…
Check out TuxCare's Custom kernel Development and Maintenance services: https://tuxcare.com/custom-linux-kernel-development-and-maintenance-services/?utm_cam...YouTube
Hey Fediverse friends 👋
We're happy to help make the web a little more connected and open.
With our ActivityPub plugin you can connect your Discourse community to Mastodon and the wider Fediverse
Check out all the details in our latest blog post:
blog.discourse.org/2025/04/dis…
Two years ago, we started working on a plugin that brings Discourse and the Fediverse closer together. Discourse communities are online spaces that facilitate open collaboration and communication.Penar Musaraj (Discourse)
Local liberal Brian Mullins who is now boycotting any company that he sees as supporting a fascist regime spends all of his free time staring at a wall with no idea what else he could be doing.Trevor Graham (The Hard Times)
Mutual aid request: April fundraising
March was rough! We fell way short of our goal and only made rent bc of a miraculous tax refund (which we'd hoped to put toward lawyer fees). Setting a $7k goal this month to get my head above water again.
I don't wanna flood your feed but I also need to eat. Trying to strike that balance—which means I need your help w boosts & donations.
Thanks y'all, let's do this.
The car crash -really- ate into what non-existant wiggle room we had in our budget for rent this month.
We're 50% of the way there and have one more day on our grace period, thanks again to our fedi friends for getting us this far!
Rent Goal $1378 / $2300
Venmo/cashapp/kofi - nullagent
#MutualAidRequest #BlackMastodon #helpfolkslive2025
Přejděte na adresu paypal.me/nullagent a zadejte částku. Protože jde o PayPal, je to jednoduché a bezpečné. Nemáte účet PayPal? Nevadí.PayPal.Me
URGENT
Hoping to get rent in today to avoid late fees and landlord threats.
Passed due rent $1378 / $2300
Venmo/cashapp/paypal - nullagent
reshared this
He was arrested by ICE Friday afternoonChris Sheldon | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com (nj)
Does anyone that I know run an Immich server? I haven't had a chance to deploy one yet but wanted to test the app. Ping me if you'll give me an account to test with for a day
#MoreToLose #MileyCyrus #NewMusic
Hot off the presses! 🔥🎵🎶
Miley Cyrus - More to Lose (Official Video)
youtu.be/T3fA-4D71Kk?si=vKP-zi…
Official Video for “More to Lose” by Miley Cyrus Listen to & Download “More to Lose” out now: https://MileyCyrus.lnk.to/MoretoLoseSomething Beautiful - Albu...YouTube
The post about using Linux while blind (fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-w…) contains a sentence that really stood out to me as being true in so many aspects of my life.
"We’re not waiting on unknowns.
We’re waiting on maintenance."
There's so much interest in "innovation." Anything can be fixed with apps, AI, wearables. Right?
But when I've asked blind people what makes it hard for them to walk in their neighborhoods, it's broken pavements and overhanging greenery. Councils can't afford maintenance.
There was a time when O'Reilly books were the books to get when learning something in tech.
Now they piss away all that goodwill. All of it.
There's a lot of firms rushing headfirst to destroy all the goodwill they once had. Sacrifices on the alter of nothing more than a stochastic parrot.
mastodon.social/@nixCraft/1144…
Warning: Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media now wants every human programmer to be replaced by Gen AI. Tim O'Reilly/company policy on book editing and writing went from "avoid Gen AI" to "you must use Gen AI as much as possible, we will monitor you through KPIs to use it as much as possible. So avoid O'Reilly books. Support an indie author. Plenty of them out there who write and sell books. No need to support corporate overlords. Source reddit.com/r/programming/comme… #ai
These days when I set up a computer and want to create a local user account, I just invoke that screen from the command prompt. You can do this with an internet connection, but it needs to be one of the first things you do.
1. In the Windows first-run setup (after it has been installed), press shift f10 to open command prompt.
2. Type this: start ms-cxh:localonly
This should pull up the old "Who's going to use this PC?" screen. Seems to work in Windows 11 24H2. When you get done answering security questions, the computer (or at least the out-of-box experience) will restart.
I also use this cmd trick to launch a portable copy of NVDA sometimes.
A lesser-known shortcut in Windows setup is ctrl-shift-f3. This puts you into audit mode, where you're logged into the desktop of the administrator account even though you haven't completed Windows setup yet. A dialog will automatically start, giving options to restart into the out-of-box experience or restart normally. In this mode, you can install drivers and make any other changes that need to be made before the setup process completes.
Example: When giving someone a Surface tablet with an attached Bluetooth keyboard cover, you might want to go into audit mode so you can pair the keyboard, but still retain the setup process for the recipient.
You can, of course, also use this trick to completely bypass Windows setup in order to reinstall Windows on a brand new system.
Peter Vágner likes this.
reshared this
Billionaire reopens feud with Tesla chief as he unveils plan to spend $200bn on philanthropy and close foundation in 2045David Pilling (Financial Times)
An AI leaderboard suggests the newest reasoning models used in chatbots are producing less accurate results because of higher hallucination rates. Experts say the problem is bigger than thatJeremy Hsu (New Scientist)
This article is both validating and infuriating.
Validating because it speaks to the lie that generative models are "the worst they'll ever be."
One popular leaderboard...indicates some “reasoning” models – including the DeepSeek-R1 model from developer DeepSeek – saw double-digit rises in hallucination rates compared with previous models from their developers.
The myth of incessant improvement needs to die.
Infuriating because it concludes that "We may have to live with error-prone AI." We really, really don't. This technology has one primary purpose: driving the data and compute hoarding of the oligarchy. It should be considered a tool of the oppressor, and as such should be resisted, confounded, and broken.
We do not have to accept this.
newscientist.com/article/24795…
An AI leaderboard suggests the newest reasoning models used in chatbots are producing less accurate results because of higher hallucination rates. Experts say the problem is bigger than thatJeremy Hsu (New Scientist)
What’s the Difference Between Straight and Curly Quotation Marks?
Over the years, one became "smart" and the other one "dumb".
wordsmarts.com/straight-curly-…
Books about typography at PG
gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?q…
Straight and curly quotation marks may look largely similar. But when it comes to deciding between the two, there’s a “smart” choice and a “dumb” choice to be made.jennifer (Word Smarts)
For anybody who's been putting video on the web for a long time and cares about accessibility, Able Player has been the feature leader for accessibleJoe Dolson (Joe Dolson Web Accessibility)
I am super excited to be testing raw.pixls.us new #git #annex support! This should offer some cool ways to mirror that data around the web.
raw.pixls.us is a community driven repo of camera raw samples, used to test #darktable and #RawTherapee's raw file support.
thing is I can't retest because I already nuked the 100+GB I couldn't update after resyncing with my last rsync.
Of course there are dupes because some directory changed names.
🚨BREAKING: #Fortnite is coming to US App Store any day now!
US judge said #Apple “outright lied” to steal from app developers & increase prices for users - all to uphold its greedy #monopoly.
But the days for FEES on web transactions are finally gone.
Fortnite was submitted to the US App Store yesterday - so it now lies with Apple to publish it quickly: x.com/TutaPrivacy/status/19212…
Read the whole story: 👉 tuta.com/blog/apple-us-antitru…
Apple lied, you paid: US antitrust ruling states that Apple must stop taking a 30% cut on sales outside the App Store immediately.Tuta
Joplin
in reply to Joplin • • •Joplin 3.3 improves keyboard navigation, screen reader support, focus management, and contrast enhancements. A smoother and more inclusive experience for all users!
Joplin
in reply to Joplin • • •Joplin 3.3 adds a "Collapse/Expand All" button to quickly organize your notebook hierarchy. Find what you need faster!
Joplin
in reply to Joplin • • •Joplin Desktop now allows you to open multiple independent instances. Work, personal, or project-specific spaces your notes, your way!
Joplin
in reply to Joplin • • •Search and link to notes in seconds. A new shortcut is emplemented to quickly find and link a note to another with a simple search dialog.
Joplin
in reply to Joplin • • •The Rich Text Editor has been upgraded to TinyMCE 6 with new Markdown auto-replacement.
Joplin
in reply to Joplin • • •Better focus management, improved contrast, screen reader support navigating Joplin Mobile is now easier for everyone.