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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Dear friends, #screenreader users, #blind users and #accessibility professionals in particular.
Are you using chat over traditional email as provided by #DeltaChat / #DeltaLab / #ArcaneChat?
I like it uses traditional email infrastructure, is federated, supports end to end encryption, rich content including audio / voice messages. I have even recognized @adb has implemented screen reader accessibility specific features into the android app.
However I have quickly tried electron based app on linux with orca screen reader, exchanged a few messages back and fort between two of my personal accounts using the DeltaChat app and thunderbird and I haven't found the user experience verry appealing. I can't understand how to effectivelly navigate in the list of conversations and list of messages.
Therefore I would be interested to hear a few comments from people knowing this platform better. How accessible is it on different platforms?
On the desktop is the electron based app a prefered choice?
Also some other questions. For the best experience, do I need a new email address or can I use my existing self-hosted one I have already configured in thunderbird?
Ffeel free to point me to a FAQ, some up to date introductory documentation if you think my questions don't make much sense please.
#Accessibility #blind #screenreader #deltachat #DeltaLab #arcanechat @adb
in reply to Peter Vágner

modulux
gotosocial - Link to source
modulux
• •
I'm interested in using Delta chat as well, so if you get good answers to this I'd love to hear them too. I know a few people who use them and all I can do is reply to their emails.
in reply to Peter Vágner

WofWca
mastodon - Link to source
WofWca
• •
The accessibility of the desktop version of Delta Chat is frankly quite terrible right now, I agree. But me and @treefit started working on this a few months back. Expect further improvements in the next months.
@treefit
in reply to WofWca

Peter Vágner
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Peter Vágner
•
@WofWca @treefit @adb Yes, that sounds amazing. I should perhaps retest the app, look at the accessibility improvements you are working on and try to make sure I can get the most of it.
Huge thanks for working on it and for the pointers.
@adb @treefit @WofWca
in reply to Peter Vágner

WofWca
mastodon - Link to source
WofWca
• •
and for Desktop there is also @deltatouch, and I think I've heard of some CLI version. But the Electron version is the "main" one, yes.
@DeltaTouch
in reply to WofWca

DeltaTouch
mastodon - Link to source
DeltaTouch
• •
@WofWca Thanks for mentioning DeltaTouch. It may not yet be suitable for use with a screenreader at the moment, however.
@WofWca
in reply to WofWca

Peter Vágner
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Peter Vágner
•

@WofWca Looking more it looks to me you are working on some amazing accessibility related improvements. While I was testing a few weeks ago I had issues navigating the lists. hmm, perhaps I need to figure out how to build with this PR and see for my-self if it might be related. github.com/deltachat/deltachat…

Edit: oh, there are more PRs resolving keyboard navigation and accessibility related issues. It's really right about perfect time I have discovered this thing.

Thanks and keep up the great work please

@WofWca
in reply to Peter Vágner

WofWca
mastodon - Link to source
WofWca
• •
for a specific MR you can download a preview build that is linked it the bottom of the MR page.
Thanks! But we're still far from done.
in reply to Peter Vágner

Peter Vágner
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Peter Vágner
•
@WofWca So I have finally updated to the latest and greatest #deltachat desktop. And I must say I am really impressed.
Both lists, list of conversations and list of messages are now keyboard navigable.
The hint for the screen reader users is that not all of the screen readers may switch into focus mode automatically so once you do this manually you can enjoy the user experience the way it has been designed.
Also there are nice keyboard shortcuts e.g. ctrl+n for jumping into the input box, ctrl+k for search and more.
Now I do really need to explore more i.e. what about the encryption. Can I use my existing GPG key or add a subkey or is that handled transparently on the background? I need to figure out if I should create new email for chatting or use my primary email.
Still from the accessibility point of view we are really getting something usefull I think.
#deltachat @WofWca
in reply to Peter Vágner

Peter Vágner
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Peter Vágner
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Note to my-self and other people like me:
Read the #deltachat help at delta.chat/en/help it's all perfectly explained there in easy to follow language. It's even translated to various different languages already.
The number one answer for me is that there are #deltachat specific so called #chatmail servers suitable for anonymous instant messaging over email.
So eventhough I like to self host my emails, I think I'll go with existing #chatmail server at least initially.

Delta Chat: FAQ

What is Delta Chat? Delta Chat is a reliable, decentralized and secure messaging app, available for mobile and desktop platforms. Delta Chat feels like Whatsapp or Telegram but you can also use and...
delta.chat
#deltachat #chatmail

reshared this

in reply to Peter Vágner

Delta Chat
mastodon - Link to source
Delta Chat
• •
indeed, these days we recommend newcomers to use chatmail servers first and explore, also with friends, how things go and feel. Once interest is established it may be worth the effort to also run one or two simply be happy with the existing chatmail servers
in reply to Delta Chat

devSJR
mastodon - Link to source
devSJR
• •
@delta
Some time ago, there was an attempt to help users to migrate from one server to another, like taking the phone number. I guess you know what I mean. Is there something still in the making? Because this would ease a transition from a chatmail server to an own server, for example.
@Delta Chat
in reply to devSJR

Delta Chat
mastodon - Link to source
Delta Chat
• •
@devSJR If you have mostly or only "green-checkmarked" chats you can reconfigure your e-mail address to another server and then send a message to your contact which should update them. This will not migrate unencrypted or opportunistically encrypted chats, though, which is why we don't prominently recommend it. Another way is to create a new profile, and then add it to all relevant chats and remove the old profile. More cumbersome but also pretty failsafe.
@devSJR
in reply to Peter Vágner

Matthias
mastodon - Link to source
Matthias
• •

There is one import difference you need to know:

* Chatmail account: you can reach all delta chat users
* Regular email account: you can reach delta chat users + classic email users

So if you use chatmail, you can not reach people who are not using delta chat.

another point:

If you do NOT use chatmail, you will not have push notifications if you are an iOS user.

in reply to Matthias

Islamic Audiobooks Central
mastodon - Link to source
Islamic Audiobooks Central
• •

It is possible for #chatmail users to communicate with classic email users who have published their public key.

You just have to do manual chatmail registration, save your login details and private key securely, and use it with something that supports #pgp like #Thunderbird or #Mailvelope.

#thunderbird #pgp #chatmail #mailvelope
This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to Peter Vágner

WofWca
mastodon - Link to source
WofWca
• •

Very nice, glad to hear a confirmation that it's working from a real user!

We might need to investigate automatic focus mode switching.

in reply to WofWca

Peter Vágner
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Peter Vágner
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@WofWca Perhaps making sure parent of those list items has an attribute role="list" or if you are sure everything inside a particular DOM subtree has logical keyboard focus handling perhaps role="application" on encompassing parent element would do the ttrick. However it really has to be considered visely as it makes it more difficult for screen reader users do read parts of the UI that should behave like a document content by lines, by words and similar.
@WofWca
in reply to Peter Vágner

WofWca
mastodon - Link to source
WofWca
• •
Thank you, this is really helpful! I considered `role="application"` but wasn't sure about it. Will also need to see about `role="list"`.
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