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Google is fighting Nextcloud by harming our Android app. Nextcloud now has less functionality than Google Drive. This is clear anti competitive behavior. theregister.com/2025/05/13/nex… nextcloud.com/blog/nextcloud-a…

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I am just testing @Jami with a #screenreader on both linux desktop and android for #accessibility.
Initial setup is accessible on both the platforms.
Listing conversations I can't really say as I only have single contact.
Audio calling is working fine. I am impressed that the call setup took just a moment. On android controls like microphone toggle, speaker / earpiece toggle and hangup button are working fine.
I am unable to find out in call controls with the keyboard on linux.
On both desktop and android I can write messages.
On android I can read messages, find and execute additional actions in the popup menu.
On the desktop I can't read incoming and outgoing messages with a screen reader. I haven't discovered on how to copy them.

In conclusion comparing this to the tox chat the Jami is more accessible with a screen reader. Perhaps I will be able to figure out how to handle the calls with a keyboard shortcuts however the fact message text is not readable with a screen reader on desktop linux and perhaps other platforms sounds dissapointing. The idea and decentralized nature of this communication app sounds really amazing.

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in reply to Peter Vágner

Exploring @Jami further I think I can post a few more observations.
The desktop app uses QT6 for the UI. Apart of some ounlabelled buttons such as Accept / Reject incoming call and some tab controls on the main window most of the UI elements are clearly labelled and accessible from the keyboard.
The desktop app has a keyboard shortcuts button on the main screen which opens a tabbed dialog with accessible lists of keyboard shortcuts. I haven't yet discovered if these can be tweaked but the default ones are working well for me. For calls it's ctrl+y for accepting and ctrl+d for rejecting / hanging up. Letter m alone can be used for muting / unmuting the microphone.
I need to find out if there is a way to create global shortcuts or do some actions using commandline switches. If either of this turned out to be possible it would perfectly integrate with the desktop.
Sending and receiving files is something I'm going to try next.
@Jami
Peter Vágner reshared this.

Here it is. Post 2 in my series on #Linux #accessibility. This time, I'm digitally screaming about the audio stack.
As always, feedback is encouraged and welcomed, and subscribe via rss or email to receive plane-text versions of what I write, the day after publishing at 10 am UTC
fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-w…
#a11y #linuxAudio #linuxAccessibility
This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to aaron

Huh, somehow this has me feeling optimistic... I guess it sounds like there's a lot of low-hanging fruit. You mentioned not having a audio mixer with good accessibility, which sounds like could be improved with a couple weekends of getting acquainted with the accessibility stack (or I haven't fully comprehended how bad it is yet). I've been meaning to learn how the screen readers and such work, and that seems like a good jumping-off point.

1/3

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#Development #Reviews
First impressions of Deque Axe Assistant · What to expect from the AI accessibility chatbot ilo.im/163tch

_____
#AxeAssistant #AI #Chatbot #Accessibility #WCAG #Design #WebDesign #WebDev #Frontend #HTML

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If you’re a developer writing a GTK app and you want it to be accessible, you might want to check out the following links:

developer.gnome.org/documentat…

docs.gtk.org/gtk4/section-acce…

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in reply to Emmanuele Bassi

@Emmanuele Bassi @modulux @Claire @Danielle Foré I'm wondering are there known windows builds of some very accessible GTK apps such as fractal, shortwave, gnome podcasts, eartag, amberol or some others that we might enjoy trying out with a screen reader on windows?
I'll be definatelly looking into it soon enough. I'm excited about it so it's why I am also posting here.
in reply to Peter Vágner

@pvagner @modulux @clairie I am not aware of any binary builds for Windows; I personally have a full life already, and I don't particularly plan on wasting it on the foibles of Windows.

As far as I know, the accesskit backend was tested with a custom gnome-text-editor build, but that was last year. If people want to pick this up, I'd recommend starting with a small hello world to ensure that building all dependencies actually works.

Peter Vágner reshared this.

This is not only a well written song with a great message, but the production is really nice. Gabrielle Aplin - So Far So Good youtube.com/watch?v=-jipxnd4h2…
This entry was edited (2 days ago)

Peter Vágner reshared this.

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If you are blind and you have the spoons, can you let me know if you use the terminal on Linux and if so which one? If you use the terminal, do you use a screenreader plugin or a specific external screenreader on Linux?

I wrote a terminal UI program for kubernetes that has voice assistance and I want to test it with a normal workflow that a disabled user would follow.

Edit: I am also willing to pay! Read further down in this thread!

#a11y #foss #accessbility

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in reply to JesseBot

Is there a coop or collective of disabled people in tech where you can go to hire accessibility experts? I don't want to continue to release software unless I know its accessible, but I can't know that unless I have my software audited by disabled tech experts that know the pitfalls of these things. I don't need free labour either. I am happy to pay for this service.

#a11y #accessbility #disablity #foss

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in reply to aaron

@aaron @icy @JesseBot I don't think I can call my-self an accessibility expert, however I am on linux most of my time, I mostly use gnome terminal with orca screen reader. I am kind of power user.
As for k8s and related technologies it's entirely new to me.
Still I'd be happy to be helpfull so if you have some patience with me to introduce your project, let me know please.
I am from central europe and evenings and weekends suit me better as during working hours I'm at the office.
Peter Vágner reshared this.

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 reshared this.

The state of Linux accessibility in 2025. This started out as a rant but became a series. Please feel free to leave feedback, comments, and subscribe via rss or email for more stuff as I release it. fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-w…
Peter Vágner reshared this.

For those who aren't in the know, Bookworm is a really cool reading app that is compatible with over 20 different document formats. You can find a rundown of its features and how to download it by following this link: ddt.one/en/software/bookworm

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This has saved me a bunch of times, so might be useful to other people. When I change firewall rules on a remote machine, I always run the following command:
# service pf restart && sleep 30 && service pf stop<br>

And then I hit control-C after a few seconds. If my ssh session is still working, this cancels the service pf stop command. If I've managed to break my ssh connection with the rule change, the firewall is disabled after 30 seconds and I can revert the changes and reenable it.

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New in Foobar2000 for Mac V2.25 preview: "Added keyboard shortcut mapping functionality."

Yeeees!!!! This is what I've been waiting for for ages. The Mac version received everything else I used, and behaves very similarly and runs just as quickly as the Windows version, but literal 0 support for hotkeys was a dealbreaker. It goes without saying that, like the Windows version you need to go in and set up the keys yourself and at least for this initial preview there is absolutely no default hotkeys defined where the Windows one at least has some menu items configured. It also currently doesn't support global shortcuts or hotkeys without a modifier so sadly still no space to play or pause for me. Even then this is a huge improvement and I can actually see myself using this as my default player now also on Mac. You can download from here

foobar2000.org/mac

CC @masonasons think you were also waiting for this.

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Fun project for friday evening. I am hosting some unmaintained web sites for a few friends and they help me to pay the hosting costs in return.
Now I have found out I need php 7.4 for some of these and it's not readily available so building php 7.4.33 on up to date arch linux.

I am afraid this will no longer be possible in the future. How do you deal with this? Can I run PHP in some kind of lightweight container?

Peter Vágner reshared this.

Random reminder that #BillGates is the reason why AstraZeneca #COVID vaccine is patent-encumbered:
wired.com/story/opinion-the-wo…

> Gates bragged about convincing Oxford University not to open-license its vaccine. Gates leveraged his $750 million donation to the university for vaccine research—even though its vaccine was developed in a publicly funded lab. Eventually, Oxford sold the sole right of production to AstraZeneca, with no guarantee of low prices and an extraordinary opportunity for profit.

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Peter Vágner reshared this.

For my disabled followers, what do you consider when thinking about inclusive swag? Swag in this case meaning t-shirts, coffee mugs, backpacks, stickers, etc. that you acquire through conferences, work, or other places.
I struggle to name what I look for in swag for it to be inclusive as a blind person; I think the most I'd look for is cool tactile design on t-shirts and perhaps embossed designs on stickers. But even that's a stretch; I've never felt strongly enough to remotely consider this, and that's why I'm here! I also consider things like Braille to be a novelty, and don't feel excluded when it doesn't exist. In a nutshell--I don't really care. But I'm sure someone out there does. Surely there's at least one of you.
Please boost for reach.
#disabled #accessibility #blind #swag

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Peter Vágner reshared this.

"Milestone for digital sovereignty": 20 years of the Open Document Format (ODF)

The Document Foundation celebrates the 20th anniversary of adoption of ODF as an OASIS standard. This promotes global digital independence and interoperability.

heise.de/en/news/Milestone-for…

#IT #LibreOffice #OpenSource #news

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Peter Vágner reshared this.

Now and then, I always see videos coming from an instance of #peertube and the screen reader #accessibility of the embedded player just gets better. I heard before that it also works for #audio now, I am seriously thinking of hosting an instance here if it's lightweight enough for this system.
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Dnes spouštím projekt Anti-řetězák, který vybírá nejnebezpečnější internetové fámy (cca 1 týdně) a uvádí je na pravou míru tím, že pošle email přímo do schránky.

Anti-řetězák je určený pro lidi, kteří se podvodnou scénou nechtějí zabývat víc, než musí — ale zároveň chtějí mít základní přehled, co koluje českými e-mailovými schránkami. Už jen proto, aby uměli reagovat, když se k nim nějaká dezinformace dostane off-line.

Přihlásit k odběru se lidi můžou na adrese anti-retezak.cz

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Peter Vágner reshared this.

RIP Skype (2025)

Died a slow agonising death from years of neglect after being acquired by Microsoft.

Skype joins a growing list of messaging software that has died in the care of Microsoft.

• V-Chat (died 1995)
• Comic Chat (laid to rest 1999)
• Netmeeting (met demise 2007)
• Windows Messenger (croaked 2008)
• Meeting Space (expired 2009)
• Office Live Meeting (passed 2011)
• MSN Messenger (gave up ghost 2012)
• Qik (kicked bucket 2016)

*not a complete list.

Skype.
You will be remembered.
In a nostalgic kind of way.
For a while at least.

This entry was edited (1 week ago)

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Blind Users’ Negative Attitudes Towards Paid Apps: Mindsets and the Struggles of Sustainable Development accessibleandroid.com/blind-us…

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Gosh, learn about some #Google experiment or other every day. Here is one for you, #music enthusiassts, called Song Maker, (don't forget a MIDI keyboard to your CHrome setup): musiclab.chromeexperiments.com…
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Peter Vágner reshared this.

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Okay, let's try this, for the first time ever. I'm Quin, and I'm looking for a job over the summer, possibly longer as long as it's part time (I'm a college student with the summer off). I'm mostly interested in #remote work, due to my complete blindness traveling to a workplace is more difficult, all be it not impossible. I just prefer coding from my bedroom. I'm a software developer and hacker (in the oldest and best sense of the word) who loves nothing more than figuring out a good challenge. I prefer low-level coding in C, C++, Rust, etc., but things like Python and Lua have their place too. My resume is here: quinbox.xyz/resume.html
#FediHire #fediHired
This entry was edited (1 week ago)

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Peter Vágner reshared this.

Hey everyone,

I hope you’re doing well! I’m reaching out to invite blind musicians, producers, and artists to join an **accessibility feedback group** for Sessionwire — a platform I’ve been using and really enjoying for a couple of years now.

**What is Sessionwire?**
Sessionwire is a remote music collaboration platform that allows musicians, producers, and audio professionals to work together in real time. It offers studio-quality audio, high-definition video, and seamless integration with popular DAWs, letting users collaborate on projects as if they were in the same room.

**Why am I reaching out?**
One of the developers at Sessionwire has asked me to bring together a group of blind users to help improve the platform’s accessibility. They already know which areas need work and are eager to collaborate with us to make Sessionwire better for everyone.

**Interested in participating?**
If you’re interested, **please reach out to me privately (one-on-one)** and send me the email address you’d like to use for communication. If you plan to use the same address to sign up for Sessionwire, let me know; otherwise, please also send the email you’ll use for your Sessionwire account.

If you have **any questions**, feel free to let me know!

Let’s work together to make Sessionwire more accessible for the blind community!

#BlindMusicians #AccessibilityMatters #MusicTechnology #RemoteCollaboration #Sessionwire #BlindProducers #InclusiveMusic #AccessibilityInTech #BlindArtists #AccessibilityFeedback

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Peter Vágner reshared this.

Something probably stupid that I wish I could do as a blind music producer is look at the waveforms of my tracks/mixes in Reaper. like yeah your ears are the best and most reliable tool but they can be biased by headphones, how you slept, allergies like I'm experiencing today, etc. Plus there would just be something super satisfying about putting something together until it sounds good, then looking at the master's waveform and tweaking the frequencies until it fills out the entire frequency spectrum just right. I'm assuming the answer is no because I can't even begin to fathom how something like this would work, but is there an accessible tool to do this?

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in reply to Quin

Gotta say having been in many so-called professional studios is that waveform looking makes certain engineers lazy as all get-out and I hate it.
'Oh let me just drag this thing here, OK looks like it's lined up with the other tracks...'
Don't even bother to play it, bounce it, test it in the car (and yes this *has* happened)
only to find out it was off by a noticeable amount.
I wish I was lying to you.
This entry was edited (4 days ago)
in reply to Quin

Ask yourself *why* you want a mix to fill out the frequency spectrum though?
Did it sound good *before* you did that? Did it sound any better *after* you did that?
Is it possible your track *might* be used as a bed for someone to talk over, and there's just no space for voice because you phattened it up like a mix pig for slaughter with your waveform frequency-spectrum-filling?
Did you watch some video on youtube that says 'OMGOMGOMG if you don't fill this mix right out nobody will ever listen, and you're a bad, bad evil bad person if you don't do these 15 steps to waveform filling right now!'

When I say 'You' by the way, I mean the general You, not You, Quinn.

My students sometimes come to me and say
'Why don't we do this particular compression trick in every mix?'
I have to ask them
'Do you need to? Is it important that you do?'

And so on.

This entry was edited (4 days ago)
in reply to Andre Louis

@FreakyFwoof EDM is full of that kind of thing, although I think it's more commonly ensuring that you don't have a bunch of instruments all crowded in one band, E.G> when this happens in the lows it becomes muddy, and filling is a sort of side effect. Totally understand though. It makes sense for some genres more than others. And that's still a spectrogram, not the actual waveform. All the *waveform* is good for, IMO, is aligning transients and carefully avoiding pops and clicks from joins. And maybe micro edits to clean up a sound, remove little pops etc.
in reply to x0

@x0 @FreakyFwoof I do think you can still achieve a similar mix, even at comparable loudness, without having access to tools like this. It would definitely be nice, but it is not a must. If you know the techniques and if you reference often, you can get there easily. It is a tool that won't automatically help you make your mixes sound great. You can check mono compatibility, frequency crowding, all of those things purely by sound as well using utility plugins. So I agree I'd love to have those kinds of plugins, but it's not what stops me from trying.
in reply to Quin

Filling out the frequency spectrum is not quite useful, white, pink and brown noise do that already with some changes to the lower frequencies for the two latter ones.

What you are looking for is an even distribution of the existing frequencies (Teote, Ozone, Hornet Thirty-one, WavesFactory Equalizer, Grand Finale, DSEQ3, Gullfoss, etc) do this, exciters and saturation to add new harmonic content, just to mention a few things. Ultimately, these tools, despite the aggressive marketing some of them have, can't replace your ears but they provide fast results if you don't want to focus on mixing and mastering. You still need to tweak things and it's very easy to overprocess your sound of course.

Several books could be written about how many things could influence your sound, both while mixing and mastering (from the headphones or monitors you use through the room you are in, to what your genre needs), not to mention when your final master reaches your listeners. Their hardware, environment, ears, etc, will color the sound as well. You could have a perfectly neutral master and someone could quite easily make it heavy on bass just by listening to it on gaming headphones, or better yet, listen to it in a car.

This is a very complex and overwhelming topic, but if you need advice and you really want to make your sound better, listen to the same genre as much as you can. That's how you train your ears to get accustomed to things that stick out (resonate) and over time you will learn what instrument is problematic in what specific frequency areas. Most importantly, less is more.

This entry was edited (4 days ago)
Peter Vágner reshared this.

Linux/Dropbox users. Maestral is pretty damn sweet. Open Source Dropbox client that also supports MacOS, however haven't tested that. github.com/samschott/maestral

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Peter Vágner reshared this.

Virtual machines need to be configured to get the best experience. So I wrote down the steps I use when I'm building a Windows virtual machine. And after 18 months of using Linux as my daily driver, I have added KVM specific steps!

How to get the best experience from Windows guests under Linux KVM
blog.pauby.com/post/howto-best…

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More and more I am looking through @Delta Chat apps and resources I believe this should become number one messenger of choice for screen reader users.
The developers are constantly improving its #a11y. It's secure from the start of using.
Additionally the desktop chat has under gone an #accessibility audit and accessibility issues are clearly documented in public.
I am not sure other messenger style app on the planet has such dedicated commitment to accessibility ever.

github.com/deltachat/deltachat…

in reply to Paweł Masarczyk

@Paweł Masarczyk While testing I have used gmail or my own classic email account. It worked but I have understood using #chatmail servers is what makes it most attractive. I think I have read a blogpost from someone a few months ago explaining this very well that inspired me, however I can't find that article in my browser history right now. CC @Cleverson @Delta Chat
in reply to Delta Chat

@Paweł Masarczyk @Cleverson I know you are looking for a way to stay in contact with people you are already connected to using traditional email. Still I would recommend creating a #chatmail account on your relay of choice just for testing so you can start with an empty profile and you'll get to experience the @Delta Chat the way it has been meant to. Then as an exercise continue with other more advanced scenarios such as classic email login.
The #chatmail based onboarding is really very simple, there is nothing to do wrong.
Peter Vágner reshared this.

At Your Fingertips: Fidget Tools, Fun Gadgets, and Braille Input Devices - Unmute unmute.show/at-your-fingertips…

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Whingy comment on my latest podcast episode:

'Not really a fan of this stuff. I miss the old keyboard and instrument reviews and the musical breakdowns. The problem with this podcast is that you're both too polite and soft spoken and all that. Try getting a bit angry and controversial. There is no such thing as bad language, so where is all the swearing? You can't make a good podcast episode without some swearing.'

Gonna keep posting weekly with my wife @MoonCat, so if you'd like to check it out (despite the no swearing) search for StroongeCast wherever you get your podcasts.
Also, our web page is here: onj.me/stroongecast

Let's boost for reach because comments like that just make me want to promote it even more.

If I have to spend my life catoring to everyone else, I'll never do anything for myself, and that's just boring. #StroongeCast

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Viewpoint is a Windows program that uses Gemini AI to make user interfaces that aren't accessible, pretty accessible! I was able to navigate the PPSSPP interface with it pretty well! So yeah, it's starting to happen, the use of AI for more than just image descriptions.

viewpoint.nibblenerds.com/

#accessibility #blind #ai #ViewPoint #GeminiAI #google

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Joseph Chen's Braille Vision Is a Portable, Raspberry Pi-Powered Text-to-Braille Converter
hackster.io/news/joseph-chen-s…

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in reply to Bruce Toews

@Bruce I had the BrailleMate when I was in school. At the time, it met my needs as a notetaker, but yeah, that single-cell display was awkward. One time, a teacher asked me to try reading a paragraph I had written using the display, but soon stopped me after a few words. I saw the Braille Lite 18 a few years later, and really wished the school had waited to get it instead. I could've read that paragraph on it with no problems.