Oh damn, why I have missed such well written and amazing message regarding #Accessibility state of linux desktop last year?
It's written by @RastislavKish and here it is: freelists.org/post/orca/Can-be…
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I would like to share a very cool project I've been working on with a couple of other very talented developers: SVT-AV1 PSY

github.com/gianni-rosato/svt-a…

SVT-AV1-PSY is the Scalable Video Technology for AV1 (SVT-AV1 Encoder and Decoder) with perceptual enhancements for psychovisually optimal AV1 encoding. The goal is to create the best encoding implementation for perceptual quality with AV1.

We've already implemented a couple of unique features not present in mainline that do appear to produce BD-rate gains on a number of clips already!! Please check it out!

#av1 #encoding #video

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in reply to Matthias Klumpp

Sorry, I meant to ask if there's anything you'd want for test automation, or any aspects of AT-SPI that you particularly dislike (I assume you currently have to use AT-SPI to find buttons etc.). I do have experience with accessibility; I'm visually impaired myself, and I wrote a third-party Windows screen reader and later worked on the Windows accessibility team at Microsoft.
in reply to Matt Campbell

@matt Ooops, how embarrassing - I completely misunderstood your question then! Sorry for that!
I'll ask a contact about AT-SPI specifically, but my impression was that these things were always used with some abstraction on top of AT-SPI in a larger test framework. One definite issue with AT-SPI is the documentation (more would always help, since it is very complex).
Some smaller apps I know now use QTest, which uses Qt internals for testing, so no AT-SPI is involved there.
in reply to Matthias Klumpp

On the topic of window placement, forgive me if this has already been discussed and rejected, but how about an extension that lets applications assign persistent IDs to windows? Then, each time the application creates a window with a particular ID, the window manager can place that window at a saved position for that ID. That'd require toolkits and applications to change, but thinking about this as an app developer, I like the idea.
in reply to Matt Campbell

@matt gitlab.freedesktop.org/wayland…

See, this is exactly the problem here. The blog posts makes it seem like all the people involved in wayland don't care about making the applications work well on wayland. We suggested that this protocol can be used with another new protocol to solve 90% of the use cases. This was dismissed because of the missing 10%. Instead of pushing the protocol that everyone wants we now have another protocol that doesn't go anywhere.

in reply to Matt Campbell

@matt This is in a way the session-management protocol.
But consider this: What if an application has an IDE layout[1] or a layout like GIMP's multi-window mode where windows need to be initilly placed in relation to each other? What if a window needs to show up next to a UI control, like for docked windows in docked UIs or for picture-in-picture displays?
For that, the compositor at least needs to know an initial placement as well, restoration-only will not work.

[1]: wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/im…

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I attended today's presentation where Deane Blazie introduced the new BTSpeak. Much of what he discussed can also be found on the Blazie Technologies Web site which was mentioned toward the end of the presentation. blazietech.com/
Here are my notes that I took which have hardly been edited.

Deane said nobody had done an equivalent Bns. Deand and Bryan (one of his sons) were working with Raspberry PI with a Braille keyboard to make a new 21st century Bns.
Based on Raspberry PI, inside is a computer module 4, has 4 cores, equivalent to a low end or possibly midrange laptop.
About the size of an iPhone Pro
8-key Braille keyboard.
Also has music and media player can stream from Pandora
Has learning application for learning how to type on a Braille keyboard
Comes with Lynx Web browser
Runs on Linux
Builtin calculator, clock and calendar
Hdmi port for monitor
Usb c for charging or plugging in keyboards, usb stick for storage
Micro Sd card slot
He was not sure of max capacity but 256 gb is possible
Has wifi
Has small CHATGpt app but you need a token
Uses Dectalk and ESpeak
Dectalk is from Human Voice LLC which is allowing them to use it for free
Has capability to do voice commands.
Deane said “weather” to get a weather forecast.
Has a around half dozen commands.
Has dictionary.
BTRadio is a Pandora app.
Has a Bible
Morse code application
From systems menu there is an audio menu for speech synthesizer selection
From any menu or application you can get context specific help for that program
Product will have two versions: basic and a Pro version.
Pro will have desktop Linux using Orca.
Uses RPI version of Debian
Pro version will have LibreOffice.
Has a PDF reader.
Standard unit supports text and Braille files, need Pro for full Office support.
Will we have NLS support: we don’t have NLS working with it. Not sure about Newsline.
Has Bluetooth but no headphone jack but it will have an adapter for the USB port for a headphone jack
1.5 ghz
Cost 795 for basic
Pro costs 1195
Web site: blazietech.com
Units are still being developed but can’t be released until software is more refined.
Shipping in February
BTSpeak architecture cannot run Eloquence
Eloquence Was written for intel-based and older versions of Arm but not arm64
Has text editor in basic unit but can use LibreOffice in Pro unit
For editor it can do Braille translation just like bns did
Has 4 gb of ram and 32 gb of rom

Chrome works on the Pro version only

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Blog: Converse.js webchat for prosody-hosted chatrooms

I wanted to make an easily accessible webchat for the rooms hosted on the yax.im #xmpp server, and this is the result / recipe.

op-co.de/blog/posts/prosody-co…

@prosodyim @jcbrand@masodon.xyz

This entry was edited (1 year ago)

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Peter Vágner reshared this.

Introducing Spiel - A New Speech API and Framework

blog.monotonous.org/2024/01/10…

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I am about to install @Arch Linux on a new laptop. This time I am attempting to look into the #secureBoot properly. Trying to boot #archBoot or manually adding #preloader into the install media fails with secure boot violation error. I understand I should enroll loader hashes into the mok list in the nvram. I can't use EFI shell, hashtool.efi, keytool.efi and similar since at that stage of the boot process there's no accessibility support and I can't handle that on my own with OCR snapshots of the laptop screen. Am I missunderstanding the secure boot concept or is that yet another thing I can't overcome no matter how much I am trying to prepare for the task? Of course windows is booting and I do have a screen reader running. But I can't find windows tools capable of manipulating EFI variables. #secureBoot #fail #Accessibility
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Have been playing with Vdo.ninja, a free solution by the dev of OBS Studio which makes it possible to stream and receive multiple sources through any web-based view. In practice, it can do what Cleanfeed does, except it's not as heavily Chrome-dependent, allows for things like changing audio inputs and outputs for other people which makes it so much easier for sound technicians to tweak the setup for radio show or podcast guests, and all of the parameters can be tweaked through URL parameters so it is easy to hand out customized invitation links with everything pre-configured for each guest. The dev, I am told, cares deeply for #Accessibility and, although some suggestions could still be implemented, it is rather pleasant to work with at present. vdo.ninja/

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Just pushed the first draft of my new Wayland accessibility protocol extension. Still working on actually implementing it though. gitlab.freedesktop.org/mwcampb…

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World Braille Day 2024 habengirma.com/2024/01/04/worl…

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Peter Vágner reshared this.

25 years ago Jeremie Miller made an announcement of what would become the initiation, development and propagation of the #XMPP protocol until today!

Join the journey!

slashdot.org/story/99/01/04/16…

Happy birthday,
XMPP!

:xmpp: :xmpp: :xmpp: :xmpp: :xmpp:

#chat #jabber #opensource

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Peter Vágner reshared this.

Thanks to some excellent work by Arnold Loubriat, #AccessKit now has Python bindings. pypi.org/project/accesskit/ This will be useful for GUI toolkits where the widgets are actually implemented in Python, such as Kivy or UIs on top of Pygame, as opposed to Python wrappers over C/C++ toolkits or platform widgets. Documentation is still pretty thin, but there's a pygame-based example in the source distribution.

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Peter Vágner reshared this.

I want Firefox to succeed more than ever and I support Mozilla finding better revenue sources than search engine default sales, but I do not support a $7M salary for its CEO.

I canceled my recurring donation to Mozilla because I need that money more than Mozilla’s CEO needs that money.

If there is a direct funding option of developers working on Firefox, I will happily reallocate that money. Send me links.

Source: Form 990 stateof.mozilla.org/

Edit: Replaced commentary with direct source

This entry was edited (1 year ago)

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in reply to Emmanuele Bassi

@ebassi @vincevlo @dekkzz76 @nojhan @louis XULRunner never really lived, tbh (I just picked the last release date as the "death" date in the post above).

I remember being psyched when ephy was ported from gtkmozembed to gtk-webkit, the code became sooo much simpler. But it was before Chrome became the problem it is today (I got my memory backwards, Chrome was released in 2008 while the first Epiphany version using Webkit is from 2009)

Peter Vágner reshared this.

Are you at #37c3 and are you using #accessibility technologies such as #screenreader , #braille displays or similar? We are in the process of making #MapComplete more accessible and want to user test this. Please get in touch!

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Peter Vágner reshared this.

I am baffled when people talk about "the atmosphere" on Mastodon. Here, there is no algorithm forcing posts into your feed. The atmosphere is the one you have personally curated.

1) Scan a person's feed before you follow.

2) Turn off the boosts of anyone you otherwise like who boosts stuff you don't want to see.

3) Mute anyone you don't want to hear from at all.

4) Filter out words/phrases you don't want to see (you will have to do much less of this if you do the first three steps right).

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Analogue FM radio transmission system turns 90 years old today radiotoday.co.uk/2023/12/analo…

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NVDA 2024.1 Beta 2 is now available for anyone interested in trying out what the next version of NVDA has to offer before its official release!

Changes introduced in Beta 2:
- Bug fixes for installing & uninstalling add-ons
- Speech text is no longer updated when the mouse moves in the Speech Viewer
- Syntax fixes for documentation
Updates to translations

Note: This release breaks compatibility with add-ons made for NVDA 2023.3 and earlier.

Full info & Download at: nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-1b…

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Peter Vágner reshared this.

In 2014, my children’s wonderful Mum, Amanda, who is now a teacher of blind children, approached me with a problem of great significance.

She was teaching a blind girl who had written to Santa. But the child was worried that Santa wouldn’t be able to read the letter she had written, because it was in Braille. Amanda did her best to assure the child that Santa would have no problem with Braille, but the doubts remained.

Remembering the stories I used to tell our own children when they were younger, Amanda wondered if there might be anything I could do to help.

Well, it certainly made a pleasant change from my regular writing sessions trying to figure out technology and then explain it to other people.

The result was "Louis, the Blind Christmas Elf", which I gave to Amanda in written form.

Amanda loved the story, but came back and said, "why don't you do an audio version? You'd be good at that," again remembering all the funny voices I'd use when reading to our kids.

So, back I went into the studio, to create the narrated audio version.

The reaction to this little story has been so special, and heart-warming. I've heard from so many people. Teachers, parents, grandparents and consumer leaders have all written to me telling me how much the story has meant to them. And every year at this time, I get requests for it. It has now been translated into other languages and even turned into a play.

I'm deeply touched and honoured that it has meant so much to people.
In the spirit of being proud to be blind, I offer you this festive story and wish you a merry Christmas.

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in reply to Peter Vágner

@pvagner Ohrfunk.de is a German internet-radiostation. Their website is www.ohrfunk.de. The station hosts the low vision charts (www.lvcharts.de). Disabled people can send their own music, which is introduced once per month and than you can vote. The inventers of this show did a Christmas broadcast and asked the listeneers to submit contributions so we submitted the story.
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This Christmas, I've finally bitten the bullet and done some serious contributing to @openstreetmap (and also joined the OSM Foundation while I was at it). Honestly, I think it's one of the great wonders of the #OpenSource internet, so I wrote a blog post about why I'm contributing (and you should too)

andreasthinks.me/posts/OSM_for…

#GIS #openstreetmap #GeoSpatial #christmas #DataScience #data

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in reply to AndreasThinks

You would make me very happy with a mention owf mapcomplete.org . It is a thematic OSM-viewer and editor in one, geared towards making it easy for newbies and non-tecnical people to contribute. And there are specific maps about trees, ATMs, shops, bicy le pumps, toilets,...
Peter Vágner reshared this.

As it is a long, long tradition Conversations is available for free on the Google Play store for the last week of December.

This tradition was originally born so that when I meet people at Chaos Communication Congress and they ask what I do, they have an easy way to install Conversations. In that regard it's a very special year as we are seeing the return of CCC.

However if you are meeting loved ones to celebrate something else these days that’s fine too.🎄

play.google.com/store/apps/det…

#37C3 #XMPP

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Peter Vágner reshared this.

The European Blind Union is conducting a survey of braille display users, preparatory to discussions with product manufacturers. The survey's organizers are seeking respondents both within and outside the E.U.
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…
#braille #BrailleDisplays #AssistiveTEchnology #accessibility

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in reply to Jason J.G. White

Could you please use ethical survey software instead of an evil data harvesting surveillance capitalist? like limesurvey.org/
#SurveillanceCapitalism #Google #ethics
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This entry was edited (1 year ago)

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in reply to Sonny

amazing! While there are not as many Sailfish OS apps many of them are quite nice and it would be great for the linux mobile phone community to have access to as many apps as possible and remove the OS fragmentation- would it be easier or harder to get these apps to run in Arch or other mobile linux distributions? As far as i know there is no effort to port SFOS apps over..
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The next release of the js sdk is planning to bump the supported #matrix spec version to 1.5 or 1.6. This means it and as a result also Element Web will refuse to start on current versions of #conduit and #dendrite. This is an intentional decision resulting from a discussion between several SCT members.

I think that approach is bad and it should check for a range of supported versions instead of arbitrarily bumping the minor version to make the ecosystem move, but this is a heads up, that now is the time to contribute to both of those servers, if you use them and want to use the Element Web client on them going forward. (I already had my discussion with the SCT and I won't tell other projects, what they should do.)

JS-SDK change: github.com/matrix-org/matrix-j…Dendrite supported versions: github.com/matrix-org/dendrite…Conduit supported versions: gitlab.com/famedly/conduit/-/b…

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Peter Vágner reshared this.

The maintainer of the Orca screen reader, Joanie Diggs, has made noteworthy enhancements in recent weeks. I mention them here for the benefit of those who are not following these developments or who are not regular Linux screen reader users.
Many of the improvements are performance-related, taking advantage of the cache of accessibility tree nodes maintained by the AT-SPI service. Table processing has received particular attention, and fundamental changes are underway in the code that handles users' keystrokes, some of which need to be interpreted as screen reader commands, with the remainder being passed through to the application.
I have been testing some of the changes along the way, as have other users active on the Orca mailing list. Rapid and precise bug reports continue to contribute to the development process. At this point, it is reasonable to expect these valuable improvements to appear in a release during the first half of 2024, presumably as part of GNOME 46.
#linux #orca #ScreenReader #AssistiveTechnology #accessibility #Gnome

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And here is the public announcement about accessibility coming to Audient's audio interfaces product line. That is something we can be especially happy and proud about, and I am sure that this will only be the first step in making more audio-related products, no matter if its interfaces, instruments or all kinds of other things, more accessible to everyone, not just blind and visually impaired people. @Scott @nick audient.com/2023/08/14/accessi…

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NVDA 2024.1 Beta 1 is now available for testing. Highlights include a new on-demand speech mode, the ability to drop speech modes from the NVDA+s command, a new "native selection" mode for Firefox, bulk actions in the add-on store & ability to review add-ons & more!

Note this release breaks add-on compatibility and only works on Windows 8.1 and newer.

Full info and Download from: nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-1b…

#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Update #Beta #NewVersion #A11y #Accessibility #News

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in reply to Nick's world

Klezmer is basically Jewish folk music in the central/eastern European tradition. For example, youtube.com/watch?v=CK1sjrpbpi…
Peter Vágner reshared this.

Way more interesting and healthy fediverse news is happening in the shadows and is barely getting discussed! Discourse has federation between different instances of itself and other #fediverse software such as Mastodon working!

Attached is a demo video from Angus McLeod via their announcement here: meta.discourse.org/t/activityp…

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Peter Vágner reshared this.

Hey ! We're pleased to announce that Ltt.rs [1], an email (JMAP) client, and Mercurygram [2], a new fork of #Telegram, now support #UnifiedPush. And support is being upstreamed to Telegram-FOSS :)

[1] ltt.rs from @daniel
[2] github.com/drizzt/Mercurygram/ from @timothy

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I don't think #WebAIM has an account on the fediverse yet, but the 10th iteration of their Screen Ready survey is now live.

The vital #a11y insights created from these surveys help inform our understanding of the technological and usability landscape. This helps to shape how accessible, and importantly usable experiences are created on the web.

If you use a screen reader, I hope you'll please consider filling it out: webaim.org/projects/screenread…

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