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and here it is, my new software for #Windows. I wrote it for myself but I thought, maybe it would be useful for someone else.
Meet #PlanCake, software to read Markdown and annotate it in place.
Do you have a long Markdown document, like a plan, a piece of documentation or your personal notes? Open it in PlanCake as a normal document. If you use a screen reader, you can navigate by headings, lists, tables and links, as usual.
Since PlanCake renders GitHub flavored Markdown, you can check and uncheck tasks in task lists straight away.
click or press Enter on a block of text (including list items and table cells), and you can add quick notes (also supporting Markdown!). Notes are saved in the file itself, with markers you set in settings. By default markers are set to [usernote] and [/usernote]. Want rather a single marker for user notes that go to the end of line? Set the opening marker to something like !USERNOTE! and leave the closing marker empty.
You can also add, edit and delete notes by using context menus.
By default, all of your notes are also shown in a list (F6 for keyboard users, right pane of the window for sighted users).
You can use command line, you can paste files from clipboard (or drag them into the window), you can open files by link, export them to HTML, export your notes to JSON if needed.
It's super convenient to annotate plans for AI assistants (hence the name), but it's absolutely not restricted to this task. Writing a book in Markdown and want to add quick notes for yourself? Are you a book editor working for an author? Add comments in PlanCake!
Works flawlessly with Debussy, my set of #ClaudeCode skills: github.com/Oire/debussy.
Website: plan-cake.oire.dev/.
GitHub: github.com/Oire/plan-cake/.
Do you like my software? Consider donating: oire.org/donate/, or sponsor on gitHub. Thanks!
#Software #OpenSource #Accessibility #Markdown #Notes #Annotation #Documentation #Planning

GitHub - Oire/debussy: skills, agents and hooks for Claude Code

skills, agents and hooks for Claude Code. Contribute to Oire/debussy development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHub
#Accessibility #opensource #Windows #software #documentation #markdown #notes #claudecode #planning #plancake #annotation
This entry was edited (Sunday, October 4, 2026, 10:19 PM)

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The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please go to the original post.

I'm a blind Android user. I use multiple screen readers. At the moment, because a multi trillion dollar international corpration, Google, can't figure out how to make an accessibility menu accessible, when I switch it is a dance of head into settings, change what my accessibility shortcut does, turn my old screen reader off, then hold the volume keys to turn the new one on. Not any more. Here's a quick demo of something I built in five minutes. If I can do it, Google, I'm sure you can too.

When the menu appears, I've been holding down teh volume keys for a few seconds, just like I would have to toggle a screen reader before.
#accessibility #android #google #blind #tech

#Accessibility #android #google #blind #tech

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in reply to aaron
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valiant8086

does it require ADB if it's just a normal app you launch from the launcher and tap on the accessibility service you want? I figure allow modify system settings, and maybe would have to go into more options on the app's page to do that thing you have to just to run Backtalk in the first place, would give it access to accessibility enough to turn things on or off or am I full o shit again?
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I’m popping up here because I’d really like to learn more about white canes from people who have actually tried different ones.

When I was living in Malaysia, I never really took the time to explore different cane designs or brands. I basically used what I had. I’m about 187 cm tall, and my current cane is around 140 cm. It came from Hong Kong, and embarrassingly I don’t actually know what brand or model it is.

Now that I’m studying in Singapore, Guide Dogs Singapore has offered to help me find a good cane. They’ve mentioned Revolution Advantage, and they also have the WeWALK Smart Cane 2, which I understand is based around a conventional mobility cane with ultrasonic obstacle detection.

This has sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole.

I’ve now come across things like:

  • Revolution Advantage graphite canes
  • AmbuTech aluminum, graphite and SlimLine canes
  • AwareWolf All-Terrain Cane
  • AwareWolf Urban Xplorer
  • NFB rigid fiberglass and carbon-fibre canes
  • NFB folding and telescoping carbon-fibre canes
  • Comde-Derenda canes
  • Svárovský canes
  • smart canes such as WeWALK

And I’m only now learning that “a cane” can mean quite different things: rigid, folding, telescoping, telefolding, aluminum, fiberglass, graphite/carbon fibre, different numbers of sections, different joint designs, different handles and a bewildering number of tips.

So I’d love to hear from cane nerds. 🙂

A few questions:

  1. What cane do you actually use every day, and why?
  2. If you’ve used both AmbuTech and Revolution Advantage, how different do they feel in practice? Is the Revolution noticeably lighter or better at transmitting tactile information?
  3. What is the real-world difference between a rigid cane and a folding cane? Do rigid canes genuinely give substantially better feedback, or is the difference relatively small with modern graphite folding canes?
  4. What about telescoping canes? Are they mainly convenient, or do you lose tactile feedback, rigidity or reliability compared with folding canes?
  5. Has anyone used a cane that combines telescoping and folding sections?
  6. How important is the number of sections? For example, would you rather have a five-section cane that is slightly longer when folded, or a six/seven-section cane that packs much smaller?
  7. How do Revolution’s joints compare with AmbuTech’s? I’ve heard people specifically praise Revolution’s all-graphite construction and joints that don’t stick.
  8. Has anyone used the AwareWolf Urban Xplorer? How does it compare with a normal graphite mobility cane for everyday pavement, buildings, public transport and city walking?
  9. And what about the All-Terrain Cane? Is it genuinely useful as an everyday cane as well as for hiking, grass, gravel, beaches and rough ground, or is it too heavy for normal long-distance urban travel?
  10. Has anyone here used the NFB-style long rigid cane? I’d particularly like to understand why some experienced travellers strongly prefer a long, very light rigid cane over folding designs.
  11. Does anyone have experience with European canes such as Comde-Derenda or Svárovský? They seem to have some designs that I rarely hear discussed in English-speaking blind communities.
  12. What materials do you prefer: aluminum, fiberglass, graphite/carbon fibre or something else? What differences do you actually notice in weight, sound, vibration, flexibility and durability?
  13. Cane tips are another rabbit hole. Pencil, metal glide, ceramic, marshmallow, rolling marshmallow, roller ball, high-mileage, etc. Which ones give you the best information, and which are best for constant-contact versus two-point touch?
  14. For someone around 187 cm tall, is my current 140 cm cane unusually short? I know cane length is very personal and depends on walking speed and technique rather than height alone. I’d be interested to know what other tall cane users use.
  15. Has changing to a longer cane significantly changed the way you travel—particularly your walking speed, reaction time at drops/stairs and confidence?
  16. If you could own two or three canes rather than trying to make one cane do everything, what would your combination be? For example: rigid everyday cane + compact folding cane + all-terrain cane?
  17. Finally, are there good cane manufacturers or unusual cane designs I’ve completely missed?

I’m not necessarily looking for one “best cane.” I’m more interested in understanding why people develop such strong preferences for particular lengths, materials, joints, tips and designs.

Feel free to get extremely nerdy about this. That’s exactly what I’m hoping for. 🙂
#canes #blind

#blind #canes

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in reply to Kaveinthran
glitchsoc - Link to source

Audrey Farnum

I’m going to be in the minority here, but Here goes. I have used a variety of canes and settled on a rigid cane made by dcanes.com. It is an NFB style straight cane with a metal tip. I find it to be the most sensitive cane I have used and has A perfect amount of flexibility. It is also extremely lightweight and comfortable to use. I find the ambuteche folding canes to be heavy and clunky. Revolution is a little better but still too heavy for my liking. In my experience, I find folding canes to be too rigid. If you hit a crack or bump you are more likely to jab yourself in the stomach while a flexible straight cane will just bend a little and pop right over whatever it gets caught on. The metal tip glides over every surface type easily and is thus very versital. I can feel so much more detail with a straight cane that using a folding cane feels very uncomfortable because I'm not getting much feedback. It’s like I’m using a cane while wearing a glove, which I also hate doing. The joints in a folding cane really dull the vibrations that travel up the cane and they make the cane too rigid. I am about 165 centimeters and use a cane that is about 154 centimeters. Well, if Siri isn’t lying to me. sorry, ignorant American here. I had to convert from feet and inches. anyway, my cane comes up a little bit above my nose. I originally started with a cane that was about at sternum level, but I find that I can walk faster and more confidently with a long cane because I get more advanced warning about drop offs and other hazards. the NFB folding cane is lighter than both Amputech and Revolution folding canes and has the NFB metal tip. I still think it is too rigid and not sensitive enough, but I have one that I keep on hand as an emergency cane or for situations where I know that dealing with a non-folding cane might be problematic. I also keep a couple of the NFB telescoping canes on hand that I travel with as emergency backup canes. They are very lightweight and more sensitive than a folding cane, but not as sensitive as a straight cane. They do have a tendency to collapse if you hit a bump or a crack, so I wouldn’t use it as an everyday cane. they are great for an emergency cane and can get me home in a pinch if something happens to my straight cane. Canes are very subjective and everybody is going to want different things from their cane. My advice is to try out as many as you can and find what works best for you. There’s no right or wrong cane. The best cane is the one that works best for you. I agree, folding canes are more convenient because you can stow them away when you are out in public, but in my experience, it’s not really that hard to get used to stowing a rigid cane. There are techniques for dealing with them, and once you get used to it, it’s really not a big deal. There are very few situations where I elect to grab a foldable cane when I am going places. (1/2)

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tunmi13

@atfarnum Idk. I've been using Ambutech folding canes for over a decade, so I've gotten used to them. An NFB person tried to sweet talk me into getting one of theirs. You know, the usal "this is why ours is better" approach. They aren't bad, but I feel like they can be too flimsy at times. I live in a neighborhood with a lot of drains and some gaps in the sidewalk. Get that cane stuck in there, and there's a 25% chance it's going to crack.
@Audrey Farnum

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Laurel Jean Walden

@atfarnum My absolute favorite cane is the NFB-style rigid cane with metal glide tip. The city of Charleston, SC and my neighborhood in particular, is not pedestrian friendly. The travel is more like rural travel. I found that my favorite canes just don't hold up well in this area, so I found a happy medium in the NoJab cane paired with a rolling ball tip. It is a folding cane, lighter than most, with a spring in the handle to help prevent the cane getting stuck in cracks and holes in the ground. It works, though I do miss working with a rigid fiberglass cane and metal glide tip. I also agree that canes are a matter of personal choice.
@Audrey Farnum

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in reply to Kaveinthran
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samarositz

I started to reply to you on Reddit, I apologize for not finishing. The TLDR is that I use a revolution, folding cane, and have for at least the last 30 years. I do wish I could find them in a non-folding version as I used to know that they made them, but I don’t think they do anymore. My understanding is, you can get a wee walk cane in the revolution style, but I don’t think you can’t hear in the states. If I could, I would try a wee walk, but not with the Ammouta version as I have never liked Ambutech canes.
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Shortcut Menu 0.2 is out, with a delay when switching screen readers so that explore by touch is handed over correctly. The delay isn't very long and makes sure there are no conflicts. github.com/aaron-gh/shortcut-m… #accessibility #android #blind #tech

Release Shortcut Menu 0.2 · aaron-gh/shortcut-menu

Switching from one screen reader to another now turns the old one off first, and turns the new one on only once the old one has stopped. Before, the new one could start first and lose explore by to...
GitHub
#Accessibility #android #blind #tech

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valiant8086

in lew of that, can you get Backtalk to shutdown Talkback at least, if it was running? Don't know if it could easily do a bunch of them like GriGor and Talkforward and such but at least Talkback would be lovely. I did find that Backtalk got stuck with limited touch access when I had to run Talkback in order to start Backtalk because Backtalk didn't speak after installing the latest update, and blindly turning it off and back on again in the accessibility shortcut menu, the builtin Android one that is, so I went into settings/accessibility/installed apps/backtalk and it was on even though the accessibility shortcut menu was always showing that it was off. I turned it off and it asked me for permission to turn it off wtf/ So I tapped it again and it came on with no permission prompt and said Backtalk is on, but I had Talkback running, launched from the other shortcut, volume up+power, and I didn't stop it first in that scenario because expected permission request. So they were both running and things broke. I eventually got into accessibility menu, found Backtalk, tapped it and kept my finger right there while I got back into accessibility menu and tapped right there again and luckily it came on.

I do have ADB and such but can't help wishing I didn't need it for that new shortcut menu you made. Is there no chance of that?

in reply to valiant8086
glitchsoc - Link to source

aaron

@valiant8086 Shortcut menu does that. Once installed, you can switch screen readers on the fly. Backtalk unfortunately can't, without needing to grant WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS via adb. Shortcut menu needs it too, but that's a single purpose utility that has no network access or anything
@valiant8086
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Hi all! I'm looking for live voice chat with other blind techies. Back in my early 20s we ran our own Ventrilo servers and used to knowledge share in real time, and I miss that. Is there a Discord, TeamTalk server or similar that's active these days? Would love an invite. #Blind #Accessibility #ScreenReader
#Accessibility #blind #screenreader

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Jonathan

lmk if you find something proper. There is the OurBlind Discord, but by now I prefer smaller groups rather than big stuff, like almost communitys. Of course, both do have their advantages, but I guess I'm not as extroverted as I wish to be or something.
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🎧 YouTube link to the recording of NASA's first virtual event targeted for the Blind and Low Vision Community. This two hour presentation is about the SLS rocket tests for the rockets that power the Artimis space craft. There’s a never before heard excerpt of conversation between astronauts on the far side of the moon, audio described video of a launch, some hard science, and a great panel discussion about space, astronomy and accessibility.
youtube.com/watch?v=sG1RC_9_MA…

The Future of Artemis Missions: An Accessible Webinar for the Blind and Low-Vision Community

On Oct. 2, 2026, NASA hosted a webinar designed to introduce members of the blind and low-vision community to the Artemis missions and the RS-25 engines that...
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (YouTube)

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OK. one PR merged in. ssi263-speech 0.7.5 is out: every voice, everywhere!

The Braille Lite, Speak-Out, Accent-mini and Accent SA now speak on NVDA, SAPI, Linux (speech-dispatcher, for Orca) and Android, all from one native library, each checked byte for byte against the old voices.

Full circle: Blazie's BT Speak and BT Braille run on a Raspberry Pi, and now the Braille Lite, Type 'n Speak and Braille 'n Speak run on them too, with their own firmware. On a BT Braille, the unit's braille shows on the device's own cells, thanks to Leo @Lprazdnik!

Also new:
- The Blazie emulator for Windows and Linux: the clock runs, files go in and out as disk images, no more stutter. (v0.7)
- A Braille 'n Speak 2000 preview in English and Slovak. Slovak speakers, please try it! (v0.7)
- Android: import your Speak-Out's SPEAKOUT.HEX; both Accents built in. (v0.75)
- SAPI with no Python inside, and 32-bit Windows support. (v0.75)
- SSInger, spacepup's singing SC-02, now with all 64 sounds, for Windows, Mac and Linux. DAW users, I'd love your feedback. (V0.75)
- No GPL in the voices or the emulator, and Windows 7 still works. (v0.75)

Made by Claude, Astra and me: two AIs and a human, almost 300 letters between them.

Thanks Leo, spacepup, Jayson, Timothy and Patrick!

github.com/tgeczy/ssi263-speec…

I'm off for a week, but I'll check issues and pull requests when I'm back.

Release ssi263-speech 0.7.5: every voice, everywhere, and the Blazie units on the BT Speak and BT Braille · tgeczy/ssi263-speech

0.7.5 is the release where every voice works everywhere. The Braille Lite, the Speak-Out, the Accent-mini and the Accent SA now speak on NVDA, SAPI, Linux and Android alike, all from one native lib...
GitHub
@Leo

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glitchsoc - Link to source

Marek Macko

After playing around with the Slovak firmware for about half an hour, I observed the following:
The features that are supposed to work do work perfectly, Slovak diacritic letters work, Braille code does as it should too.

As for pronunciation, I noticed two things. Unfortunately, I can’t compare it to the actual unit, only to what I Recall.
1. The pronunciation of “b” seems to me as if it lacks a bit of distinctiveness / friction.
2. On the other hand, “h” is pronounced as if with a slight pop before the letter itself, both within words and on its own.
No idea, if you can do anything about these though.

And one more thing I recall. When I plugged stereo headphones into my BNS, it sounded as if one channel had the polarity reversed. Maybe something to consider for the audio tweaks. 🙂
In any case, big thanks. Great work! @Lprazdnik

@Leo
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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Just uploading some of my music compositions to Youtube, if you prefer discovering or listening there: youtube.com/@Ondrosikfreebackg…

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glitchsoc - Link to source
Ever wanted VoiceOver's rotor-like gestures on Android? Backtalk now has them, bound by default to adjust your reading controls, but able to do anything you like. github.com/trypsynth/backtalk/…

Add a two-finger rotor and handle gestures in Backtalk by default · trypsynth/backtalk@6cd981b

A fork of Google's TalkBack screen reader for Android - Add a two-finger rotor and handle gestures in Backtalk by default · trypsynth/backtalk@6cd981b
GitHub

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in reply to Quin
mastodon - Link to source

valiant8086

fasttalk, talk forward, accessimind, what ever @fireborn s one is called, what ever @pixelate s is called, uh, HerSee or GriGor, uh. They're all claiming to be faster, and some of them actually are, but they all have different feature sets with different critical bugs making them unusable. Well, actually, the two new ones where I here named them by mentioning the Mastodon handles since I don't know what they are called may be exceptions as I haven't tried them. But but like, is there some reason that most of these aren't all one product with prs coming in and people teaming up to make it so? Maybe cause with vibe coding, merging prs is risky business for those who don't have a comfortable understanding where by to examine incoming prs from others?
@aaron @Devin Prater :blind:
in reply to valiant8086
mastodon - Link to source

Devin Prater :blind:

@valiant8086 @fireborn Mine isn't like, ready for release or anything. I'd say Quin's is the one to watch for. Aaron is working with Quin. Everyone else is just working on their own thing. TalkForward is not open source, to my knowledge, and that dev is working alone I think.
@aaron @valiant8086
in reply to Devin Prater :blind:
mastodon - Link to source

valiant8086

@pixelate @fireborn thanks. I want what everyone wants, but Talkback is mostly stable, so it's difficult to take bullshit onboard when there's any one thing that I normally rely on which doesn't work as expected anymore. I wish the devs best. What would really be nice would be if Google got the point and did this stuff for us, as you mentioned recently.
@aaron @Devin Prater :blind:
in reply to valiant8086
glitchsoc - Link to source

aaron

@valiant8086 @pixelate You might like what we're doing with BackTalk in that case. We aim to be at least somewhat faithful to the way TalkBack works and do understand the system we're working in. Imagine it as TalkBack with improvements, rather than taking talkback and trying to make it something else.
@valiant8086 @Devin Prater :blind:
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Good job, Microsoft, for shipping a Start menu experience unusable for screen reader users as part of Windows 11 2026 Update:
github.com/nvaccess/nvda/issue…

I and some Windows Insiders and screen reader developers sent feedback to Microsoft back in July 2026. Three months later, the situation has not changed. What breaks my heart is that this unusable experience also affects Narrator. Shame on you, Microsoft. #A11Y #UXFail

Windows 11 Preview build 26300.8772 and later: NVDA announces "tab" when searching in Start menu with refined search experience enabled · Issue #20530 · nvaccess/nvda

Brief summary In Windows 11 Insider Preview build 26300.8772 and later, NVDA does not announce search results when searching in the refined search experience Steps to reproduce Install Windows 11 I...
josephsl (GitHub)
#a11y #uxfail

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akkoma - Link to source

Können diejenigen von euch, die Windows 11 nutzen (müssen) und dabei auf einen Screenreader angewiesen sind, bestätigen, dass Microsoft mit einem Update das Startmenü unbenutzbar gemacht haben?

#Windows #Windows11 #Microsoft #Microslop #Screenreader #Barrierefreiheit #NVDA #Narrator

Joseph Lee

2026-10-01 23:46:03

mastodon - Link to source

Good job, Microsoft, for shipping a Start menu experience unusable for screen reader users as part of Windows 11 2026 Update:
github.com/nvaccess/nvda/issue…

I and some Windows Insiders and screen reader developers sent feedback to Microsoft back in July 2026. Three months later, the situation has not changed. What breaks my heart is that this unusable experience also affects Narrator. Shame on you, Microsoft. #A11Y #UXFail


Windows 11 Preview build 26300.8772 and later: NVDA announces "tab" when searching in Start menu with refined search experience enabled · Issue #20530 · nvaccess/nvda

Brief summary In Windows 11 Insider Preview build 26300.8772 and later, NVDA does not announce search results when searching in the refined search experience Steps to reproduce Install Windows 11 I...
josephsl (GitHub)

#Windows #Windows11 #screenreader #microsoft #nvda #barrierefreiheit #narrator #microslop
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I needed to upload a copy of my signature, and wound up writing an #accessible web app to help. I figured someone else might find it useful, so have fun: sclower.github.io/accessible-s…

Accessible Signature Capture

An accessible, private, browser-based signature capture tool with keyboard-controlled touchpad drawing.
sclower.github.io
#accessible

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mastodon - Link to source

Elijah Massey

@TheQuinbox This is really cool, but I wonder how useful this will be because it seems like most things that require your handwritten signature either have their own web signing tool that uses the mouse and doesn't let you upload an image, or they give you a PDF and say you must handwrite your signature in a specific place. Your web app will let you write your signature in an accessible way and then export it as an image, but it doesn't seem like it can draw it on another signature tool or insert it into the right area on a PDF. In the past, I've used the NVDA Computer Use add-on by the VOCR developer that uses the ChatGPT API to control your computer, and just had it forge my signature in the box, or for a PDF I've used AIRA and had the agent put a printed signature in the right place with the Adobe tools, using RIM. But it would be nice to have something better if there was a way to get the image from this app into another signature drawing tool or into a PDF at the right place. I wonder if the NVDA Computer Use add-on or Claude Cowork could copy your signature from the image into a signature area by copying the strokes exactly with the mouse, or if you could use AI (perhaps Claude Code or Cowork could do this) to insert the image in the right place in a PDF. But otherwise this is really cool and hopefully it can help solve this problem, because it is extremely annoying when something asks for my handwritten signature and I often end up spending so much time trying to figure out anything that will work.
@Quin
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New Blazie Emulators!
Lots fixed. New settings, including serial port mode and the click at utterance starts. Clock works. Let's see, flash formatting should make the right chirps now. Slovak firmware added, for testing and feedback. Thanks to all who reported problems. You can also now use a tool to import and export your flash into a .img file.
github.com/tgeczy/ssi263-speec…
github.com/tgeczy/ssi263-speec…
github.com/tgeczy/ssi263-speec…
github.com/tgeczy/ssi263-speec…

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Tamas G

@N589KS so those used the Doubletalk chips, which are a new beast entirely - the RC8650 and such. SSI263 was not used on Braille Lite M-series. The BLT 2000 should be in there though, hmm. There are already some efforts for the DoubleTalk work, which is promising, especially with the real ROM running under emulation and the board getting a nice decompile from Chris Toth.
@Kevin
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Playing with the Rode Wireless Micro, which is a set of tiny wireless microphones paired with a USB C receiver. The receiver sits flat against the side of a computer or the bottom of a smartphone, and the microphones clip to a shirt collar, and can be set to stereo or mono. They're not designed as binaural field recording microphones, but being able to stream in wireless stereo is still kind of a neat trick. Mostly, I'll probably just wear one at a time while the other charges in its case.
Because of how compact the dongle is, I can comfortably connect these to my phone and listen to audio through my Airpods, which means I now have high-quality wireless microphones that don't add any bulk to my phone. There's something almost futuristic about walking around on a call with tiny airpods in my ears and a tiny microphone clipped to my shirt, and no wires or other devices attached to me. And yes, TeamTalk does allow me to stream audio from them without dropping Bluetooth quality. Even for ordinary voice chatting, these are a massive step up in quality compared to Bluetooth headsets. They're better than wired headsets, for that matter, so I'll have one less reason to deal with wires.
The most surprising thing about these microphones is that they're $86. There are even cheaper ones, like the Godox C01 for $36 USD, but I'm having a hard time finding reliable shipping on those. Even shipping to the US has an estimated month of variability. I already know the Rode Central app is mostly accessible, so I went with these. If someone wants to try the Godox and report back, I'd be interested.

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mastodon - Link to source

Simon Jaeger

@valiant8086 Yes. The Rode Central app is pretty usable on at least Windows and iOS; I haven't tried Android yet and just realized I should. you can't read the state of the selector buttons, so when you choose between merged and split audio, you kinda just have to trust that it worked and then do an auditory test. But in my experience it's pretty easy to switch modes and change other settings. I also have the Wireless Pro, which is a set of larger microphones with a transmitter that does both USB and 3.5mm output, and that has a lot more settings, which I've also been able to adjust.
@valiant8086
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glitchsoc - Link to source

In other news: github.com/trypsynth/backtalk

GitHub - trypsynth/backtalk: A fork of Google's TalkBack screen reader for Android

A fork of Google's TalkBack screen reader for Android - trypsynth/backtalk
GitHub

Quin

2026-10-01 01:36:58

glitchsoc - Link to source

Why are you looking at me like that! I would never fork TalkBack to try and improve it with another blind Android hacker friend!

in reply to Quin
mastodon - Link to source

Robert Kingett

By @TheQuinbox Backtalk is a fork of Google's TalkBack, the screen reader for blind and visually-impaired users of Android. It adds fixes and features on top of Google's source releases. It is not affiliated with Google. github.com/trypsynth/backtalk #Android #Google #Accessibility #A11y #TalkBack

GitHub - trypsynth/backtalk: A fork of Google's TalkBack screen reader for Android

A fork of Google's TalkBack screen reader for Android - trypsynth/backtalk
GitHub
#a11y #Accessibility #android #google #talkback @Quin

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mastodon - Link to source

Someone asked me the other day if #accessibility has been getting better over the last years.
I feel that's a difficult question to answer. Relatively speaking, maybe, in some aspects, yes it has.
But if I'm brutally honest, better does by no means mean good.
Right now, I'd say accessibility as a whole can be described thusly:

People have, on a whole, felt largely ignored and essentially akin to a dog begging for scraps at the dinner table. Maybe every so often someone somewhere decides to do something, but in general, accessibility is ignored, deprioritized, devalued and at times derided by those who should often know better.
Accessibility is in a state where people would rather use a planet-destroying, ethically questionable slot machine to fix things, because the human slot machine of getting people to care has far worse odds and requires far more effort with often nothing to show for it.
And yet, that probably is still better than a decade ago.

#Accessibility

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in reply to Florian
mastodon - Link to source

Florian

One can argue that using those questionably ethical technologies is just that, ethically questionable. I would very much agree.
And yet... We've had the internet for a good 35 years now, things haven't exactly improved, see also the webAIM Million. See also #Foss project after #floss project with absolutely zero regard for #accessibility until it's way too late.

Ethically questionable, sure, but I can not in good conscience blame anyone who's waited half their life to finally see things improve only to be disappointed taking things into their own hands.
Switch away from big tech? People can't. Pick up any old alternative when a tool of choice funds the far right? People can't.
Stop funding the billionaires? People very well might not be able to.
And that lovely bit of entrapment was all human-wrought. No AI, or i'm sorry, AL, required.
This is the world we live in, and these are the hands we're given. Don't like it? Send a PR and fix it.

#Accessibility #foss #floss

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in reply to Florian
mastodon - Link to source

Florian

There's definitely been some encouraging developments over the last 5 or so years. Orca is finally starting to shape up into a proper #screenreader after existing what... 18 years or so? Perhaps we'll see a viable #linux distribution that's #accessible enough to be someone's pleasant productivity machine. Heck, @elementary
seems to be fighting that fight almost all by themselves at this point and they're actually getting somewhere, although the work that must have taken honestly scares me. You're braver than i! :)
We're seeing Wayland accessibility improve, bit by bit, phenomenal job being done over in those parts but again, probably swimming against the current to a scary degree. Whoever's working on that now, you're appreciated!
#accessible #linux #screenreader @elementary

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in reply to Lukáš Tyrychtr
mastodon - Link to source

Florian

@tyrylu @elementary My definition is basically a distro that lets me not have to switch to Windows to get work, play or tinkering done. I'm pretty sure Fedora, and Elementary for that matter, have day-to-day usage done, but I need to see consistency before I can justify spending any serious time on it. I haven't forgotten the mess the Wayland switch made yet
@elementary @Lukáš Tyrychtr
in reply to Lukáš Tyrychtr
mastodon - Link to source

Florian

@tyrylu @elementary Why am I responsible for fueling your roadmap?
Accessibility standards have existed for decades, examples of how to do accessibility have been around for even longer. My Linux knowledge is woefully out of date but things like having to set specific environment variables to make things like Java or Electron apps work, Orca losing the plot when an app requires elevation, the fact there's always a fight between, say, speakup in the console and Orca in the GUI session and speech just randomly dying for no apparent reason were part of my everyday workflow when I did use it, and that's only a year or two back.
For as far as I know Orca doesn't do first-party OCR yet, I remember some non-links not properly firing on enter in Firefox which worked fine in Windows, no idea how bad the current Wayland breakage is, if Pu
@elementary @Lukáš Tyrychtr
in reply to Florian
mastodon - Link to source

Florian

@tyrylu @elementary sorry got interrupted. If pulseAudio on virtual machines still randomly stutters when using Pipewire, if the majority of fixes are still confined to the absolute latest version of desktop environment, underlying machinery and orca, if the Ubuntu installer still reads unlabeled buttons in the accessibility section of said installer rendering the accessibility section inaccessible... do you see where I'm going with this?
@elementary @Lukáš Tyrychtr
in reply to Florian
mastodon - Link to source

Devin Prater :blind:

@tyrylu @elementary And if pressing the Super key, on the Gnome desktop, still just says "window" instead of telling us we've opened the search box thing to type a program name or file name or whatever else we can search for in Gnome. Or if we still can't type in Contracted, Grade 2, Braille because BRLTTY is seemingly still primarily used in the console, stuff like that. I really think Linux developers are going to have to spend time around the blind, rather than passively waiting for blind people to submit the next issue. But there are already so many issues. And I get that Linux developers already have so many communities to watch for. And sadly AI won't fix everything either. In fact, that leaves Linux accessibility to crawl at the same pace it's been for the past 5 years. But I mean at least it is crawling instead of being stuck. Maybe one day.
@elementary @Lukáš Tyrychtr
in reply to Devin Prater :blind:
gotosocial - Link to source

Lukáš Tyrychtr

The Gnome shell thing is definitely fixed in Gnome 51. Braille might be harder, as we don't have any devs which would be knowledgeable about grade 2 (including myself), and skilled enough to do something about this.
in reply to Lukáš Tyrychtr
mastodon - Link to source

Mike Gorse

@tyrylu @pixelate @elementary I don’t think I have the right hardware to help with braille, even if I could find the time, so I probably can’t help, either. In general, it would be better if we could find a way to have more developers, somehow.
@elementary @Lukáš Tyrychtr @Devin Prater :blind:
in reply to Devin Prater :blind:
gotosocial - Link to source

Lukáš Tyrychtr

Well, depends on how big a fix that is - a few missing labels are definitely okay, a huge refactoring because at the end you can fix some small nidpick, I'd doubt it. But you'd at least test it. And of course, cross environment issues (so things that Kde, Gnome and others have to agree upon) need a much more complex discussions.
in reply to Lukáš Tyrychtr
gotosocial - Link to source

the esoteric programmer

yeah, in the end it depends on how big the change you're submitting is, because if it's gonna be a few hundred lines of code split across a bunch of files, sometimes entirely unrelated files, then maintainers are right to scrutinize that deeply, because that path leads to unmaintainable code down the line. But yeah, I feel like nowadays, the most important things for accessibility to not only be good, but actually awesome, on linux to be done are in the wayland protocols and AT integration department, rather than anything specific in one desktop environment or another. You know, for example, stuff that would be needed for eye tracking, a proper way of querying the mouse pointer, getting touch gestures and so on, all with a properly sandboxed API. However, that's the hardest part, not because it'd take a lot of code, but because so many people would have to be involved in that discussion, the bikeshedding would probably be monstrous, but I suppose that'll have to be done eventually even so
in reply to Devin Prater :blind:
gotosocial - Link to source

the esoteric programmer

well nope, first we have to look at what exists and try to make this into an actually usable interface which can be used for more things, for example portals are a good abstraction layer. Right now, the fixes which fixed most of wayland accessibility for us are two dbus interfaces the gnome, and kde now I suppose, shell implements, but that's a hack more than an actual solution. That's why I said that at this point, we can't fix that with code because it's not really code that's the problem, it's trying to make something work so that we don't slide into more technical debt than we already are. First things first, I think someone, if not us, should revive the newton branch and make that workable again, then put effort into upstreaming that, because that already has some nice wayland compositor primitives which would help us later. Then, we need an accessibility portal. As a quick hack, sure, you can probably create patches to orca, at-spi2-core, libei, mutter and gtk4 probably, with or without AI, but those would be hacks. But here's a thing, we can brainstorm ideas and see what can be done, do you have a matrix or something? I think discussing the whole thing in this thread would make it too long for most clients to load it :p. After we got something, we can probably talk with more wayland and portal devs, because right now, I was trying but from a position of seeing what sticks on the wall and nothing concrete was done because of that. I can probably try to pull up some of my earlier messages in various rooms about this problem and what I came up with, so I don't reiterate from scratch.
in reply to the esoteric programmer
mastodon - Link to source

Devin Prater :blind:

@esoteric_programmer @tyrylu @pvagner @elementary Honestly, all I have is Discord, and I mean there would need to be like more than just a few people to make this really work out well, if you're thinking of having like a community for working on this.
@Peter Vágner @elementary @Lukáš Tyrychtr @the esoteric programmer
in reply to Devin Prater :blind:
gotosocial - Link to source

the esoteric programmer

yeah of course, but I meant more like we would want to make some kind of specification that sounds reasonable, without much bikeshedding at first, which is why I don't think having a big amount of people there is a good idea. I didn't mean it as a community where we talk to the protocol developers, because I pretty much know what the objections to this kind of thing generally are from them so I know what not to do, and also that would come later. I meant a place where more of us, aka the people who need this kind of thing but who also know a bit of the landscape, could brainstorm ideas and write some protocol definition files if nothing else.
in reply to the esoteric programmer
gotosocial - Link to source

Lukáš Tyrychtr

Yeah, I'd want to make Newton a reality, the design is definitely neat. It would not fix the security considerations from some people, but it would be so nice to remove all the caching hacks in the whole stack, performance should be better as well generally.

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in reply to Florian
mastodon - Link to source

Florian

@tyrylu @elementary That you are getting on with it so well actually bodes well, I might give Fedora another look soon and perhaps have more targeted feedback but as of right now I simply don't know where we are. Was it you I heard in that recorded fedora meeting regarding accessibility, I believe it was last year or the year before?
I'm pleasantly surprised to see Fedora at least has the latest Orca RC in its system repositories and I truly hope a lot of the pain points I just listed have been addressed; I recall that pipewire stutter supposedly being fixed hopefully some time this year for example. I'll need to see to what degree things like QT apps, electron apps, java apps and GTK apps currently just work®(tm) before I can prioritize urgent fixes, but I think a lot of the issues surrounding specifically Linux are history-related. I currently can't trust that what has been fixed will remain fixed because it historically hasn't worked that way
@elementary @Lukáš Tyrychtr
in reply to Florian
gotosocial - Link to source

Lukáš Tyrychtr

Orca actually is current in Fedora repos already, e. g. no RC anymore. :-) Same for Arch linux, for example. Yes, I don't know the current situation with Pipewire and Windows based VMs (it always worked on Linux through virt-manager or similar). Java might be underwhelming still, that's true, but the rest should be okay.
in reply to Lukáš Tyrychtr
mastodon - Link to source

Florian

@tyrylu @elementary The pipewire thing I am relatively sure has been fixed. But Java is actually a great example... the ways of making Java apps accessible are known. They have been known for decades. Do you happen to know why it's still "underwhelming" as you say?
@elementary @Lukáš Tyrychtr
in reply to Florian
gotosocial - Link to source

Lukáš Tyrychtr

The setup of Java accessibility is still a lot more manual than I'd like it to be (you need to set configuration in accessibility.properties or you need environment variables in some cases), the Arch linux package for example is missing a crucial symlink, so basically nobody tried to use this for a long time, and openjdk behavior changed in the meanwhile. It is not completely straightforward on Windows either, though, but I remember it in a better shape, though.
in reply to Lukáš Tyrychtr
mastodon - Link to source

Florian

@tyrylu @elementary These days it really kind of is. NVDA and JAWS both pretty much just ship their own access bridge so users haven't really had to think about this for a good 5 years in some cases. Still way too late, but at least it was done :) Meanwhile a lot of mission-critical applications for some career choices, notably cybersecurity, run on Java so for those folks this would be extra burden to entry that really shouldn't be there
@elementary @Lukáš Tyrychtr
in reply to Florian
gotosocial - Link to source

Lukáš Tyrychtr

Agreed. I already wrote at least the Arch package maintainer, the UX is definitely improvable, the install should be plug and play. I managed to get the right settings, so I finally have accessible Ghidra on Arch (to the extend Ghidra is accessible in terms of custom widgets and keyboard navigation).
in reply to Lukáš Tyrychtr
mastodon - Link to source

André Polykanine

@tyrylu @elementary A pleasant experience is when you can work, tinker and have rest at the same time. Write code, run AI assistants in an *accessible* terminal, watch YouTube, read articles, listen to podcasts, do some audio editing, stream (and Florian is a real streamer who also makes the streams, unlike me who doesn't open OBS); have meetings on Zoom; interact in Slack; perform accessibility audits, including in google Docs and Excel files (yes, I know, but it's my clients' requirements), and many other things. And all of this must be accessible to a *blind person* *without* sighted help. Since I can do all of this on Windows, that's what a proper screen reader and a pleasant experience means. Oh, and a *proper* screen reader must be scriptable (because of new apps appearing) and have *robust* Braille support.
@elementary @Lukáš Tyrychtr
in reply to Florian
mastodon - Link to source

André Polykanine

@elementary Orca is, as far as I know, mostly Joanmarie diggs' work. If she had a team of at least ten (I'm not saying fifty or three hundred!) permanently available developers, it might have happened earlier. I mean, becoming a viable screen reader. You know I'm super skeptical about Linux desktop, but Joanmarie deserves to be mentioned every time we talk about it.
@elementary
in reply to André Polykanine
gotosocial - Link to source

Bram Duvigneau

Yes for sure, she did it for years but I thought that she stepped down. Can't find a source of that now though. Besides, the mix of window managers, desktop environments and relatively old accessibility APIs seem like a hard environment to build a screen reader for to me
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mastodon - Link to source

The termination of RSS feeds was an early indicator of the enshittification of Twitter. Everyone should have taken that as a sign and left. Indeed, I left Twitter at that point. Unfortunately, nobody else did.

Don't make the same mistake again with Reddit. The termination of RSS feeds is a sign that it's all downhill from here. Reddit already killed third party clients. Reddit is dead. Abandon ship!

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in reply to Jeff Johnson
mastodon - Link to source

Angela Scholder

Not sure any more when that was.
I basically stayed away from Twitter for a year I guess, and then finally initiate a delete of the account early January last year as I decided I didn't even want to count as a statistic.
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mastodon - Link to source
early days, but it works: eurpod.com/synths/blazie-emu.z… - use the unit menu to choose firmware, alt+shift+F if on qwerty Type N Speak to get to menus easily. Flash disk state is saved in appdata but in Blazie's format for now, not sure if a .img export will be done before 0.7 is out but at least it'll work well enough.

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in reply to Tamas G
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Dane Stange

Hi there! Is there a GitHub repo for this? I just grabbed the zip—I’m Dane Stange, hoping to tinker with it, but I keep running into hiccups. Then I realized it’s Windows-only, so what’s the next step? I’d rather not reverse-engineer the EXE with AI; I figured someone might have asked for the source already. If not, we could build something ourselves if you’d prefer not to share it for safety reasons—totally understandable, lol. Still, we’ve come this far! Just know I won’t reverse the emulator without your okay; it’s something I’d rather avoid. One neat thing about AI is we can skip some limits. I don’t expect much from this request, but we’ll see. Hope you’re doing well and enjoyed your pizza pretzel! Also, I hope my focus on transparency and freedom hasn’t been too much. 😊
This entry was edited (Thursday, October 1, 2026, 6:06 AM)
in reply to Tamas G
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Peter Vágner

@Tamas G Oh sorry for the delay. I have just realized you have full BNS emulator up on github including an ability to run that slovak firmware.

It sounds fine, it handles punctuations and numbers. In fact it's reading numbers in the calculator by digits and numbers in the text as they should e.g 13 as thirteen.

Thanks for working on this.

@Tamas G
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mastodon - Link to source

I just released an update to Conversations that fixes a regression in the accessibility of the attachment selection.

Accessibility is important to me, and I apologize for any inconvenience caused by this. If you notice any accessibility problems, please let me know immediately.

#XMPP #Conversations_im #Jabber #a11y

#a11y #xmpp #Jabber #conversations_im

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in reply to A
mastodon - Link to source

Daniel Gultsch

@ariec half of them are signed with my personal key. The other half with fdroid keys. We are doing reproducible builds now but you can't migrate between the two that's why the version with the fdroid key is still being distributed.

I recommend you use the regular fdroid client because it figures this stuff out for you.

@A
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Can You 3D Print A Playable Vinyl Record?
bgr.com/2266214/can-you-3d-pri…

Can You 3D Print A Playable Vinyl Record? - BGR

As 3D printing becomes increasingly popular across all industries, audiophiles may be happy to learn that it's possible to create a playable vinyl record.
Sead Fadilpasic (BGR)

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The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please go to the original post.
Intercontinental: a song I wrote back in 2003 while in a long-distance relationship. Today in 2026, I can provide my basic piano chord arrangement to an AI like Suno, and get it to produce me a pretty nice backing track I can then sing to. For me as someone who writes and sings but is not musical enough to arrange full backings, this is quite an exciting advancement.

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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

I have found out there is now an #orca remote compatible with #nvdasr remote.

What do I do in order to add --install-extension command to my installation of orca built from the main branch?
Please @Brandon or anyone else, do you know?

The orca remote repository is at
github.com/serrebidev/orca-rem…

#nvdasr #orca @Brandon

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glitchsoc - Link to source
I made Scroll Cast Radio, an Android app for swiping through live radio from around the world, like reels but for radio.
Built TalkBack-first: every station is one swipe, with custom actions, spoken announcements, and headset controls.
Mood search, favorites, loudness levelling. Free and open source, using the Radio Browser directory.
Download: github.com/Glowing-Radiant/Scr…
#Android #Accessibility #Blind #Radio

Release Scroll Cast Radio v0.4.1 · Glowing-Radiant/Scroll-cast-radio

Fixed: sound cut out when Even out loudness and Bass boost were both on. All audio enhancements now run through a single sound processor.
GitHub
#Accessibility #android #blind #radio

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ElevenLabs Music and Sound FX Generator
Accessible music generation app with reusable prompts and composition plans, instrumental and vocal options, and organized audio and lyrics output.
Platforms: Windows and macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel). An ElevenLabs API key is required.
github.com/OnjLouis/ElevenLabs…

Release ElevenLabs Music Generator 1.0.0 · OnjLouis/ElevenLabsMusicGenerator

ElevenLabs Music Generator 1.0 is a keyboard-accessible native app for creating music with the ElevenLabs Music API. Choose one download for your computer: Windows: ElevenLabsMusicGenerator.zip. E...
GitHub

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mastodon - Link to source

Conversations is now permanently available for free on Google Play.

Google doesn’t deserve me and my money anymore.

gultsch.de/posts/breaking-up-w…

#XMPP #Jabber #Conversations_im #Android #FOSS #OpenSource #Google #GooglePlay

Breaking Up with Google Play: Why Conversations Is Now Free

Conversations, my federated instant messaging client for Android, started out as many traditional open-source projects do: as an attempt to scratch my own itch.
Daniel Gultsch
#xmpp #android #foss #google #opensource #Jabber #googleplay #conversations_im

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gotosocial - Link to source

OK, this is going to be a super detailed, nerdy, long post about me getting a new gadget and making it accessible.

Last Monday, I got myself a Flipper Zero. For those of you who don't know, Flipper Zero is a tiny device squarely targeted at tech nerds, geeks and tinkerers, and has made a name for itself as a hacking gadget shortly after it was first released in 2023.
It's a nifty little device that can receive, send and manipulate various types of radio, NFC, Bluetooth and infrared signals, which yes that does make it a great tool for ethical hacking and pentesting. But that means it can also, for example, be used as a universal remote for controlling TVs, stereos, ACs, or most anything else that's remote controlled around your home, it can also be extended to be a powerful network diagnostics tool thanks to various add-on boards that can be connected to its GPIO pins. So yes this thing can do a lot, and it's very popular throughout the tech community.
Problem is, the Flipper Zero comes with zero accessibility features. To be fair, the device is very constrained in terms of resources: 64 MHz processor, 1024 KB flash storage, 256 KB SRAM, not exactly much headroom for a screenreader. At least there's a speaker though, a tiny piezo buzzer that isn't exactly capable of producing high-quality audio, but hey it's something at least.
Thankfully, the Flipper's firmware is completely open-source, and in fact there are lots and lots of community maintained, alternative firmwares available. So starting Tuesday morning, I fired up Claude and set out to work on a project that seemed hopeles at first given the device’s specs, and after several rounds of designing, testing, tweaking speech samples, adjusting EQ parameters, firmware tweaking and stripping out animations and visuals that would otherwise have taken up too much memory for the screenreader to run, I’m finally able to navigate, use and enjoy a device that was never really meant to be accessible to a completely blind person like myself.
Yes, I can now navigate the Flipper's menus and apps, scan for infrared signals and create universal remotes based on them, I can use it to scan NFC tags and have it speak the data which they contain, and I hopefully will be able to troubleshoot my WiFi with it once work on that functionality is complete. It's not exactly the best accessibility experience there is, mostly because that piezo speaker just sounds super muffled and scratchy. It's clear enough and perfectly usable for me, but that's a real limitation. Also, on-device speech synthesis just is not possible given the severely limited resources. The solution to this is a script that extracts all text strings from the firmware, then creates pre-recorded audio clips for each which the screenreader then plays back. If you've ever used an mp3 player with the Rockbox screenreader, this is the same idea. My goal is to clean this up over the coming days and weeks as best I can, and then release the modified accessibility firmware on GitHub for all to enjoy. I'd also love to know if any of you have heard of the Flipper Zero before and maybe wanted to buy one, but didn't due to the absence of a screenreader or any other accessibility feature. Or maybe you actually already own one and have been using it via the console over its USB to serial interface, because yes that too would be a way of using this accessibly while tethered to a computer. It just feels crazy to think that only a few days ago, I received a device that had absolutely no accessibility functions at all, yet here I am only 3 days later and the same device is perfectly capable of speaking all its various menus and texts, enabling me to use most features accessibly. What a time to be alive!
#FlipperZero #Accessibility #Screenreader #AccessibleSoftware

#Accessibility #screenreader #accessiblesoftware #FlipperZero
in reply to Minionslayer
gotosocial - Link to source

Robin Kipp

The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please go to the original post.

Just posted it to this thread, I think quoted posts are somehow broken for me but see if this link will take you to it:

kipp.social/@robin/statuses/01…

Robin Kipp

2026-09-25 21:15:43

gotosocial - Link to source

Alrighty, here’s a quick and dirty demo of my Flipper Zero accessibility project, navigating the main menu, using it to scan an NFC tag and emulate my TV’s power button using infrared.
Enjoy, any feedback, suggestions and comments more than welcome!

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mastodon - Link to source

Na začátku října bude v Praze spoustu zajímavých akcí:

3.-4. října LinuxDays linuxdays.cz/2026/

6. října OpenSSF Community Day Europe events.linuxfoundation.org/ope…

7.-9. října Embedded Linux conference events.linuxfoundation.org/emb…

10.-11.října GStreamer conference gstreamer.freedesktop.org/conf…

Máte nějaký program na pondělí?

Embedded Linux Conference Europe

Embedded Linux Conference brings together the embedded Linux community to collaborate, exchange knowledge, and drive innovation in systems.
LF Events

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mastodon - Link to source
#btText, my #accessible #Windows #program for managing text #snippets, is now also available on #WinGet. winget install adkurz.btText
#accessible #Windows #bttext #snippets #program #winget

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mastodon - Link to source

Hi everyone. Sorry for sharing this link again. I recently learned that the number of respondents to this survey on Braille use among blind people around the world is still very low.

Surveys related to Braille are not something that are conducted very often. They are not like, for example, screen reader surveys such as the WebAIM survey, which is carried out every few years. As a Braille user myself, I feel that studies like this are very important.

We can see how Braille use and Braille-related technology are facing many challenges. At the same time, the experiences of blind people across Asia — including South Asia, Southeast Asia, and other parts of the region — often receive less attention in global discussions.

Braille users across countries such as India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore, and many other parts of Asia have our own experiences, educational backgrounds, languages, challenges, and ways of using Braille. These perspectives need to be represented at the global level. That is why I strongly encourage everyone to respond to this survey and, if possible, share it with other Braille users in your own communities and networks.

Previously, when this survey was shared in several groups, some concerns were raised: are organisations like these simply using surveys to obtain free feedback and expertise from blind people? Should blind people be paid for sharing their experiences and knowledge?

For me, this needs to be considered in light of the purpose of the research. If a study is conducted for commercial purposes, to generate profit, develop a paid product, or produce income, then it is entirely reasonable to ask whether the knowledge and expertise contributed by disabled people should be properly recognised or compensated.

However, when research is conducted by non-profit organisations to better understand the state of Braille and to advocate for the interests of Braille users, I think the context is different. Before drawing conclusions, it is important to look at who is conducting the study, why it is being carried out, what its objectives are, and how the findings will be used.

For me, the decline in Braille use, the future of Braille as a writing system, access to Braille technology, affordability, education, and how we can ensure that younger generations continue to have opportunities to read and write in Braille are all extremely important issues to study.

Across much of Asia, we do not have enough large-scale research on Braille use that reflects the diversity of our countries and communities. We also do not always see enough locally grounded research being brought into international discussions about the future of Braille.

So when international organisations make an effort to study the state and use of Braille more comprehensively, I think we should take the opportunity to make sure that voices from Asia are not missing from the picture.

If you use Braille, I really hope you can take a little time to complete this survey. If you know other Braille users, please share it with them as well, especially within your local, national, and regional networks.

The more people from Asia who respond, the harder it will be for the diversity of our experiences to be left out of the global picture of the future of Braille.
"braille readers and others who work with braille: I urge you to take the Global Survey on Braille: Literacy, Access, and Innovation! The survey seeks to gather information about global trends in braille literacy, access to braille, and familiarity / usage of tools and technologies that support braille. Feel free to spread this far and wide, also. Read more and take the survey by going to tiny.cc/braillesurvey

Thank you.
#braille #blind

#blind #braille

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in reply to Kaveinthran
mastodon - Link to source

Lynn Schneider

I think the issue here is that people are starting to get survey fatigue. I realize that surveys can provide valuable data, but I feel like everyone is sending me a survey about something And I’m finding myself prioritizing which surveys I think might be most beneficial to me and the people I care about.
in reply to Lynn Schneider
mastodon - Link to source

Allison Meloy

@caneprints Same, also, I work for a state agency, so I am limited in what I can fill out because I can’t be seen as endorsing companies with whom we might do business, especially if there are things like gift cards involved. @kaveinthran
@Kaveinthran @Lynn Schneider
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Okay fine I did the thing. Let's see what Google does with it. Yes it's vibe coded. Yes that's all I can do. Yes it's probably ugly as crap. But I tested it and it works. If vibe coding makes you mad, come shoot me yourself please. Or hire some one to do it for you. Anyway it's in Google's hands now, let's see what they (don't) do with it. Ugh. Working on more nice to have stuff, like actually good image/screen description and PIN entry with a Braille display and screen descriptions actually working when there's no accessibility element onscreen, with YAASR, yet another Android screen reader. No it ain't ready yet. No there's no release. Shoot knowing me there probably won't be. But at least I can say I've done *something* to have one of my complaints about TalkBack heard by Google. Lol well maybe not heard, but at least something will plop into their Github notifications.

github.com/google/talkback/pul…

#accessibility #android #blind #ai

Reduce linear-navigation latency around list scrolling by devinprater · Pull Request #42 · google/talkback

Problem Swiping through scrollable lists (e.g. a social-media feed, but also Settings) can take ~250-560ms per item before speech starts. Measured on a Galaxy S25 (Android 16, TalkBack 17.0.1) usin...
GitHub
#Accessibility #android #blind #AI

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someone rewrote bestspeech in pure c, there is an openbst bestspeech project that I have not found the github link for yet. but gozaltech made a sapi5 version already.

github.com/gozaltech/BstSpeech…

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I think that I am getting close to having a WebKitGTK security update ready for SLE 12. However, I am not sure if it is visually rendering text onto the screen, so I think that I should find a sighted person to look at it for me. I know that most sighted people do not use screen readers and instead interact with the computer by looking at the screen with their eyes, so I want to be sure that I don't release a security update that makes the software inaccessible for them.

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glitchsoc - Link to source
If you're like me and refused using WhatsApp desktop because it is horrible, but still use it and find it horrible, and you do not know about this project, then you may take a deep breath and look at this.
github.com/gabrielhhaber/WinZa…
Somehow, it has gathered quite a traction already but I never heard about it.
Using WhatsApp finally feels like how it should have felt since the beginning.

GitHub - gabrielhhaber/WinZapp_Python: An open source native WhatsApp client writen in WXPython.

An open source native WhatsApp client writen in WXPython. - gabrielhhaber/WinZapp_Python
GitHub

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in reply to aryan
glitchsoc - Link to source

garo

@Aryan @Aman I mean, it depends what we even talk about? Is it a WhatsApp client too? Winzapp uses browser automation and official supported sockets as far as I can tell so Meta is unable to detect anything, how do you do it? How are you going to pitch your product to everyone (if you plan to release it), e.g. what makes it stand out and where is it more unique or useful than Winzapp?
@aryan @aman
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I built the fastest PHP webserver in the world

Article URL: qbixserver.com Comments URL: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4… Points: 5 # Comments: 0

qbixserver.com/

#Tech #Technology #TechNews #AI #Gadgets #Software #Cybersecurity #Apple #Google #Microsoft #Startup #HackerNews [Hacker News]

Qbix Server — A Web Server in Pure PHP

Faster than Swoole, FrankenPHP, and RoadRunner on unmodified PHP code. One file, no extensions.
qbixserver.com
#apple #google #technology #software #microsoft #AI #tech #cybersecurity #startup #technews #HackerNews #gadgets

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The media in this post is not displayed to visitors. To view it, please go to the original post.

I’m going to be in Prague for #LinuxDays (@linuxdays).

I’ll be giving a talk on Sunday at 10:00 about XMPP and 25 Years of Digital Independence.

You can also find me at the #XMPP stand if you’d like to chat, ask questions, or grab some stickers!

#LinuxDays #Jabber #DigitalSovereignty

XSF: XMPP Standards Foundation

2026-09-20 15:30:04

mastodon - Link to source

#XMPP Community

XMPP stand at the upcoming #LinuxDays #conference in #Prague, #Czech Republic on 3rd and 4th October 2026!

xmpp.org/2026/08/xmpp-at-linux…

#jabber #chat #interoperability #selfhosting #rtc #opensource #decentralization #federation #messaging #Linux


XMPP at LinuxDays | XMPP - The universal messaging standard

Members of the community will operate an XMPP-themed stand at the upcoming LinuxDays conference in Prague – if you are around, you are welcome to come visit.
xmpp.org

#xmpp #Jabber #digitalsovereignty #linuxdays @LinuxDays

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omg. It really is a thing. I'm going to have to try this now. Looks like it's another dev than who made the Papa Sangre one.
Audio Defence — Windows port
github.com/lbk2907/AudioDefenc…

GitHub - lbk2907/AudioDefence-Windows: A Windows port of Audio Defence: Zombie Arena, recovered from the iOS binary.

A Windows port of Audio Defence: Zombie Arena, recovered from the iOS binary. - lbk2907/AudioDefence-Windows
GitHub

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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

When viewing any OSM node with @MapComplete it displays QR code and a link so this exact focused place can be opened on a different device.

Is there a way to display any OSM node in mapcomplete given its ID without knowing what theme is suitable please?

Or similarly when looking at an OSM node, is there a way to construct a link mapcomplete can understand from its data?

Thanks for any hints you may have.

@MapComplete
in reply to Peter Vágner
mastodon - Link to source

MapComplete

No, cause there simply might be no suitable theme for an #OpenStreetMap POI, or cause there might be multiple matching themes all with a wildly varying interpretation. A street might for example be opened with mapcomplete.org/maxspeeds , with mapcomplete.org/etymology or with mapcomplete.org/cycle_infra

Whoch should be used? Picking one at random would result in completely different views and facts

Bicycle infrastructure

A map where you can view and edit things related to the bicycle infrastructure.
mapcomplete.org
#openstreetmap
in reply to MapComplete
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Peter Vágner

@MapComplete Thanks for the hints.

I am not sure I am understanding it correctly. I write down a node ID into the search locations edit field while the theme is already selected. It displays as a search result under Locations heading, however when using enter key to activate the search result it does not focus the node displaying its tags. Does it only scroll the node into a view in the map and should I still focus it manually then?

@MapComplete
in reply to MapComplete
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Peter Vágner

@MapComplete Or just thinking out loud, can I handcraft a theme that will accept any node, then pass that as an url parameter? I don't actually care about the map view with this experiment, I'd like to link to the questions form.
@MapComplete
in reply to Peter Vágner
mastodon - Link to source

MapComplete

No, cause if you'd accept 'any' node, it would also _show_ any (and thus all) nodes. That would crash the visualisation.

Also: what 'questions form' would you show for any node? Ask for a name? Most nodes are just corners from a building or a street.

in reply to MapComplete
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Peter Vágner

@MapComplete I don't really mean all the nodes that exist but rather my own set of them. I'm trying to come up with a little browser based app that uses overpass API to query near by points, the query is hardcoded with some variables. For example nodes that have one of the tags: amenity, name, highway, railway, waterway, leisure, shop... present and I have filters for them. Once user selects one of the points, I display its details and I'd like to add one of the actions the user can do with the chosen node or even a way if doable to open that in mapcomplete.
Perhaps you can remember a few weeks ago we had some follow up discussion after @Paweł Masarczyk made a presentation about maps, OSM data and screen reader accessibility for the blind and partially sighted. One of the open points at that time was an ability to select near by points of interest from a list rather than manipulating the map view as that would be easier on mobile. And I am just experimenting with that. In practice the points might be restaurants, fastfoods, pubs, bars, drinkingwaters, cinemas, theaters, libraries, cafees, crossings, parkings, bus stops, atms, banks, schools, kinder gardens, hospitals ... and a lot more that can serve as an orientation aid near by. If my thinking is not compatible with how mapcomplete operates, then I should just accept that and try to come up with a better idea, I just wanted to find and verify that.
@MapComplete @Paweł Masarczyk
in reply to Peter Vágner
mastodon - Link to source

MapComplete

@Piciok

I lost track of this thread, sorry for this!

No, your thinking is pretty much compatible. This would basically boil down to a specific map theme on mapcomplete that just shows all the layers you mention - most of those layers already exist anyway.

The spirit of MapComplete (at least the 'official' version) is to not have a thematic map with too much different types of POI, as that can be a bit confusing/cluttering the map.

@Paweł Masarczyk
in reply to MapComplete
mastodon - Link to source

MapComplete

@Piciok But that doesn't mean that an _unofficial_ theme isn't allowed to work like this.

In fact, anyone can build one (somewhat) easily with studio, and that is what I've done:

mapcomplete.org/theme.html?use…

Note: it limits loading POI, you must zoom over zoom level 17 to load anything, but as it is for local orientation, I guess that'll be no problem

MapComplete - editable, thematic maps with OpenStreetMap

MapComplete is a platform to visualize OpenStreetMap on a specific topic and to easily contribute data back to it.
mapcomplete.org
@Paweł Masarczyk
in reply to MapComplete
friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Peter Vágner

@MapComplete Huge thanks! It turns out You just created a suitable theme for me as it lists all the features map complete can handle. Opening an URL like this opens the node listing all the details. Thanks once again I really appreciate the help.

mapcomplete.org/theme.html?z=1…

@MapComplete
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This looks really interesting. Riad has been working on Arcadelux, a huge arcade-style audio game inspired by Oriol's Arcade Room, Crazy Party, retro games and the achievement systems from L-Works games.

It has somehow grown into 124 games across 9 themed worlds, with more than 300 achievements. There are familiar things like Snake, Pong, Tennis, Breakout, Space Invaders, Duck Hunt, Simon and Air Hockey, alongside quite a few original games.

What interests me more is everything built around the games. You begin with only 21 cabinets; the other 103 are unlocked through coins and levels. There is a level system, Party Mode, Hardcore versions of the games, daily challenges, a Rewards Room where beating high scores can earn gems, unlockable sound/music packs, a jukebox driven by a randomized chiptune generator, and even an optional spectator mode where bots can demonstrate some of the games.

Riad is deliberately trying to avoid turning progression into grinding. There is currently no level cap, although Hardcore Mode is the highest major purchase at level 20, and he says the unlock economy is being balanced so that progressing should still feel fair.

The technical side is interesting too. It speaks through screen readers and SAPI using Tolk, currently supports English and Arabic through editable language files, and has tooling for translators which can generate a file containing strings still missing from a translation. He has also been using Claude quite extensively during development, including for porting ideas, debugging, automated tests and creating Hardcore variants.

Rather than reuse copyrighted game sounds, the project generates its own synth/chiptune sounds and music. Riad says the original inspiration was simply wanting a Windows version of Oriol's Arcade Room, and then the thing kept growing as he added ideas from games he had enjoyed over the years.

There are also ideas for online high scores and online parties later, but I rather like that he has decided to stop expanding v1 indefinitely and release a polished first version instead. According to the latest posts, v1.0 itself is now complete apart from final language work/testing.

Worth reading the whole discussion, because Riad reveals considerably more about the design as people ask questions:

forum.audiogames.net/topic/602…
#audiogames #blind #retrogames #blindgaming

#blind #audiogames #retrogames #blindgaming

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Cary ✨

the main thing that pulls me away from this thing is all the 8bit retro crap. Just my opinion, take it or leave it as you like, but this isn't 1980, we shouldn't be hearing Atari 2600ish sounds in our games. It makes me so sad that this is starting to be the nature of audiogames now, like let's just let AI generate all the sounds, too, only AI sucks at sound generation, unless you use something like elevenlabs, but even that, you have to pay for to get good premium sound effects. *shrug* to be fair, I haven't given this thing a real fair chance, because of all the retroish sounds, so maybe it gets better the more you play? I don't know, but if it continues to hold to the retroish style of sound effects, it's a hard pass for me. :(