Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (#GAAD). Today, I want you to ask yourself, then act, *before* you speak. Do you have an app you're maintaining? Look at some #accessibility resources for the framework you use for the user interface. Do you know if it's accessible or not? If it's not accessible, are you doing anything about it? Do you tell disabled visitors to your app/site that it's not accessible, and give them a timeframe, if any, when it will be? Do you have a website? If so, do you know if it's accessible or not? Are you an artist of any kind? Is your media accessible? Are you a writer? If so, are the images in your book described with #AltText?

If you're a part of a company that has anything to do with accessibility, including proudly posting about it, do you have any disabled employees? If so, do you show them that they're appreciated? If not, why don't you have any? If you create art about people with disabilities, do you have disabled people take a look at it before you share it? If you write books that have images in them, have any disabled people checked to make sure the Alt-text makes sense, and that the book is accessible otherwise? If not, why not? And when you get disabled people to check out apps, books, sites for your professional needs, do you pay them for it?

Please do remember us on every other day of the year, but particularly today, please remember: nothing about us without us.

#blind #disabled #disabilities #access

Freedom in technology must include freedom from technology.

We must not create societies where the price of admission is owning a device controlled by one of two trillion-dollar US corporations.

We must safeguard people’s access to public services and the everyday necessities of life via alternate methods.

Technology should always be a progressive enhancement.

Do not let Silicon Valley privatise your access to modern life.

https://mastodon.ar.al/@lrvick@mastodon.social/112079059430275102

#technology #society #access #humanRights

Lance R. Vick

2024-03-11 20:58:44

It's official. After 3 months of back and forth, a major medical provider has elected to drop me as a patient for not having a Google or Apple device.

It is unclear if this is legal, but it is very clearly discriminatory and unethical.

Any tech journalists or lawyers interested in this?

I would like to do anything I can to ensure this never happens to anyone else.

"Access to a free, fast & efficient screen reader has changed my life. Because of its qualities, my computer never crashes; updates are frequent & the software works well. It follows best the evolution of Windows and all software. Updating is fast & easy, it is available in all languages. The provision of add-ons makes it really efficient” – Silvie, France

You can help continue to provide NVDA free to all! https://www.nvaccess.org/support-us/#donation-support
#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Access #Accessibility #A11y

It’s been 5 months since Australian Story aired an episode on NV Access founders, Mick Curran & Jamie Teh. The first Australian Story episode to be audio described. It was an incredible opportunity to share with a wider audience the importance of NVDA & our overarching message, that everyone deserves equal access to technology.

You can still watch the Australian Story episode, with Audio Description, on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i7gkN-1sAI&t=1s
#ScreenReader #NVDA #NVDAsr #Accessibility #A11y #Access