Or just use you AI locally 🦾 💻 🧠
I completely understand the concerns about relying too heavily on AI, especially cloud-based, centralized models like ChatGPT. The issues of privacy, energy consumption, and the potential for misuse are very real and valid. However, I believe there's a middle ground that allows us to benefit from the advantages of AI without compromising our values or autonomy.
Instead of rejecting AI outright, we can opt for open-source models that run on local hardware. I've been using local language models (LLMs) on my own hardware. This approach offers several benefits:
- Privacy - By running models locally, we can ensure that our data stays within our control and isn't sent to third-party servers.
- Transparency - Open-source models allow us to understand how the AI works, making it easier to identify and correct biases or errors.
- Customization - Local models can be tailored to our specific needs, whether it's for accessibility, learning, or creative projects.
- Energy Efficiency - Local processing can be more energy-efficient than relying on large, centralized data centers.
- Empowerment - Using AI as a tool to augment our own abilities, rather than replacing them, can help us learn and grow. It's about leveraging technology to enhance our human potential, not diminish it.
For example, I use local LLMs for tasks like proofreading, transcribing audio, and even generating image descriptions. Instead of ChatGPT and Grok, I utilize Jan.ai with Mistral, Llama, OpenCoder, Qwen3, R1, WhisperAI, and Piper. These tools help me be more productive and creative, but they don't replace my own thinking or decision-making.
It's also crucial to advocate for policies and practices that ensure AI is used ethically and responsibly. This includes pushing back against government overreach and corporate misuse, as well as supporting initiatives that promote open-source and accessible technologies.
In conclusion, while it's important to be critical of AI and its potential downsides, I believe that a balanced, thoughtful approach can allow us to harness its benefits without sacrificing our values. Let's choose to be informed, engaged, and proactive in shaping the future of AI.
CC: @Catvalente @audubonballroon
@calsnoboarder @craigduncan
#ArtificialIntelligence #OpenSource #LocalModels #PrivacyLLM #Customization #LocalAI #Empowerment #DigitalLiteracy #CriticalThinking #EthicalAI #ResponsibleAI #Accessibility #Inclusion #Education
Zed is a high-performance, multiplayer code editor from the creators of Atom and Tree-sitter.Zed
Field notes from the sidelines:
1) Disabled person with technical expert skills opens merge request with #accessibility fixes for #openSource project.
2) Nobody has the skills to review and approve.
3) Yada yada yada feature branch has conflicts with main branch.
4a) Rinse, repeat
4b) The end.
Don’t @ me.
It has been an incredible two years since NV Access founders Mick Curran & Jamie Teh featured on Australian Story: abc.net.au/news/2023-06-05/mic…
The impact NVDA has for blind people around the world has only grown & the need is as great now as ever!
You can watch the Audio Description enabled version of Australian Story: youtu.be/3i7gkN-1sAI
Regular version: youtu.be/jwHbXh3WzSw
#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Blind #Accessibility #FreeSoftware #FOSS #Impact #Australia #AustralianStory
ABC News provides the latest news and headlines in Australia and around the world.Kristine Taylor (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
#AudioMo day 5: A Quick Look At The Nintendo Switch 2 TTS Accessibility youtu.be/xt5sPvaoshc
I've just gotten a hold of this console so I know nothing much yet, but I will learn more over the coming days and weeks.
This is a quick demo with me only having had access to it for about 30 minutes if that.
#Nintendo #Switch2 #ScreenReader #TTS #Accessibility
Reupload with fixed audio.Nintendo surprised me by releasing a console with any kind of screen-reader functionality, and I always said that if they released ...YouTube
What is World Day for Assistive Technology? World Day for Assistive Technology aims to raise awareness of the importance of assistive technology\nAwareness Days
I hesitate to call this a review since I did not use this Motorola Razr as my primary phone for any substantial amount of time. However, I did acquire itJohn Dyer (Accessible Android)
👋 Hello, fediverse! We’re Control Alt Access — a for-profit accessibility consultancy run by blind professionals.
We offer assistive tech training and accessibility guidance without the paperwork, the waitlists, or the patronizing.
🔧 Real help.
📅 On your schedule.
🧠 Built on lived experience.
Because accessibility shouldn't be an afterthought.
Learn more: controlaltaccess.com
#Introduction #Accessibility #AssistiveTech #ByBlindPros #PeopleFirst
Amazon has brought Kindle for Android's accessibility to the level of its accessibility on iOS. One can read a book completely with TalkBack, with no need for having system TTS to read it. This means that you can also use a Braille display to read the book, with no need to flip the page using the touch screen. In fact, you don't even notice that pages are being flipped, it's that seamless. So, I now have a great reading app on Android, from the most unexpected place!
WordPress may be run by… that guy, but it still has a massive user base. They all need better accessibility documentation.
@rianrietveld wants to improve it, but needs sponsors:
rianrietveld.com/2025/05/19/wp…
Rian is good people and I’d love for her to be able to do this.
#a11y #accessibility #WordPress
The goal During my 25 years working as a web accessibility specialist I noticed the biggest hurdle to create an accessible web, is the lack of knowledge.Rian Rietveld
I’ve published Part 3 of “I Want to Love Linux. It Doesn’t Love Me Back.”
This one’s about the so-called universal interface: the console. The raw, non-GUI, text-mode TTY. The place where sighted Linux users fall back when the desktop breaks, and where blind users are supposed to do the same. Except — we can’t. Not reliably. Not safely. Not without building the entire stack ourselves.
This post covers Speakup, BRLTTY, Fenrir, and the audio subsystem hell that makes screen reading in the console a game of chance. It dives into why session-locked audio breaks espeakup, why BRLTTY fails silently and eats USB ports, why the console can be a full environment — and why it’s still unusable out of the box. And yes, it calls out the fact that if you’re deafblind, and BRLTTY doesn’t start, you’re just locked out of the machine entirely. No speech. No visuals. Just a dead black box.
There are workarounds. Scripts. Hacks. Weird client.conf magic that you run once as root, once as a user, and pray to PipeWire that it sticks. Some of this I learned from a reader of post 1. None of it is documented. None of it is standard. And none of it should be required.
This is a long one. Technical, and very real. Because the console should be the one place Linux accessibility never breaks. And it’s the one place that’s been left to rot.
Link to the post: fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-w…
#Linux #Accessibility #BlindTech #BRLTTY #Speakup #Fenrir #TTY #PipeWire #ScreenReader #DisabilityTech #ConsoleComputing #LinuxAccessibility #FOSS
Just published a blog post tearing into hCaptcha’s so-called “accessibility” mode.
It’s not accessibility. It’s a cookie. And to get that cookie, you now have to submit your email and send a code via SMS to an U.S. phone number. It fails silently. It doesn’t confirm anything. You click “Confirm Code” and get “An error has occurred.” No cookie. No fallback. No support. And if you somehow get it? It’s a third-party cookie your browser probably blocks, and it expires. Then you get to do it all again.
Meanwhile, hCaptcha’s text-based challenge — the only mode that might actually work with a screen reader — isn’t tied to the cookie at all. It only shows up if the website owner specifically enables it. Most don’t. So even if you’re blind, even if you’re using assistive tech, you get the same unusable image grid as everyone else.
This isn’t accessibility. It’s exclusion wrapped in PR.
The blog post breaks it all down: how the cookie flow works (or doesn’t), why the system is broken by design, how developers got misled, and what real alternatives look like. If you care about accessible design or just want to understand how bad this gets, read it.
Link: fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/hel…
#Accessibility #a11y #BlindTech #hCaptcha #HellCaptcha #UX #WebDev #ScreenReaders #Disability #TechRant #DevTools #Ableism #Privacy #FOSS #Inclusion
Should not be necessary given the ruling against Trump’s White House in 2020, but here we are anyway:
“National Association of the Deaf Sues White House for Access to Press Briefings”
nad.org/2025/05/28/national-as…
Do you have any references for choosing the distribution? My first point of search was distrowatch.com but did not see anything for accessibility there. But maybe I just did not try hard enough .. How did you come to choose Debian?
If it isn't there yet, it's possibly worth to collect information on a website, and having a check list for distributions - What is there? What is missing?
#Linux #FOSS #Accessibility #Blind #NeUserExperience #DigitalInclusion
News and feature lists of Linux and BSD distributions.distrowatch.com
📣 "Bridging Accessibility Barriers"
with Lukáš Tyrychtr ( @tyrylu ) at #GUADEC2025
📅 24 July 🕒 09:00 CEST 📍 Brescia
🧑🦯Making screen readers work on modern GNOME (Wayland + GTK 4) and pushing toward real accessibility.
🔗 events.gnome.org/event/259/con…
Welcome to GUADEC 2025 GUADEC is the GNOME community’s largest conference, bringing together hundreds of users, contributors, community members, and enthusiastic supporters for a week of talks and workshops.GNOME Events (Indico)
💻 I’ll be open to work with your team starting July and can help with making the team more effective, building more robust code or make it accessible to comply with the “new” EU law.
In the past year I helped a couple of companies transforming their teams and making their web apps accessible and they effect was huge!
Send me a PM if you’re interested or have questions.
Welcome to Android. It's about as diverse as saying "I run Linux"
I'm sure once you've hammered out a pathway to #accessibility on it, many folks would appreciate the roadmap since iOS tends to be prohibitively expensive for a large section of the population.
🌟 Excited to share Thorsten-Voice's YouTube channel! 🎥 🗣️🔊 ♿ 💬
Thorsten presents innovative TTS solutions and a variety of voice technologies, making it an excellent starting point for anyone interested in open-source text-to-speech. Whether you're a developer, accessibility advocate, or tech enthusiast, his channel offers valuable insights and resources. Don't miss out on this fantastic content! 🎬
follow hem here: @thorstenvoice
or on YouTube: youtube.com/@ThorstenMueller YouTube channel!
#Accessibility #FLOSS #TTS #ParlerTTS #OpenSource #VoiceTech #TextToSpeech #AI #CoquiAI #VoiceAssistant #Sprachassistent #MachineLearning #AccessibilityMatters #FLOSS #TTS #OpenSource #Inclusivity #FOSS #Coqui #AI #CoquiAI #VoiceAssistant #Sprachassistent #VoiceTechnology #KünstlicheStimme #MachineLearning #Python #Rhasspy #TextToSpeech #VoiceTech #STT #SpeechSynthesis #SpeechRecognition #Sprachsynthese #ArtificialVoice #VoiceCloning #Spracherkennung #CoquiTTS #voice #a11y #ScreenReader
Guude! (hi, nice to see you) 👋, i'm Thorsten 😊. You like open source, privacy aware and local running voice technology? Me too 😎. You'll find cooking recipe like tutorials on TTS, STT, Voice Assistants, AI, ML and way more cool stuff here.YouTube
