one of my real pain points with the iPhone is composing emails using the built-in mail app with #voiceover. It’s got slightly better with iOS 18, but the Misspelt Words option in the rotor still does not work. This might not be an issue for some, but for me I cannot send emails on the phone with confidence that it is written accurately and looks professional. I know there's the option of writing it in the Notes app, reviewing it and then pasting it into Mail, but come on! That's such a clunky workaround.

Is Mail any better on the iPad at all? I would quite like something that is an in between device to a laptop and a phone that I could use to quickly write emails, make additions to documents, write quick notes etc, and in that sense the iPad could be a nice fit, but if iPadOS has the same issues as the iOS versions then meh, it might not add much for me. Any thoughts?

#Blind #BlindMastodon #accessibility #a11y #Apple #iPad #iPhone #Productivity

Nutzung einer externen Tastatur mit VoiceOver am iPhone: Ein Paar Gedanken
#VoiceOver #blind #iPhone #Accessibility

Die Kombination einer Bluetooth-Tastatur mit dem iPhone und der VoiceOver-Funktion kann ein echter Gamechanger sein. Ich nutze meine nun schon seit einigen Jahren und habe eine echte Workflow-Optimierung festgestellt. Es ist eine tolle Alternative zur Braille-Bildschirmeingabe oder zum herkömmlichen Touch Typing und bringt viele Vorteile mit sich. (1/7)

By popular request, #Voiceover no longer reads phone numbers of #WhatsApp group participants who aren’t in your contacts, and just reads the push name. You can still read the phone number on their contact info page, or by swiping up to the “message <phone number>” option in the actions rotor. This should make catching up with your groups much faster and more efficient! Thanks so much for your feedback, please keep sending it.

#accessibility #screenreader

Here's a video I want to age like curdled milk. Age so quickly it's out-of-date a week after it's made. The issues I've outlined here should be fairly simple fixes if they follow Apple's accessibility guidelines, so here's hoping someone at Floatplane Media can get some eyes on this.
I've tried to be as fair as possible, not just to make a 'bitch and ditch' style video, and to showcase the issues I have.
Please boost if you have an interest, or know that it can potentially reach someone who can make a difference.
Not my cup of tea to ask for those under normal circumstances, so I will not be making a habit of it.
Thanks.

#Accessibility Issues With #Floatplane (from a #VoiceOver Perspective) youtu.be/2sZTsrek08M

Accessibility Issues With Floatplane (from a VoiceOver Perspective)

I've never made a video I wanted to age as badly as this one, but needs must.There are some glaringly obvious issues with LTT's Floatplane app for iOS if you...

^YouTube

Reminder that you can use AccessibilityAttributes on your AttributedStrings to have more fine-grained control over how assistive technologies interact with your Text, such as modulating the pitch or pronunciation #VoiceOver uses! #accessibility #iOS

developer.apple.com/documentat…

AttributeScopes.AccessibilityAttributes | Apple Developer Documentation

There's never been a better time to develop for Apple platforms.

^{Apple Developer Documentation}

A massive thanks to @davetaylor2112 for alerting me to the UK train ifo app for iOS, 'Nearly Departed.'
Why I didn't know about this or use it sooner is beyond me. It was invaluable yesterday. They also explicitly mention #VoiceOver on the main page, so props to them for that.

'Accessible
The app has been extensively tested with iOS accessibility features, such as VoiceOver and Dynamic Type.'

If you take a lot of national rail trains in the UK and use iOS, you need this app too.

nearlydeparted.app/

New thing in iOS 18 VoiceOver for apps and pages that abuse announcements and live regions.

Live Region & Announcement Rotor Item, A rotor item is available to control whether apps and webpages can make announcements and live region updates.

#iOS #Apple #iOS18 #iOSBeta #VoiceOver #blind #accessibility

Okay y'all, iOS 18 has something that I think is super useful! So, you know how when using Hints, you hear Double Tap to open? All that? Well if you have Hints turned on in VoiceOver when using Braille Screen Input's command mode, you get "Tap dots 3-6 to open". Huge thanks to the Apple accessibility team! This is going to help new users a lot, with contextual hints based on input method!

#apple #VoiceOver #accessibility #iOS #iOS18 #blind

Calling All Blind and Low Vision Users!

Exciting news! I’ve reached out to Apple Accessibility, and they’re on board to collaborate with us. They’ve asked me to put together a team so we can work directly with their team and engineers.

Are you passionate about improving accessibility features for blind and low vision users? Do you use VoiceOver, Zoom, or other low vision features on your devices? We need your help!

We’re looking for individuals who are interested in providing feedback and testing new features from our point of view. Your input will be invaluable in making technology more accessible for everyone.

If you’re interested in participating, please fill out the form below:

forms.microsoft.com/r/eRQAsmMb…

Let’s make a difference together!
Feel free to share this post.

Best,
Matthew Whitaker

#Accessibility #BlindUsers #LowVision #VoiceOver #Zoom #AppleAccessibility #TechForAll #Inclusion #AccessibilityMatters #blind #lowvision

I've just pushed a bunch of #accessibility changes for screen readers to the main branch of FediThready. ( It makes long texts into post sized chunks)

I've run through it with #VoiceOver and it _seems_ ok. HOWEVER it all feels like it's "usable" instead of "good".

If there's a #a11y geek out there who uses screen readers regularly I would REALLY appreciate some suggestions on how to make this actually feel good for folks who rely on screen readers.

github.com/masukomi/fedithread…

GitHub - masukomi/fedithready: A tool for splitting up long posts in to fediverse sized chunks. It's a web page that lives on your computer.

A tool for splitting up long posts in to fediverse sized chunks. It's a web page that lives on your computer. - masukomi/fedithready

^GitHub

@nick #Sonos has replaced its app not because they truly think the app is better. But because they can replace specialised Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS teams with one generic team who know how to use cross-platform tools.

It goes beyond that, though. Look at the ideas behind the new home screen, which essentially can be described as: "put what you want on it". Is that primarily a user-facing improvement? No.

Rather, it's a reason to not rely on designers who can carefully think through information architecture, viewport sizes, user flows, and the best ways to present information. Make it the user's problem so that they can fire the people whose responsibility it used to be, or move them to another team where they won't be able to do their best work and will eventually quit and not be replaced.

This update goes way beyond #accessibility. It's a fundamental shift in how they do business, and it will be shit for everyone. That, more than the lack of #VoiceOver support, is what will probably cause me to move away from their ecosystem.

@x0 @simon @talon

I wrote an article about how to make hastags accessible. Did some #ScreenReader testing with #JAWS, #NVDA, #VoiceOver and #Narrator, which was fun!

Pretty long one though, contains a bunch of tables for comparison. Enjoy the ride!

stevefrenzel.dev/posts/easy-we…

#accessibility #a11y #html #JavaScript #WebDev #frontend

Easy web accessibility wins: Hashtags

Is there a way to create hashtags that work for everyone? I did some screen reader testing and was surprised by the outcome!

^{Steve Frenzel}

@matt I use the Spitfire Audio downloader (for my sins) on Mac and it's 99.5% accessible with VOCR, and 1% accessible with #VoiceOver. the only reason it gets the 1% is because just like when you write your name, date and title at the top of the paper you likely get marked for good spelling, we can see the close button, but nothing else. Haha.
In this instance, you'd best know how to use VOCR before you get into their libraries, without it, you're simply out of luck.
Situations like that, sure. But that's different from an email from a supposed reputable company with important information that absolutely, without question, *needs* to be in a format that is accessible to *all* customers, irrespective of ability or disability.

You don't *need* spitfire, but if a company have suffered some kind of hack, you *do* need to know about it, you know?

Greetings!

Well, after finding out that #WhaleBird
github.com/h3poteto/whalebird-…is a decent enough accessible MacOS client for use with #Misskey, you'll see me post on here from time to time now as well! Most of the time I'll still be posting on my Mastodon account, though watch this space! Three-Thousand characters is more than i ever would need myself, but I'll take it!

For users of #VoiceOver, the 'J' & 'k' keys currently do not speak under the curssor what the post is, thus nornal VO commands for now are necessary. Definitely a client for #Blind users to check out though!

NB. As noted among the GitHub page, WhaleBird is also available for #Windows and #Linux, though I'll leave those builds to you guys!

GitHub - h3poteto/whalebird-desktop: An Electron based Mastodon, Pleroma, and Misskey client for Windows, Mac, and Linux

An Electron based Mastodon, Pleroma, and Misskey client for Windows, Mac, and Linux - GitHub - h3poteto/whalebird-desktop: An Electron based Mastodon, Pleroma, and Misskey client for Windows, Mac, ...

^GitHub