If you’re an individual who is blind or has low vision facing #accessibility challenges in your daily life—whether at work, online, or in everyday experiences—the ACB Accessibility and Training Services program is here to help! We can work with you to understand your accessibility challenges and the best approach to resolving them. Email us at accessibility@acb.org or visit acb.org/accessibility to get in touch.
this video was going to be made public at some point ... but as this seems to have stalled (and there's really no financial incentive anymore that the conf can gain from keeping this 16 month old video under lock and key) ... here's the recording of my (then) updated talk "These (still) aren't the SCs you're looking for..." from 19 October 2023 / #a11yTO / Toronto youtube.com/watch?v=ADIgU53Y2R… #a11y #wcag #barrierefreiheit #accessibility
WCAG is supposed to give us a reasonably objective way of saying whether or not the sites we are building/auditing are "accessible" (to a particular baseline...
Auto-generated sign language has been very difficult to create. I'm hopeful that advancements in AI will lead to auto-generated sign language becoming ubiquitous in the next 15 years. However, it is important to remember that auto-generated sign language like captions will probably never be 100% accurate. There should be a way to edit auto-generated sign language in the future. Also, interpreters and CART services are needed for live events. #accessibilityblogs.nvidia.com/blog/ai-sign-…
today is officially *THREE* weeks until the submission deadline for Good Internet magazine!
Good Internet launches in May 2025. it's a volunteer-run, not-for-profit print and digital quarterly magazine for personal website owners and those interested in using the internet as a means of self-expression, art, and recreation.
🔍 we're looking for 1,500-4,000 word articles about anything related to that!
if it relates to hobbies on "this side of the web," whether you call it the #smallweb or indieweb, we probably want to run it!
you can have your article as low-media (meaning only text and images) or interactive, where you code an entire webpage to help tell your story.
if you're interested in learning more, you can sign up for our email list for when we launch or you can check the submission guidelines @ goodinternetmagazine.com!
So, a quick question for others in the blind community: Do you use ReddIt at all? I'm wondering if it's worth my time to create an account over there or not. Feel free to vote on this quick & dirty poll if you wish, and add any additional thoughts if desired. #A11Y #Accessibility #Blind #Poll #ReddIt
As the Trump Whitehouse is having the DOJ drop civil rights cases against those who discriminate against the trans community, how long before DOJ stops enforcing other civil rights laws like the ADA or the Rehabilitation Act. If anyone doesn't have civil rights then none of us do. #CivilRights #Accessibilitynpr.org/2025/02/15/nx-s1-52986…
If anyone uses Android with TalkBack and the onscreen Braille keyboard, please try to reproduce and report this issue:
In Talkback, if onscreen keyboard echo is set to words, and a word with punctuation after it is typed, TalkBack does not read the word when Space is typed. Similarly, if an emoticon is typed, like ":)" nothing is spoken when Space is typed.
Steps to reproduce:
• Turn on TalkBack, and open TalkBack settings by tapping once with three fingers. Set up the TalkBack Braille keyboard under the Braille section. • Go to Verbosity settings, then the keyboard echo option for onscreen keyboards, and set it to "words." Now, open a text box, turn on the TalkBack Braille Keyboard, and type something like "this is a test." Note the period after test. Then, swipe right with one finger to enter a space.
Expected results:
TalkBack should read "this" "is" "a" "test period."
Actual results:
TalkBack reads "this" "is" "a" and is silent after test is written.
I also put it up on Google's issue tracker if anyone wants to start it.
If you wish to view this resource as a PDF, click here. Since taking office, President Trump has taken several actions attacking diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (often called “DEIA” or “DEI”) in the federal government.
The very fact that a digital accessibility accommodation is a product is a sign that you might not be the customer and, even if you are, only for as long as there’s money to be made.
Learn how to use the macOS Terminal with VoiceOver in our free, interactive course! Starting 2 weeks from tomorrow!!! 🔹 Master terminal navigation 🔹 Use your Mac with just text 🔹 Improve command-line accessibility skills 💡 This course is FREE while it's running! After completion, it will become a paid course. 📅 Sign up now: techopolis.courses/courses/mac… Don't miss out on this opportunity! #FreeCourse #Accessibility #VoiceOver #MacOS #Terminal #BlindTech
Join this course to learn how to use the terminal in macOS with VoiceOver. During this course, you will learn how to navigate the terminal, and use the Mac with nothing but text. We are excited to have you in this free and interactive course.
Interesting breakdown of how Google has gone off the accessibility rails, among other rails, while also framing some common corp methods for reframing needs into revenue streams. buttondown.com/TYFYFL/archive/…
Thank You For Your Feedback Loop is a monthly newsletter that will share previously unpublished reporting and analysis on the elite capture of disability movements.
The first post, "The Rise and Fall of Access" is available now.
by: Liz Jackson & Rua M. Williams In the Year 2000, Google’s 23rd employee, Paul Buchheit was pulled into a “meeting to decide on the company’s corporate...
Thank You For Your Feedback Loop is a monthly newsletter that will share previously unpublished reporting and analysis on the elite capture of disability movements.
The first post, "The Rise and Fall of Access" is available now.
by: Liz Jackson & Rua M. Williams In the Year 2000, Google’s 23rd employee, Paul Buchheit was pulled into a “meeting to decide on the company’s corporate...
In-Process is out, featuring: - The NV Access 2025 Roadmap - Thanks to our sponsors - Corporate support with Benevity - our new VPAT & Multiple key press timeout.
The following happens all too often. I just tried using the cool new app from Mistral.ai called Le Chat. I was able to sign in, but this is where accessibility ended. Can't even start the basic chat. apps.apple.com/us/app/le-chat-… How can developers totally be ignorant about #accessibility these days? This state of affairs does get depressing at times. We put so much energy into building tools, education, awareness and what do we get back? Of course, I left a rereview. (1/2)
Le Chat combines powerful AI with extensive information on the web to help you rediscover the world. Enjoy natural conversations, real-time internet search, comprehensive document analysis, and much more.
Hosts Eamon McErlean and Joe Devon interview Ed Summers, Head of Accessibility at GitHub. They discuss how Ed began working in accessibility, some of the lat...
#NextCloud #accessibility is highly impacted by this thing that seems very small. What they did is they removed (!) the Copy Public Link from the context menu in their File Explorer integration. I don't know who to call, but I'm pretty sure we need to create more noise in there. I'm thinking about starting a petition. Please join me! github.com/nextcloud/desktop/i… // CC @nextcloud
Hi, The public share link has been removed with the 3.15 client version. Could it be possible to bring back this feature ? Below, a screen from a right click on a folder/file with the 3.14.3 client...
🤔Is Google Lighthouse an industry accepted standard for assessing #accessibility? ❌No it's a tool that automates testing of a subset of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 Standard
Experimented yesterday with Fedora’s KDE spin… I was shocked by the level of accessibility, although it wasn’t perfect. My primary issues with it were that I had to use a lot of Orca’s navigation commands to read panels in the systems settings app, and I had major issues with Konsole, the default terminal app. I wasn’t able to read any of the information in that particular apps interface using Orca. I also tried the Fedora workstation edition, which uses Gnome as it’s a desktop environment. Let’s just say that was not worth my time. Had accessibility issues there as well, and surprisingly it was worse than the experience I had with KDE. I know KDE defaults to Wayland, as does Gnome, but KDE’s accessibility implementation seems to be a lot better than what Gnome has under Wayland, with the exceptions I’ve previously mentioned. Incidentally, the X 11 experience with Gnome is actually worse now than it was previously. For example, the terminal app does not even open for me. I should also note that all this is under Fedora 41, so people aren’t confused. #A11Y #Accessibility #Blind #Experiments #Linux #Fedora41 #KDePlasma #Gnome #Wayland #X11
Be wary when adding additional context only for #screenReader users. An example:
Say you're working on an e-commerce site, and some products have two prices to show how great a sale discount is. The before and after is made visually apparent via some aspect of text formatting, and you want to make it explicit for screen reader users too.
The first step is to ask if this is necessary. If a user encounters two consecutive prices and one is lower than the other, they may intuitively understand what's going on without any explicit signposting, and can verify how much they're gonna pay during the checkout process. Only your users can provide this verdict.
If it's determined that some additional context is helpful, you could format it as something like: "Was $14.99, now $8.99" (optionally swapping the prices). It's short and punchy in braille and speech, perfectly descriptive of the situation at hand, and mirrors how it may be spoken out loud on an ad.
Resist the temptation to go further than this. You do not need to say "original price: $14.99, current sale price: $8.99". This is much longer and more verbose, while adding nothing. It also implies that you think screen reader users need to be told what a price is and explained the concept of a sale, even though you're not doing so for other audiences.
You also don't need to spell out the word "dollars", format the price in words, repeat the product name, and so on. If you find yourself with screen-reader-only text like: "The current price of 500 Grams of Premium Oolong Tea was fourteen dollars and ninety-nine cents, and is now on sale for eight dollars and ninety-nine cents", it has gone way too far.
In short: Set out to identify the problems that actually need solving, and only solve those problems.
You may have seen this as a thread on Mastodon (my primary social short-form platform) or on BlueSky. Imagine these as the opening to a series of conversations between a vendor or client or boss or PO or whomever and me.
Promised I'll be dropping in with examples of good #A11y in different countries and then I broke the promise. Coincidentally, I was asked to fill in a survey where one of the questions was about this very subject so I'll share one of the examples I gave there. In Austria, the qualified electronic signature is one of the state e-government services. A tool was built to allow screen reader users to insert their e-signature into any PDF document. The signature can be both visible and / or just a digital finger print, possible to verify through a qualifying verification tool. The visible signature can be inserted in one of three ways: 1. You place it right at the end of the document. If there's place enough, it should land in the line below the last one where there is content, otherwise, a new page is created. 2. The provider of the document can first place a QR code at a place in the document they choose, then the signee can replace this QR code with their own signature. 3. The provider of the document can determine coordinates in pixels where the signature should be placed and the signee enters them on their side to place the signature. pdf.egiz.gv.at/ #Accessibility #Austria #Blind
This session will share stories and strategies from 3 decades of accessibility convincing with public and private organizations. Have you ever tried to convince someone of the value and importance of …
The greatest Game Jam Ever (In my very biased opinion!) Has begun! It's a month long, so plenty of time to join and challenge yourself to make the best blind accessible game you can! #blind #GameJam #Gamedev #accessibility itch.io/jam/games-for-blind-ga…
The US Web Design System has deleted it's info on inclusive design, in response to the 2025-01-20 Executive order "Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing". github.com/uswds/uswds-site/pu…
If you know anyone who used those resources, let them know about the Inclusive Design principles: inclusivedesignprinciples.info…
Summary
Removed report link and introduction. Removed content related to the January 20, 2025 Executive Order, "Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing".
This...
“Federal Digital Accessibility Disappearance on Trump Day One; Guest article by civil rights and accessibility lawyer Eve Hill” lflegal.com/2025/01/week-one-d…
The first week of the new republican administration was frightening and disorienting for all of us who believe in civil and human rights, justice, equality, fairness and more.
“The Effect of Donald Trump’s DEI Executive Order on Accessibility; Guest article by civil rights and accessibility lawyer Eve Hill” lflegal.com/2025/01/week-one-e…
Below I share a blog post written by Eve Hill, one of the best disability rights lawyers and digital accessibility legal specialists in the United States. (More about Eve at the end of this article.
Welcome back to another episode of What's New in Google Accessibility, a series where we share the latest product and feature updates that help make Google m...
⏰ What time is it? For Braille users, checking the time can be a breeze with JAWS! 🧑🦯 In this episode, we break down how to use JAWS with Braille displays to keep track of time effortlessly. 🎧 Tune in now: unmute.show #JAWS #Braille #Accessibility
Welcome to Unmute Presents Where Technology Meets Community At Unmute Presents, we connect blind and sight-impaired individuals through engaging podcasts and live discussions.
I want you to know that your CAPTCHA is inaccessible for disabled people: - blind people can't see the clock; - visually impaired people may not be able to see it correctly too; - dyscalculic people (like me!!) have difficulties reading a clock (moreover when all numbers are not written on it)!
Various approaches have been employed over many years to distinguish human users of web sites from robots. The traditional CAPTCHA approach asking users to identify obscured text in an image remains common, but other approaches have emerged.
Even completely headless, command line #linux doesn't prioritize #accessibility in any way. Today I had to reinstall an entire #debian system from scratch because a drive listed in my /etc/fstab died. That makes #systemd boot into emergency mode, where you get no SSH, no network, no sound, and no screen reader. There is no quick way to force it to try and boot even though drive 7 of 11 has died, and it could absolutely bring up SSH and the network to let me fix it if it wanted to, just like sysvinit used to do. You can't even force systemd to add SSH and the network to emergency mode because of circular dependencies. nofail will only continue the boot if the drive doesn't exist, but if the filesystem has issues...emergency mode for you. In short: if your drive dies on Linux, fuck you. Be able to see, or reinstall your entire system, because nobody in Linuxland gives a shit about #a11y or your needs.
#TIL There is a solution called @yunohost. It's kind of an environment that allows you to install lots of apps. And my main insight was: there are LOTS of open-source web apps for everything. If I have enough time, I will definitely test many of them and document their #accessibility. I do remember struggling with some of them definitely, but some (like #NextCloud and #Miniflux) are decent. Here is their catalog: apps.yunohost.org/catalog
