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On Tech Talk this week, I had a great conversation with Troy Otilio from @AiraVI about their new Access AI feature, which has recently been released as a beta in the Aira Explorer app. We spoke about where this feature came from, the impact the use of AI has on privacy, and so much more about AI and Aira in general. Have a listen here or wherever you get your podcasts

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/…

@rnib #aira #AccessAI #AI #chatGPT #gemini #blind #accessibility #podcast


@WestphalDenn I would say both have pros and cons. For example mate has traditional desktop and standard application menus with submenus and similar. Many #screenReader users prefer that classic style. However @GNOME is also technically fully accessible. In version 45 and 46 a lot of polishing has been made. The top bar is fully operational with the keyboard all the popup menus, dropdown buttons, toggles, sliders on the top pannel are now accessible. Gnome control center has now almost all its controls clearly labelled. The only place in the gnome control center where I expect some improvements in the future is redefining keyboard shortcuts. On my machine I have noticed memory usage has decreased after upgrading to gnome 46 so in this regard #mate desktop and @GNOME desktop are on par as well.
Also gnome is very likelly to pioneer #accessibility innovations in upcoming releases so for me the answer is clear. I'm on @GNOME since v3.4 and v3.6 days and I am not going to change that.


Here is a quick FAQ about the new upcoming Glidance (or GLide is it?) device: glidance.io/ #accessibility #travel


Is anyone free to help the developer of sway notification center out? I have opened an issue about sway notification center's accessibility regressions in the notification list, and I have also suggested that when the notification appears, the accessible event is fired. The dev doesn't know how to do this however, so any input or PR's that mention this issue would be greatly appreciated! github.com/ErikReider/SwayNoti…
If we get this sorted, we will have a fully accessible notification daemon for all wlroots based compositors, which will soon include XFCE. This could be the Wayland equivalent of notification-daemon for X11, but even better if the GTK notification centre list can be fixed up too. #Linux #accessibility #a11y


Starting with version 3.1.12, #pandoc-generated #EPUBs conform to the EU Accessibility Act. w3.org/TR/epub-a11y-eaa-mappin…

Relevant metadata fields are listed in the "EPUB metadata" section of the manual: pandoc.org/MANUAL#epub-metadat….

#accessibility #A11y


A little accessible and inclusive content creation hot tip:

Instead of just linking directly to xkcd, consider linking to the relevant entry on explainxkcd.com instead (or as well as linking to xkcd).

There, each xkcd comic has a full, descriptive transcript, and the hover text is printed as plain text, making the comic much more accessible for your blind (or otherwise screenreader-using) followers and for mobile users alike.

Plus, the joke explanations are helpful!

#accessibility


Remember these guys? They were the ones who, when approached, said #accessibility wasn’t a high priority on their road map. So, bye bye. Post News, the a16z-funded Twitter alternative, is shutting down

techcrunch.com/2024/04/19/post…


⭐️ Accessibility Foundations
tetralogical.com/blog/2024/03/…
by Henny Swan via @TetraLogical
#webdev #webdesign #a11y #accessibility


Orca the Linux screen reader now has a website!

orca.gnome.org/

Thanks to @snwh

And thank you Joannie, @igalia and the community for all the ongoing work and support.

#Linux #GNOME #freedesktop #a11y #accessibility


Here's a neat exploration of the curb cut effect for accessibility in @gnome - using accessibility tools to aid in testing automation! Has pros and cons identified in the article, but interesting nonetheless.

➡️ fedoramagazine.org/automation-…

#Fedora #Gnome #accessibility #a11y #Linux #OpenSource


👉🏼 Building a culture of accessibility

“Accessibility isn't solely important in the final product; it's crucial at every step of the process. Adopting accessible practices from the outset unlocks your team's full potential.”

tetralogical.com/blog/2024/04/…

#accessibility #culture


‘When security and accessibility clash: why are banking applications so inaccessible?’
nicchan.me/blog/when-security-…

I once did a presentation for a bank client explaining all the ways preventing paste disables users.

The response: “But we have to, for security.” No ability to justify beyond that, no consideration of user impact, no offer of supporting data.

Security theater is often used to abrogate #accessibility requirements. #a11y


Or maybe Matt Mullenweg, head of the multi-billion dollar WordPress corporate entity, could honor his prior commitments to #accessibility and sponsor this.

It should be embarrassing to him and his company that he doesn’t. That this event has to even *ask* for free labor.

@yatil


YOWZA
Form Extractor Prototype

“This tool extracts the structure from an image of a form.”

github.com/timpaul/form-extrac…

#ai #LLM #UX #accessibility


Microsoft announced their latest round of FOSS fund recipients. We're thrilled to share that @NVAccess are among this quarter's recipients. From: github.com/microsoft/foss-fund

"A project of the Microsoft Open Source Programs Office, the FOSS Fund provides up to $10,000 USD in sponsorships to open source projects as selected by Microsoft employees."

Congratulations also to The GNU Compiler Collection, Urllib3, CLAP & MSW.

#OpenSource, #FOSS #Free #Software #NVDA #ScreenReader #Accessibility #A11y


“Socks, lies, and accessibility”
janmaarten.com/gaad-2023/

Where @janmaarten shows that just a couple days after #accessiBe’s CEO promised to stop being such a lying liarface it went and used sock puppet Twitter accounts to promote its #overlay.

As I keep saying, past behavior is a predictor of future behavior (side-eyes #AudioEye, #UserWay, #FACILiti).

#a11y #accessibility


Everette Bacon, Aira’s Vice President of Blindness Initiatives, was featured on the most recent episode of Talking Technology sharing Aira’s history, functionality, and future developments including the new Access AI feature and recent Eclipse event coverage.

#AccessForAll #OnYourTerms #AssistiveTechnology #Accessibility

youtube.com/watch?v=UAQ8YJA1Zb…


...and here we go: #id24 will return this year on 12 September 2024.

The call for presentations is now open inclusivedesign24.org/2024/

#a11y #accessibility #inclusiveDesign


GAAD Raleigh 2024 — morning of May 16 at Union Station eventbrite.com/e/gaad-raleigh-… #GAAD #a11y #accessibility #events #raleighNC


Department of Justice just formally set WCAG Version 2.1, Level AA as the technical standard for government sites. ada.gov/notices/2024/03/08/web…

#accessibility #a11y


Our new Chief Technology Officer, Gerald Hartig, is being interviewed on Vision Australia Radio tonight at 8:10pm AEST (About 1hr 15mins after I post this). You can tune in online at: player.listenlive.co/65731/

#NVDA #ScreenReader #Accessibility #Interview #News #A11y


Director @tink is quoted in the Financial Times this week discussing the increasing presence of AI in the world of digital accessibility.

ft.com/content/3c877c55-b698-4…

#FinancialTimes #AI #Accessibility


Lots of things happening in the AI/LLM space that could have implications for #accessibility

Ferret-UI from Apple:
arxiv.org/abs/2404.05719

ScreenAI from Google
research.google/blog/screenai-…

#a11y #ai #LLM


Speaking of #overlays, there is yet another one: #WebAbility

I have already made a PR to add it to the Overlay Fact Sheet:
github.com/karlgroves/overlayf…

As with other overlays, it makes WCAG/ADA promises, fails to fix stuff, replicates platform features (poorly) in CSS, and introduces WCAG violations just by adding it to a site.

Cool business model.

#accessibility #a11y


Must be the wrong article 🤔

Have you tested the #Fedora distribution with the #GNOME desktop environment? They work hard to make it fully accessible.

I admit that the default synthesized voices are particularly awful, but they can easily be changed with Pied.

pied.mikeasoft.com

#accessibility #a11y


Jupyter notebooks in 2024 is still not accessible.

In his #PyCascades talk, Venkatesh Potluri (who is blind) noted that popular Python libraries like matplotlib etc still can't embed alt text.

He made a patch for it, but the notebooks still don't pick up alt text.

#accessibility #Python #jupyter


New game added to the Accessible Android apps directory: Lost Vault accessible accessibleandroid.com/app/lost… #Android #Accessibility #Game


Platforms like Squarespace and Wix must provide users with the features and guidance necessary to make an accessible website. This article explores how to create an accessible website using Squarespace and the accessibility features that could help make this process easier. #accessibility theamycarney.com/2024/04/02/ob…


"Blind internet users struggle with error-prone AI aids", reports an article in the Financial Times:
ft.com/content/3c877c55-b698-4…

#FT has a paywall but three articles can be accessed for free if you register.

TLDR is that AI #accessibility widgets over promise and under deliver. Repeatedly.

#AI #GenerativeAI #a11y


#AudioEye has a blog post where its CAO talks about “trust, transparency, collaboration, and innovation.”

Which is code for rebranding its #overlay product without issuing refunds for its prior guarantees.

Anyway, I offer my thoughts in a bit more detail as a comment on the post that got me sued:
adrianroselli.com/2023/02/audi…

#accessibility #a11y


Can anyone recommend a good #accessible #RSS feed reader for #iPhone that does well with both text and audio #RSSFeeds? I recently subscribed to The Old Reader (theoldreader.com) and like how it lets you add text RSS feeds, #podcasts, and #YouTube channels, and I'm looking for a good app for it on my phone. I've tried #lire, but it doesn't seem to work well with podcasts.
#TheOldReader #iOS #accessibility #technology #tech @mastoblind


This piece is worth reading if you’re in tech criticism or infosec/cybersecurity and are being asked for commentary on IoT and smart home devices.

People aren’t foolish for using IoT or for wanting things to be easier in their homes. This tech makes positive and meaningful change for people of all kinds of abilities. It’s valid to worry about the privacy or security issues that IoT is riddled with, but don’t draw a direct line from there to blaming the user - some people have no alternatives that don’t involve giving up independent access to their own homes and lives. Everyone deserves to live in ways that fit their needs.

Instead, join the push to hold manufacturers and providers to account for poor security and privacy practices. Advocate for better, more respectful and accessible default configurations. Help people understand how to anticipate and mitigate the worst of these issues when they’re setting things up, and give them power and agency over their home systems.

We all deserve to have tech that works for us, in all the ways that matters.

#accessibility
#a11y #infosec
#cybersecurity
#iot #smarthome

theverge.com/24080201/smart-ho…


I was going to boost this as a good example of a well-written image description, but does this work?

(Don't have access to a screen reader right now.)

mas.to/@swisslet/1121784244902…

#accessibility #a11y #ImageDescription


TalkBack 14.2 has been Released: Here’s What you should Know accessibleandroid.com/talkback… #Android #Accessibility #TalkBack