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Items tagged with: a11y


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



@WestphalDenn I can't promise any guide style materials but please feel free to ask and I'm happy to answer and give recomendations if you like. Also orca list is a very friendly place where general linux #a11y topics are tolerated very often. freelists.org/list/orca



We're #hiring a remote, full-stack #Drupal developer! We build Drupal & WordPress websites for nonprofits, with a content strategy & #a11y focus. We have a 35-hour work week, 5 weeks+ paid time off annually to start, & an intentionally-small, sweet, collaborative team. We are woman- and queer*-owned and led.

Must be US-based b/c we're small don't @ me we are doing our best I assure you.

devcollaborative.com/full-stac…

*That's me, I'm the queer co-owner.


@WestphalDenn @Talon I don't think it's that catastrophic as this sounds any more. I can't say this is not happening but it's very rare. I am on @GNOME . If I get an unresponsive experience I can press alt+F2, type in orca --replace and the screen reader comes back. I can even bind this to a global keyboard shortcut.
When I am leaving my office I am often closing some 15 browser windows, some 10 terminal windows, about 5 different files open in the text editor.
Most used apps on my desktop include #Firefox #Thunderbird file manager (pcmanfm or nautilus), Gedit, VLC media player, electron based apps such as teamsforlinux, losslesscut and gnome-terminal.
Next I'm using @LibreOffice, I am also using #Emacs with #speechd-el a little and finally some other less frequently used apps.
As for the #TTS or the #audio setup I am using #RHVoice, speech-dispatcher and @PipeWire Project .
Finally with @Matt Campbell and @Lukáš Tyrychtr we do have tallented visually disabled developers dogfooding or partially dog fooding so let me finish this post by saying it really is gold era of a linux #a11y and we are looking forward for what it brings us in the future.


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


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


Sensitive content

#a11y


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


"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


This is an excellent guide to writing in plain English.

evolvingweb.com/blog/plain-lan…

"49% of adults in Canada have below high-school literacy levels, and 17% are unable to follow written instructions or read maps."

"Half adults in the U.S. struggle to read a book written for eighth-graders."

If your first instinct is 'why are people ‘dumb’?’ you are elitist and not inclusive. There are plenty of immigrants and others. As web professionals it should be your job to include *everyone*

#a11y

#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


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…





IAAP wants disabled people, including photographers, to do work for free. And not even just for the course, the license is CC-Zero which allows anyone to do anything with it.

IAAP charges for these courses. Do not submit your photos. Everyone, but especially people who are disadvantaged, have the right for fair and just compensation. Outrageous!

Link: linkedin.com/posts/internation…

#a11y via @kc



With the recent release of the second developer preview of #android Vanilla Ice Cream, I thought it'd be a good time to re-test and update my running list of #a11y known issues. Although some frustrating issues remain, things continue to improve! I'm especially pleased by the recently added Braille gestures, increasing uptake of accessibility actions, and eSpeak build system updates. gist.github.com/codeofdusk/b91…




NV Access is very pleased to share the release of the NVDA 2024.1 Release Candidate. Unless any major issues are identified, this will be identical to the final release. We encourage all users to test the Release Candidate. Many updates including on-demand speech mode, native selection in Firefox, bulk actions in the add-on store and much more! Read the full details and download at: nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-1r…

#NVDA #NVDAsr #Accessibility #A11y #ScreenReader #News #NewVersion #Release


#OrbitResearch launched two groundbreaking additions to its line of braille products: the #OrbitReader Q40 and Q20. These all-in-one braille devices with integrated full-sized QWERTY keyboards set a new standard in convenience and affordability. #A11y #CSUNATC24


I am excited to be presenting tomorrow (Mar 19) at 9am UTC at the Cabinet Office - Central Digital and Data Office Services Week 2024.

I will be presenting on What Green Digital Policy can learn from Digital Accessibility Policy?

We are in a climate crisis, and it is important that we are able to pivot to reduce our demand on the environment. Digital sustainability is a relatively new discipline, and teams are struggling to define best practices.

eventbrite.co.uk/e/what-green-…

#A11y #sustainability


Continuing this thread about Glidance/Glide.

Based on the demo on their site + FAQs + the recent interview, here are some questions that seem to have been answered.

1. The design takes into account rainy weather. It will work on rainy streets. No answer about snow yet.

2. The timeline is longer than I anticipated. Beta tests are happening this year and release will happen in 2025.

3. Preorders wil start this year to gage demand and satisfy funders.

#accessibility #blind #a11y



The more I learn about Glidance, a system that purports to replace the cane, the more it seems to have taken all the criticisms of "smart canes" into account. It might be the first genuine high-tech navigation aid that could be beneficial, replacing the cane in most circumstances. I'm usually highly skeptical about these things because people just havent thought through the implications including ergonomics, weather conditions, etc

glidance.io

#accessibility #blind #a11y #mobility


Reminder that support for the `headers` attribute in tables is pants:
issues.chromium.org/issues/406…
issues.chromium.org/issues/408…
github.com/FreedomScientific/s…
bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?i…

Even if `headers` worked, table navigation for spanned cells is still wonky.

So, you know, avoid spanning table cells and headers:
adrianroselli.com/2023/02/avoi…

#accessibility #a11y


Accessibility for Everyone: In two hours, come hear @laura talk about accessibility – register here now (it’s free/online):

lu.ma/BookGroup1

“Please join author Laura Kalbag, Guild host Lija Hogan, and other UX researchers for a fireside chat about the latest in accessibility and inclusive design topics … We’ll use her recent book, ‘Accessibility for Everyone’ from A Book Apart as a reference and starting point.”

#accessibility #a11y #event


@nah @fvsch @sonny @matt But here’s the thing: Wayland would never have been made the default if, say, fonts didn’t render correctly. Not having a functional screen reader is as big an issue for people who rely on screen readers. So at some point, someone at Canonical decided that it didn’t matter that people who use screen readers would be excluded. And so they should be ashamed.

#a11y #canonical #wayland #orca #screenReaders #accessibility


So @gnome is removing the x11 session, leaving just the Wayland one.

If this goes out before Orca, the GNOME screen reader, is fixed to work on Wayland, it will mean that people who rely on screen readers will have no way to use one on GNOME. And thus on the major Linux distributions.

So I’m hoping the plan is that this change will not land until GNOME has a working screen reader.

#accessibility #a11y #gnome #linux #openSource #foss #wayland #x11 #orca peoplemaking.games/@ailepet/11…


If you need a blind accessible smart scale in the EU, Lidl's Silver Crest SBF75 body analyser is a pretty good choice for 18 euros. The only inaccessible bit is when it asks for a 6 digit code during bluetooth pairing.

Everything else works beautifully, the Health for You app is completely accessible via VoiceOver (not sure about Android), including the measurements history, weight, water intakes, calories data, etc.

The scale also supports up to 8 people based on a reference measurement during your profile setup, which can be done on the phone through the app as well. All in all, this is a fantastic experience compared to a lot of other, way more expensive bluetooth smart scales. #a11y #blind