I can't tell y'all how much I love #Emacs. It was the first interface that really intrigued me. It was the first interface where I felt like there was so much I could learn about. And Emacspeak brought it to life for me. Headings spoken by a deeper voice. Italics spoken by a higher, rather fuzzy voice. Bold spoken by a deep voice, almost like headings. Because headings are bold, and large. A calendar where I could move around the actual calendar, not just a list of events. Want to know what date next Friday is? Find Friday of this week, and simply press Down arrow. Or C-n if you're really into Emacs. And there it is. Oh and Nov-mode (nov.el). I can't say enough about that package. An EPUB reader that doesn't choke on a huge book. And Markdown-mode and Org-mode, and even HTML-mode. With Emacspeak, I could hear the syntax highlighting. That way, I knew if I didn't close a bracket pair, or quotes, not only by the punctuation itself, but how the voice sounds.

And now Emacspeak hasn't been updated in a year. Luckily, I think T.V. Raman has made fixes up to Emacs 30. But beyond that, I don't know. I hope it's not abandoned forever. I maybe could use Emacs through Orca, or BRLTTY, or maybe Speechd-el, if I can figure out how it's supposed to be set up and used well. But it feels like such a pail imitation of Emacspeak. But then, unconfigured Emacs doesn't feel all that special either.

#Emacs #foss #Emacspeak #accessibility #blind #linux

I wasn't going to post anything about #linux #a11y today, but some things keep coming up, and I think it's time I took a break from yelling.

So an interlude, then. Lets look at some of the good that's happening.

As always, feedback is welcome, and subscribe via email or rss for more of what I write.

fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-w…

#linuxAccessibility #blogging #accessibility #linuxDesktop

Matthias posted an update on the current state of Accessibility in GTK and GNOME on the development blog: blog.gtk.org/2025/05/12/an-acc…

#gtk #gnome #accessibility #a11y

Well crap. Tried Slint, but it like, uses Alsa and doesn't have sound drivers for my main sound card, and using a USB sound card, well it broke after I saved Orca settings. Not even a restart fixed it. Meh. Ah well. Linux breaks.

#slint #blind #accessibility #Linux #foss

This is worth adding to your accessibility audit toolkit. I found its reports a lot more granular than the ones generated by other tools.

ibm.com/able/toolkit/

#a11y #accessibility

Huh, if you need good #accessibility (special needs, bad eyes, blindness) you will fail with #Linux.

Linux on Desktop is a hell, even for IT pros.

Woohoo! So far, we have 62 people pledging 269 hours towards improving accessibility in WordPress this Thursday for Global Accessibility Awareness Day! 🙌 Join us in spending a day working on accessibility issues in WordPress core, plugins, or on your own website!

equalizedigital.com/gaad2025/ #WordPress #GAAD #GAAD2025 #accessibility #a11y

Global Accessibility Awareness Day Pledge - May 15, 2025

In honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, pledge to improve accessibility in WordPress on May 15th. Find out how to get involved.

^{Equalize Digital}

PSA - Sonos is seeking free labor to improve the accessibility of the app for their commercial products,, both in the form of finding accessibility bugs in a production app, and unpaid UX research opportunities.

From an email they just sent to their beta community:

[...]We are putting together a pool of testers to provide ongoing feedback about the quality and comprehensiveness of accessibility features in the Sonos mobile app. Enrolled participants will be asked to use the app as they normally would, but provide us feedback about opportunities to improve our accessibility features via our beta community platform. At points in the future we may also send structured surveys to get more focused feedback on particular components of the app. These surveys will not
be required, but we will greatly benefit from as many testers taking them as possible. This program will rely on the generally available mobile app and does not require you to download beta software. If you're interested in participating please click the link below. Thanks!

#accessibility #sonos #a11y

I could use some #FediHelp .

As my long-running readers are probably aware, I schedule a _lot_ of posts in advance. I use @bufferapp for this, and I am largely satisfied with this, except for one thing:

They have a fixed character limit of 500 for posts, and thus I cannot make use of the full 10,000 characters of my instance.

This is bad, since most of my scheduled posts are German folk tales exceeding this character limit, and thus I am forced to use screenshots instead of plain texts - which is terrible from an #accessibility point of view (yes, there are readers that can identify the text, but I'd rather use plain text in the first place). So I am looking for alternatives. Here are my requirements:

- It must have a web interface I can use on my desktop PC - I grew up with proper screens and keyboards, and while I _can_ use a smart phone or tablet for complex stuff, I do not find the experience enjoyable.
- It must have a calendar view instead of being a simple, scrollable list - I often schedule posts weeks in advance, and I want to be able to keep track of what is scheduled.
- It must make full use of the character limits of each instance.
- It must allow for scheduling threads - quite a few of the tales I am posting exceed the 10,000 character limit.
- It must work with #Mastodon . While I am aware that other #Fediverse systems (such as #Friendica ) have scheduling options of their own, switching to an entirely different system is a drastic step that I only want to explore when all other options have been exhausted.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

#Poll on #accessibility

Which of the following is more useful / accessible for a downloadable report or long read document?

Feel free to give me reasons. I am especially interested if you have sight issues from the mild to more severe.

• PDF (50%, 2 votes)
• Epub (25%, 1 vote)
• ODT (25%, 1 vote)
• Word (0%, 0 votes)

#Development #Reviews
First impressions of Deque Axe Assistant · What to expect from the AI accessibility chatbot ilo.im/163tch

_____
#AxeAssistant #AI #Chatbot #Accessibility #WCAG #Design #WebDesign #WebDev #Frontend #HTML

I Want to Love Linux. It Doesn’t Love Me Back
fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-w…

by @fireborn

Read this article! I promise this is not another “I’ve tried Linux but it is too hard” post but a very insightful and well-written piece on accessibility across the Linux landscape.

#accessibility #linux #usability

I strongly suggest reading this well-written blog post about experiences of a blind longtime #Linux user:

fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-w…

Accessibility is not an optional "feature" in GUI. It is a must. We all should feel responsible to make the GUI accessible. Period!

#accessibility @A11yAwareness

NVDA 2025.1 Beta 5 is now available! Changes since beta 4 include:

- Updates to translations
- Fixes for reading math attributes in PDFs
- Minor improvements to the user experience of Remote Access

Read the full details and download at: nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2025-1b…

We are getting closer to NVDA 2025.1! Thank you to all those who have been trying out betas and giving us feedback, we greatly appreciate it!

#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Beta #PreRelease #Testing #Accessibility #NewVersion

fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-w…

»Linux “just works”—if you can see.

If you’re blind?
You boot into a live image and get nothing.
No speech. No braille. No login prompt feedback. Maybe Orca starts, maybe not.
Maybe you know the shortcut (Alt+Super+S?) but does that even work in this session type?
Is it Wayland? Is it X11? Is the screen reader bound to a key combo that doesn’t exist on your keyboard?

You open the installer?

“Next. Button. Button. Button. Button.” That’s all Orca says.

Ubuntu MATE 12.04 had a working, labeled, navigable installer.
Ubuntu MATE 24.04? It’s garbage.

No headings. No structure. No sense of where you are. Just unlabeled buttons and blank space.

This isn’t a bug.
This is neglect.«

Thanks for writing this article, @fireborn

#Accessibility #a11y

My @TetraLogical colleague @craigabbott has tested the Deque accessibility chatbot and provided his initial impressions

#a11y #AI #accessibility

craigabbott.co.uk/blog/deque-a…

Deque Axe Assistant - First impressions

Testing Deque's axe Assistant for accuracy and ability.

^{Craig Abbott (craigabbott.co.uk)}

This post on the #accessibility of #Linux is heartbreaking.

So sad seeing systems going from good (or even just okay) to absolutely non-functional because of neglect in the name of progress.

If you’re leaving people behind, it’s not progress. It’s exclusion.

fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-w…

“Linux ‘just works’ – if you can see.
…
This isn’t a bug.
This is neglect.”

– @fireborn

fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-w…

(And its ableist culture will sooner make you the villain for criticising it rather than acknowledging the failing and fixing the status quo. ar.al/2024/06/23/fedora-has-be… There’s a reason I’m back on Mac after six years on Linux. As a developer, it was impacting my ability to make what I’m building accessible. And I reject the unspoken premise that the source being open is somehow more important than the human right to universal access. Ethical technology requires more than just the “four freedoms” web.archive.org/web/2025041809… This is why inclusivity is a core Small Technology principle. small-tech.org/about/#small-te…)

#accessibility #inclusivity #universalAccess #a11y #linux #FOSS #openSource #freeSoftware #freedom

About

We’re a tiny and independent two-person not-for-profit based in Ireland. We’re working on building the Small Web.

^{Small Technology Foundation}

@matt

It doesn't even work with the Mastodon WWW user interface, ironically.

The glyphs aren't in the Roboto WWW font requested by #Mastodon so WWW browsers fall back to whatever font is set locally.

Not only does that in itself make posts look like bad movie ransom notes, but it gets worse: because some fonts intentionally try to make the mathematical symbols distinct from truly boldfaced/italic Latin-1 alphabetic characters.

#Unicode #accessibility

Just had a session with an app team who've developed with Flutter. On Windows they have a pretty basic landing screen: a language selector button, two columns of text, an input field and a submit button, and a link.

We spent 30 minutes just breaking down all the ways it is unusable with NVDA, and I do mean that in the truest sense of the word. Without object navigation, you can't reach most of the context and controls. Even when you manage to reach e.g. the submit button, pressing Space or Enter on it does nothing.

I feel bad for the team, but Google should feel worse. #accessibility

So, I'm about to try Slint! Thanks to @JessDail for reminding me about it. Except this time I'm going to try it in a VM because I do not want a repeat of the Fedora incident from a week ago. Ugh.

slint.fr/en/home.html

#accessibility #slackware #slint #linux #foss #blind

Join Matt Ater and Jennison Asuncion as they recognize Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) and celebrate the 30th Anniversary of JAWS on May 14 at 4 PM ET.

Register today: tpgi.com/webinar-marking-a-mil…

#Accessibility #DigitalAccessibility #A11y #GlobalAccessibilityAwarenessDay #GAAD #JAWS #Webinar

Webinar, May 14 at 4pm ET: Marking a Milestone: Celebrating 30 Years of JAWS on Global Accessibility Awareness Day - TPGi

Join us for a webinar where Matt Ater and Jennison Asuncion will celebrate the JAWS 30th Anniversary and discuss the significance of GAAD.

^{Matt Ater (TPGi)}