Google publishes the source code for their TalkBack screen reader. GrapheneOS maintains a fork of it and includes it in GrapheneOS with the help of a blind GrapheneOS user who works on their own more elaborate fork. Eventually, we'd like to include more or all of their changes.

TalkBack depends on a text-to-speech (TTS) implementation installed/configured/activated. It needs to have Direct Boot support to function before the first unlock of a profile. Google's TTS implementation supports this and can be used on GrapheneOS, but it's not open source.

We requested Direct Boot support from both prominent open source implementations:

RHVoice: github.com/RHVoice/RHVoice/iss…
eSpeak NG: github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng…

eSpeak NG recently added it but it's not yet included in a stable release and their licensing (GPLv3) is too restrictive for us.

RHVoice itself has acceptable licensing for inclusion in GrapheneOS (LGPL v2.1), but has dependencies with restrictive licensing. Both these software projects also have non-free licensing issues for the voices. Neither provides close to a working out-of-the-box experience either.

Google's Speech Services app providing text-to-speech and speech-to-text works perfectly. Their proprietary accessibility services app with extended TalkBack and other services also works fine. However, many of our users don't want to use them and we need something we can bundle.

There aren't currently any usable open source speech-to-text apps. There are experimental open source speech-to-text implementations but they lack Android integration.

We also really need to make a brand new setup wizard with both accessibility and enterprise deployment support.

GrapheneOS still has too little funding and too few developers to take on these projects. These would be standalone projects able to be developed largely independently. There are similar standalone projects which we need to have developed in order to replace some existing apps.

AOSP provides a set of barebones sample apps with outdated user interfaces / features. These are intended to be replaced by OEMs, but we lack the resources of a typical OEM. We replaced AOSP Camera with our own app, but we still need to do the same with Gallery and other apps.

Google has started the process of updating the open source TalkBack, which only happens rarely. We've identified a major issue: a major component has no source code published.

github.com/google/talkback/pul…

Google has been very hostile towards feedback / contributions for TalkBack...

This is one example of something seemingly on the right track significantly regressing. Another example is the takeover of the Seedvault project initially developed for GrapheneOS. It has deviated substantially from the original plans and lacks usability, robustness and security.

In the case of Seedvault, GrapheneOS designed the concept for it and one of our community members created it. It was taken over by a group highly hostile towards us and run into the ground. It doesn't have the intended design/features and lacks usability, security and robustness.

All of these are important standalone app projects for making GrapheneOS highly usable and accessible. What we need is not being developed by others and therefore we need to the resources including funding and developers to make our own implementations meeting our requirements.

#grapheneos #privacy #security #android #mobile #accessibility #texttospeech #speechtotext #talkback #blind #backup

add Direct Boot support for Android so RHVoice can be used with TalkBack before the initial unlock · Issue #271 · RHVoice/RHVoice

More information: https://developer.android.com/training/articles/direct-boot https://github.com/GrapheneOS/platform_packages_apps_Updater is a trivial example of using this. You need to mark a sub...

^GitHub

An interesting experiment in turning 💯 data and 📈📊📉 graphs into 🔊 audio.

“… one aim is to make our data journalism more #Accessible for vision-impaired people.”

theguardian.com/news/datablog/…

#DataViz
#Accessibility / #A11Y
#Inclusion

What is the sound of Facebook’s value crashing? Noisycharts turns news into noise

Rising carbon dioxide and the slump in the pound have been frequently graphed. Now we’ve turned the data and graphs into audio

^{Nick Evershed (The Guardian)}

Sheri Byrne-Haber presents How (and why) to 'shift-left' your accessibility testing youtube.com/watch?v=UmPBLoJI3j…

#accessibility #ShiftLeft

Sheri Byrne-Haber presents How (and why) to 'shift-left' your accessibility testing

Sheri Byrne-Haber presents for the 2022 Web Accessibility in Mind Conference hosted by WebAIM and Pope Tech.

^YouTube

I like the early #accessibility tips from fedi.tips/mastodon-and-fediver… especially the bits at the end where admins can add CSS to help support their authors to create better content.

I wonder if there are more tools to help authors create more accessible content. #ATAG 2.0 is really powerful, yet old school social media hasn't adopted it.

Mastodon and Fediverse Accessibility Tips | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse

^fedi.tips

I always find videos about #accessibility super interesting. Here are two videos from ProRail showing how one can use Dutch railway stations when blind or visually impaired:

In Dutch: yewtu.be/watch?v=aZYx_q5bIsk
In English: yewtu.be/watch?v=X54WMxb2Wgw

Accessibility is really important and needs to be given more attention.

All train stations accessible for blind and visually impaired people

We have worked on it for years, and now the moment is finally here: all Dutch train stations have been made accessible for blind and visually impaired passengers by means of clear, predictable route guidance.

^{ProRail | Invidious}

An article on how to write an effective #AltText #ImageDescription for #accessibility...

MAIN POINTS:

• describe the image only, not the photographer credits or keywords
• write a description appropriate to the context (ex., a post about photography vs. a celebrity)
• make it as concise as possible, except if you are transcribing text in an image
• no need to start with "An image of..." as the screen reader says that by default
• end with a period to provide a pause

axesslab.com/alt-texts

Alt-texts: The Ultimate Guide

This post contains everything you need to know about alt-texts! When to use them and how to perfectly craft them. By me, Daniel, a web developer with vision impairment who use a screen reader in my day-to-day life.

^{Daniel Göransson (Axess Lab)}

I'm not blind or have impaired vision, so take this with a grain of salt (feel free to correct me), but people who put nondescript one sentence alt texts are almost worse than those who put no alt text.

At least if I'm about to boost a picture without, glitch-soc will warn me about it. If a picture has an alt text like "screenshot of my tweet", that's less than useless but it will slip through the alt text detector.

Write good alt text ffs. Describe the picture. Not a title or a TLDR, a proper description. If it's text, copy the text into the image description. If it's selfies, don't write "a selfie of me", describe your selfies. Describe film scenes, descripe paintings, descripe charts and infographics. You have, on this instance at least, 1500 characters to describe your pictures. Do it.

And if 1500 isn't enough, you can add a second picture to keep describing it.

#feditips #accessibility #alttext

Like this idea of Quality Gates - smashingmagazine.com/2022/11/a…

#Web #accessibility #AutomatedTesting

Using Automated Test Results To Improve Accessibility — Smashing Magazine

In this article, Noah Mashni and Mark Steadman share their approach to how to leverage the automated test results from the accessibility checks to drive change and reach sustainable digital accessibility transformation.

^{Smashing Magazine}

If you're like me, then you were really happy to learn about Mastodon's enthusiastic support for image descriptions, and you were really eager to join in.

Then you went to actually write something and realized you have no idea how to present visual information in a way that is helpful/enjoyable to those who are #VisuallyImpaired or #Blind.

I found this guide really informative: uxdesign.cc/how-to-write-an-im…

Of course, I'd also love to hear any additional tips y'all might have!

#Accessibility

Just published an article on #GovLoop on some work we are doing to promote #accessibility in #VeteransAffairs for the #USAGov

govloop.com/community/blog/sup….

Supporting Authors to Produce More Accessible Content for VA.gov - GovLoop

VA.gov was recently recognized for its hard work improving user accessibility. Since veterans are more likely to have visible and invisible disabilities than other demographics, enhanced accessibility was an especially worthy goal.

^GovLoop

Why are people joining issue or specific Mastodon servers? I'm interested in many issues, and am curious about ones tied to #OpenSource #Sustainability & #Accessibility, but unsure how or why people choose.

Are certain instances going to be seen as being more legitimate? How will sustainability be managed as numbers grow? What happens if I move & that instance shuts down?

Some info here:
blog.joinmastodon.org/2019/06/…

No es norma pero se va convirtiendo en convención: nuestros fediversantes ciegos no suelen personalizar su avatar, les queda el predeterminado (imagen adjunta).

Tiene lógica y está chido porque nos permite identificar de un vistazo cuando conversamos con quien tiene esa discapacidad.

Les invito a que, si no son ciegos, personalicen su avatar tan pronto como puedan.

#EsViernesDeSeguirA @blindscribe @jaguarunileiro
#FF #FollowFriday

#FediTips #Accesibilidad #Accessibility #Blind #Ceguera

As "#accessible" drag and drop (with accessible in quotes as I haven't personally verified the claims) is added to #React Aria and React Spectrum, I'm happy to see drag-and-drop get some #accessibility love at the framework level. However, I'm not convinced that aiming for parity always creates the most efficient, usable experiences in this area.

For many use cases, there are alternative approaches legitimately better suited to how people actually operate their devices, across various assistive technologies and input methods. For instance, dropdowns with type-ahead, offering more of an opportunity to browse before committing, rather than constantly navigating back and forth across drop zones which could be far apart.

The article highlights challenges in finding a preexisting holistic system, without delving into the possible reasons for that being the case until now. User feedback is also not a panacea; are you asking someone to evaluate whether they can use a thing? Or whether that thing is a good idea, and/or if a better thing could theoretically exist?

react-spectrum.adobe.com/blog/…

#a11y

Taming the dragon: Accessible drag and drop

We are excited to announce the release of drag and drop support in React Aria and React Spectrum! This includes a suite of hooks for implementing drag and drop interactions, with support for both mouse and touch, as well as full parity for keyboard a…

^{Adobe Inc (Adobe)}

I have thus far failed to figure out how to get this one tagged for #accessibility

github.com/mastodon/mastodon/i…

Make hyperlinks in toots work like wiki links · Issue #13241 · mastodon/mastodon

Pitch Hyperlink highlighting already works just fine when you post a toot that contains a link, making them automatically clickable if an URL is detected that conforms to a valid schema. I suggest ...

^GitHub

If you are interested in improving the #accessibility of Mastodon, take a look at the issue queue github.com/mastodon/mastodon/i…+

If there are issues you've found that aren't there, are they part of the instance of Mastodon that you are using, or part of the core open source project? Custom themes can get in the way.

Posting #a11y bugs is important in moving ahead any open source project.

Issues · mastodon/mastodon

Your self-hosted, globally interconnected microblogging community - Issues · mastodon/mastodon

^GitHub

If you are working on a project which I might be a good fit for, feel free to reach out to me at LauraKBuzzOfficial@Gmail.com

I am happy to discuss consultancy projects, and see if I am a good fit for your project.

#a11y #accessibility #gaming

I've given talks at accessibility conferences, such as this talk about gaming with aphantasia

twitter.com/GA_Conf/status/136…

#a11y #accessibility #gaming

Around a year ago, I managed to dig up some information on why a song in Life is Strange: True Colours wasn't subtitled, resulting in an accessibility issue for deaf players.

t.co/zoTcHy3oG8

#a11y #accessibility #gaming

Life Is Strange: True Colors Cannot Include Subtitles During Alex’s Songs Due To Licensing Restrictions

Life is Strange: True Colors will unfortunately have this accessibility problem for the foreseeable future.

^{Stephanie Minor (TheGamer)}

During Global Accessibility Awareness Week this year, I was invited to give a talk for Eidos Montreal / Square Enix West, all about how disabilities often intersect, and needs can overlap in unexpected ways Devs need to consider.

twitter.com/EidosMontreal/stat…

#a11y #accessibility #gaming

My main piece of regular work is a series called Access-Ability.

The series, which is made up of 100+articles, releases weekly, and discusses how the video game industry can be more accessible to disabled players.

Text: access-ability.uk

Video: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD0…

#accessibility #a11y #gaming

My name is Laura Kate Dale, and I am an author, accessibility and queer representation critic and consultant, video game critic, streamer, and all around content creator.

Below is a thread of my various projects, and how you can support my ongoing work.

#accessibility #a11y #trans #gaming #author

Good news for the @Mastodon #iOS app‘s #VoiceOver support. @jedfox has been on a roll these last few days and has added some really awesome #accessibility related pull requests to the public repository. Hope they all get merged soon and new TestFlight builds be made available so we can test them out before release. Among the fixes is the compose button, custom actions, better labels in the compose screen, and more.

Hope @Gargron or @zeitschlag can approve and merge them soon. #a11y

Looks like folks are doing #introductions. All righty.

Howdy y’all! I was born hearing-free aka profoundly deaf. I read lips (more lip guessing). I'm a TEDx and professional speaker on DEI with a focus on #accessibility and disability awareness. I’m certified Accessibility Professional and #DigitalMarketer who works with companies to evangelize the creation of an inclusive and accessible culture. Proud Mom of 3. One is an international traveler and one is a rocket scientist in the making