👁️ @w3c AGWG (Accessibility Guidelines Working Group) Teleconference
15 Oct 2024 - draft minutes

"RESOLUTION: We will explore having a set of required provisions that is somewhat comparable to WCAG 2.2 A & AA and a set of provisions and assertions that can be used to build upon that through points, percentages, or predefined sets of provisions (modules)."

#WCAG3 #WCAG #accessibility #WebStandards

w3.org/2024/10/15-ag-minutes.h…

Not so short note on aria-label usage – Big Table Edition

“aria-label is one of a number of secondary methods to label native HTML UI elements. It works particularly well on interactive elements, it also works well on most block level elements old skoolterm that have explicitly or implicitly defined structural roles. It works less well or not at all on text level semantics.”

#aria #HTML #accessibility #WebDev

html5accessibility.com/stuff/2…

Ever find that sitting in front of your unnecessarily complex music rig is hard sometimes? Creative block hits and there's nothing you can do about it?
I certainly find that lately, more often than not.
One device has come into my life and changed a lot of that however. Ableton Move.

In this world-first video, I take you through making a beat without sight, just using the undocumented screen-reader function within the web-based Move Manager.

It's incredibly freeing to be able to just load a fresh set, be presented with four random sounds and perhaps one of them will inspire you so you just begin doing a thing that you had absolutely no plan to do before you started.
#InspiredBySound - Let's Move! (Ableton Move Accessibility Overview) youtu.be/p8IbinbOhY4
#Accessibility #Ableton #ScreenReader #Blind #Music #Composition

#InspiredBySound - Let's Move! (Ableton Move Accessibility Overview)

Check out the official Ableton Move website: https://www.ableton.com/en/move/Ableton Move is the first piece of hardware I've personally been excited by in y...

^YouTube

“Shopify, accessibility lawsuits & ‘Compliance’”
nicchan.me/blog/shopify-access…

Long read that looks at responsibility, content accessibility, the ACR of one theme, and drive-by lawsuits.

This quote tho: “In a way, the Shopify app store and theme store create a parasitic ecosystem.”

#accessibility #a11y

One of the benefits of keeping a gratitude journal is that every so often, I find myself using an app I’ve used for years and thinking, “dude! I am so glad I have this app, and I am grateful for the indie developer who cares about #accessibility”.
This morning I am feeling that way about the Broadcasts app. In case you’ve not discovered it, here’s the description from the App Store.

The award-winning Broadcasts 3 introduces a brand new iPhone app, a beautiful new Now Playing screen, and a revamped Search experience. Now available on Apple Vision Pro. Listen to streaming internet radio in an ultra-simple, single-purpose app. Broadcasts makes building a library of stations from around the world easier than ever — no subscription required. Use completely free with a limited-size library of stations, or upgrade to the full version to unlock the library limit and add as many of your own stations as you like from the Station Browser, or manually via URL. Search for stations from around the world as easily as from your own library. Showcase gorgeous station and track artwork (for supported stations) with the all-new Now Playing screen. Use Shazam (Beta) to power the Now Playing screen with artwork and metadata for stations that do not provide it, or simply to provide an ambient Now Playing experience for music playing nearby. Show the currently playing artwork and metadata on external displays if you want an all-screen experience. Sync your library across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV with iCloud & Universal Purchase. Browse stations in grid or list view. Listen in Light or Dark mode. Edit stations to provide your own artwork, or use the Artwork Chooser to generate something fun and colorful. Thoughtful mouse, trackpad & keyboard support provides a great experience on iPad. Perform common tasks from the Command menu, and control playback using keyboard shortcuts. Use Handoff to transfer playback between devices, or AirPlay directly to a home speaker. Listen with just your Apple Watch (Cellular) while out and about, or on Apple TV at home. Supports CarPlay on certified devices; stream internet radio on your CarPlay-enabled head unit directly. Automate playback using Shortcuts.

OK, it’s Jonathan talkin’ again now. This app is a fully accessible experience with VoiceOver. I particularly like the collections feature, because you can organise your radio stations however you like. If you want to create a system where you have your favourite stations organised by genre, knock yourself out. Or maybe you prefer to have stations you listened to regularly organised by country.
The app is updated frequently, and I do find stations in there that don’t seem to show up on some other apps.
It’s definitely worth a look if you’re after an excellent, accessible, well-supported radio app, and there’s an account for the app right here on mastodon, @broadcastsapp

Here’s the App Store link.

apps.apple.com/app/id146999535…

‎Broadcasts

‎Listen to streaming internet radio in an ultra-simple, single-purpose app. Broadcasts makes building a library of stations from around the world easier than ever — no subscription required.

^{App Store}

Is LibreOffice ever going to behave and stop freezing whenever you do nvda+down arrow? Seriously. I installed it again on my new windows installation and quite rapidly remembered why it was I wanted ms word instead...

I can't even read a document without having to manually do it. Pathetic that it is still like this in 2024.

#accessibility #blind #epic #fail #LibreOffice

Made another handy #accessibility guide, this time for your science plots!

Our plots can have lots of messages in them, so try and tell the story of the main message. Here's a guideline/template and some tips on how you can describe your plots that works for me.

Hope folks find this useful!

(I am using one of our pulsar observations to demonstrate how I have used this template in the alt-text for this image)

#Science #Astrodon #ScienceCommunication #SciComm

The last time I made a video about #Ableton, it was to do with Note, their iOS music-making app.
This video is an Ableton-first, in which I bring you their newest piece of hardware, #AbletonMove.
It ships with a web-based screen-reader and I've been enjoying it for many months.
It uses sounds from Note, but in a hardware form.
32 poly-aftertouch pads, four tracks of midi (or samples,) 8 knobs, USB-C for power and controlling Ableton Live and a USB-A port for connecting class-compliant midi devices, should you wish to trigger it from a keyboard.

Please be advised that screen-reader support is currently an experimental feature and is not fully fleshed out.
Not all aspects of the experience are as desired and there are a few kinks, but it is very much better than nothing whatsoever, and I am extremely thankful to the team that made this possible.

Ableton themselves are not talking about this screen-reader function in any of their literature, but I think it's important enough that it deserves recognition, and to bring an accessible groove-box to blind people in this way.

#InspiredBySound - Let's Move! (Ableton Move Accessibility Overview) youtu.be/p8IbinbOhY4
#Accessibility #ScreenReader

Found a new way #WebDesigners are blocking #Accessibility.

Because I am legally #Blind, with less than 10 degrees of vision, I cannot visually solve #Captchas

Because I am mostly #Deaf, I cannot solve vocal Captchas.

Therefore, I added block and solve Captchas extensions to my browser.

On three major sites - I could no longer access, as they had added Captchas that bypassed the blockers!

FaceBook, Amazon, and Submittable do not allow Captcha blockers.

So, I had not been able to access those sites at all for a while.

When I found Submittable blocking me today, for the first time, I decided to turn off the Captcha blockers, as they obviously aren't working.

Instantly, Amazon and Submittable are working.

I haven't tried FaceBook.

#CaptchaBlockers are and #Accessibility need for blind, deaf, #DeafBlind, and multiple other disabilities. It is Disability Discrimination for sites to block Accessibility Access helpers.

I shouldn't need a sighted and hearing person, likely a stranger, to be given my login information, username and password, to log me into every site I need to go to every day!

#Tech people, please respect people with disabilities. Disable and Remove Captchas. Disable and Remove Block the Block Captchas extensions.

I wasted a lot of hours trying to figure out why suddenly I could not login to sites.

Hours because some tech people decided to break and block accessibility for a DeafBlind #Author!

#Captchas

#Captcha

For people with motor #impairments it's sometimes hard to perform a #gesture on #Android #Phones.

Is there a way to associate a #gesture with a function that is stored on the screen, such as an #app #launcher?

#a11y #Accessibility #Usability

To challenge the notion that the Mastodon has a strong tradition of #accessibility…

5 years since I tried to improve the accessibility of Mastodon and, despite overwhelming support, the project owner refused to merge my commit, then closed and locked the issue because he thought it was ugly.

github.com/mastodon/mastodon/p…

Compared to Threads, Mastodon is very good. But compared to Threads, getting kicked in the shin is also pretty good.

Seen in Seattle. Accessibility Matters

#Accessibility #Seattle #Lime #Scooters #AccessibilityMatters

I think #Anki holds a great deal of potential for #blind learners of #languages and other subjects:

The desktop app uses Qt 6, so isn't entirely unusable. It's also fully open source.

The iOS app is extremely usable with VoiceOver, albeit relatively expensive for a mobile app at £24.99, and not open source.

The web interface is usable, but would currently cause people to think more about how to use it than the actual subject they were studying. Still, with some user scripting, it could be workable.

And finally, all Anki functionality is available via their Python library, which could be used in a command line app or more #accessible frontend.

Of course, the issue is always the time needed to take things from where they are now to where they need to be. And I suspect a significant challenge would be having screen readers speak/braille things in the correct language as hopefully declared by each flashcard.

#accessibility #language #languageLearning

Is it ironic (or just plain hypocritical) how the full legal text of the EAA directive is entirely structured with `<table>` markup (for content that isn't tabular, and it isn't declared as presentational).

#accessibility #a11y #eaa

I appreciate the smaller indie developers, particularly in the Apple world, who specialise in a certain field and do it well, and take pride in being accessible. Rogue Amoeba is one. Their audio products are one of the best advertisements for Mac. Agile Tortoise is another, with the fabulous Drafts app. And another is Flexibits, who make the Fantastical Calendar app. This is a sound investment for management of the several calendars I keep. And they care a lot about #accessibility.
I use their Openings and proposals feature regularly in my professional life. Now they have added RSVP. Here’s the explanation from their blog. If you’ve not checked out Fantastical yet, I did a demo on Living Blindfully and they have plenty of videos and help guides. I highly recommend it.

flexibits.com/blog/2024/10/rsv…

🌟 #Sharkvember excitement is in full swing with Freedom Scientific's **Next Big Thing** contest! Last year, the winning idea was all about AI-generated image descriptions—a game-changer for accessibility! 🎉🤖 This year, the competition's fierce, and it's anyone's guess what brilliant idea will take the crown. Will it be another AI marvel, or perhaps something totally unexpected? 🤔✨

Submissions are in soon, and on November 19th, finalists will showcase their visionary ideas for JAWS and ZoomText. I can't wait to see the creativity and innovation at play this year! 😍💡 The thrill of seeing our accessibility tools evolve is so inspiring. We might just see new features that transform how blind and low-vision users interact with the world! 🌐👀

Catch the live event and let’s cheer for these pioneers pushing the boundaries of tech! #NextBigThing #Accessibility #JAWS #ZoomText #Sharkvember2024 🦈💙

Reading WITHOUT Sight: Challenging the Ableist Assumptions of Non-Visual Literacy

In today’s world, where accessibility is supposedly ever-expanding, comments on how blind people read – or rather, whether we “really” read – reveal a significant amount of latent ableism. When someone remarks, “You’re not really reading because you have to listen to it,” they are unwittingly touching on deep-seated biases that marginalize blind people and our experience. For me, as a blind person, these comments feel aggressive, like a slur that undermines not only my intellect but my very existence within a literate society. The underlying suggestion that my method of consuming literature is somehow less legitimate than traditional reading reflects a lack of understanding and a failure to appreciate the richness of alternative literacy.

At its core, this statement implies that visual reading is the only valid form of reading – an attitude deeply rooted in ableist assumptions. Just as the sighted world learns and adapts to new ways of accessing information, blind people, too, use technology to bridge gaps that were once insurmountable. By suggesting that listening to an audiobook or using a screen reader is inferior to reading with one’s eyes, the speaker perpetuates a narrow view of literacy that excludes anyone who does not fit their narrow definition of a reader.

The Emotional Impact of Dismissive Comments

Hearing such remarks can be hurtful. When someone tells me I’m not “really reading,” they trivialize the effort, love, and passion I pour into every book. Reading, in any form, is more than just a mechanical process; it’s an engagement with ideas, narratives, and emotions. Denying my capacity to “really” read is akin to erasing my agency in choosing to explore literature. It dismisses my experience and can feel like a personal attack, minimizing my intelligence and curiosity.

Moreover, these comments strip away the nuances of my identity and life experience as a blind person. They ignore the reality that many of us navigate systems not designed with us in mind, yet we adapt with resilience and creativity. Listening to a book, for me, is as much an engagement with its content as sighted reading is for others. This medium allows me to dive into narratives, to imagine worlds, and to connect with characters just as vividly as if I were reading visually. Such a remark does not just invalidate my experience, but it also points to a societal failure to recognize and celebrate the diverse ways people interact with literature.

Understanding the Roots of Ableism

Ableism, at its core, stems from a belief that certain abilities, like sight, are inherently superior. This mindset manifests in the way sighted people sometimes view adaptations like screen readers or braille as substitutes, rather than as equally valid methods of accessing information. This thought pattern diminishes the lived experiences of blind individuals and subtly implies that we’re only half-participating in the world of literature. The comment reflects an ideology that upholds one mode of experiencing the world as ideal, while relegating others to second-class status.

Furthermore, literacy is a concept that should not be defined by sensory modality. Whether through braille, audio, or screen readers, blind readers engage in the same cognitive processes of understanding and analying text. These methods are not merely compensatory but rather alternate pathways that lead to the same destination.

Responding Constructively

Addressing this kind of ableism requires a blend of assertiveness and education. In responding to these comments, I could say something like, “When you suggest that I’m not really reading, it feels as if you’re diminishing my engagement with the text. For me, listening to a book offers the same intellectual and emotional journey as sighted reading does for you. It’s not about the method; it’s about the experience of connecting with the material. I’d appreciate it if we could acknowledge that there are many valid ways to be a reader.”

By framing the response in this way, I affirm my own experience while gently inviting the person to reconsider their assumptions. Another approach could be to highlight the diversity of literacy methods available today: “There’s a wide range of ways people can read now, whether through audio, braille, or text-to-speech technology. These methods open up the world of literature to more people and should be celebrated rather than diminished.”

My hope is that, in responding to these comments, I can foster a moment of reflection for others. Reading is about engaging with ideas and stories, not about the medium through which we access them. Ableist remarks about non-visual reading, though sometimes spoken thoughtlessly, present an opportunity to open minds and broaden perspectives. By sharing my experience, I contribute to a more inclusive understanding of literacy and help to dismantle the harmful stereotypes that still persist.

Conclusion

Reading is not an act confined to the eyes; it is an intellectual and emotional endeavour that transcends sensory modality. For many blind people, it is the ultimate expression of our love for stories, our curiosity, and our intellect. When someone diminishes my experience as “not really reading,” they underscore a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be a reader. As we continue to expand our understanding of accessibility, it is crucial to challenge and reframe such biases. Only by doing so can we begin to recognize and respect the many ways in which people interact with the written word, enriching our collective experience of literature in all its forms.

#Ableism #Accessibility #Audible #Blind #Braille #Disability #Equality #Inclusion #Kindle

Open source: you all should use open source and private services because we’re not a corporation out to exploit you or your data.

Disabled users: hey, your registration edit field is not labeled so I can’t use my adaptive technology to register or even use your platform. Could you fix it, because, right now, the mainstream/corporate offering has taken accessibility more seriously and I’d rather use a tool/service that I won’t need to struggle with in order to operate.

Open source: what exactly do you expect? We can’t be expected to make things accessible for you, so you can either fork it yourself or just not use our software/services. We’re a small team and corporation has more money than we do so they can devote more time and effort to accessibility. You can always fork the project though and make accessibility yourself!

Disabled user: well, I can’t code, so it looks like I don’t have any other choice but to go back to using this corporate offering that at least took the time to label their registration field correctly and actually took my request more seriously. Oh well, maybe open source tools just aren’t for me.

#OpenSource #Accessibility

TL;DR:
1. Probably don’t add `­` without guidance from a copywriter.
2. Probably don’t add `­` to foreign words without expert guidance.
3. Probably don’t add `­` to URLs, email addresses, code blocks, etc.
4. Probably restrict `<wbr>` to URLs, email addresses, code blocks, and similar where technical accuracy is key.
5. Probably restrict `<wbr>` to before periods and dashes and maybe slashes in URLs and emails.

#accessibility #a11y #css #html

@tink will be attending #DevFestNantes to share her talk: “The Land That Time to Interactive Forgot.” 🌐

She’ll explore how Time to Interactive (TTI) impacts web performance, accessibility, and user experience, offering insights into how we can all make the web faster and more inclusive.

Read more about her talk and find the full schedule at: devfest.gdgnantes.com/en/sched…

#WebDevelopment #Accessibility #SustainableAccessibility #DevFest

I have failed to promote this very much.

In a couple weeks I’ll be presenting at A11y Camp in Melbourne, Australia.

On Tuesday, 22 October I am running a workshop:
a11ycamp.com.au/workshops/#wsh…

I'm keynoting the talks on Wednesday, 23 October:
a11ycamp.com.au/program/

So if hashtags #accessibility and/or #inclusion are your deal, then you should attend. You can get 10% of tickets with the code A11Y FRIEND10.