NVDA 2025.1 Beta 6 is now available!
Read the full details and download from: nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2025-1b…
Changes introduced in Beta 6:
- Updates to translations
- Fix for the COM registration fixing tool: don’t run when cancelling with alt+f4
- Minor fix for SAPI 4 voices
- Fix for Braille display detection
- Minor improvements to the user experience of Remote Access
Please continue to test and give feedback via GitHub!
#NVDA #NVDAsr #Beta #PreRelease #News #ScreenReader #Accessibility
Vielen Dank für den ausführlichen Bericht!
Ich bin damit bisher auch sehr zufrieden.
Dein Schwerpunkt liegt auf Sicherheit.
Mir ist auch wichtig, wie es mit der #Barrierefreiheit aussieht.
Zumindest das web #accessibility evaluation tool bewertet meine Seite ganz gut und das sollte grundsätzlich auf alle Publii-Seiten zutreffen, wenn man an die Alt-Texte denkt:
wave.webaim.org/report#/pilger…
#Publii #a11y
I think it's very telling that from all corners of the Fediverse, #FLOSS developers come screaming "I do it for free in my spare time, I can release whatever I want, and you can change it if you don't like it!"
As if that was the point.
I you release it as a broken hobby project, fine. Just don't call it a "fully functional" or "community driven" audio editor / encryption utility / mail server / file explorer / chat client if it's completely unusable to a reasonable part of the audience who just happens to be blind, or otherwise impaired.
What do you get when you let (overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly male) able-bodied developers build an operating system?
Well, you get an insightful display of structural #ableism.
As a developer, I feel ashamed about this state of affairs, reading the excellent blog series by @fireborn . We can do better, and we deeply need to.
dragonscave.space/@fireborn/11…
#Linux #Accessibility #a11y #FLOSS
The state of Linux accessibility in 2025. This started out as a rant but became a series. Please feel free to leave feedback, comments, and subscribe via rss or email for more stuff as I release it. fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-w…
What is my stance on the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses? It's good, helpful, and a more affordable assistive technology device than what's currently available... but it has it's challenges... I have never thought of connecting it to WhatsApp and using ChatGPT with it! Thanks Tim Dixon for sharing lots of insights! ⬇️
timdixon.net/blog/2025/04/blin…
A Blind Meta Ray Ban Review 2025 covering new AI features, WhatsApp bots, and how they support the blind and low vision community.Tim Dixon (TIM DIXON)
I meant to re-post this for #GAAD!
This article by @dadederk is a great reminder of many truths about doing #accessibility work: focus on systems, not short term goals, be persistent and resilient, and work w/ a network/community however you can!
smashingmagazine.com/2025/04/f…
While there’s no definitive playbook for building an accessibility culture, Dani shares lessons from his experience in shaping it through habits rather than mandates.Smashing Magazine
You may not have heard of GAAD before.Taylor Arndt (Taylor’s Substack)
This Global Accessibility Awareness Day we'd like to shout out to our translators! NVDA has been translated into over 55 languages to provide access to technology for blind and vision impaired people around the world. Recently we spoke with Harun in Türkiye, who shared how access, in his own language, has helped him: nvaccess.org/post/harun-fast-l…
#GAAD #Accessibility #NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Localization #Awareness #Translation
!["One of my favourite aspects of [NVDA] was that its entire interface was localised... I was surprised by its small size and very fast operation. Isn't this a wonderful thing? Take it anywhere and just connect".
-
Harun
Türkiye
(Black text on white with NV Access logo top and purple sunburst designs in the background)](https://fedi.ml/photo/preview/640/668382 "\"One of my favourite aspects of [NVDA] was that its entire interface was localised... I was surprised by its small size and very fast operation. Isn't this a wonderful thing? Take it anywhere and just connect\".
-
Harun
Türkiye
(Black text on white with NV Access logo top and purple sunburst designs in the background)")
Für die neuen Versionen der @joplinapp@mastodon.social wurde nicht nur die #ScreenReader Kompatibilität für #Desktop und #Mobile verbessert, es gibt auch eine #Accessibility #Hilfe.seite für #Entwickler, die neue Komponenten ergänzen oder alte ändern möchten:
joplinapp.org/help/dev/accessi…
#a11y #Joplin #ToDo #Inklusion #digitaleTeilhabe #GlobalAccessibilityAwarenessDay
Joplin has a strong focus on accessibility. It's important to make sure that new pull requests and features keep Joplin accessible. Making new components accessible When creating new components, it...joplinapp.org
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.
WCAG is evolving. Since 1999, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines have defined accessibility in binary terms: either a success criterion is met or not. But real user experience is rarely that simple. WCAG 3.Smashing Magazine
Apple today announced new accessibility features coming later this year, including Accessibility Nutrition Labels.Apple
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
This is worth adding to your accessibility audit toolkit. I found its reports a lot more granular than the ones generated by other tools.
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
In honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, pledge to improve accessibility in WordPress on May 15th. Find out how to get involved.Equalize Digital
What I'm Working on at Techopolis Online SolutionsTaylor Arndt (Taylor’s Substack)
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?
A Practical Guide to Digital Accessibility, UX, and Inclusive Web & App Design. Top rated Web Development products.Packt
#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.
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!
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
My @TetraLogical colleague @craigabbott has tested the Deque accessibility chatbot and provided his initial impressions
#a11y #AI #accessibility
craigabbott.co.uk/blog/deque-a…
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.
“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
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.
I find myself increasingly asking what value do I get out of existing commercial accessibility testing tools? What do they catch? What do they not catch? I ask because I want to improve on the results, and I also want to know what exactly I need to m…Robert Dodd (www.linkedin.com)
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.
