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: http://player.listenlive.co/65731/

#NVDA #ScreenReader #Accessibility #Interview #News #A11y

Vision Australia Radio Adelaide

Accessible news, information and entertainment. Vision Australia Radio offers a range of interesting and informative programs that feature readings from the latest newspapers, magazines and books.

^{Vision Australia Radio Adelaide}

Lots of things happening in the AI/LLM space that could have implications for #accessibility

Ferret-UI from Apple:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.05719

ScreenAI from Google
https://research.google/blog/screenai-a-visual-language-model-for-ui-and-visually-situated-language-understanding/

#a11y #ai #LLM

Ferret-UI: Grounded Mobile UI Understanding with Multimodal LLMs

Recent advancements in multimodal large language models (MLLMs) have been noteworthy, yet, these general-domain MLLMs often fall short in their ability to comprehend and interact effectively with user interface (UI) screens.

^arXiv.org

Content warning: Some idle musings about Linux Accessibility with no real scientific basis for my claims I'm just thinking out loud here Click to open/close

Speaking of #overlays, there is yet another one: #WebAbility

I have already made a PR to add it to the Overlay Fact Sheet:
https://github.com/karlgroves/overlayfactsheet/pull/1189

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

Adding WebAbility as an overlay by aardrian · Pull Request #1189 · karlgroves/overlayfactsheet

From Introducing WebAbility.io: Ultimate Web Accessibility Widget for ADA & WCAG Compliance, a press release from Techyweb Solutions INC.: WebAbility.io offers easy, comprehensive solutions for we...

^GitHub

Wait, what? Safari/iOS/VO does not support role="group"?

FFS.

Neither does Chrome/Talkback.

FFS.

This web is a mess!

#a11y

Must be the wrong article 🤔

Have you tested the #Fedora distribution with the #GNOME desktop environment? They work hard to make it fully accessible.

I admit that the default synthesized voices are particularly awful, but they can easily be changed with Pied.

https://pied.mikeasoft.com

#accessibility #a11y

"Blind internet users struggle with error-prone AI aids", reports an article in the Financial Times:
https://www.ft.com/content/3c877c55-b698-43da-a222-8ae183f53078

#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

New #Android version of #KDEConnect coming soon, with #Accessibility improvements thanks to a review performed by the HAN University of Applied Sciences!

Looks like they have some free resources available for developers to up their #a11y game:

https://ngi.aimsites.nl/resources/

I wonder how accessible all those closed-source KDE Connect knock-offs are 🤔

Accessibility Resources

Let's make the Next Generation Internet: Accessible, Inclusive and Future Proof

^{NGI Zero}

This is an excellent guide to writing in plain English.

https://evolvingweb.com/blog/plain-language-guide-how-write-inclusive-digital-content-2024

"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

A Plain Language Guide: How to Write Inclusive Digital Content in 2024

Want to make your written content more inclusive, accessible, and engaging? Learn how to use plain language principles with our comprehensive guide.

^{Evolving Web}

#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:
https://adrianroselli.com/2023/02/audioeye-will-get-you-sued.html#comment-285608

#accessibility #a11y

#AudioEye Will Get You Sued

Disclaimer: This post and the headline is my opinion. I provide verifiable facts throughout to inform that opinion. I am also not a lawyer, and this post does not constitute legal advice. The content reflects my genuinely held beliefs and opinions.

^{Adrian Roselli}

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

https://www.theverge.com/24080201/smart-home-accessibility-apple-nest-alexa

How smart home technology made my home more accessible

Using one’s phone or voice to flip a light switch may be convenient since you don’t need to get up. For the author and other disabled people, this makes it accessible.

^{Steven Aquino (The Verge)}

I just updated my screen reader, #NVDA, to version 2024.1.

A few notes of interest:

All add-ons I consider essential work. Remote isn't updated yet but TeleNVDA is.
Unspoken, which I maintain, hasn't been updated but can be force enabled and works. Some time this week I'll issue a new release.
Of the non-essential add-ons that I'd like to have but haven't tried forcing, I'd highlight Instant Translate and Calibre.

I've also made a donation. I encourage others to contribute to NVDA, with code, translations, time or money, if their situation permits. NVDA doesn't update itself. It's not only my favourite screen reader, but it's essential to keep our needs in focus, maintain our independence, and avoid monopoly.

Thanks to NV Access for another release.

#NVDASR #a11y #accessibility

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: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/international-association-of-accessibility-professionals_google-forms-sign-in-activity-7178058774023143426-eLR9

#a11y via @kc

I was going to boost this as a good example of a well-written image description, but does this work?

(Don't have access to a screen reader right now.)

https://mas.to/@swisslet/112178424490262854

#accessibility #a11y #ImageDescription

swisslet (@swisslet@mas.to)

Attached: 1 image Steve Martin is a comic genius. Here’s a ‘personalised’ letter he used to send out to fans. That flip at the end is perfection. #SteveMartin #comedy #letters

^mas.to

Today's Web Design Update: https://groups.google.com/a/d.umn.edu/g/webdev/c/r9j4JYAKXfs Subscribe info: https://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/webdev_listserv.html#subscribe #Accessibility #A11y #WebDesign

Featuring @siblingpastry, @TPGi, @stvfrnzl, @aardrian, @a11ytalks, @SteveFaulkner, @zeldman, @fastfinge, @chrisdavidmills, @adactio, @feather, @nethermind, @intopia, @dennisl, @hdv, @scottohara, @scottohara, @cory, @PK_info, @berry220, @gerrymcgovern, et al.

Not a huge sample size, but the results are in!

If you use #Matrix, drop an #AltText comment below your images and screencasts for #ScreenReader, #Braille and other #Accessibility tools until we get support in the spec:

https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec/issues/883

#a11y #Element #Fractal #Cinny #FluffyChat #Quaternion #NeoChat #GNOME #KDE #elementaryOS #XFCE

Allow providing a text alternative/caption for all media/non-text-content · Issue #883 · matrix-org/matrix-spec

Suggestion I would like to specify an alternative text for all media content uploaded to Matrix including casual uploads, user avatar and room avatar, and I think this should be supported to comply...

^GitHub

Are there freelance #accessibility people or those who have time to work on a possible audit? If you're a beginner in the field and haven't done this kind of work, let me know as well. I'm willing to mentor. Please DM.

#a11y #WCAG

A terrific 3-part series on colored blindness, accessibility, and data visualizations.

Part 1: https://blog.datawrapper.de/colorblindness-part1/

Part 2:
https://blog.datawrapper.de/colorblindness-part2/

Part 3:
https://blog.datawrapper.de/colorblindness-part3/

#a11y #webdesign #UIDesign #color #dataviz #colorblindness

What’s it like to be colorblind - Datawrapper Blog

'One notices being colourblind more often when looking at data visualizations': Ten experiences.

^{Lisa Charlotte Muth (Datawrapper Blog)}

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: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2024-1rc1/

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

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.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/what-green-digital-policy-can-learn-from-digital-accessibility-policy-tickets-852077335247

#A11y #sustainability

What Green Digital Policy can learn from Digital Accessibility Policy?

Format of the session: Talk with Q&A

^Eventbrite

Responsible and Ethical AI with Dr. Rumman Chowdhury | Axe-con 2024 Keynote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccCZ4FxruMU

#ethic #a11y #ai #disability #axecon

Responsible and Ethical AI with Dr. Rumman Chowdhury | Axe-con 2024

^YouTube

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

Are you a #ScreenReader and/or #Braille user on #Matrix?

Should we be adding messages as captions until #AltText is supported?

#A11Y #Accessibility #BRLTTY #FOSS #OpenSource #Element #GNOME #KDE #elementaryOS #XFCE

• Yes, always. (66%, 4 votes)
• A quick summary is fine, I'll ask if I need more (16%, 1 vote)
• As long as you do it if I ask. (16%, 1 vote)

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

https://glidance.io

#accessibility #blind #a11y #mobility

Glidance | Glide your way to independence

A new era of independence for the visually impaired Glide is the first self-guided mobility aid designed to help individuals with sight loss navigate the

^Glidance

Reminder that support for the `headers` attribute in tables is pants:
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40691227
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40818082
• https://github.com/FreedomScientific/standards-support/issues/601
• https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=235740

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

So, you know, avoid spanning table cells and headers:
https://adrianroselli.com/2023/02/avoid-spanning-table-headers.html

#accessibility #a11y

Avoid Spanning Table Headers

Spanned table headers are not well supported across screen readers. While you can visually style these all sorts of ways to make the spanning clear, I am focusing on the programmatic outcomes.

^{Adrian Roselli}

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

https://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

Accessibility for Everyone: A Conversation with Author Laura Kalbag

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. With the launch of WCAG 2.

^lu.ma

Look at this document and tell me what's wrong with it.

https://ai-weekly.ai/newsletter-03-12-2024/

#accessibility #a11y

AI-Weekly for Tuesday, March 12, 2024 - Volume 103 — AI-Weekly

The Week's News in Artificial Intelligence

^AI-Weekly