If anyone uses Android with TalkBack and the onscreen Braille keyboard, please try to reproduce and report this issue:

In Talkback, if onscreen keyboard echo is set to words, and a word with punctuation after it is typed, TalkBack does not read the word when Space is typed. Similarly, if an emoticon is typed, like ":)" nothing is spoken when Space is typed.

Steps to reproduce:

• Turn on TalkBack, and open TalkBack settings by tapping once with three fingers. Set up the TalkBack Braille keyboard under the Braille section.
• Go to Verbosity settings, then the keyboard echo option for onscreen keyboards, and set it to "words."
Now, open a text box, turn on the TalkBack Braille Keyboard, and type something like "this is a test." Note the period after test. Then, swipe right with one finger to enter a space.

Expected results:

TalkBack should read "this" "is" "a" "test period."

Actual results:

TalkBack reads "this" "is" "a" and is silent after test is written.

I also put it up on Google's issue tracker if anyone wants to start it.

issuetracker.google.com/issues…

#accessibility #android #blind #TalkBack #Braille

Adding meaningful alt-text is not only important for everyone using a screenreader and an essential #inclusion and #accessibility requirement. Alt-text is also searchable and used by filters. People who prefer to filter certain people and topics for mental health and other reasons can't filter memes or images without it. Please use alt-text and cw generously 🙏

Added bonus: with added alt-text you can find images in your own posts with "from:me" and people are more likely to boost your posts.

#screenreader #fediverse #Mastodon

One significant way Mastodon and the Fediverse have transformed digital culture is through the use of alt text. When I look back at my older images online and in my blogs, I rarely included alt text - even though I actively work on accessibility. For some reason, I simply overlooked it.

Now, every time I post something online, I take a moment to write alt text. Mastodon has changed my mindset, and I believe its impact extends far beyond this. The Fediverse encourages a level of consideration for others that no other social networking platform has before.

#A11y #Accessibility #AltText #Mastodon #Fediverse #SocialWeb #SocialNetwork #SocialMedia

Decided to sign up for #Codeberg, the #GitHub alternative that the Fediverse at large is insisting is worth a try and, in some cases, claiming will improve project contributions by avoiding some of the GH antipatterns. I expected to find some #accessibility issues; this is the modern web, after all.

I did not expect a fully inaccessible visual CAPTCHA with no workarounds. I'm unable to solve it, so I cannot create an account.

In short: If you want people who are #blind or #lowVision to contribute to your projects (you do, right?), Codeberg is currently not an #accessible platform.

“Evaluating overlay-adjacent accessibility products”
ericwbailey.website/published/…

The very fact that a digital accessibility accommodation is a product is a sign that you might not be the customer and, even if you are, only for as long as there’s money to be made.

#a11y #accessibility

Evaluating overlay-adjacent accessibility products

The rubric I use to evaluate these products remains very similar to how I scrutinize overlays.

^{ericwbailey.website}

Roses are red
Violets are blue
People use keyboards
With mobile devices too

#accessibility

Once upon a time, I worked on the #accessibility of a product that's recently been acquired by Atlassian. While I'll never claim the work was a waste of time for the people who got to benefit from it, I wouldn't be surprised if it's a mess within the year.

(I won't be naming the product.)

Please boost for reach:

I wonder if Fedi has anyone who works at OnePlus, or knows any way of getting in touch with a human there that can help fix some accessibility issues? I got my OnePlus phone yesterday, and love the hardware, the customizability, and the haptic motor. It's maybe the only Android phone right now that comes with the option to set phone audio to the earpiece when you hold the phone to your ear. And TalkBack is amazingly responsive on it. However, there are accessibility issues, like TalkBack's support for the fingerprint sensor being broken so that it always instructs me to move my finger up, no matter where it is around the sensor, suggested apps on the recent apps screen not always showing the correct app that will be launched, and volume and brightness sliders in quick settings not working correctly with TalkBack. I'm not sure if OnePlus has any accessibility staff, but since they're using AudioEye on their website, I'd guess they have at least thought of accessibility slightly, even if there are often no audio captchas so I can't log into my OnePlus account. Overall though, it's a great phone and may be the one that allows me to settle into Android full time.

#accessibility #Boost_OK #blind #OnePlus #Android #OnePlus #OnePlus13 #OP13 #TalkBack

In #Linux, #opensource, #foss communities is #accessibility considered a priority?

It's not a rhetorical or ironic question. I ask this because in the past I have struggled to find #speechtotext apps on Linux while on #macos it is pre-installed.

Interesting breakdown of how Google has gone off the accessibility rails, among other rails, while also framing some common corp methods for reframing needs into revenue streams.
buttondown.com/TYFYFL/archive/…

Original post for following:
kolektiva.social/@FractalEcho/…

#a11y #accessibility

Rua M. Williams

2025-02-08 21:21:04

Thank You For Your Feedback Loop is a monthly newsletter that will share previously unpublished reporting and analysis on the elite capture of disability movements.

The first post, "The Rise and Fall of Access" is available now.

buttondown.com/TYFYFL/archive/…

#accessibility #DEIA #DEI

The Rise and Fall of Access

by: Liz Jackson & Rua M. Williams In the Year 2000, Google’s 23rd employee, Paul Buchheit was pulled into a “meeting to decide on the company’s corporate...

^{Thank You For Your Feedback Loop}

Thank You For Your Feedback Loop is a monthly newsletter that will share previously unpublished reporting and analysis on the elite capture of disability movements.

The first post, "The Rise and Fall of Access" is available now.

buttondown.com/TYFYFL/archive/…

#accessibility #DEIA #DEI

Sensitive content Click to open/close

In-Process is out, featuring:
- The NV Access 2025 Roadmap
- Thanks to our sponsors
- Corporate support with Benevity
- our new VPAT & Multiple key press timeout.

Read it all here: nvaccess.org/post/in-process-7…

#NVDA #NVDAsr #ScreenReader #Accessibility #Support #CorporateGiving #VPAT #Blog #News #Newsletter

Naturally, the best thing to do was to try #Tapestry for myself. I added my Mastodon account and here's what I found:
1. Each post requires between 9 and 11 swipes to read with #VoiceOver. This can be reduced to 6 or 7 swipes per post in the collapsed timeline view, and 4 or 5 in the "mini" view. But the last of these doesn't include the text of posts.
2. Each post has three VoiceOver actions: the standard "Activate", "Open original", and "View details". "Activate" doesn't seem to do anything, "View details" opens a modal screen with similar info as on the timeline entry itself, and "Open original" opens the post on the Mastodon instance in a webview.
3. As you may've inferred from point number 2, you can't post, repost, reply, like, or bookmark from this app. You can mark a timeline entry, but that seems specific to the app and doesn't do anything on Mastodon.
4. There's a "Menu" button on each entry which has a few more buttons that aren't present as VoiceOver actions (e.g. "Translate" and "Share").

Right now, this is a no from me. The #accessibility is not good, and I can't really conceive an idea of reading my Mastodon timeline without interacting with any of the content in it.

This is an effort to make my career illegal.

“The new memo claims that it will target private sector DEIA initiatives for potential ‘criminal investigation.’”
archive.is/OSx8H

#a11y #accessibility

AGAIN, I must complain about bugs being camera shy! Every time you want to record them, they scuttle away as to not let you show evidence of their existence... 😤😡

#Accessibility Testing is hard.

🤔Is Google Lighthouse an industry accepted standard for assessing #accessibility?
❌No it's a tool that automates testing of a subset of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 Standard

30% auto testable
70% manual evaluation

Be wary when adding additional context only for #screenReader users. An example:

Say you're working on an e-commerce site, and some products have two prices to show how great a sale discount is. The before and after is made visually apparent via some aspect of text formatting, and you want to make it explicit for screen reader users too.

The first step is to ask if this is necessary. If a user encounters two consecutive prices and one is lower than the other, they may intuitively understand what's going on without any explicit signposting, and can verify how much they're gonna pay during the checkout process. Only your users can provide this verdict.

If it's determined that some additional context is helpful, you could format it as something like: "Was $14.99, now $8.99" (optionally swapping the prices). It's short and punchy in braille and speech, perfectly descriptive of the situation at hand, and mirrors how it may be spoken out loud on an ad.

Resist the temptation to go further than this. You do not need to say "original price: $14.99, current sale price: $8.99". This is much longer and more verbose, while adding nothing. It also implies that you think screen reader users need to be told what a price is and explained the concept of a sale, even though you're not doing so for other audiences.

You also don't need to spell out the word "dollars", format the price in words, repeat the product name, and so on. If you find yourself with screen-reader-only text like: "The current price of 500 Grams of Premium Oolong Tea was fourteen dollars and ninety-nine cents, and is now on sale for eight dollars and ninety-nine cents", it has gone way too far.

In short: Set out to identify the problems that actually need solving, and only solve those problems.

#accessibility

Does this seem like appropriate markup for a DHL notification email?

```
<div
aria-describedby="cke_126"
title="Rich Text Editor, GREETING"
aria-label="Rich Text Editor, GREETING"
role="textbox"
spellcheck="false"
tabindex="0"
id="GREETING"
>
Hello JAMES SCHOLES,
</div>
```

#accessibility

New post: “Which VoiceOver?”
adrianroselli.com/2025/02/whic…

Just because something behaves a certain way in VoiceOver doesn’t mean it behaves that way in VoiceOver.

#a11y #accessibility

Which VoiceOver?

You may have seen this as a thread on Mastodon (my primary social short-form platform) or on BlueSky. Imagine these as the opening to a series of conversations between a vendor or client or boss or PO or whomever and me.

^{Adrian Roselli}