Speaking of jumping ship, I store all my files in #Microsoft #OneDrive and would like to get rid of that dependency as I'm working to replace my workflow with #FLOSS tools where practical. Do y'all have recommendations for a #CloudStorage service which has reasonably #accessible clients for #ScreenReader users (I primarily use #Fedora Workstation 43 but also use #Windows 11, #Android, and #iOS), can sync to my local filesystem, and/or can appear in the #GNOME desktop File Manager? I'm not interested in self-hosting something like #Nextcloud, #OwnCloud, etc. Any suggestions or firsthand experiences would be greatly appreciated.

#FileStorage #accessibility #Blind #Linux #a11y

I have been notified about this #accessible text editor written in rust with a lot of interesting features.

github.com/Ambro86/Novapad/

GitHub - Ambro86/Novapad: Modern Notepad in Rust: read PDF/EPUB/DOCX, play MP3 audiobooks, create audiobooks with high-quality TTS, and manage bookmarks.

Modern Notepad in Rust: read PDF/EPUB/DOCX, play MP3 audiobooks, create audiobooks with high-quality TTS, and manage bookmarks. - Ambro86/Novapad

^GitHub

New Accessible Book and Document Reading app to try. This was posted by the developer on an email list I am on. Please pass it on... Hello everybody,

I’d like to share my new iPhone and iPad app I’ve just released: Vox Libri.

App Store link:
apps.apple.com/us/app/vox-libr…

Vox Libri is built to help people read books and documents in a flexible, personalized, and fully accessible way. It is designed to work well with VoiceOver and braille displays, and to support different reading preferences: on-screen reading, braille reading, or high-quality text-to-speech.

The interface is available in English and Spanish, and you can use any device-supported language for voices.

Key features include:
• High-quality text-to-speech for natural read-aloud.
• A braille reading mode compatible with braille displays.
• A highly customizable reading screen (font, size, colors, spacing, themes).
• Support for common formats: TXT, PDF, DOCX, RTF, HTML, Markdown, and EPUB.
• Accessible navigation through chapters, headings, pages, bookmarks, and sections.
• Hands-free reading using headphone controls.
• On-device AI translation, summarization, and simplification when supported by the device.

I am working in versions for MacOS and WatchOS…

If you try Vox Libri, I would sincerely appreciate any feedback from BlindApple users—especially around accessibility, braille workflows, navigation, and overall reading comfort.

Thank you and regards
Jonathan Chacón

#New #Accessible #Book #Document #Reader #Blind

Vox libri App - App Store

Download Vox libri by Jonatan Chacon Barbero on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more games like Vox libri.

^{App Store}

The similarities between #accessibility and #cybersecurity continue to amaze me.
These are both areas of standards, recommendations, legal precedents etc. that SHOULD, in theory, give companies the tools, as well as the insentive, to do what their clients/customers need them to do.
Is that the reality? Sadly, often, no it isn't. I just saw a renowned voice in the cybersecurity space repost a post that essentially states that if the infraction is cheaper/more lucrative than the fine, companies will choose the fine every single time. Frustrating, innit?

So what if I say the exact same thing is true for #accessibility and that the majority of GUI-based cybersecurity tools are not #accessible enough to be productive?

Here's a callout to #cybersecurity vendors. Are you going to fix this, or be a hypocrite? :) #tech

Thought: if #open, #federated, and #distributed solutions were the most #accessible solutions, people with disabilities would be some of the biggest allies in pushing adoption. I already constantly have to get my friends, co-workers, etc, to switch tools for me. If we're working or playing together, the tool needs to be accessible if I'm involved. But unfortunately, that's almost never the case, and I find myself having to force my friends to switch away from open tools and into closed ones:
* Jitsi meet doesn't offer captions or transcripts, and still had an unlabeled button or two last I checked. So I usually have to force people working with me to switch to Zoom.
* github is still more accessible than Forgejo and codeberg, even with the recent regressions. So I won't contribute to projects that aren't on github.
* None of the existing Matrix clients offer good accessibility; they either lag, have unlabeled controls, the message list won't scroll, messages won't read as they come in, etc. So I have to force people onto Slack or Discord.
* Neither Only Office or Next Cloud offer a web interface that works for collaboration with screen readers, so I have to force people to use Google Docs.
* Linux accessibility remains a joke compared to Windows or mac.

And on and on it goes. #opensource#fediverse#federation

So one thing I notice about #blind Internet culture: even back on Twitter, and now here in the #fediverse, blind people tend towards having discussions in giant threads, sometimes with as many as 10-12 people in them, that can often stretch on for days. I rarely (if ever) see sighted culture do this. I wonder why? It's not a criticism, it's just interesting to me. Maybe because Discord and other chat apps were historically less #accessible, so blind culture tends to use the fediverse more as a discussion platform? Or maybe it's something UI related that makes it easier for blind folks to track giant threads of doom? The few times I've been involved in this style of discussion with sighted folks, they've become confused and begged for everyone to move to Discord or Slack or somewhere. On the other hand, I rarely see blind people do a single, lengthy post broken up and threaded the way sighted people do, with (1/N) at the end. We tend to just move to instances with longer character limits, or put our long form thoughts on a webpage or something.

Edit to add: I'm pleased to say that this post has now become a perfect example of the thing I was talking about; my last post in the thread included the phrase "transsexual furry puppygirls". It makes me happy that people unfamiliar with what I'm talking about need do nothing more than look at the thread on this post.

How is the state of PDF #accessibility on macOS for #screenReader users? If I gave someone a PDF that was prepared in a fully #accessible way, what would they use to read it with #VoiceOver, and to what extent would the accessibility be retained?

Note that I'm specifically not interested in applications that strip out all of the text to essentially make a plain version. Those can be useful when you just need to read something and don't care how, but the degree to which accessible semantics like headings, tables, lists, etc. are kept at that point is usually zero.

I'm also not asking about applications that reinvent the accessibility for PDFs and ignore what's already there, as many browsers do.

In which I suggest an option for more #accessible command line output to an #openSource library maintainer, and they plus a community member implement it because they're gifts to the world.

github.com/BrianPugh/cyclopts/…

Disabling boxes/tables in help output

I was recently made aware of Cyclopts in this Mastodon post, and really like the look of it! However, I'm running into a bit of a blocker for my use case. I myself am a blind screen reader user, an...

^{jscholes (GitHub)}

"Accessible recruitment is more than a policy - it’s a way to ensure that every candidate can perform at their best, and each role is filled by the person
most capable of doing it."
tetralogical.com/blog/2025/08/…

#accessible #recruitment #accessibility #a11y

Accessible Recruitment - TetraLogical

Accessible recruitment is more than a policy - it’s a way to ensure that every candidate can perform at their best, and each role is filled by the person most capable of doing it.

^TetraLogical

#a11y Experts, I've a question:
How is the the state of #hidden #content support in 2025?
That seems outdated:
stevefaulkner.github.io/HTML5a…
I wish to display a list of words only for #screenreader users.

It will be the real text content for a canvas element (wordcloud). I hope, I can it make #accessible for #blind users.

Or is there a better way to provide the word list?

Maybe @SteveFaulkner@mastodon.social have an idea?

It's almost time for Global Accessibility Awareness Day and I can finally share my thesis in an accessible format 🎉

Due to the mandatory template used, the thesis PDF is not accessible. So there was no way I was going to share it with the world. It took a year, but I managed to create a website with an #accessible #version of the 160-pages thesis on #AccessibilityOverlays, and some additional content!

You can find it here: overlays.dnikub.dev ✨

Be part of the #accessibility resistance. Make your digital shit #accessible

etsy.com/uk/listing/1890790262…

Hi dear #OpenStreetMap -community! I made a #tagging #proposal to tag grab rails (aka grab bars, handrails, support brackets) in #wheelchair #accessible toilets and I'm searching feedback.

I'd appreciate your feedback: wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Pr…

So now that bit.ly is showing ads, if you need a URL shortener, #lynx is decent and #accessible and easy to host. And before you tell me that we don't need URL shorteners anymore and how they're a security risk, I need them for:
1. Business cards, slides, signs, and other physical objects that need a URL. While most phones can scan QR Codes, you can't read them out loud for #blind folks. If you're doing a presentation, "scan the QR code on screen" isn't good enough. You need to have a URL that you can speak and another human can remember. Yes, NFC is a thing, but it doesn't solve that problem.
2. Places that still don't allow URLs (LinkedIn) or where long URLs are awkward to work with (text-only emails, the terminal, etc.)
3. Times (like a phone call) where I need to tell someone a URL using the noises that come from my face-parts

Find it here: getlynx.dev/#a11y#bitly

Lynx

The sleek, powerful URL shortener you've been looking for.

^getlynx.dev