Alright. Here's how it is. Once you appoint yourself as gatekeeper, you become part of the problem. We as #disabled people have precious few allies as it is, without actively alienating the ones we have. You can stand up and offer to help, stand up and provide constructive feedback on how to improve, stand up and show appreciation, or just sit your ungrateful self down. Just stop. Thanks @stefan for raising awareness of #AltText. #blind #accessibility https://stefanbohacek.online/@stefan/112451222240570433

Stefan Bohacek

2024-05-16 14:24:39

So I've been called out for https://alttexthalloffame.org not being run by someone who's #blind or #VisionImpaired.

And that's fair. I'm very much open to anyone from those communities to get directly involved, so this is my public invitation.

Alt Text Hall of Fame - Alt Text Hall of Fame

What is alt text? Alternative text (or alt text, in short) is the text you can use to describe an image when you publish it on your website or social media.

^{Alt Text Hall of Fame}

So I've been called out for https://alttexthalloffame.org not being run by someone who's #blind or #VisionImpaired.

And that's fair. I'm very much open to anyone from those communities to get directly involved, so this is my public invitation.

Chromebooks already have great screen reading capabilities built in...

Awww Google, how cute of you. Great? Nope. Next time, remember. Nothing about us, **without us**. ChromeVox has barely been updated in *years*, just like VoiceOver for Mac, and Narrator. ChromeVox barely has any options for fine-tuning verbosity, keyboard commands, pronunciation, and some keyboard commands, like Search + Control + A for accessibility actions, aren't even well-documented. I should know. I had to use an Acer Spin 713 for a good 3 months as my primary laptop. So kindly stop talking, then ask, then act before you speak further.

"Updated keyboard shortcuts and first-letters navigation in Google Drive"...

First letters navigation? Come on. Any blind person can *tell* that this wasn't written by anyone who uses these technologies.

And nowhere in this article is anything new for ChromeVox. See? This is the kind of, frankly, bullshit that I hate on GAAD. Just shut your mouth and listen for once.

https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/global-accessibility-awareness-day-2024/

#Accessibility #blind #google #ChromeOS #Chromebook #ChromeVox #GAAD

How we’re building accessibility into our Chromebooks around the world

Read about our partnerships in Kenya that bring Chromebooks to low vision and blind children, and learn more about new Chromebook updates for Global Accessibility Awaren…

^{Sara Basson (Google)}

Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (#GAAD). Today, I want you to ask yourself, then act, *before* you speak. Do you have an app you're maintaining? Look at some #accessibility resources for the framework you use for the user interface. Do you know if it's accessible or not? If it's not accessible, are you doing anything about it? Do you tell disabled visitors to your app/site that it's not accessible, and give them a timeframe, if any, when it will be? Do you have a website? If so, do you know if it's accessible or not? Are you an artist of any kind? Is your media accessible? Are you a writer? If so, are the images in your book described with #AltText?

If you're a part of a company that has anything to do with accessibility, including proudly posting about it, do you have any disabled employees? If so, do you show them that they're appreciated? If not, why don't you have any? If you create art about people with disabilities, do you have disabled people take a look at it before you share it? If you write books that have images in them, have any disabled people checked to make sure the Alt-text makes sense, and that the book is accessible otherwise? If not, why not? And when you get disabled people to check out apps, books, sites for your professional needs, do you pay them for it?

Please do remember us on every other day of the year, but particularly today, please remember: nothing about us without us.

#blind #disabled #disabilities #access

I have been gifted with the promise of a #tattoo for my birthday. I have a good idea for said tattoo and would like a little bit of a head start on the #drawing of it. I turned to #AI #art generation to getthat head start. I fully plan to use this #AIGenerated picture to serve as a base model and work with either the tattoo #artist or someone else to get the final product. I am however beginning to get a little pissed off trying to actually use the AI to generate a picture. I tried Gemini and it tells me it can't do people like figures right now. I can't even find the method to use the image creator on #Bing, #adobeFirefly just gives me some error it won't explain. Last but not least because I'm using this as simply the base model and then going to almost certainly pay for the finished design I'd rather not have to dish out a month's worth of subscription to #OpenAI for access to their image creation model for this 1 picture.

If you've read this far, thank you for your paitience. I am wondering if anyone could give me some instruction on how to do this as a #blind user, which one you've had the most success with, and any other advice regarding the entire process. I have absolutely no intention of generating more than a couple of pictures like this and the only place that I plan to put them is on my body. That last part is why I want a base line model I generated, had vetted by a few sighted people, then talked through with the artist before any ink ever gets laid down.

There is no great rush but I am hoping to get the tattoo done before the heat of the summer really gets here. Thank you all in advance.

Question to #ScreenReader, #LowVision, #blind & #accessibility folks:

How do you feel about duplicate links in articles, blogs, whatever? Meaning: A certain word is a link (let's say "HEALTH") leading to an external website.

Would it annoy you if this word was always a link and it's mentioned for example 20 times in an article? Or would you rather have it only once to make it easier to scan for links?

Is there a related #wcag success criteria?

#WebDev #a11y #disability #frontend

Content warning: AI, video games, rant Click to open/close

Content warning: Airing some depression and dissatisfaction Click to open/close

Blind community:

Does anyone have experience with any of the following e-ticketing/customer service platforms?
Futura,
Zendesk or similar,
Shopify Plus.

If so, can you speak to the accessibility of these platforms? What should I be aware of, what is and isn't possible?

Thanks in advance.

#customerService #shopping #blind #accessability #a11y

Running #Debian #MATE now for a couple of weeks. Not fully switched to it yet but so far really likeing it as a #blind user. Yesterday I opened #LibreOffice Writer and was wondering about a few unlabled buttons in the printer dialogue.

Please dear devs: Every button needs a propper label. That is not just good for accessibility but should be considdered good work in general. And thanks for everyone who thinks and tries to make their work and the work of others accessible.

Sonos is considered a recommended speaker brand in the blind community.

Both because many blind people are audiophiles, and because their app is screen reader accessible.

However, Sonos is about to release a new version of their app and at the moment it looks like it will be practically unusable for the blind.

Screen reader users that will not prevent their devices from updating will lose access to the expensive hardware they have purchased.

https://mosen.org/sonos2024/

#accessibility #blind #sonos #IOS #android

It appears Sonos is about to become less useable by screen reader users. The CEO should stop it now, but here’s how to protect your investment if he doesn’t

What is Sonos? Sonos develop a series of high-quality smart speakers. They are known for their ability to stay in sync throughout your home when the speakers are grouped. Sonos speakers come in a r…

^{Mosen At Large}

Editted to fix link. Please boost for reach if this kind of stuff interests you. Will post more on this later.

Once upon a time, there was a cool emulator frontend called Retroarch. This emulator wasn't accessible until I and a few other gamers went to them and asked about adding accessibility. An amazing person known as BarryR made it happen. Now, if you turn on accessibility mode in settings, or pass the "--accessibility" (or something like that) flag on the command line, you get spoken menus, including the emulator's pause menu, good for saving states and such. Then, using PIL and other image processing Python utilities, running a server and hooking into Retroarch, the script allowed players to move around the map, battle, talk to NPC's, ETC. The only problem was, no one wanted to test it. The blind gaming community pretty much spoke, saying that we want new games. We want cool new, easy accessibility. So that's what we have no, follow the beacon or get sighted help in the case of diablo and such. It's sad, but meh. It's what we wanted I guess. No Zelda for us. So, this is about as far as he got:

To expand on what devinprater was saying: I am working on an accessibility pack/service for Final Fantasy 1 for the NES (this was what was shown in the latest RetroArch update). The idea is similar to how Pokemon Crystal access works, but it's using the RetroArch AI Service interface to do so.
Right now, the FF1 access service is mostly done, but I need more testers to try it out and give me feedback on how it's working. Right now, you can get up to the point where you get the ship, but there's no code to deal with how the ship moves, so that still needs to be done. Likewise with the airship later on.
The service works the latest version of RetroArch, on linux and mac, but not windows. This is due to how nvda reads out the text and until the next major update to nvda (which will have a feature to fix this), it'll have to wait. If you have those, I (or maybe devinprater) can help you set it up on mac/linux to test out. The package itself is available at: (new link cause old one broke yesterday): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ggffl769fx6igz15zco6u/ff1_package5b.zip?rlkey=fnahnj272fd5jfs8dvkp7541f&dl=1
#accessibility #finalFantasy #RetroArch #blind #emulator #emulation #Python #ai #ML #MachineLearning

Top Tech Tidbits for Thursday, May 2, 2024 - Volume 961
https://toptechtidbits.com/tidbits2024/05022024/

The Week's News in Access Technology
A Mind Vault Solutions, Ltd. Publication
#news #technology #accessibility #a11y #disability #blind #deaf #deafblind #toptechtidbits

Top Tech Tidbits. The world's #1 online resource for current news and trends in access technology.

Subscribers: 17,060 Opt-In Subscribers were sent this issue via email. 170 Premium Subscribers were sent this issue via email.

Thank you to everyone who have boosted, and thank you to the people who have taken the time to 💟the feature requests.

Before the hearts were still in the single digits, and now its closer to 20. This is good, but it's not enough for it to get attention.

Please boost this post, and please 💟 the #obsidian feature requests for #screenreader support, essential for #blind and #partiallysighted users.

https://forum.obsidian.md/t/accessibility-label-input-elements-to-assist-with-screen-readers/71444

https://forum.obsidian.md/t/accessibility-obsidian-with-screen-readers/19669

#accessibility #pleaseboost

Accessibility: Label input elements to assist with screen readers

This was an accessibility feature request submitted by email. Adding to the forum for multi-user feedback. Use case or problem I have encountered significant accessibility issues as a blind user, particularly with the Android version of the app.

^{Obsidian Forum}

Bundesweites Pilotprojekt: Informationen zu Stimmzettelinhalten auch barrierefrei im Internet und telefonisch

Zur Europawahl 2024 startet der DBSV ein Pilotprojekt. Erstmals besteht bundesweit zusätzlich die Möglichkeit, Informationen zu den Stimmzettelinhalten barrierefrei im Internet zu erhalten (www.dbsv.org/wahlen). Ebenfalls neu ist die Option, diese Informationen gebührenfrei unter der Telefonnummer 0800 00 09 67 10 abzurufen.

#europawahl2024 #blind danke @DBSV #pressemeldung

You know, one thing I really do like about Android, Pixel works but IDK about others. When you turn off the stupid, awful, frustrating bullcrap where you have to tell your phone to "stop", shouting over the alarm to be heard... You can then double tap with two fingers, with TalkBack, to immediately stop the alarm. No need to swipe to the stop button and double tap.

Of course, just like a lot of things in Android, the Double Tap with two fingers just sends the "play/pause" signal, so it's not really a Magic Tap that apps can really make do interesting things, like how in DiceWorld on iOS, you can Magic Tap (double tap with two fingers), to roll the dice without needing to find that button each time. Stuff like that, in apps, is really nice.

Another issue with Android is the way apps handle speech; they almost always just send output of ongoing things, like live OCR results and such, to the system TTS engine instead of TalkBack. This is mainly because that's how it's always been done, but now that Braille is an option, I really hope developers start just sending announcements directly to TalkBack. On iOS, for example, I can play DiceWorld completely in Braille because it sends all announcements to VoiceOver, and not the TTS engine. See, Android has been all about speech at all cost, coming from the days of the Eyes-free shell since TalkBack couldn't use the touch screen yet. iOS, I think, has always let apps send content to VoiceOver, so it can read whatever the dev needs it to, and thus also shows up in Braille, can easily be interupted, all that.

Just some early morning thoughts, don't come at me.

#accessibility #blind #android #iOS #TTS #VoiceOver #TalkBack

I'm quite annoyed that ollama folks thought it is an absolutely brilliant idea to use braille dots to make a fancy progress bar for *everything*.

Grabbing a model? You'll have that spamming the screen reader. Chatting? The same.

No, I absolutely don't find it enjoyable to get told something along the lines of,
braille dot 1 3 6 braille dot 4 2 5 braille dot 6 8 3 hello, braille dot 3 5 6 braille dot 4 5 6 how braille dot 1 2 3 are you today?

People. Just stop with the braille dots for fancy progress bar. Just stop it right there and get rid of this, right now.

#accessibility #blind #fail #rant

If you're #blind, #VisuallyImpaired, or otherwise rely on #AssistiveTecnhologies and #AltText, your thoughts on this proposal to temporarily disable images across the fediverse to highlight the importance of well-written image descriptions would be very much appreciated.

https://social.coop/@dynamic/112349215483683893

Please boost the original post for reach!

#accessibility #a11y

Please Help Make #PKM and #obsidian accessible to #blind and #partiallysighted users!

If you haven't already, please #boost this post and 💟 these feature requests:
- https://forum.obsidian.md/t/accessibility-label-input-elements-to-assist-with-screen-readers/71444
- https://forum.obsidian.md/t/accessibility-obsidian-with-screen-readers/19669

#accessibility #pleaseboost

Accessibility: Label input elements to assist with screen readers

This was an accessibility feature request submitted by email. Adding to the forum for multi-user feedback. Use case or problem I have encountered significant accessibility issues as a blind user, particularly with the Android version of the app.

^{Obsidian Forum}

I really appreciate the boosts regarding this important #accessibility issue within the #pkm community.

If you use #ObsidianMD please 💟 these feature requests and make #obsidian usable for #blind and #partiallysighted users.

- https://forum.obsidian.md/t/accessibility-label-input-elements-to-assist-with-screen-readers/71444
-https://forum.obsidian.md/t/accessibility-label-input-elements-to-assist-with-screen-readers/71444

You might have your sight now, but what if you lost it one day? How would you cope without screen reader support?

#boost #pleaseboost

Accessibility: Label input elements to assist with screen readers

This was an accessibility feature request submitted by email. Adding to the forum for multi-user feedback. Use case or problem I have encountered significant accessibility issues as a blind user, particularly with the Android version of the app.

^{Obsidian Forum}

Content warning: Question, Android accessibility Click to open/close

@pvagner@fedi.ml
I've read your reply to @WestphalDenn@social.cologne questions about working with #Gnome on #Linux. Thanx for your insights!

What interests me:
Is the #Electron#Desktop#App#Element for #Matrix#Chat accessible for #blind#users? You use it?

#a11y#Acessiblity

On Tech Talk this week, I had a great conversation with Troy Otilio from @AiraVI about their new Access AI feature, which has recently been released as a beta in the Aira Explorer app. We spoke about where this feature came from, the impact the use of AI has on privacy, and so much more about AI and Aira in general. Have a listen here or wherever you get your podcasts

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/rnib-tech-talk/id1151878596?i=1000652615215

@rnib #aira #AccessAI #AI #chatGPT #gemini #blind #accessibility #podcast

‎RNIB Tech Talk: Tech Talk 508: Access AI, WelcoMe In Currys, RNIB Gamer Survey on Apple Podcasts

‎Show RNIB Tech Talk, Ep Tech Talk 508: Access AI, WelcoMe In Currys, RNIB Gamer Survey - 16 Apr 2024

^{Apple Podcasts}