I'm surprised a startup hasn't attempted to release a screen reader with all kinds of ML buzwords. "Our AI uses our proprietary ML algorithm to classify custom controls! No need for extra work from app developers!" #blind #accessibility #a11y

Day 74. When presenting a UI component that overlays the existing UI, you may have found that VoiceOver starts to randomly jump between the overlaid UI and the elements underneath. To avoid that, you can set its accessibilityViewIsModal to true.

#365DaysIOSAccessibility

#accessibility #iOSDev

Day 75. Even when setting a view as modal for accessibility, you may notice that VoiceOver's focus stays in the same place, instead of moving to the presented view. You can post a screen changed notification and pass the view that should get the focus.

#365DaysIOSAccessibility

#accessibility #iOSDev

I have downloaded #Ubuntu 22.04 and made a bootable USB image of the distro. I will "Try Ubuntu" in the morning from the Live Image to see if the installer is accessible or not with a braille display.

I would prefer to be able to install the distro myself without sighted assistance, just like I can with #Debian and #Arch Linux using only a refreshable braille display. I have no speech recognition so I am unable to hear Orca speak.

#Linux #Accessibility #a11y

How good of Windows 11 not to let me use my SAPI 5 voices that I purchased and installed.

#accessibility

A warm welcome to Blind Android Users, now on Mastodon at

@blindandroiduserspodcast

Every week they release a podcast with news, information, guides and a few laughs.
#blind #lowvision #accessibility #android

Just got home to find that, ah yes the Windows PC has restarted yet again, and oh hey lookie just a few steps and I can use my PC again! Windows Hello, which was already set up with a PIN, and are you sure you don't wanna switch back to Microsoft Edge? Huh? What? You don't? Well you have to click the skip button cause the other one is dimmed and hope it won't choose something without you knowing haha. And did you know your PC is better with Microsoft 365? You did? You know you have it already? Oh good. Well you're ready to go! Enjoy!

Thanks Microsoft, I hate it. I wish I could be like all the sighted techies out there that can just pop in a flash drive with Fedora Linux on it, set it up, and not even have to learn that much of a new interface and how to do things. Or one of the less techie people out there that open up a MacBook and click the Internet icon and when you ask them how it is they strug and go "Well I mean it's just a computer."

#accessibility #windows #linux #mac #blind #a11y

Watching a presentation on accessibility work by an accessibility consulting firm. The final slide is a QR code for a survey.

Someone asks for the link; they make some outlandish claim about not being able to see the code to scan it on their phone.

They get told to go look through all of the documentation, to find the 40 row table that has the link “somewhere on the right side”.

Now that's what I call #accessibility #inclusion

“I’ll repeat this until I’m hoarse, but the apps that best support #accessibility features for disabled people invariably are also the most usable for everyone.” — @gruber https://daringfireball.net/linked/2023/01/25/twitterrific-accessibility

So Aira should have done this instead of hiding things from the beginning.

Envision announces new glasses and different pricing models. The clarity of this announcement is fantastic.

https://www.letsenvision.com/blog/envision-glasses-editions-launch

#accessibility #blind #AI

To me, the root of all digital accessibility is the operating system. A lot of people ask me why I have 3 computers. No, I’m not rich, two of them were bought for me. The reason is that Windows, MacOS, and ChromeOS all have different accessibility stacks, three different philosophies of how accessibility and screen readers should work, and different things that accessibility stack and screen reader(s) are good at.

For example, the Mac uses object navigation for everything within VoiceOver. Everything is an object, and you navigate mostly with the VoiceOver keys and sometimes you can get away with using Tab. On Windows, you primarily use Windows navigation commands, with Windows screen readers speaking any needed info. The Mac, to me, is great at writing, and email, because because it has good writing apps, and a good mail client built in. Windows is great for web navigation and games, and writing if you like Microsoft Word. The ChromeBook is good for Android apps and Linux kinda and that’s about it for me. Everything else, web, Windows can do a bit better.

#accessibility #blind #operatingSystems #screenReaders #a11y

@devinprater @rowdyamerican when I was messing around with Android full-time, I was surprised at the number of apps that were immediately accessible. Wonder if that's still the case. one thing I really like about iOS, is the broad range of #Developers who are on board with #accessibility within their apps. That degree of camaraderie is one of the truly special aspects to iOS for me.

@devinprater @rowdyamerican I do think this year is going to see me picking up an Android device, and a Windows machine, I have never been a loyalist to all things Apple, but rather whichever tool does the best job for whatever I'm up against at any given time. The fact is that #accessibility and #productivity improvements are being made in the Android and Windows spaces, and sitting on my Apple laurels will only see me missing out on all that. Besides, as a #TechInstructor, keeping current regardless of platform is an absolute must.

I'm in a hotel room with a visual-audible doorbell. Twice staff has come and knocked instead of used the doorbell. It's both good and bad. Here's why I'm grateful they're not using the doorbell.

Don't watch if flickering lights are a problem.

Can't upload captions. Here they are.

[Silence]

[Shrilling]



[Silence]#Accessibility #A11y #UX

Content warning: Not safe for Apple users Reveal/hide

Why you should absolutely caption your videos

Even if you don't care about #accessibility

Great video from Vox..the bottom line:

* audio is engineered for huge theaters, not out typical devices

* standard speakers on phones and modern TVs are terrible

* actors don't do audio like they did in the "good old days".

... And you should still absolutely do captions for accessibility.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sbdavis_why-we-all-need-subtitles-now-activity-7023362192037056512--tL0

Social Media Accessibility Toolkit: https://digital.gov/resources/federal-social-media-accessibility-toolkit-hackpad/ by US Gov #egov #SM #SocialMedia #a11y #accessibility #tools #tips

At last Tusker is now out on the Apple AppStore! If you are looking for something to replace MetaText or want a simple and easy Mastodon client for your iOS device. Tusker is for you and the best part is that its FREE! Thank you #Tusker for your hard work and making this an accessible Mastodon client for VoiceOver users. Easy to use and great for beginners and advance users alike. #accessibility #a11y #ios
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tusker/id1498334597

Content warning: Intro post. Screen reader users, careful, loads of hashtags. Reveal/hide

So I don't know just how widespread this issue is, but I read on a mailing list that in the new iOS 16.3, there's a Braille bug where if you open the notification center, with Space with dots 4-6, your Braille display disconnects from the phone. I can't tell you how insulting this bug is. Opening the notification center is something a person does on their phone tons of times per day. Any kind of quality control could have caught this bug. And yet, here we are. And it makes me so glad that, whether Google has a blind person sitting there testing every build or not, that TalkBack's new Braille support is pretty damn solid. No, it doesn't have the turn pages while panning, or automatic panning, or showing equations in Nemeth code, or even Grade 2 US/UK Braille, although it does have Unified Grade 1 and 2 Braille. But shoot at least it doesn't have iOS-level slap-in-the-face bugs.

#iOS #accessibility #blind #Android #iPhone #a11y

Birdability: help crowdsource accessible birding trails, learn how to be an inclusive birder so birding can be for every body

https://www.birdability.org/

#birding #disabilty #accessibility #a11y

Content warning: Long intro Reveal/hide

Is MATE still the most accessible desktop on #Linux for screen reader users? #Accessibility #a11y

Dear lazyweb, what's the accessible way to model a switch/toggle component with multiple states?

I'm currently leaning towards making it a radio button group, but I feel like that might also require the toggle not to take effect until a form is submitted?

#lazyweb #a11y #accessibility #aria

Happy day! @semaphore has been released, which is a fork of #Pinafore with special care to #Accessibility and works well, from what I can tell!

Equipment failure like this happens all the time to #AudioDescription consumers, and the reasons given by filmmakers who refuse to provide #accessibility are basically the same too. I commend @MarleeMatlin and her fellow jurors for walking out of @SunDanceFest. https://variety.com/2023/film/news/sundance-jury-walks-out-magazine-dreams-premiere-festival-marlee-matlin-captioning-1235497789/ #Disability #Allyship

It has happened!! @nickcolley has released @semaphore, the successor to #Pinafore, an #Accessible #Mastodon client.

For more information, check: https://fosstodon.org/@semaphore/109732196442356646

#Accessibility #A11y #Semaphore

I know of at least one person who was affected. They were in an #accessibility analyst role. Were #a11y teams hit hard by these layoffs?

RT @notnotpreston@twitter.com

Anyone hear if accessibility personnel have been part of these mass tech layoffs? Only one I’ve heard was the Twitter team of course.

Day 67. Custom actions work as great on Switch Control as they do in VoiceOver. It makes navigation much faster and you’ll be able to find all those custom actions in the Switch Control menu.

For those unfamiliar with Switch Control, I recommend watching this video from Todd Stabelfeldt explaining how he uses it at WWDC 2017. I was lucky enough to be there in the audience! I actually recommend watching the whole talk!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=kj9UodcwIes

#365DaysIOSAccessibility

#accessibility #iOSDev

Currently pouring over a sample exam sheet set for Finnish highschool students in German as foreign language in 2020 to assess the accessibility of the exam solution. It's got everything an accessible test needs: a table of contents, a good heading structure, native HTML 5 media player with almost perfect accessibility, native controls such as radio buttons and edit fields to give the answers.
The students were to pass the test by connecting their computers with an Ethernet cable to the examination machine running a special OS, presumably a fork of Debian. The test was taken by tunneling into the examination machine through the web browser and handling the exam in an accessible HTML from there.
Sadly, the audio recordings for the listening part do not seem to be available. Pity, as they reference Whatsapp voice messages. Would be fun to check for their authenticity based on the sound quality.
On that note: Do language exams in your countries reference modern communication methods or is it still a telephone? When I took my final in German, "Social media: pros and cons" was just a subject of the mini essay I had to put together as part of the writing assignment.
https://web.archive.org/web/20200121222502/https://digabi.github.io/exam-engine/SC/fi-FI/koe.html
#Accessibility #Blind #Finland #Education #Languages #German

Presentation matters, even in accessibility. Does the voice your OS/app/game use sound boring? Your users will be bored, Microsoft. OneCore voices, not the new ones in Narrator, sound boring. People fall asleep to that. Does your UI not have any distinguishing features? Screen reader users are not going to be stimulated by that. When a dialog pops up, give us a popup sound. If a user is writing and makes a spelling error, give us a buzz or beep. Did text get autocorrected? Let us know. There are so much that hasn’t been explored with sound. Even Linux is all about the visual these days. And yes, I know not all blind people want this. So make it a toggle, with groups of sounds or individual sounds.

#a11y #accessibility #UX #UI

@devinprater Oh, I don't know; the sign in UI in the latest GNONE might be even worse. If you rely on #accessibility tools like Orca, you're also likely to get "panel panel panel" as you navigate rather than any useful information. Linux on the desktop is a major shit show right now.

Okay am I just going crazy, or has MacOS gotten a little better over the past like 3 months? Like I’ve been using it for just about everything besides heavy web browsing, and it's been pretty good. Makes me almost want to get back into the Apple ecosystem, whenever iOS’ bugs upon bugs are a bit more exterminated. Shoot maybe I’m just crazy. But Windows just, ugh the way when a lot of notifications come in, focus is just stolen out from wherever you were and put into a blank space, like that infuriates me. Oh and the Mac Mail app being a lot nicer than Gmail’s web app. Like it's totally first-world problems, and I could live on Windows, but my goodness it gets on my nerves a lot. Lol meanwhile Android gets even more smooth with every TalkBack update. Tech companies’ attention to accessibility waxes and wanes, I guess. All this was typed on the new, more quick, TalkBack Braille Keyboard. Although I still can't type smiley faces though.

#a11y #apple #accessibility #android #windows

Q: can screen readers read the international phonetic alphabet (IPA)?

#Accessibility

#Accessibility Acceptance Criteria - Automatically generate test cases for Web, iOS and Android components https://www.magentaa11y.com/ by T-Mobile's Accessibility Resource Center #a11y #agile

#accessibility hive mind, I turn to you with hat in hand. I need a way to describe a web address in a web page with no anchor tag or href. It's just typed in the middle of a block of text. Is there a technical term for that?

#a11y (for more visibility)