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}

If you want to be really cool, you could try typing "@Gemini” followed by the prompt in your Chrome's address bar. See what you get back!

You are welcome!

#AI #accessibility #UX

Hi friends,

The http://alt-text.org alt text library project needs a new leader, I have brain cancer.

I built a working, scalable, proof of concept library of shared alt text with fuzzy matching.

I'd like to connect with the #accessibility dev community. I want to hand the project off to a team or a leader if anyone is willing to take it over.

Github: https://github.com/alt-text-org
WIP MVP: a site designed for writing alt text with a private library: https://my.alt-text.org

Boosts appreciated

alt-text-org

alt-text-org has 11 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub.

^GitHub

A few extra seconds of your time it takes to add a good image description can really improve someone's day.

"To a totally blind person like me it means a lot to have a picture in my mind of your images, especially the animal pics."

"I don't know what it is, but as a blind user it's making me emotional to be able to actually interact with content."

https://alttexthalloffame.org

#accessibility #a11y #AltText #ImageDescriptions

Microsoft’s #Accessibility Fundamentals learning path is now free for everyone

https://blogs.microsoft.com/accessibility/accessibility-training-at-microsoft/

Accessibility Training at Microsoft - Microsoft Accessibility Blog

^{ericazelmanowicz (Microsoft Accessibility Blog)}

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

I keep forgetting to mention that I am doing a workshop at #AccessU in a couple weeks:
https://knowbility.org/programs/accessu-2024/prototyping-accessibility

107 slides (so far), 4 group exercises, 3 hours, pencil and/or paper.

#accessibility #a11y

#SocialCoop has been discussing whether to disable images on May 16 and October 10 for #WorldSightDay, as suggested here https://stefanbohacek.online/@stefan/112275637561897034.

One concern raised about this proposal is that it is symbolic and might not do anything to improve the lives of people with visual impairments.

I would like to hear perspectives from people with visual impairments on whether this kind of action is helpful.

(boosts welcome; please only reply if you rely on alt text)

#accessibility
#a11y
#AltText

Stefan Bohacek (@stefan@stefanbohacek.online)

Attached: 1 image In solidarity with the blind and vision-impaired community, I propose that twice a year, on the World Sight Day and the Global Accessibility Awareness Day, fediverse admins disable images on their servers to highlight the importanc…

^{Stefan's Personal Mastodon Server}

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}

Even if you don't code, this is essay presents a solid case on why #AI can't be relied on to replace work requiring any degree of empathy and nuanced understanding

Specifically, if you're building accessible web-based experiences, @hdv explains why "outsourcing" this work create more harm than good and offers some better alternatives to focus on instead (hint: invest in a #DesignSystem)

#accessibility #a11y #InclusiveDesign

https://hidde.blog/ai-for-accessible-components/

“AI” and accessible front-end components: is the nuance generatable?

Are LLMs helpful tools to assist with making accessible front-end components? Let's find out.

^{Hidde's blog}

Are Microsoft and Adobe really the only ones making software that can create #accessible tagged PDFs?

I would rather not use either of them!

Please boost this question 🔁

I can't find any alternatives :(

#accessibility

I am constantly amazed at all the ways we continue to allow religious institutions to directly impact the function of our democracy despite the Establishment Clause essentially telling us to maybe not:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/04/churches-polling-places-ada-inaccessible-disability-voting-rights/

via:
https://researchbuzz.masto.host/@researchbuzz/112325960514198137

#accessibility #democracy

Churches don't have to be accessible. That's a voting rights problem.

In 2024, millions of people will vote at religious sites. What if you're disabled?

^{Mother Jones}

Content warning: slightly disturbing blurry images in a captcha Click to open/close

Welcome to our famously inclusive CAPTCHA! Please click on all objects that induce the most nausea in several of our users but none of our robots.

(yes this is a real screenshot of hCaptcha. I think that since squids and lobsters are both found at markets, the CAPTCHA generated a cursed squid-lobster).

Explanation: harder CAPTCHAs like these require users to focus on each image and think a little more than others. Focusing on a blurry image with contents that are hard to identify is a nausea trigger for a lot of people. #Accessibility

Welcome to our newest GNOME Foundation member @eeejay 🎉

Eitan has been involved in Linux/GNOME accessibility for 20 years and is on the Mozilla accessibility team.

In the past he created Accerciser, and contributed to Orca as well as Telepathy.

Eitan makes Spiel; a speech framework for the freedesktop.

https://project-spiel.org/

I heard you might be able to catch him at GUADEC in Denver this year.

#GNOME #Linux #Mozilla #accessibility

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}

Just checked and yes, the screen reader is still broken in Fedora 40. (Cannot be controlled; keyboard shortcuts/modifier key doesn’t work.)

So this is yet another release where the screen reader is broken by default.

It’s amazing to me that this is not a showstopper.

#accessibility #a11y #fedora40 #fedora #linux

Slides from my Notes on synthetic speech talk at #GAconf today:
https://decks.tink.uk/2024.html

And the original blog post from 2021:
https://tink.uk/notes-on-synthetic-speech/

#accessibility #a11y #gaming

Starting with version 3.1.12, #pandoc-generated #EPUBs conform to the EU Accessibility Act. https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-a11y-eaa-mapping/

Relevant metadata fields are listed in the "EPUB metadata" section of the manual: https://pandoc.org/MANUAL#epub-metadata.

#accessibility #A11y

A little accessible and inclusive content creation hot tip:

Instead of just linking directly to xkcd, consider linking to the relevant entry on https://explainxkcd.com instead (or as well as linking to xkcd).

There, each xkcd comic has a full, descriptive transcript, and the hover text is printed as plain text, making the comic much more accessible for your blind (or otherwise screenreader-using) followers and for mobile users alike.

Plus, the joke explanations are helpful!

#accessibility

Remember these guys? They were the ones who, when approached, said #accessibility wasn’t a high priority on their road map. So, bye bye. Post News, the a16z-funded Twitter alternative, is shutting down

https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/19/post-news-the-a16z-funded-twitter-alternative-is-shutting-down/