I'm sure everyone who wants to know about this already does but, just in case anyone has, particularly if #blind or #DeafBlind, been looking for a local method of converting speech to text ... Whisper is an ML model from OpenAI which allows doing that. It can be used accessibly with all screen readers on Windows. Obviously, this is great for those of us with impaired hearing, it is certainly far more accurate than any of the speech to text programs I've seen, needs no training, and can handle background noise quite well. The audio duration limits are set by your hard drive space and the amount of time you're willing to put into transcription, I've transcribed several hours of audio without difficulty, it just takes time. It's available on Windows using https://github.com/Softcatala/whisper-ctranslate2 which just seems to need python. A GPU makes it faster, but it's usable on an I5 CPU. The model is also available online at https://freesubtitles.ai though that requires payment or waiting for long periods to transcribe limited amounts of audio. Thanks to @Bryn@mindly.social for the pointer at whisper-ctranslate2. #whisper #SpeechToText

This week's blog post is out! Featuring the Helen Keller Services AccessAbility awards, NV Access are hiring, RBlind on Lemmy, the Blind Accessible Research & Exploration Jam on Itch.io, and a walkthrough of #NVDA #Braille settings. Happy #DeafBlind awareness week! https://www.nvaccess.org/post/in-process-30th-june-2023/

“I can get my bank statement or a gas bill in accessible formats, but yet I still receive health information that I can’t read. What could be more personal than your health status?” So true! #accessibility #communication #blind #deafblind #disability @disability | Blind people at risk due to ‘inaccessible’ health information from NHS, charity warns | The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/blind-people-risk-nhs-rnib-b2339503.html

Just learned about this really cool theme park in Texas specifically designed for kids with disabilities. Apparently this guy was having tons of trouble finding a theme park able to accommodate his daughter Morgan who has multiple disabilities. Eventually, he soled his successful business and spent $50,000,000 to build his own.
It's got 25 different attractions, tons of events, thousands of positive reviews ETC.
https://morganswonderland.com
#accessibility #A11Y #disability #blind #VisionImpaired #VisuallyImpaired #Deaf #DeafBlind #Autistic #Autism #CerebralPalsy #Wheelchair #WheelchairUser #ThemePark #ThemeParks