I just received Testflight invitation for @surf application. And discovered that VoiceOver, assistive tech for blind people, does not read anything. Just says "bottom sheet" twice, and the app's name, then NOTHING. I hope they fix this mess, because this all means cutting blind people off. I won't keep silent in front of yet another accessibility issue. #ableism #accessibility #blind #inclusion #disability #voiceover #fediverse
accessibility
"Using a mobility aid is not “giving up.“
Using a shower bench is not “lazy.”
Using a ramp is not for “disabled people only.”
Normalizing and not shaming people for using accessibility features reduces the stigma surrounding them. "- Misa on Wheels
#Disability #HumanRights #Poverty #Technology #Cinema #Accessibility
if you are under 30 years old and picking a font size for something other people need to read, not just yourself: that’s too small. still too small. A LITTLE BIGGER
🚨 The Hands Off! protests are tomorrow, Saturday, April 5 🚨
Find one near you -
https://www.mobilize.us/handsoff/
Can't attend in person? There's a virtual event:
"Hands Off! Disabled Community Fights Back"
2 - 4 PM Pacific Time
Virtual Event
Join from anywhere!
https://www.mobilize.us/handsoff/event/770700/
#USpol #HandsOff #Protest #Resist #Virtual #Disabled #Disability #Accessibility
Today I broke an #accessibility feature on my site, and turned off #audio for UK users.
Everyone else can listen as usual. UK users cannot.
You can still read the text. But you can't hear the #accessible version.
This is the Online Safety Act: https://www.girlonthenet.com/osa/
Pls share
Ever since I saw @klemensstrasser have support for the OpenDyslexic font in @studysnacksapp I’ve been meaning to do the same.
I was really worried about breaking the layout of some Views.
Seeing @hidde do it made me decide to just start.
Making good progress!
Right. Enough suspense.
This merge request makes it official. https://invent.kde.org/websites/ev-kde-org/-/merge_requests/145
I've joined up with @kde as an Accessibility Engineer.
You know *exactly* what that means, and yes - the coffee and C++ muscle memory is ready.
Hello, #KDE community :)
New POUR tees just dropped!
The four principles of WCAG, plus more. You can pay money for them (3 day sale)!
Available in black or white, set in Neue Helvetica Heavy or Atkinson Hyperlegible. You can choose shirt colors.
Black Helvetica:
https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/73535251-pourpn-helvetica-black-text
Thank you to Eli and our accessibility team for sharing tips about #accessibility of presentations! #DjangoConEurope
Happy Global Accessibility Awareness Day! A fitting occasion to announce Django’s new accessibility statement ✨ https://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2025/may/15/our-new-accessibility-statement/
This statement improves transparency, directly linking to known issues in Django. It clearly states our intentions. And we hope it encourages our community and the industry at large to more widely consider accessibility!
I woke up to a comment so smug, so perfectly soaked in gatekeeping and faux-righteous posturing, it earned its own blog post.
You want freedom? You want GNU/Linux to mean something?
Then maybe start by not telling disabled users to go fuck themselves with a smile.
This commenter thought they were defending "software freedom." What they were really doing was kicking people out of the room. Dismissing accessibility. Mocking effort. Pretending that cruelty is some kind of rite of passage. They quoted Stallman like it was scripture, ignored real-world experience like it was noise, and wrapped it all in condescension dressed as virtue.
I’ve spent over a decade in this ecosystem. Writing patches. Rebuilding broken stacks. Helping blind users boot systems upstream doesn’t even test. I didn’t "just install Arch and whine about the terminal." I lived in it. I survived it. I held it together when maintainers disappeared and no one else gave a damn.
But apparently, because I didn’t call it GNU/Linux™ and because I dared to talk about how this OS chews people up and spits them out, I’m lazy. I’m weak. I should "get a dog."
So I wrote a response. Line by line. No mercy. No euphemisms.
This isn’t just about one comment. This is about every time someone’s been told they don’t belong because they couldn’t learn fast enough, code well enough, or survive long enough. It’s about everyone who was pushed out while the gatekeepers patted themselves on the back for "preserving the spirit of free software."
You want a free system? Start by making it livable. Because freedom that demands you crawl bleeding through a broken bootloader isn’t freedom. It’s abandonment dressed in ideology.
And if this kind of gatekeeping is your idea of community?
You can keep it.
https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/you-dont-own-the-word-freedom-a-full-burn-response-to-the-gnulinux-comment-that-tried-to-gatekeep-me-off-my-own-machine/
#Linux #GNU #FOSS #Accessibility #BlindTech #FreeSoftware #Gatekeeping #DisabilityInTech #OpenSource #Orca #ScreenReaders #ArchLinux #BurnItDown #blogpost
As someone who has developed several #ActivityPub software implementations (Fedify, Hollo, BotKit, and Hackers' Pub), I believe one of the most frustrating features to implement in the #fediverse is #custom_emoji.
The challenges are numerous:
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
For Global Accessibility Awareness Day we are launching a new settings page that lists all of your media without alt text, so you can easily update any missing alt text in a single, easy to remember place.
You can also enable the Require Media Descriptions setting in Settings -> Media.
Today is the Global Accessibility Awareness Day - and so Apple sat down with me to talk about how I build truly accessible apps. 🦾
The interview is now live on the *front page* of the App Store 🥹
Fellow disabled players! 👋
For research: What were the most toxic comments you had to experience when talking about game accessibility on social media? Please feel free to DM me or flag your response with a CW, so that others don't have to read it and become retraumatised.
#GameDev #Accessibility #Disability
Legally blind Strange New Worlds actor Bruce Horak (Hemmer) had news earlier this spring that I somehow missed:
- a crowdfunded documentary is being made about his ‘Boldly going’ as a disabled actor and visual artist
- he met with William Shatner, who has agreed for Bruce to paint his portrait. (Bruce paints as he sees with his very limited vision in one eye.)
Here’s a report from CTV from his hometown of Calgary filed in March.
“And he says he’s an example of how DEI works – for everyone.
“When you design for disability, everyone benefits,” he said, pointing out that phone texting started as something to assist the hearing-impaired and now it’s for everyone.”
#StarTrek #Disability #Blind #Accessibility @zora #StarTrekSNW #StrangeNewWorlds #BruceHorak #Shatner
Finding it too hard to describe images you're posting online?
It's okay, you don't have to overthink it! Write how you'd describe the image to a friend over the phone.
Still having trouble? Tag your post with the "Alt4Me" hashtag, and someone will be happy to help you out!
Edited 94d ago
Peeking through the Liquid Glass: From usability to branding, we explore what Liquid Glass means for designers and developers in our latest post.
https://blog.iconfactory.com/2025/06/peeking-through-the-liquid-glass/
Edited 90d ago
As usual, another dumb implementation in #FinTech #Philippines scene.A certain №1 (or №2?) #bank is now blocking #Android #accessibility features tagged as "Compromised device". 🤦🏽🤷🏽#a11y
Steam just added screen reader support in the latest Big Picture Mode beta. On the Deck. On SteamOS. On Linux.
Not hacked in. Not community-patched. Built-in. From Valve.
There's an accessibility tab. There's a screen reader. There's high-contrast mode, UI scaling, color filters, reduced motion, and more.
I can’t believe I’m saying this but: I need a Steam Deck now.
Accessibility isn’t just coming to gaming — it’s here, and it’s official.
Let’s make some noise so they keep going.
🔗 https://www.theverge.com/games/689922/steam-is-adding-screen-reader-support-and-other-accessibility-tools
#Accessibility #Gaming #SteamDeck #ScreenReader #Linux #valve
Edited 82d ago
Many thanks to everyone who replied to my post yesterday asking: Folks using screen readers: How annoying is it to come across posts with a lot of emojis?
I got so many helpful replies that I've summarized what I learned into the following post, which took every character my instance allows for posts!
Yesterday's post is here, if you want to reference and see the individual replies.
https://sfba.social/@jeridansky/114971894672483573
Something I recently discovered to be possible in TiddlyWiki is using `clamp()` in the `font-size` settings. It's sweet!
can anyone recommend a mobile app for mastodon that works for users who cannot use their hands? please no wild guesses, just tell me if you know something that works #accessibility
Something I recently discovered to be possible in TiddlyWiki is using `clamp()` in the `font-size` settings. It's sweet!whtwnd.com/youronly....#CSS #TiddlyWiki #Trick #Tip #Accessibility #a11y #Wiki
TiddlyWiki Legibility Tip: fon...
Wagtail Space is a go! We're on the hunt for speakers right now. If you have a great Wagtail story to tell or a story about #AI, #Accessibility , or #Sustainability that would be relevant to our audience, we definitely want to connect. 😁