apln.ca
How do you write alternate text for a work with visual artistic merit? * How you balance too many words versus sufficient details? * What details should come first? * How do you account for different audiences, their needs and preferences? * Should it be written by the original artist or a professional describer? In a recent [IAAP webinar](https://www.accessibilityassociation.org/s/archived-webinar-details?id=a0A4z000018Qg7ZEAS), inclusive media expert [Joanne Pak](https://ca.linkedin.com/in/joannepak) explained an initiative to answer these questions and more. The Literary Image Description (LID) Best Practices Guide is a Canadian government-funded project aiming to: > offer a more vivid and engaging approach to writing image descriptions in an effort to make art and literature more accessible to all readers everywhere. Visit the [project website](https://apln.ca/literary-image-description-best-practices-guide/) to download a well-researched and illustrated guide in EPUB or PDF. Then maybe next time you see a painting, sculpture, comic strip, or even clever set of visual instructions, you can take a swing at making your own image description*! *But of course, don't publish unless you first talk to the author or do sufficient research into the intent!
www.linkedin.com
This Tuesday, 2023-10-24: [Women Who Code Advocacy Town Hall](https://www.linkedin.com/events/advocacytownhall-radicalinclusi7102027533658812417) moderated by AmyJune Hineline ( [@volkswagenchick@drupal.community](https://drupal.community/@volkswagenchick) ) From the event description: > - Hiring Process, Getting the Job, and Support at Work: Know the challenges and opportunities for individuals with disabilities throughout the hiring process, workplace support, and career growth. > > - Visible and Invisible Disabilities: Understand and define visible and invisible disabilities, and how they affect individuals in the tech industry. > Legal Rights and Responsibilities: Learn about legal rights and responsibilities in hiring practices and actionable ways to advocate for yourself and others. > > - How Allies Can Be Advocates: Explore how allies can play a role in advocating for individuals with disabilities and creating inclusive workplaces, and how technologists can develop with accessibility in mind. > > - Access to Resources: Gain insights into accessibility resources and how you can find more support
www.tpgi.com
Shared by [@onsman@aus.social](https://aus.social/@onsman/111222278445498173), a list of experts and organizations to follow for news and ideas on digital accessibility.
Disability and Accessibility
Difficulty of busy Zoom chat for screen reader users
dankeck
12 months ago
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100%
Thanks for sharing. I asked this question elsewhere, and no one else has trouble with Zoom chat. Everything I hear is along the lines of this response at rblind: that Zoom makes it easy for all users to show or hide the chat as needed.
Maybe you're right about guidelines and moderation. At the very least, maybe it would be good to add a statement to the accessibility talk at the beginning of the meeting. Like:
- Tell people how to enable captions.
- Tell people how to download presentation files to view at their own speed.
- And also tell people how to turn off the chat if it is too distracting.
Blind Main
Difficulty of busy Zoom chat for screen reader users
dankeck
12 months ago
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100%
Thanks for sharing. It sounds like all the technology is in place for people to use or hide the chat as needed.
Employees of the state of Minnesota in the United States have created a "Maps Community of Practice" to advance the accessibility of digital and print maps. - Story: [How Minnesota Is Making Maps Accessible](https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/arcnews/how-minnesota-is-making-maps-accessible/) - Resources: [Minnesota IT Services Map Accessibility](https://mn.gov/mnit/about-mnit/accessibility/maps) - Webinar: [Maps for All – Building Accessible Maps](https://www.accessibilityonline.org/cioc-508/archives/111071/) at the Great Lakes ADA Center website
cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/7716703 Earlier this month I logged on to a Zoom webinar that had chat enabled. The meeting had a large attendance. The chat quickly filled up with dozens of people sharing their city or country, and later commenting on technical problems. Some screen reader users had a difficult experience due to the heavy use of the chat. Here are three bits of feedback:    What is your opinion on this aspect of videoconference chat etiquette? I'm not talking about offensive or dangerous content--just the volume of content. - Should frivolous chat messages be avoided, so that screen reader users don't miss important chat messages? - Or is important that chat can be a chaotic free-for-all, to get the full Zoom experience? - Does anyone have personal experience with this? - Does anyone have a preferred etiquette guide that covers this? *** Thumbnail image is an illustration of over a dozen empty word balloons, overlaid on each other in a chaotic mess. Image by [Gerd Altmann](https://pixabay.com/users/geralt-9301/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=6465143) from [Pixabay](https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=6465143)
This week I logged on to a Zoom webinar that had chat enabled. The meeting had a large attendance. The chat quickly filled up with dozens of people sharing their city or country, and later commenting on technical problems. Some screen reader users had a difficult experience due to the heavy use of the chat. Here are three bits of feedback:    What is your opinion on this aspect of videoconference chat etiquette? I'm not talking about offensive or dangerous content--just the volume of content. - Should frivolous chat messages be avoided, so that screen reader users don't miss important chat messages? - Or is important that chat can be a chaotic free-for-all, to get the full Zoom experience? - Does anyone have personal experience with this? - Does anyone have a preferred etiquette guide that covers this? *** Thumbnail image is an illustration of over a dozen empty word balloons, overlaid on each other in a chaotic mess. Image by [Gerd Altmann](https://pixabay.com/users/geralt-9301/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=6465143) from [Pixabay](https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=6465143)
Four puzzle games: The Room, The Room Two, The Room Three, and The Room: Old Sins
cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/7474838 > Via [@nick@hkc.social](https://hkc.social/@nick/110973606410119776): > > Big update to Firefox (117) dropped if using a screen reader. YouTube video lists, and videos themselves, now scroll much better than before.
Via [@nick@hkc.social](https://hkc.social/@nick/110973606410119776): > Big update to Firefox (117) dropped if using a screen reader. YouTube video lists, and videos themselves, now scroll much better than before.
This Friday, 2023-08-25, a vendor is randomly choosing winners to receive a free ticket to a September conference hosted by [London Web Standards](https://mastodon.world/@webstandards). Entry is by replying to this [post on Mastodon](https://a11y.social/@TetraLogical/110928027828562265).
Microsoft
dankeck
1 year ago
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100%
I like Aptos a lot better than Calibri, but I already miss the font's original name, Bierstadt.
mastodon.social
Follow the creator at [@dukope@mastodon social](https://mastodon.social/@dukope)
Android
"Long due provided by Snapchat. Dark mode gets an official roll out on Android (without premium)."
dankeck
1 year ago
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100%
Now if Spotify would finally add a light mode.
Meta's new social media network, Threads, launches without taking into account how users with various disabilities access software. As a follow up to [a similar post from last month](https://beehaw.org/post/1483436), here is [a more detailed list of barriers to access, compiled by AbilityNet](https://abilitynet.org.uk/news-blogs/new-threads-app-fails-accessibility-test). - Inaccessible images - No headings - Navigation issues - Button trouble - Reloading difficulties - Color contrast problems - Media issues - Portrait-only orientation
Technology
TIL British Columbia created a font to support Indigenous languages
dankeck
1 year ago
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100%
I edited my post and added a link to the font.
Via the A11yTalks webinar [Accessibility in Action: Indigenous Communities](https://a11ytalks.com/posts/2023-JUL/) by Meggan Van Harten Link to font:https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/services-for-government/policies-procedures/bc-visual-identity/bc-sans >Several typefaces were examined that matched the criteria and a handful of these were tested. Noto Sans stood out as an option as it already had an extensive set of characters supporting over 800 languages, including many Indigenous languages in Canada. The typeface was also originally designed for enhanced readability on-screen. > >Under an open-font license, Noto Sans presented the opportunity to access the font files and modify and improve its character sets. With expertise from a typographic Indigenous language expert, and from FirstVoices (an initiative of the First Peoples’ Cultural Council), additional characters and syllabic glyphs were added to support Indigenous languages in B.C. This new typeface was named BC Sans and first launched in 2019.
>Accessible Ohio is the first-ever coordinated effort in Ohio to support businesses, communities, attractions, and venues in becoming more accessible and inclusive. > >... > >We are seeking input on strategies to reach local partners and share information about Accessible Ohio services, personal or observed experiences in public activities and environments, examples of ways to overcome barriers to access, and possible funding resources for partners. If you have a disability and have been excluded at a place of public accommodation in Ohio, this event may be an opportunity to bring the problem to the attention of state employees.
www.lflegal.com
Via the [Focus State newsletter](https://equalizedigital.com/focus-state/): >This is an article about a lawsuit filed against a digital accessibility advocate named Adrian Roselli. Adrian has been outspoken against a type of software called an overlay. This type of overlay promises to make websites accessible for disabled people with just one line of code.
dankeck
1 year ago
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100%
The Jarts told me Ohio's native tongue is still lashing me.
www.accessibility.org.au
With Meta’s claim that Threads will “focus on kindness,” it remains unclear how accessibility aligns with the platform’s definition of inclusivity. As CEO and founder of web accessibility company UserWay, Allon Mason, stressed, social media should be accessible to everyone, including the 1 in 5 individuals living with disability.
www.lflegal.com
Via [@LFLegal@mastodon.social](https://mastodon.social/@LFLegal/110691740955512232) >This is an article about the delay in web access regulations. The regulations will help state and local government agencies in the United States make sure websites work for disabled people. They will help people with disabilities fully participate in all activities of state and local governments. This includes education, recreation, citizenship, and more. The regulations have been delayed. They are now stuck in a part of the United States government called the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB. The OMB helps the President of the United States meet their goals about what regulations are needed. The wait for regulations has been too long. The Americans with Disabilities Act is about to have its 33rd anniversary. It is long past time for these regulations.
dankeck
1 year ago
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100%
I subscribed to Pocket Casts when it was owned by public media entities, and it worked well. But after they sold it off, I just switched to AntennaPod and it does everything I need too.
Recently there was a thread in the [IAAP](https://www.accessibilityassociation.org/) discussion board about "dyslexia simulators," software that is meant to simulate the experience to people who do not have dyslexia. The simulators work by taking text on a web page and randomly switching letters around. - Here is an example at [Harvard's Teaching and Learning Lab](https://tll.gse.harvard.edu/dyslexia-simulator). - You can also go to the Google Web Store and get a Chrome extension that will do the simulation on any web page. In the discussion thread, there was a dissenting voice who shared [an article by Carolyn D. Cowen](https://dyslexiaida.org/online-dyslexia-simulation-is-compelling-powerful-and-wrong/), who objects to the use of these simulators. To quote Cowen: >As a person with dyslexia, as someone with dyslexia running throughout generations of both branches of my family, and, finally, as an educator who has taught countless children and adults with dyslexia over the decades, I feel pretty confident saying that this simulation is NOTHING like what it is like for most people who have dyslexia. > >The simulation is a devilishly clever coding trick and well intentioned, but contrary to the dramatic headlines, it does little to deepen anyone’s understanding about what having dyslexia is really like. ... > the simulation’s likely take-away for the casual viewer with little or no knowledge of dyslexia is that this problem primarily is in the visual domain. From there, it is a short hop to assume that the solutions lie in the same domain. ... >And those notions can lure families into time- and resource-wasting wild-goose chases pursuing costly, ineffective interventions. If you have dyslexia, would you be interested in commenting on these ideas? - Do you think dyslexia simulations are dubious? - Do you have a preferred way of describing your experience?
In her weekly [Better Allies newsletter](https://betterallies.us19.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=cc808df089bf312fc1a37916d&id=575137cdc6), Karen Catlin highlights the importance of using stock images featuring people from underrepresented groups. She maintains [a list of sources for such images](https://betterallies.com/photos/), to which she has just added a collection of public domain images from the Consumer Product Safety Commission of the United States federal government.
theadminbar.com
Article by [@amberhinds@fosstodon.org](/u/amberhinds@fosstodon.org) on the use of infinite scrolling in websites: - How it can be difficult for users of screen readers or keyboard input, and for users with cognitive disabilities, attention disorders, or obsessive-compulsive disorders - Ways to make it better for assistive technology - Pros and cons of using it
Via [Project Gutenberg](https://mastodon.social/@gutenberg_org/110615514178620381): >Helen Adams Keller was born #OTD in 1880. She lost her sight and her hearing after a bout of illness when she was 19 months old. She then communicated primarily using home signs until the age of seven, when she met her first teacher and life-long companion Anne Sullivan.
www.usatoday.com
cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/778529 > >“Where are you from?” Hanna asks between bites. > > > >“Columbus, Ohio,” the family guest says. > > > >Hanna built the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium into one of the nation's best. He then captivated national audiences on David Letterman’s late-night talk show, "Good Morning America" and a number of his own Emmy-winning animal series that still run in syndication. He traveled the globe as a leading animal conservationist promoting Columbus. It was his home for decades. It’s even where he once said he wanted his ashes spread whenever he passes away. > > > >But in this moment, none of that history feels familiar. > > > >Hanna pauses, then asks a question. “Have I ever been to Columbus, Ohio?”
www.usatoday.com
>“Where are you from?” Hanna asks between bites. > >“Columbus, Ohio,” the family guest says. > >Hanna built the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium into one of the nation's best. He then captivated national audiences on David Letterman’s late-night talk show, "Good Morning America" and a number of his own Emmy-winning animal series that still run in syndication. He traveled the globe as a leading animal conservationist promoting Columbus. It was his home for decades. It’s even where he once said he wanted his ashes spread whenever he passes away. > >But in this moment, none of that history feels familiar. > >Hanna pauses, then asks a question. “Have I ever been to Columbus, Ohio?”
Disability and Accessibility
‘May be an image’: what it’s like browsing Instagram while blind
dankeck
1 year ago
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100%
I just went to https://cohost.org/vogon with the screen reader NVDA and tried to browse the graphics of electronics there.
Good news: the web page is coded correctly, and I heard alt text for the images as expected. Kudos to cohost, and also thanks to you for working to include as many people as possible.
19thnews.org
>School was pretty terrible. School is the hub of our communities, and I was segregated within school. So I was therefore segregated from my community. Within school for years, people talked about me like I couldn’t understand them. And even like I didn’t exist. I was easily controlled and manipulated by adults, restrained and secluded and made to complete repetitive tasks with the belief that I didn’t understand them or my surroundings. I was in a perpetual state of discomfort and dysregulation within my own body. There was so much I wanted to say, so much I wanted to add and so much I wanted to change that was all built up in my head. (Note: Autism Awareness Month was back in April, but this is still a good article.)
www.theverge.com
This article is two years old but still relevant to social media in 2023. >One of the biggest barriers is the assumption that blind people just won’t be interested in visual media. “Just because they’re visual doesn’t mean that they’re immediately not attractive to people who are blind or low vision,” says McCann. “I think that’s one big misconception: ‘Oh, well, they don’t care about pictures.’ But we do.” When culture is molded on social networks, it sucks to lose out on a shared social language because you can’t see the images everyone is talking about. > >Christy Smith Berman, a low vision editor at Can I Play That, responded to a TT Games tweet that announced the delay of Star Wars Lego with text on an image. When she replied with a request for alt text, Smith Berman was met with responses from people expressing disbelief that blind people would even be on Twitter to begin with, let alone care about video games.
No posts yet? Well, here's a post from 2017 with some sweet graffiti at Griggs Reservoir Park by the Scioto River. 
dankeck
1 year ago
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100%
Not necessarily the best, but I have a special place in my heart for Rax Roast Beef:
adrianroselli.com
Via [@aardrian@toot.cafe](https://toot.cafe/@aardrian): > …consider tools like GitHub Copilot, which claims to be “your AI pair programmer”. These work by leaning on the code of thousands and thousands of projects to build its code auto-complete features. > > When you copy broken patterns you get broken patterns. And I assure you, GitHub, Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, stacks of libraries and frameworks, piles of projects, and so on, are rife with accessibility barriers.
dankeck
1 year ago
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100%
Much happier this week, with reasonable temps and finally some rain. You?
youtu.be
Are you unfamiliar with how blind people use computers? Are you new to the concept of screen reader software? NVDA is free, open-source software for Microsoft Windows used by many blind users to interact with their PC through non-visual senses. While NVDA's foundation, [NV Access](https://www.nvaccess.org/), subsists on donations, the software has become the [second most popular screen reader in the world](https://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey9). This half-hour documentary by [ABC News](https://www.abc.net.au/) serves as a great introduction to NVDA and the stories of its creators. This show won't tell you how to use NVDA or how it works, but instead will tell you why it exists and why it needs to exist. (Also, follow [NV Access on Mastodon](https://fosstodon.org/@NVAccess)!)
Via [QuantumBadger](https://github.com/sponsors/QuantumBadger): > It has been agreed that **RedReader falls under the exemption for non-commercial accessibility-focused apps**, due to the work that has been done to optimize the app for screen readers, and the app's high level of usage within the blind community. > > ... > > I still have concerns about Reddit's current trajectory, and plan to expand the range of sites RedReader is able to access in future. > > ... > > Over the last week I've been in touch with the developers of Lemmy, who indicated that they would prefer a slow ramp up of traffic rather than a sudden influx. Similarly, the major Lemmy instances are struggling under the sheer number of Reddit refugees right now. > > ... > > We will continue to prioritize accessibility in the app, while also continuing to serve the userbase as a whole.
www.theverge.com
Via the [Accessibility Matters](https://www.accessibilityassociation.org/s/accessibility-matters-newsletter) newsletter: >[Game streamer Lance Carr](https://www.twitch.tv/gimpyg), who goes by the name GimpyG and whose rare form of muscular dystrophy has left him unable to use his hands, was in the middle of streaming a Hearthstone session when a fire started in his garage. He was able to vacate before it spread to the rest of his home, but unfortunately, the gear that let him enjoy his favorite pastime — his head-tracking mouse and gaming PC — had to remain behind and was destroyed. > >Replacing this stuff isn’t cheap. Head-tracking mouse gear can cost multiple hundreds of dollars, and that’s to say nothing of his gaming setup. Google’s new software aims to remove one of those costly barriers. > >The company says it worked with Carr to design a piece of software that would allow anyone with a webcam to control their computer with head movement and gestures, all translated to the screen by the Windows-only software. [Project Gameface on GitHub](https://github.com/google/project-gameface)
Via [@serge@babka.social](https://babka.social/@serge) Lesser was born in Poland in 1928. Most of his family were killed by Nazis. He moved to the United States, became a realtor, and has spent much of his life trying to "prevent the world from developing amnesia." > I named my foundation "Zachor" which is the Hebrew word for "remember" because every generation must re-learn the consequences of hatred and bigotry.
mass.streetsblog.org
>"...we reward good behavior, and it’s immediate. It doesn’t record any private information, it just detects that the vehicle is coming and measures its speed. So it’s a carrot instead of a stick." Via [@grammargirl@zirk.us](https://a11y.social/@grammargirl@zirk.us/110345023142792079)
john-lay.itch.io
Shared by [@BjoernMeansBear@social.helios42.de](https://social.helios42.de/@BjoernMeansBear/110285623919972728)
> Voice banking used to be expensive and time-consuming, but AI has made it more accessible to people with conditions that could impact their ability to speak, such as ALS, throat cancer, cerebral palsy and Parkinson’s disease. > > Patients say having a computer-generated voice that sounds like their real voice has given them a greater sense of confidence and connection to the world around them. Via [@LyraChang@universeodon.com](https://universeodon.com/@LyraChang/110234041109668590)
www.nytimes.com
This is a gifted article and temporarily free for you to read. >The hotel moved to dismiss the case, saying that Ms. Laufer had not suffered the sort of direct and concrete injury that gave her standing to sue because she had no intention of visiting. The trial judge agreed. > >But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in Boston, reversed, saying the situation was akin to one in a 1982 Supreme Court decision that allowed Black “testers” to sue for race discrimination over being denied access to housing despite not actually looking for a place to live.
www.alexcharlton.co
www.signupcaptions.com
>SignUp was founded because many young people from the Deaf community find written captions indescriptive, or even absent from media sites. > >A 2017 study showed that 80% of children who signed face challenges with reading - making written captions inaccessible. Via [LyraChang@universeodon.com](https://universeodon.com/@LyraChang/110137438322868346)
Quote from Matthew Shifrin, creator of [legofortheblind.com](https://legofortheblind.com): > For blind people LEGO sets act as miniature 3D substitutes for real-life buildings in lieu of two-dimensional photographs. LEGO allows me to see things that are impossible to explore by touch, such as the arches of a Middle Eastern palace or the towers of the Tower Bridge. > > I would like to get my instructions out to the blind community. I would like every blind person to be able to download the instructions, buy a set, have a sighted person sort the pieces, and feel on par with a sighted builder. via [@dennisl@mastodon.social](https://mastodon.social/@dennisl/110131593673362368)
github.com
Learn about assistive technology enabling more people to do software development, such as: - Typing using only the eyes with OptiKey - Using software without sight with NVDA - The use of AI tools for coders with dyslexia, cerebral palsy, or trouble communicating The use of these tools reflects the [Social model of disability](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_model_of_disability) which says that if a disabled person is prevented from their job because the tools are not accessible, it's not a deficiency with their body; it's a deficiency in their environment. Via [@odbol@vis.social](https://vis.social/@odbol/110073159749792486)