Notices by James Scholes (jscholes@dragonscave.space), page 2

Be wary when adding additional context only for #screenReader users. An example:

Say you're working on an e-commerce site, and some products have two prices to show how great a sale discount is. The before and after is made visually apparent via some aspect of text formatting, and you want to make it explicit for screen reader users too.

The first step is to ask if this is necessary. If a user encounters two consecutive prices and one is lower than the other, they may intuitively understand what's going on without any explicit signposting, and can verify how much they're gonna pay during the checkout process. Only your users can provide this verdict.

If it's determined that some additional context is helpful, you could format it as something like: "Was $14.99, now $8.99". It's short and punchy in braille and speech, perfectly descriptive of the situation at hand, and mirrors how it may be spoken out loud on an ad.

Resist the temptation to go further than this. You do not need to say "original price: $14.99, current sale price: $8.99". This is much longer and more verbose, while adding nothing. It also implies that you think screen reader users need to be told what a price is and explained the concept of a sale, even though you're not doing so for other audiences.

You also don't need to spell out the word "dollars", format the price in words, repeat the product name, and so on. If you find yourself with screen-reader-only text like: "The current price of 500 Grams of Premium Oolong Tea was fourteen dollars and ninety-nine cents, and is now on sale for eight dollars and ninety-nine cents", it has gone way too far.

In short: Set out to identify the problems that actually need solving, and only solve those problems.

#accessibility

No matter what happens in the world, one thing will remain constant: me typing `.trim()` when I mean `.strip()` in #Python, every single time.

The #BBC is looking for a Head of Digital #Accessibility, with the role only open to #deaf, #disabled, and/or #neurodivergent applicants. Hybrid working, based at any UK BBC hub. Salary up to £110,000.

https://careers.bbc.co.uk/job/Head-of-Digital-Accessibility/811220202/

#jobs #a11y

On this GitHub commits page, you can see activity as Technology Transformation Services (TTS), a division of the General Services Administration (GSA) removes DEIA information from its operational handbook. Some notable #accessibility related items:

* Removed: Language about work being "predominantly remote".
* Deleted: Guides on non-project Slack channels and custom emojis (with the latter presumably often being used to highlight aspects of identity).
* Gone: Encouragement to use visual description across various platforms and contexts, and the corresponding visual descriptions guide along with it.
* Modified: Guidance to "consider factors of equity" when determining compensation for research participants. It now reads, "consider other factors".
* Quote: "At TTSC, we follow various policies and practices to foster an open and inclusive community", shortened to the vaguely nonsensical "At TTSC, we follow various policies and practices."
* Deleted: Inclusive culture guide and all references to it (including advice on how to flag exclusionary behaviour). Similarly, guides on running inclusive events and psychological safety have been expunged.
* Removed: Inclusion Bot, a Slack application to privately inform people about their use of "words or phrases that have racist, sexist, ableist, or otherwise exclusionary or discriminatory histories or backgrounds".

https://github.com/18F/handbook/commits/main/
#uspol

@clv0 AutoHotkey is a great piece of software, but maybe a bit heavy-handed for remapping one key to another if there's an alternative. If SharpKeys can do it in the registry, that will stick without having additional software running, so I'd try that first. @jcsteh

@clv0 Well... bugger. @jcsteh

Quote from a website asking me to disable my ad blocker:

"I get it! I don't like online ads either. But running this website costs me thousands of pounds each year..."

It's a WordPress blog that, because of its subject matter, only attracts visitors for three months out of the year. I'd suggest they find better hosting that isn't robbing them.

Sometimes I think: "There I go again, mentioning #accessibility; maybe people get sick of this?"

Then I think: "Fuck it, I'm sick of it myself but can't exactly avoid thinking about it."

Imagine describing Alt+Tab as "popular", rather than, you know, critical in allowing non-mouse users to operate their computers: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2514044/windows-11-24h2-breaks-popular-alt-tab-shortcut-heres-what-you-can-do.html

@simon And, when it happens, will it be better than the average Audible Original drama?

@GossiTheDog Do you know of any resources describing this in more detail? I'm confused about who is fighting over what.

Am I imagining that in Notepad2, the keystroke for duplicating a line was Alt+D? In Notepad3, that does something called "transposing" two lines instead; full marks for feature naming but I've pressed it hundreds of times when I actually wanted duplication.

@BorrisInABox Ah, Lumos. How are their NOCs? #CrappyHarryPotterAndNetworkingJoke

It took the #BBC 17 years, but BBC One, Two, Three, and Four now have #audioDescription while watching live on the #iPlayer. When I tested CBBC, CBeebies, and BBC Scotland, they weren't showing a described program at the time, but the player did have an "audio description and subtitles" button. For BBC Alba, there was no such button, and for S4C the button only referenced subtitles and not AD. #accessibility

I think #Anki holds a great deal of potential for #blind learners of #languages and other subjects:

The desktop app uses Qt 6, so isn't entirely unusable. It's also fully open source.

The iOS app is extremely usable with VoiceOver, albeit relatively expensive for a mobile app at £24.99, and not open source.

The web interface is usable, but would currently cause people to think more about how to use it than the actual subject they were studying. Still, with some user scripting, it could be workable.

And finally, all Anki functionality is available via their Python library, which could be used in a command line app or more #accessible frontend.

Of course, the issue is always the time needed to take things from where they are now to where they need to be. And I suspect a significant challenge would be having screen readers speak/braille things in the correct language as hopefully declared by each flashcard.

#accessibility #language #languageLearning

I bought a paid #Anki deck today, and successfully modified its templates to do things like:
1. set appropriate `lang` attributes for the non-English text, so that a screen reader will switch pronunciation rules automatically;
2. add headings to the different sections of the answer side;
3. group certain related things on the card into lists; and
4. auto-focus the answer when it's shown.

These modifications are synced via my AnkiWeb account, so apply equally whether I'm using a browser or the iOS app. So far, I'm really happy with it as a learning tool, although I have a lot to discover now I'm not thinking about the accessibility of the cards themselves.

CC @zersiax, @KaraLG84

@JonathanMosen Thank you for sharing your perspective. As the author of the post I assume is being referenced, I'd like to provide some context:

Recently, I've encountered several elitist viewpoints on this subject, using phrases like quote "the proper way" unquote to consume literature. I strongly disagree with any implication that there are right and wrong ways to educate and entertain oneself through books.

However, I acknowledge that my post could have made its scope clearer, and you're not the only one to mention how this view is weaponized in educational settings. Regardless of the reasons, making counterproductive and lazy decisions on behalf of disabled students is unacceptable.

I hold certain educators and educational systems responsible for the fact that blind and low-vision students too often leave school with subpar literacy levels. While they may justify their approaches with certain rhetoric, it's their actions and agendas that are at fault—whether rooted in ignorance, misguided attempts to compensate for lack of funding, or other reasons. However, the rhetoric itself shouldn't be automatically blamed for how people choose to interpret and misuse it.

As for the differences in brain activity between different consumption methods, some studies suggest that in adults, listening and reading by sight or touch aren't as different as commonly thought. I notice you've received responses stating the opposite, but I don't have the expertise to state one position over another.

Semantics aside, I think we can agree that consuming material that educates and uplifts is more important than ever, regardless of how people choose to do so.

I feel like in iOS 18, certain VoiceOver pauses are longer, like the one between the name of a control and its role. As an example, find the "VPN" option in Settings. The pause between "VPN" and "not connected" is huge. The pause between "not connected" and "button", less so, but still longer than it was before (I think).

Here's hoping that one day, Apple will make this a configurable option. Naturally, for at least one version of iOS after they do, the increased customisation will mean control names aren't spoken or something equally broken. But then it will be great.

When turning the rotor to "audio ducking", VoiceOver speaks what sounds like an enum value ("audioducking.mode.off"). I like my screen reader bugs strongly typed and constrained to a set of acceptable values.

A setting I believe is new in iOS 18 that I haven't seen mentioned: VoiceOver -> Rotor -> Change Rotor with Item, the description for which reads:

"Changes the selected rotor based on the VoiceOver-focused item."

This sounds like a great thing to turn off in certain activities, e.g. the rotor switching to "Actions" each time you swipe in Mail or Dystopia can be frustrating. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be one of the settings that's editable on a per-activity basis, limiting its usefulness. I'm not sure I want to turn it off system-wide.

(Edit: this apparently isn't new in iOS 18, just new to me.)