Notices by Simon Jaeger (simon@dragonscave.space), page 2

I often tell developers that one of the best things they can do for their own accessibility awareness is to learn how screen readers work and test with them. Today I got a response from a developer who has apparently worked on section 508 compliant websites, and it said: "Yeah, it would be a great idea for a company to buy some screen readers to test with."
I had to tell this person that most screen readers are free, and that they're built into every operating system now, and that this has essentially been the case for well over a decade.
I'm not judging, I'm just legitimately shocked. it's a long way down.
Edit because the first question I was asked after posting this comment was basically "Do you think turning it on and trying to navigate would give me a good idea of the average experience?" And honestly, I'm inclined to think this would be worse than not turning it on at all. It's much like trying to navigate blindfolded. This is why I add the "learn how they work" part. It's not intended to be a five-minute process, and actual accessibility testing should still be done by people who actually need the accessibility they're testing for.
#accessibility

Me: *writes long Reddit post about using open/closed source software as a blind person, which includes the words "screen reader" in the first paragraph*.
Random commenter: Wait, if you're blind, how did you type this?
Me: On an Amazon Basics keyboard I bought in 2018.

Yep. I'm definitely out of fucks to give today.

I've lost all hope of HCaptcha being a company that cares about accessibility.
I had major trouble getting the accessibility cookie to work in Firefox yesterday, though I eventually solved it by disabling both Privacy Badger and the enhanced tracking protection built into Firefox.
So I e-mailed the company with an accessibility inquiry. I suggested that when requesting an accessibility cookie by e-mail, the user should also be given a code they can enter into the HCaptcha challenge. This would save users from having to deal with cookie problems, and would also allow them to solve a captcha in something like Discord, where the captcha is embedded in the app and there's no way to use the cookie at all.
Support responded and said that it was up to each app developer to implement a way to use the accessibility cookie in their app.
I responded with the following:
> Now it sounds like we're shifting the burden of accommodating HCaptcha onto developers instead of users. Developers want to implement a solution that is accessible already. If they have to design their own UI for accommodating the accessibility cookie, the solution is not accessible. Why is HCaptcha so opposed to solving this problem once so that developers do not have to solve it over and over again?

And they responded:
> The reason is because cookies are supposed to be used in a web browser. If you open Discord or Signal in a web browser, it will work. However since the apps aren't web browsers they won't be able to consume it. We have other clients that have implemented ways to consume the accessibility cookie in their apps, so it's up to the developer.

Am I crazy or does this go 0% of the way to addressing anything I said in the previous e-mail?

#Accessibility #Captcha #HCaptcha

The HCaptcha checkbox is called "I Am Human." We spend a lot more effort trying to check that box compared to sighted people. Is it me, or is there an ableism analogy in there somewhere?

I wanted to report a bug on the FileZilla bug tracker.
First I tried to register, but it said the username simon818 was already in use.
Then I tried to change the username, but the email was already in use.
Then I tried to reset my password (because apparently I've registered here before), but they required both a username and an email. I tried simon818, which didn't work. I tried several others, which didn't work.
I searched my e-mail for a registration confirmation, but couldn't find it.
There is seemingly no way to contact support other than posting in the forums.
I went back to the page, tried Simon818 (with a capital S this time), and it worked.
So not only do you need to remember your username to reset your password, you need to remember the case of your username.
What kind of sadistic person builds these systems? I refuse to believe it's unintentional anymore.

Today I learned that on a standard Mastodon server, you can add ".rss" to the end of someone's profile URL and get an RSS feed of their posts. Like this: https://dragonscave.space/@simon.rss

I learned this because a website I visited actually had an RSS link that leads to their Mastodon page. It could be a useful way to keep up with certain accounts without having to open your socialization app.

I don't know what's going on at Amazon's #accessibility department but someone needs to drop whatever the fuck they're doing and fix this. It's been this way for months, and I know I've personally emailed them and directed others to do the same. I'm currently trying to find a more polite way to say this in a followup email. How does this even happen in 2023?

@matt Right. Sometimes I feel like the system isn't set up to take bug reports at all, no matter what they are. It would know more things, but it would have limited functions it could call. Same with real support though. Ever tried reporting an accessibility issue to Audible? Their support is great, they just have 0 ability to actually report it in their ticket system, and they're very transparent about that, but it doesn't change the fact that you're screwed. All I know is that LLMs have outpaced the average comprehention of apathetic call center reps. And if it couldn't do something, it would likely be more transparent about not being able to do that thing.
Edit to add that Audible does have a specific blindness support line now, but they didn't used to. They really shaped up this year.

I did eventually get Rachel to forward my concerns to the relevant team ... supposedly, but it did in fact take some back and forth afterward. The sad thing is, most customer service is just as clueless. You're not just reporting an issue, you're giving an accessibility 101 course with potential language and knowledge barriers just to justify why the thing you're reporting is actually a thing they should be reporting. It doesn't matter how technical you sound when you report it, it's always "Please send screenshots", "Please try another device", "Please reinstall the app,", "Please ask someone to do it for you", "Please stop having accessibility needs", "Please don't make me work hard to do my job because I'm not paid enough to care about what a screen reader is." I'd rather have AI at this point. I'm going to need some solid evidence before I say I'm wrong about that.

#Accessibility / #Disability awareness in a nutshell