Notices by Devin Prater :blind: (pixelate@tweesecake.social)

@Thatmermaid_J I, I can't even.

@Thatmermaid_J I don't think I'll be able to even for like days.

@Fragglemuppet I'm about to start reading theseries.

An update. I went to the doctor, and definitely have Bronchitis. They're treating me for Pneumonia. I got lots and lots of meds, and even an inhaler! Never used one of those before. But I got to puff puff! :)

@JonathanMosen After hearing you on Living Blindfully, I can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that you indeed understand what accessibility excellence is. This gives me hope.

Accessibility should only refer to one thing, access for disabled people. Why? So that everyone knows that accessibility is not if you (normal) person can get to something, as if it were a security risk if it's turned on, or if you (normal) person can get to it, it's fine, thus sidestepping even the thought of disabled people.

And yes, I think we've definitely come a long way. Accessibility is in the first screen of the iPhone settings. Stuff like that. But for the general public, it doesn't register like that. It's nothing to them. But we still have so far to go, by a huge margin. Until the situation with Uber, the police, and a blind person of color is unthinkable in a society, we have work to do. And for that, we need to be able to firmly stand upon language that is understood by all parties involved. And yes, while this issue is profoundly more than just the words we use, (honestly I just thought of it later while writing and really do need to share it with followers anyway), the way a ton of the general public view accessibility, disability, blindness, and such, is just plain narrow, or shallow. And since their understanding of us is so shallow, if they aren't already friendly towards us, they pretty much see us as foreign. And while that may be shocking, I don't feel that it's far from accurate. Especially if we have a guide dog, and they don't like dogs, or can't possibly see a reason for dogs existing other than as pets or wild animals. And I can say hash tag education all I want, but it's going to take this story going viral for things to change. Seriously. Otherwise, people are not going to care one bit, especially the people who really need to. People in power. As I've said before, we need our own language. Blind. Disabled. Accessibility. We really shouldn't, I think, have people saying things like "I'm playing The Legend of Zelda blind today," unless they literally put on a blindfold and played it with sound alone. And even then, it wouldn't help a blind person who's been blind all their life because the sighted person can remember seeing. We don't have that privalidge. I don't know. Maybe I'm taking that too far. But at this point, I think language matters a lot. It's about how others see us. And perhaps it may give us more confidence, so that one day, people won't just casually disrespect us, or indeed, nearly get us killed, sometimes without even realizing it.

https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm24/bm2409/bm240904.htm

#accessibility #blind #language

From a Mailing List:

As some of you may already know, System76 is working on their new Linux graphical interface, the COSMIC desktop. They have created a form with some questions related to accessibility. If anyone is interested in participating in the survey, please access the address below:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfQcq6638l0yNIQf6GFalMqwTVGFiZqYsaLt7TFGSCtktVDdg/viewform
End quote.

Blind folks, please do use the survey. I am sure other groups of disabled users will find this in news releases or whatever, but from what happened like last year I think, when quite a few people with other disabilities came out and blasted those of us who say that Linux needs work in accessibility, I feel like we need to push for a good bit more representation on these types of surveys. It's not that I don't want other disabled groups to pitch in, but I feel like we've been underrepresented long enough in this space, and as Windows continues in its entropy, I think it's about time we raise our voices for a great, maintained, accessible Linux environment!
#accessibility #Linux #foss

@BeAware @Thatmermaid_J Leeel leeel leeee lleeel leeel leeeeee!

@Thatmermaid_J @BeAware Smitty Werbenjägermanjensen

It's 2028. The year of the Linux desktop happened 2 years ago. Well it began 4 years ago, but whatever. Microsoft turned on Recall for every single Windows PC, running their language model no matter how much RAM it needed to take up, which CPU you have, and if you don't have enough space, deleting "old" files to make room. Local news started talking about alternatives, and computer repair shops started advertizing that they could easily give people a system that doesn't spy on them or use AI, and it'd work with even very old computers. Rich people jumped on MacOS of course, but people who already had a PC switched to Linux.

Now, the only people who use Windows are blind people. We've tried to switch, and more people successfully have switched to versions of the Mate desktop that don't rely on Wayland. But when people try to use Wayland, they start uncovering the issues of an unfinished system of accessibility. In 2024, there was this new accessibility system, Neuton, being developed, but the creator's contract ended before he could finish it, and no one has taken it up ever since. Oh, and when you press Alt + F1 in Gnome, it still just says "Window". When I'm helping new Linux users, who understand the issues but still need to be away from Microsoft for privacy or work-related reasons, I always have to tell them what "Window" means, how to navigate that interface, all that mess. And it stresses me out, each and every time.

Now, when we bring up accessibility issues, FossBros, enboldened by the year of the Linux desktop, now loudly fire back at us that we just don't want to. They say that we, blind people, just choose not to use Linux, that we're just too lazy to learn a new system, and that everything has been proven thousands of times to work correctly. When we point at issues that users spent an hour or so learning how to use GitLab in order to create, they tell us that Linux was created so that people can scratch our own itch, and to do so, and that since the FossBro does not suffer that itch, they cannot fix it.

The biggest issues right now are the desktop environment and the web. The Neuton system has pretty much made Wayland work, but it can't connect to the core of the Gnome desktop, so Orca has to use Wayland more directly. So, the Alt + F1 screen, the notification panel, all that, is still how it's been for the last 10 years. A few days ago, no one was surprised to learn that since no one uses the Mate desktop anymore, it's being retired. Blind people who have been using Linux for the past 20 years crowed that at least they know how to build from source and tape the shaky foundation together. I just sighed and continued playing Pokemon Emerald on Windows. Linux folks still don't have all the scripts and mods for games that we Windows users have. Oh, they also still have to check the Assistive Technologies checkbox to enable all the environment variables blind people need. Isn't that nice?

#FutureSight #accessibility #Linux

@tess @aral Also, I've been telling people for the past four or so years I've been around Mastodon. I wrote a blog post [1] about it like two or so years ago. And for the last ten years, I've always stuck to using the Mate desktop or spin or whatever, because I knew Gnome wasn't very accessible. So I've always used X11, and broke my audio a few weeks ago on my Fedora 40 system trying to switch back from Pipewire to Pulseaudio, where Emacspeak is more responsive. I've been telling people that Microsoft is going to do something so crazy that people will switch to Linux, if not on mass, then at least more than usual. And Recall was it. And even if they don't launch it this year, we all know they eventually will. So yeah, the time to really pile on to accessibility was years ago. But no. Last year, someone who has been using Linux for the last, oh I don't even know, 15 years ago? Longer than I have, talked about why they decided to not even deal with the GUI anymore, and now they use an iPhone. Lol they've probably gone all Apple by now. And what did the Gnome folks do? Well, a person who I think is even a member of the Gnome foundation basically called them a liar, and when I asked for solidarity from the comunity, I mostly got nothing. No one gives a damn, and that's very obvious to me. I posted on the System76's MatterMost a few years ago, asking about accessibility, and all I got before I left was something like "Well we'll worry about that when we start working on more of the GUI." No, planning needed to start at the beginning, not when, more likely, they're about to ship it. These days, I'm more like it would be nice, but it won't happen. That's why we blind people make the most of Windows and the iPhone, and try to minimize corporate abuse.

[1] https://scribe.rip/@r.d.t.prater/linux-accessibility-an-unmaintained-mess-8fbf9decaf8a

@tess @aral Something like: We just made a huge building for your use! It's just for *you*! It's *your* building!

Person walks up to the building, there are no doors, no windows, just walls all around. Person can't get in.

They go to the building maker, but are told "Well, that's okay, just build doors into the building. Not too hard, right?

In iOS 18, in Braille screen input's search mode, BSI now supports fuzzy finding! So, if you're searching for an app, and type "ESS," you'll get apps like Messenger and Messages. #wwdc #apple #Braille #Blind

Please boost for reach: There's an open issue on Github about adding scripting support to Retroarch. This would enable scripts like the Pokemon Access mod to be ran on Retroarch, hopefully allowing blind people to actually play the game while mobile. I tried it out and am already making a team in Pokemon Emerald, and in the woods in the first few areas of the game! If anyone is good with adding Lua to things, or if anyone is good at modding games and wants to enhance the Pokemon Access scripts, I'd really appreciate you looking into this.

Github issue: https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/6454

Pokemon Access: https://github.com/nuive/pokemon-access

#Pokemon #accessibility #gaming #blind #emulation #emulators #Retroarch #retro #BlindGaming

@aral Wow, really? That's really disappointing.

Y'all know what, the internal ableism in the blind community makes me so mad! "Oh, well Apple's a big boy company, they can't afford to spend time and money making our experiences better. I mean, we're a second or third-class citizen and we should be proud of it! Oh yes Daddy Apple!" Like, what the fuck is wrong with some people? We spend money just like sighted people, and for some of us, we have to actually *gasp* save up for these devices because we're spending the rest of our SSDI money on, oh I don't know, food and rint. So, we buy these pricy devices because they're the best for us and can open so many doors for us, and then we have issues. So we call the people who are supposed to be experts on this shit, and they turn out to only turn on VoiceOver when we call them? That's like tech support for an app that's not even used the app before unless someone calls about it. Now, I don't give a damn it the teams that handle accessibility have to be broken into subteams, one for VO, one for VO + Braille because fucking Braille is important damn it, one for Zoom, all that. Honestly that ties into the whole idea that comes up in my mind, that accessibility is a huge area that cannot, simply cannot, be covered by a good 20 people that are trying to keep up with like 10 different VoiceOver-sized accessibility services. And for the love of all that is good, don't lump accessibility into DEI with your like 3 people in that one team. ugh!

And we deal with this. Obviously. Cause iOS is still the most popular OS for blind screen reader users around here. You know, we deal with a lot of shit. Then, other blind people go all "hahaha , switch to Android if you hate Apple so much, while I cum to WWDC reruns on my Apple TV connected to a HomePod stereo pair, oh yeah Daddy Tim, say good morning!" It's really invalidating, and makes at least me, wonder if I'm actually doing everything wrong. If my issues with the Mac are just me not being Superblind enough. Gotta reach Superblind 2! But no matter how much I train, I just can't get there. Ah well, must just be in their genes. I'm just a low-class blindie. They were just born smart, right? And you know, we should never be that way to each other. It's a great way to strengthen imposter syndrome in otherwise capable blind people. Oh, also, some say that "only 5% of blind people beta test Apple products." I wonder how the percentage is for sighted people? And should it be our Tim-given duty to beta test software on what's more than likely our only device, since a good 75% of us ***don't have jobs***? Fucking privileged assholes. Oh and before I forget, just because we're *only blind*, doesn't mean we're fucking less than other groups of disabled people. Fucking internal ableism is real. We, deserve, access!

#apple #accessibility #blind