I just got done replying to a private message on the audio games forum. I almost never get those, and I wanted to do it on my phone. I first tried opening the native Chrome browser on my phone. I opened the Audio Games forum, then tried to find where to log in. There was no log in link. It went straight from a link to the forum to the different rooms. So I decided not to deal with it right then.…
In Emacs, on Termux, I’ve got a storage directory. That has my sync folder which backs up lots of stuff with SyncThing. So I wanted a way to have a link to /storage/shared/sync in ~/. Symlinks So I remembered symlinks (symbolic links). They make a link from one folder to another, or put a link to a file in one folder, into another folder. Pretty cool! So, how do I get that done in Emacs?…
I’m testing the Microbe client for Micro blog. I got it going just now, on my phone, within Emacs within Termux within Android within a Galaxy S25 Plus. So far, it even works well with Emacspeak!
Testing again.
Testing Microblog Emacs client.
There’s a debate in the world of digital accessibility. Should the experience for a screen reader user simply mirror that of a sighted person, achieving functional parity? Or should it strive to be as helpful and efficient as possible, even if it means creating unique capabilities for non-sighted users? I argue for the latter. The goal shouldn’t be mere parity, but the creation of…
Mobile Video Gaming I’ve played video games since I was around 5. I started with Mortal Kombat on the Sega Genesis, or Megadrive in Non-US countries. I learned to play more by accident than anything else. It was one of the poorer quality ports of that game, using low quality audio samples, not speaking chosen character names, and not announcing who won a round. The music was great though. Anyway,…
I know I really shouldn’t write this, but at this point it doesn’t matter. I’ve ran away from those who will most likely look upon this with disdain, as if I don’t look upon myself with even more than those on the outside can. I was reading a post from someone who mentioned “the right kind of disabled.” That struck something in me that I’d been looking for…
I’m sure all this has been said many times before, but all I’ve been able to find so far is this article on Alt-Text which isn’t what I’m going for here. As a side note , I get that most members of society can only improve accessibility by adding Alt-text to the visual media they create, but isn’t it time we move a bit passed just image descriptions? Guides for Alt-text are everywhere. I am not…
I’ve talked a lot about Android on this blog. I love the idea, and the operating system is nice, but accessibility could be so much more. I’ve had my Galaxy S20 FE (5G), for about a year and a half or so. I’ve seen the changes from Android 11, to 12, and finally to 13. TalkBack has improved steadily over that year and a half, adding Braille support, which I thought wouldn’t…
The debate over AI rages on, and I find myself caring less and less as the tug of war between the sides, one saying that AI is a threat to humanity and the other side saying that AI can do lots of amazing stuff, and definitely couldn’t take our jobs, becomes more fierce. No, AI cannot take our jobs. Rich people can take our jobs and give it to AI, though. This post isn’t going to be…
Over the years, I’ve owned a few Android devices. From the Samsung Stratosphere to the Pixel 1 to the Braille Note Touch, and now the Galaxy S20 FE 5G. I remember the eyes-free Google group, where TalkBack developers were among us mere mortals. I remember being in the old TalkBack beta program. I remember when anyone in the Eyes-free group could be in the beta. And now, that is no longer the…
So this is in response to This blog post regarding Mr. Beast’s Blindness video , which shows the perspective of a person that still has some remaining vision. I, however, have none. I am completely blind. I wanted to write a response that shows my perspective on the video about the possibility of regaining sight. I speak for myself, not for anyone else in the blind community or culture. I’ll…
Over the past few years, I’ve seen something that kind of troubles me. While people on iPhones Write books on using the iPhone on their iPhones , clear out their Email on their Apple Watch and manage the rest on their iPhones, and use their iPhones as their primary computing devices, Android users feel like one cannot be productive on any mobile system. So, here’s the thing. When you are around…
To me, the core of accessibility is the operating system. What it allows, how easy the accessibility APIs are to both be used by developers, and upgraded by the operating system development team or community. At the same time, the support system of accessibility is the community. Without a community of users and developers, the accessibility of an operating system will not flourish. In this post,…
For years now, Google has been seen, for good reasons I’d say, as moving very slowly with accessibility. TalkBack would get updates in fits and starts, but otherwise didn’t seem to have people that could devote much time to it. Starting a few years ago with multi-finger gestures, TalkBack development began picking up steam, and to my surprise and delight and relief, it has not slowed down. They…
So, boiling my feelings on iOS versus Android down into a simpler post, as of now, iOS = features, Android = stable and seemingly more supportive of all the PWA apps that are zipped up and put on the app stores. Apple makes me feel like Squidward when I’m typing in Braille, pressing Space with dots 4-5 to translate, one… word… at… a… time! All that just to clear the translation queue or whatever…
So I was sitting at a restaurant, waiting on my food and typing on my NLS EReader Humanware Braille display connected to my iPhone SE 2020. As I typed, I noticed that words I’d just been typing weren’t showing up. So I did the space with 4-5 “translate” command to force the stupid piece of jump to work correctly. I had to do that all throughout typing today and I just…
A new beginning So, I’m writing this from a Windows computer, using Notepad, with WinSCP providing SFTP access to the server. This won’t come as a surprise for those who follow me on Mastodon and such, but I want to put this in the blog, so everything is complete. About half a year ago, I installed Linux. Sometimes, I get curious as to if anything has changed in Linux, or if it’s any better than…
Writing Richly Whenever you read a text message, forum post, Tweet, or Facebook status, have you ever seen some one surround a word with stars, like *this*? Have you noticed some one surround a phrase with two stars? This is a part of Markdown, a form of formatting text for web usage. I believe, however, that Markdown deserves more than just web usage. I can write in Markdown in this blog , I can…
Apple’s accessibility consistency This article will explore Apple’s consistent attention to accessibility, and how other tech companies with commitments to accessibility, like Microsoft and Google, compare to Apple in their accessibility efforts. It also shows where these companies can improve their consistency, and that no company is perfect at being an Assistive Technology provider yet.…
Advocacy of open source software In this post, I’ll detail my experiences of advocating for accessibility in open source software, why it is important, and how others can help. I’ve not been doing it for long, but at least now, I’ve done a bit. I’ll also touch upon why I think open source software, on all operating systems, is important, and what closed source and closed feedback systems cannot…
On the stagnation of screen readers If you have sight, imagine that in every digital interface, the visuals are beamed directly into your eyes, into the center and peripheral vision, blocking out much else, and demanding your attention. All “visuals” are mostly text, with a few short animations every once in a while, and only on some interfaces. You can’t move it, unless you want to move…
Response to “Why Linux Is More Accessible Than Windows and MacOS” Today, I came across an article called Why Linux Is More Accessible Than Windows and macOS . Here, I will give responses to each point of the article. While I applaud the author’s wish to promote Linux, I think the points given are rather shallow and very general in nature, and could be given about any computing…
Analyzing the Windows 11 Accessibility Announcement Microsoft announced Windows 11 a few weeks ago, and, from my searches at least, still doesn’t have an audio described version of the announcement. Update: There’s one now . Anyways, they also released a post on their Windows blog about how Windows 11 was going to be the most accessible, inclusive, amazing, delightful thing ever! So, I thought I’d…