#AskFedi for those of you who are #blind or #VisuallyImpaired , or regularly use #ScreenReaders but aren't either, is it better for readability if I capitalise words in #hashtags or use underscores? My Mastodon app keeps suggesting no spacing or capitalisation, which I've been told is awful for readability, but it will sometimes suggest words separated by underscores instead.
Boosts appreciated so I have a more accurate idea of what is more accomodating.
I'd like to know people's opinions on this. I enjoying following people who post in a variety of languages. I also know I have followers who appreciate alt text in images and do my best not to boost images that have no alt text.
What do you do when the image has alt text but is in another language? To boost it as I would like to would mean those using screen readers are disadvantaged, as far as I know. To boost and comment with English alt text would seem rude to the original poster who has already included alt text. (I'm only using English as an example there as it's the one I usually communicate in). Do screen readers have their own translation functions by any chance?
If you're someone who uses a screen reader what do you do when you come across alt text in a language you don't understand?
Accessibility poll for people who use screen readers for daily use. I’m writing a guide about alt text.
🧵 Poll 2 of 2:
I’d like your opinion about long description methods for complex images. What is your preferred approach? (Feel free to comment if you want to elaborate.)
The title “Common misconceptions about screen readers” is overlaid on a pink background with the TetraLogical logo. Ela Gorla’s headshot sits above her name in a small circle on the bottom right hand side
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Windows: NVDA and JAWS from beginner to advanced. Training includes Microsoft Office, Outlook, Teams, Zoom, web browsing, customizing screen readers, handling less accessible apps, and scripting basics.
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The tool helps check how screen readers interpret HTML elements and attributes across multiple combinations of browser and screen reader, based on testing by the team, including
@SteveFaulkner, Gez Lemon, and Catriona Morrison.
TetraLogical's
@craigabbott has written a post on his own blog exploring why we shouldn’t expect screen readers to be augmented with AI to fix problems with bad content.
The real problem is producing inaccessible content from the start, such as misusing emojis, poor descriptions, or unclear writing.
What I often find such an interesting take in #accessibility discussions is this concept of "We will make it work for the majority first, and then add accessibility features".
This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how accessibility, and therefore " features" of accessibility work.
For one, making something #accessible for #screenReaders often requires no visual modifications at all, and requires making calls early in the development cycle to not have to rewrite your entire UI using widgets that even support #assistive#technology. Once that call has been made, making elements accessible is often a matter of, what a concept, using the widgets the way they were meant to be used.
I woke up to a comment so smug, so perfectly soaked in gatekeeping and faux-righteous posturing, it earned its own blog post.
You want freedom? You want GNU/Linux to mean something?
Then maybe start by not telling disabled users to go fuck themselves with a smile.
This commenter thought they were defending "software freedom." What they were really doing was kicking people out of the room. Dismissing accessibility. Mocking effort. Pretending that cruelty is some kind of rite of passage. They quoted Stallman like it was scripture, ignored real-world experience like it was noise, and wrapped it all in condescension dressed as virtue.
I’ve spent over a decade in this ecosystem. Writing patches. Rebuilding broken stacks. Helping blind users boot systems upstream doesn’t even test. I didn’t "just install Arch and whine about the terminal." I lived in it. I survived it. I held it together when maintainers disappeared and no one else gave a damn.
But apparently, because I didn’t call it GNU/Linux™ and because I dared to talk about how this OS chews people up and spits them out, I’m lazy. I’m weak. I should "get a dog."
So I wrote a response. Line by line. No mercy. No euphemisms.
This isn’t just about one comment. This is about every time someone’s been told they don’t belong because they couldn’t learn fast enough, code well enough, or survive long enough. It’s about everyone who was pushed out while the gatekeepers patted themselves on the back for "preserving the spirit of free software."
You want a free system? Start by making it livable. Because freedom that demands you crawl bleeding through a broken bootloader isn’t freedom. It’s abandonment dressed in ideology.
And if this kind of gatekeeping is your idea of community?
You can keep it. https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/you-dont-own-the-word-freedom-a-full-burn-response-to-the-gnulinux-comment-that-tried-to-gatekeep-me-off-my-own-machine/ #Linux#GNU#FOSS#Accessibility#BlindTech#FreeSoftware#Gatekeeping#DisabilityInTech#OpenSource#Orca#ScreenReaders#ArchLinux#BurnItDown#blogpost
If something I boost has image(s) without alt text, please check the following posts in the thread. I don’t boost posts without providing alt text (and often I just don’t boost posts without alt text that I might have otherwise unless I think they’re worth the time/effort for me to do it).
If I do this for one of your posts, please edit the post and copy/paste the text I’ve provided into the image descriptions so people who rely on screen readers can know what’s in them too.
People who use screen readers, do you prefer hashtags to all be at the end of a post, or do you prefer hashtags to be mixed in with the main text?
(This is a poll for sight impaired people only, please do not vote if you are sighted. I only included the third option because so many people vote without reading posts properly, and I didn't want sighted people skewing the results.)
I did not vote, as I'm sighted. So I can't see the results yet. But I see the have been 974 votes so far. Wow, that's more than I thought! I had expected maybe 200 or so.
I guess it makes sense if you think about it. But that's cool!