” Naive accessibility question: How does your screen reader render emojis? Are they accessible?
Are mastodon extended emojis like 
rendered differently from unicode emojis like 
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#screenreaders
2 posts2 participants0 posts today
Question for folks who use screen readers: what is your preferred way for someone to write individual letters? Example, spelling out the letters on a sign that do not add up to a real word.
I did alt text for a picture of signs that were badly made. When describing the text layout, I went with "Capital Letter space Capital Letter". How well does that work versus maybe "Capital Letter dash Capital Letter"? Or is there a better option?
Polite is Often Better Than Being Alerted, by @ozewai.bsky.social:
https://ozewai.org/blog/technical-articles/polite-is-often-better-than-being-alerted/
ozewai.orgPolite is Often Better Than Being Alerted – OZeWAI
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.
Let’s keep the fediverse accessible.
Thanks 
Continued thread
Of course I do a "mc o's" for the blind" stream the day after st. patrick's. All that's missing is a pint of GUinness and something green.
Anyway in 20 minutes I'll be answering the question of how a #blind #screenReader user would get anything done on a mac, why they should, if they should, and all that fun stuff. Last non-hacking stream for a bit, switching back to ye olde hacky mcCrack in the next one. Curious? https://twitch.tv/IC_Null https://youtube.com/@blindlyCoding #selfPromo #smallStreamer #FOSS #programming #screenReaders #VoiceOver
TwitchIC_null - TwitchFully blind person hacking, coding and tinkering while using a screen reader. THM, HTB, accessibility, all the things.
Hey, folks who use screenreaders. I often use asterisks and parentheses in my writing, because the structure forms as I write. I've just realized that may make my stuff less accessible for you.
Is there a different way for me to add short snippets of clarifying text that's more accessible?
Thanks!
Continued thread
How screen readers read special characters (March 2023) https://www.elevenways.be/en/articles/screenreaders-special-characters #screenreaders #a11y
Eleven WaysHow screen readers read special characters: an update | Eleven Ways
#Blind people who use #Matrix, particularly on #Windows, is #Element the most #accessible client? I've been getting into it because a lot of communities for #SelfHosted services use it, but I don't find Element the easiest to navigate, so I'm wondering if there are other options.
#SelfHosting #OpenSource #Accessibility #ScreenReader #ScreenReaders
@mastoblind @main
Continued thread
Thinking about the wasteful nature of #LLMs got me thinking about waste in my own development. While it can be convenient to use the large, enterprise-grade frameworks to deliver a minimalist website in 2025 - it's absurd.
Do I really need #laravel with #react, #jquery, #tailwind, #webFonts, #postgres to host some simple #markdown?
Do I need to re-render a bunch of static content at every hit? Does every simple article require 64 connections to the server to display?
I think not.
I want my material to be available to anyone who wants it - regardless of the device they are using or the robustness of their connection.
I want to respect users who disable #javascript for their personal protection.
I want to respect #ScreenReaders and users of assistive technology, without unnecessary complexity.
Everything we need is built into the HTML and CSS specs.
I was introduced to #OpenDrive a few days ago and so far I'm loving it. The Windows and iOS apps are very #accessible for the #blind who use #ScreenReaders. I'm on the kinda shitty free plan right now; I can't wait till next month so I can go premium.
Fresh on my #blog — Pronunciation of acronyms for screen readers
#a11y #ScreenReaders #accessibility
thomasrigby.com/posts/pronunciation-of-acronyms-for-screen-readers/
thomasrigby.com · Pronunciation of acronyms for screen readersWhat is the correct way to typeset acronyms to best serve screen reader users?
Hey #Blind friends using #ScreenReaders like #JFW how on the earth do you now edit your #Amazon.com shopping cart I.E. if you wish to remove an item? I'm in Chrome today and can't figure out how to do it.
This is the post that I made to the Akkoma forums. The developer of the software is also there. But if I don't hear from her in a week, I will e-mail her privately.
"Hello, everyone. In October of 2024, Facebook shut down their Basic Mobile site, which was fully screen reader accessible. Their main site and apps are terrible to use with screen readers. I therefore switched to Friendica. After awhile, I noticed many issues, to the point that I switched again, this time to Akkoma, more specifically to the Blob.cat instance. My experience here has been truly wonderful, from the people to the site itself. However, I have noticed some very minor problems that I must mention. Note that I mostly use Firefox, Windows, and the NVDA screen reader. I am totally blind, so I cannot comment on any visual elements.
1. Many buttons are unlabelled and simply say "button". This is true on the main page, in settings, and when viewing posts and tabs in profiles. Most work once pressed. They just need to be labelled.
2. Searching for people, tags, groups, and posts is inaccessible. I can enter the edit field and write my text, but then, there are two unlabelled buttons next to that. The first simply takes me back to the edit field. The second does nothing. I am assuming this is a submit button that doesn't work via the keyboard. There is also a Preferences button on my home page that appears to do nothing. My work-around has been to create a post with hash tags that I wish to follow, and I have been able to do so from there, but I must still use a client (TWBlue) to search for people and posts.
3. There is no way to stop notifications from appearing on my main page, when viewing other timelines, followers, etc. I always see my notifications first and must go through them in order to reach the content I'm seeking. Please consider creating a collapse button or a separate page for Notifications. If there is already a way to do this in settings and I have missed it, please let me know.
4. The page renders very differently in Chrome than in Firefox. In Chrome, I can't see anything but my notifications, so I can't get to my profile or the other timelines. In firefox, I usually can. But I just had an experience in which I couldn't. This may simply have been a slow-loading page or some such, though I think it's because it was loading so many posts and notifications. This is very frustrating when I just want to get to my profile, settings, or even other timelines. Those options always need to be there. Maybe, sighted people experience this as well. It also may be that they do show in Chrome, but I didn't give them enough time to load. I think the solution from 3 would easily solve this problem
I am not a programmer or web developer, butI have been a computer user for over twenty years. I am beginning to learn about website accessibility testing, and it seems this is just a matter of using semantic html and ensuring that things are labelled and accessible with the keyboard. I don't think these steps would take long to implement, and they would make Akkoma completely accessible to the blind, giving us a great alternative to other sites which are either not or are full of other limitations. I am fully willing to test any changes made and to offer any suggestions I can."
This is the link to the thread itself.
https://meta.akkoma.dev/t/minor-feature-requests-for-full-screen-reader-accessibility/830
#accessibility #Akkoma #blind #Blob.cat #NVDA #ScreenReaders #TWBlue #Windows
"Hello, everyone. In October of 2024, Facebook shut down their Basic Mobile site, which was fully screen reader accessible. Their main site and apps are terrible to use with screen readers. I therefore switched to Friendica. After awhile, I noticed many issues, to the point that I switched again, this time to Akkoma, more specifically to the Blob.cat instance. My experience here has been truly wonderful, from the people to the site itself. However, I have noticed some very minor problems that I must mention. Note that I mostly use Firefox, Windows, and the NVDA screen reader. I am totally blind, so I cannot comment on any visual elements.
1. Many buttons are unlabelled and simply say "button". This is true on the main page, in settings, and when viewing posts and tabs in profiles. Most work once pressed. They just need to be labelled.
2. Searching for people, tags, groups, and posts is inaccessible. I can enter the edit field and write my text, but then, there are two unlabelled buttons next to that. The first simply takes me back to the edit field. The second does nothing. I am assuming this is a submit button that doesn't work via the keyboard. There is also a Preferences button on my home page that appears to do nothing. My work-around has been to create a post with hash tags that I wish to follow, and I have been able to do so from there, but I must still use a client (TWBlue) to search for people and posts.
3. There is no way to stop notifications from appearing on my main page, when viewing other timelines, followers, etc. I always see my notifications first and must go through them in order to reach the content I'm seeking. Please consider creating a collapse button or a separate page for Notifications. If there is already a way to do this in settings and I have missed it, please let me know.
4. The page renders very differently in Chrome than in Firefox. In Chrome, I can't see anything but my notifications, so I can't get to my profile or the other timelines. In firefox, I usually can. But I just had an experience in which I couldn't. This may simply have been a slow-loading page or some such, though I think it's because it was loading so many posts and notifications. This is very frustrating when I just want to get to my profile, settings, or even other timelines. Those options always need to be there. Maybe, sighted people experience this as well. It also may be that they do show in Chrome, but I didn't give them enough time to load. I think the solution from 3 would easily solve this problem
I am not a programmer or web developer, butI have been a computer user for over twenty years. I am beginning to learn about website accessibility testing, and it seems this is just a matter of using semantic html and ensuring that things are labelled and accessible with the keyboard. I don't think these steps would take long to implement, and they would make Akkoma completely accessible to the blind, giving us a great alternative to other sites which are either not or are full of other limitations. I am fully willing to test any changes made and to offer any suggestions I can."
This is the link to the thread itself.
https://meta.akkoma.dev/t/minor-feature-requests-for-full-screen-reader-accessibility/830
#accessibility #Akkoma #blind #Blob.cat #NVDA #ScreenReaders #TWBlue #Windows
blob.catAkkoma
Have I mentioned how much I love being here at Akkoma and Blob.cat in particular? For some reason, TWBlue was not updating my timelines, so I went to the main page of blob.cat and read them here! It is truly wonderful to be able to do that! I was also able to like/favourite and boost/repeat posts, and had I wanted to, I could have edited them as well, all with no difficulty! I'm truly glad for all of you who don't have to deal with accessibility issues as users, but trust me, you don't want to. Once the tiny ones here are fixed, this really will be a perfect site for the blind. Oh, and did I mention no politics! Maybe five posts, if that, contained them, so the whole experience was lovely! Even as it is, I would recommend screen readers try it.
#Akkoma #accessibility #blind #Blob.cat #NVDA #ScreenReaders #TWBlue
#Akkoma #accessibility #blind #Blob.cat #NVDA #ScreenReaders #TWBlue
blob.catAkkoma
Attention, blind Akkoma users! I will be writing to the developer with my concerns about a few problems with accessibility on this platform. Most should be easy to resolve. Please let me know if you find any more, and also state what browser and screen reader you are using. Note: This is in reference to the site itself, not to your client of choice. I will post about that separately. For the record, I use NVDA with Firefox.
- Many buttons are unlabelled and simply say "button". This is true on the main page as well as when viewing posts and tabs in profiles. Most work once pressed. They just need to be labelled.
- Searching for people, tags, groups, and posts is inaccessible. I can enter the edit field and write my text, but then, there are two unlabelled buttons next to that. The first simply takes me back to the edit field. The second does nothing. I am assuming this is a submit button that doesn't work via the keyboard.
- It is impossible to view followers, as well as those whom I follow. I can see the numbers of each but not the people and groups themselves.
- I cannot read my own profile without editing it. There appears to be no link where I can simply view it, either as myself or anonymously. If I go to my page and am not logged in, however, I can view it. I can also easily edit it when logged in.
- The page renders very differently in Chrome than in Firefox. In Chrome, I can't see anything but my notifications, so I can't get to my page or the other timelines.
#accessibility #Akkoma #blind #Blob.cat #Chrome #Fediverse #fediverse #Firefox #JAWS #NVDA #html #ScreenReaders #SemanticHtml #Supermium #Windows
Attention, blind Akkoma users! I will be writing to the developer with my concerns about a few problems with accessibility on this platform. Most should be easy to resolve. Please let me know if you find any more, and also state what browser and screen reader you are using. Note: This is in reference to the site itself, not to your client of choice. I will post about that separately. For the record, I use NVDA with Firefox.
1. Many buttons are unlabelled and simply say "button". This is true on the main page as well as when viewing posts and tabs in profiles. Most work once pressed. They just need to be labelled.
2. Searching for people, tags, groups, and posts is inaccessible. I can enter the edit field and write my text, but then, there are two unlabelled buttons next to that. The first simply takes me back to the edit field. The second does nothing. I am assuming this is a submit button that doesn't work via the keyboard.
3. It is impossible to view followers, as well as those whom I follow. I can see the numbers of each but not the people and groups themselves.
4. I cannot read my own profile without editing it. There appears to be no link where I can simply view it, either as myself or anonymously. If I go to my page and am not logged in, however, I can view it. I can also easily edit it when logged in.
5. The page renders very differently in Chrome than in Firefox. In Chrome, I can't see anything but my notifications, so I can't get to my page or the other timelines.
#accessibility #Akkoma #blind #Blob.cat #Chrome #Fediverse #fediverse #Firefox #JAWS #NVDA #html #ScreenReaders #SemanticHtml #Supermium #Windows
1. Many buttons are unlabelled and simply say "button". This is true on the main page as well as when viewing posts and tabs in profiles. Most work once pressed. They just need to be labelled.
2. Searching for people, tags, groups, and posts is inaccessible. I can enter the edit field and write my text, but then, there are two unlabelled buttons next to that. The first simply takes me back to the edit field. The second does nothing. I am assuming this is a submit button that doesn't work via the keyboard.
3. It is impossible to view followers, as well as those whom I follow. I can see the numbers of each but not the people and groups themselves.
4. I cannot read my own profile without editing it. There appears to be no link where I can simply view it, either as myself or anonymously. If I go to my page and am not logged in, however, I can view it. I can also easily edit it when logged in.
5. The page renders very differently in Chrome than in Firefox. In Chrome, I can't see anything but my notifications, so I can't get to my page or the other timelines.
#accessibility #Akkoma #blind #Blob.cat #Chrome #Fediverse #fediverse #Firefox #JAWS #NVDA #html #ScreenReaders #SemanticHtml #Supermium #Windows
blob.catAkkoma
Replied in thread
In this case, that's what was (ab)used, yes. There are other #Unicode characters in the "Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols" block that often get abused for simulating, e.g., "blacklettering" ("gothic", Fraktur), or "italicized" script.
If you wish to figure out exactly which characters were used, copy and paste a single one into https://unicodeplus.com/
While #Mastodon does not support Markdown, glitch-soc does. My platform is on glitch-soc, so I can use bold and italic markup that is still readable to screen readers. It should be sparingly used, though.
unicodeplus.comUnicodePlus - Search for Unicode charactersFree tool providing information about any Unicode character.
Replied in thread
When you use mathematical bold caps in your posts, you make it inaccessible to #ScreenReaders.
Do capital letters matter in #AltText?
#a11y #ScreenReader #ScreenReaders