Hi everyone. Please share this far and wide.
An Open Letter to OpenAI and Jony Ive: Building an Accessible Future Together
By Mike Calvo, CEO and Co-founder, Pneuma Solutions
Dear Sam Altman and Jony Ive:
As a community of passionate consumers and advocates, we are excited about the merger between OpenAI and io, Jony Ive’s visionary company. This collaboration holds real promise for groundbreaking innovation. We want to make sure that the future you're building includes the millions of people with disabilities who can benefit from it.
Jony, your legacy at Apple transformed how accessibility was viewed in technology. From VoiceOver to your commitment to inclusive design, you helped raise the bar for what accessibility should look like. Sam, OpenAI’s work with platforms like Be My Eyes has already proven how AI can enhance lives. Your combined track records show that accessibility can be a foundation, not just a feature.
But we’ve also seen what happens when companies overlook that foundation. The Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit R1 launched with high expectations, yet they failed to meaningfully include our community. These products were missed opportunities. They serve as reminders of why it’s so important to involve disabled users from day one.
Our community is not a small corner of the market. We are early adopters, loyal customers, and passionate users of technology that works for us. If you truly want to innovate, then bring us in early. We urge you to connect with organizations that represent a wide range of disabilities and to invite community members to participate as beta testers and advisors.
Because nothing about us should be decided without us.
This is a chance to create something truly inclusive, to honor the accessibility legacy you’ve already helped shape, and to build a future where everyone benefits. We’re here. We’re ready to collaborate. Let’s make sure this next chapter of innovation includes all of us.
Sincerely,
Mike Calvo
CEO and Co-founder
Pneuma Solutions

Zoom scripts updated to build 88.
If focus is within the calendar area, you can now press ALT+Windows+1 through to ALT+Windows+6 to set focus to the various tabs.
In previous builds, you could only do this in the main Zoom interface.
The reason this functionality has been included is that in later Zoom builds starting this week, when the client is launched, focus is automatically being set to the calendar area.
If you do find yourself in the calendar area, you can now always press ALT+Windows+1 to move to the Home tab so that you are on familiar ground. You can Tab through the options as usual.

Additional tip:
If you find that your contacts have completely disappeared:
1. Find the list of Tabs. Pressing ALT+Windows+1 should set focus there.
2. Arrow right until you reach an item, More Tabs.
3. Activate the Context Menu and select Contacts.
4. Press Enter and you will find Contacts once again is in the list of tabs.

We're excited to share that the newly redesigned Audio Description Project website is now live! In the coming weeks, the ADP team will highlight some of the site’s new features, including improved navigation and search functionality. In the meantime, we invite you to explore the new ADP website at https://adp.acb.org.

Judge blocks Trump administration from closing the Education Department https://www.npr.org/2025/05/22/nx-s1-5407521/trump-education-department-layoffs-injunction

Have files you want to put in a folder on iOS, iPadOS, or macOS? You don't need to create the folder and manually move the items. On iOS and iPadOS, select the files you want added to the new folder in the Files app, double-tap the "More" button at the bottom right of the screen, and choose "new folder with items" from the resulting menu. On macOS, select the files you want added to the new folder in Finder, and choose File > New folder with selection (or press Command-Control-N). #TipTuesday

Hello, fellow pattern in numbers noticers. Starting today and ending on May 29, the date is the same forward and backward if you write it month, day, year. So from 5-20-25 to 5-29-25, this will be true. Have a nice day folks

@Lisasali Oh wow! It sounds like you have been very busy. I'm sorry that you have a cold enforcing some rest, but resting is good! I hope you feel better soon!

Sneak peek with JAWS and Monarch to produce multiline Braille at Sight City, Frankfurt, Germany, 21-23 2025
https://www.humanware.com/en-australia/news/sight-city-jaws-promotions/

New! The Maccessibility Roundtable Podcast, Episode 286, I Don't Want Him in My Head. Featuring: @DHSDarcy, @dhsholly, and @Robin.
https://maccessibility.net/2025/05/18/mrtp-286-i-dont-want-him-in-my-head

Just thought before the day is out here but I would post really quick this is my second year anniversary being on mastodon, with Tweezecake. Amazing how the time flies. I have made some new friends, and awesome connections and even got started in podcasting because I got connected with @Michael Babcock and @Marty Sobo. That would've probably never happened if I hadn't been on here.

A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind the wheel was knitting!
The trooper cranked down his window and yelled to the driver, "PULL OVER!"
"NO!" the blonde yelled back, "SCARF!"

We are proud to announce a formal partnership with Innosearch AI, an innovative AI-powered accessibility & shopping platform. This collaboration aims to transform the digital experience for blind users by combining Innosearch’s cutting-edge technology with our expertise in advocacy & community empowerment. Together, Innosearch AI & the NFB are committed to building a more accessible internet—where shopping, travel, & digital services are designed with everyone in mind: https://buff.ly/y9IBlUH

Also totally forgot to talk about this yesterday.
As a part of global accessibility awareness day, we put out a new update for the Be My Eyes app for Windows that is completely rebuild from the ground up. Along with giving us a better base to build amazing new features for desktop in the near future, this new app also fixes a lot of the accessibility issues that people have reported over the last 1.5 or so years.
In addition Chat History is now also available on Desktop, so you can start a conversation from mobile and continue it on desktop (and vice versa).

#a11y #bemyeyes #gaad #globalaccessibilityawarenessday
#blind #bme #tech
#disability #assistivetech

@Woody Wow! That's a lot of Tech! What about a rolling backpack or case?

@Pawpower I'm still going through my posts here, but I'm so glad you are safe and that you did not head out before all that started! Then you would probably have had difficulty getting home. So, still reading my posts but hope you had a good root beer float and book read.

@Pawpower Wow! I got tired just reading how much you got done in such a short amount of time! How productive that would feel!

💻 Productivity meets accessibility in this Mac Chat. Finder tips, Dock tricks, user account setup—and @CreativeChris has an exciting upcoming talk at MacStock featuring Remote Incident Manager and Scribe from @pneumasolutions
🎧 https://unmute.show/mac-chat-finder-tips-user-accounts-and-getting-ready-for-macstock/
#MacStock #AssistiveTech #UnmuteShow

Morning everyone. So today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day.
I've already boosted a post on that subject and I agree with it completely.
I think particularly I would like to praise AI. There are areas of applications we all perhaps privately (or publicly) grumble about, but we are able to do so much more as blind people thanks to AI and the ways in which people are leveraging that technology to improve matters.
One of the biggest innovations in that regard is to be able to identify pictures and other graphical information. That is likely to improve in years to come. I consider that to be a real breakthrough.
I also heard a demo on the BBC In Touch programme this week about what the Meta AI glasses can do when someone is outside, and even I was impressed with that now the functionality has come to the UK. Actually I was a bit blown away by that demo and that is the first time I have thought these glasses could actually be quite useful in some situations.
I've also heard that AI is being used now to add audio description to movies, and while not as in depth as perhaps could be accomplished with human narration, if it gives us better access to films we didn't have before, I'm all for it.

But apart from those things, not only does AI make researching things easier for me, but where it has excelled is to improve my own education. I have used ChatGPT extensively for me to learn different aspects of programming I would perhaps not have had access to. And that has benefited lots of other people within our Leasey product especially. Leasey has been able to improve so much because I have been able to have concepts explained to me in a way I understand so I can implement them.
I'm not sure I would get AI to do the actual code writing because if you're not careful it can seriously go off on a tangent of its own. But I can use it as a tutor at least so I can experiment and I would not have had that before.

Love it or hate it, we will see AI being used more and more in products and I think that is good.
The privacy angle? If I don't want the tool to learn from what I write or any documents, I won't use it for that purpose will I? It's about acting responsibly. If there's something I want to keep confidential, I'll use something which doesn't include AI. That aspect of information gathering isn't new anyway. Lots of programs and services have gathered data from us of some kind or another for a very long time and that's never bothered me.

@DavidGoldfield Hi. I think it only takes 8 1/2 x 11" paper, and embosses on one side. As for the price, I can't remember the US price, but I think it's somewhere just a little bit under $2000.

Google Search, Facebook and the iPhone may not last forever. And Silicon Valley is finally admitting it https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/11/tech/google-facebook-silicon-valley-changes