Disability, diversity, equality and equity inclusion champion. Accessibility support engineer. Salesforce Advanced Administrator certified. IAAP Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA). FCC Amateur Radio Extra Class licensed callsign NU7I. Blind husband and homeschooling father of two daughters.
I got a N9TAX slim Jim dual band for 2m/70cm and, even inside my apartment, I am picking up repeaters across town on 2m that I couldn’t hear before.
I plan on building my own hf antennas but for 2m/70cm this seemed better (for me) than the other options and not worth trying to diy.
Anyone have any tips on using Chrome or other browser developer tools? I can traverse the DOM tree using the up and down arrow keys and copy and paste, but how can I search for a specific element or attribute, find an elements color codes, etc? Using JAWS or NVDA as the screen reader. #accessibility
Most people should know this already, but...
1. "AI" has been around forever. Any video-game enemy that responds to your actions, that's "AI"
2. The currently hyped version of "AI" is language based and non-deterministic. It may seem more advanced than the ghost chasing Pac-Man, but at least that ghost is reliably chasing Pac-Man according to defined rules.
A LLM might decide to stop and discuss Lithuanian politics for a while, if that's how the prompt dice landed. You don't know whether it will do the right or wrong thing, due to the intrinsic variability in the model.
This tactile graphics device, the Cadence from Tactile Engineering, looks promising. https://www.tactile-engineering.com/cadence No published pricing or direct retail sales at this time; apparently they're only selling to institutions right now.
What makes this more interesting than, say, the Monarch or Graphiti Plus is that the base device is the size of a smartphone but thicker, and you can combine multiple devices for a larger tactile display.
Just published a blog post tearing into hCaptcha’s so-called “accessibility” mode.
It’s not accessibility. It’s a cookie. And to get that cookie, you now have to submit your email and send a code via SMS to an U.S. phone number. It fails silently. It doesn’t confirm anything. You click “Confirm Code” and get “An error has occurred.” No cookie. No fallback. No support. And if you somehow get it? It’s a third-party cookie your browser probably blocks, and it expires. Then you get to do it all again.
Meanwhile, hCaptcha’s text-based challenge — the only mode that might actually work with a screen reader — isn’t tied to the cookie at all. It only shows up if the website owner specifically enables it. Most don’t. So even if you’re blind, even if you’re using assistive tech, you get the same unusable image grid as everyone else.
This isn’t accessibility. It’s exclusion wrapped in PR.
The blog post breaks it all down: how the cookie flow works (or doesn’t), why the system is broken by design, how developers got misled, and what real alternatives look like. If you care about accessible design or just want to understand how bad this gets, read it.
Link: https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/hellcaptcha-accessibility-theater-at-its-worst/
#Accessibility #a11y #BlindTech #hCaptcha #HellCaptcha #UX #WebDev #ScreenReaders #Disability #TechRant #DevTools #Ableism #Privacy #FOSS #Inclusion
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Sighted users often use bold or large fonts to create the appearance of headings in documents. People using screen readers have no way of understanding these visual cues. Use heading styles from the styles menu to correctly format headings.
The National Association of the Deaf says it has filed a lawsuit to compel the White House to immediately resume providing American Sign Language interpreters during broadcasts of press briefings. https://www.nad.org/2025/05/28/national-association-of-the-deaf-sues-white-house-for-access-to-press-briefings/
I have a low-vision student who is learning to code JavaScript. She needs a better code editor to work with, and/or some plugins to make it work better with her screen readers. What do the accessible developers recommend? **#accessibility** **#screenreader #javascript**
Dr. Alaa al-Najjar left her 10 children at home when she went to work in the emergency room. Hours later, the bodies of 7 of her children arrived, most of them badly burned. In total, the Israeli military killed 9 of her 10 children by burning them to death. Horrific. This is genocide. This is a holocaust. Enough.
https://www.qasimrashid.com/p/holocaust
Afternoon snooze.
Get in the habit of bringing up accessibility at meetings, in stand-ups, and in demos. Bring up things you've done to address accessibility. Likewise, don't be afraid to ask, "Have we tested this on a keyboard?" or "What's the experience like on a screen reader?"
Looking for Top Tech Tidbits? Check out this JAWS with Windows 11 Power Tip: How to Set Focus Sessions to Minimize Distractions: https://www.toptechtidbits.com/284.html
If you have to reject your own studies when they don’t fit your agenda, it’s time to reconsider your agenda.
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Here's a really thoughtful article by @iris_meredith about DEI: what it got right, what it has gotten wrong so far (particularly as practiced in corporate environments), and how it might be done better. https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/dei_original_sin_good_thing
The part about over-emphasizing education and internal work strongly resonates with my experience of DEI, as a disabled (partially blind) white man, as it was practiced at Microsoft in 2020, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and on Juneteenth that year.
The Game Accessibility Guidelines have been put together by game studios, specialists and academics. While they are not an official set of standards or documents, they are a collection of tips and techniques to help developers make games more inclusive.
Airlines need to be held accountable so that they are required to take care of people’s wheelchairs. Airlines should be expected to deliver luggage and durable medical equipment on time and undamaged. I’m glad that this kind of information is being compiled, and congrats to JetBlue. I hope all the airlines continue to make progress and train their staff to treat people with disabilities with respect and handle their wheelchairs with care. #accessibility #DisabilityRights https://lnkd.in/gamRcM_k
I think it would behoove some people to not call things they don't like or don't agree with #inaccessible to make a point. Frankly, #accessibility professionals have a tough enough job without misinformation muddying up the waters. Spout thy opinion far and wide, sure, but please don't make our lives harder by shelving it under the wrong monicker
