Honestly, it is pretty cool that an otherwise inaccessible BIOS screen these days can be accessed using a capture card on another machine, some OCR to read the actual text on the screen and AI to tell which option is currently selected. I’d still take an actual screenreader baked into the BIOS over this any day, but this is already so much better than how it used to be.

@talon @FreakyFwoof Not familiar with this particular app, but just wanted to clarify that the new liquid glass design in itself does not alter any VoiceOver behaviors or introduce any differences in how VO navigates or announces UI elements.

OK, this spam Email I received is actually quite hilarious.

My resignation (effective immediately)
Mark,
I QUIT.
You asked me to work Sunday... so I did.
Set the whole site to 50% off. Maybe you should check your email on Sunday for once?
If you're looking for it, the discount code is: IQUIT
But it'll be too late by the time you find it on Monday. I'll be at the beach.
Have fun cleaning it up and enjoy the lost profit. Consider it my exit bonus… for everyone else.
- Jake
[URL REMOVED]

@simon I think @AiraVI using Recaptcha alone should speak for itself. Tons of other options out there that are so much more accessible, including for those who are both blind and hard of hearing.

And this just really, really makes me sad. Yes, I’m sure there are rules set by Apple that John would need to abide by when doing his interview, but at the same time, I've always felt like he doesn't shy away from hard-hitting questions, sometimes surfacing long-standing user painpoints in ways that got the message across, but without leaving any sort of bad taste. (3/4)

The fact that this has always felt like an open-format interview is what made this really stand out to me personally, and I’m just sad to see what seems to be the end of this era. (4/4)

For the first time in 10 years, there won't be any Apple execs on stage as interview partners, no one from Apple to answer John’s serious, witty and surprise questions. (2/4)

With #WWDC Coming up in just over a week, I can't deny I’m excited to hear which new features #Apple has in store for both users and developers this year. But there is more, something else that I am just as excited to watch at the end of that week, The Talkshow Live from WWDC hosted by John @gruber.
This year, however, there is a catch… (1/4)

@ToniBarth @matt Also, from what I was told the Monarch will only display multiline Braille when connected to a computer with a supported screenreader. If you want to display images, you have to use a conversion tool they provide to essentially convert an image into a bitmap.

@ToniBarth @matt I had a brief look at the Monarch at SightCity last week. While it's certainly an interesting device, one thing I did not like at all is that the Braille cells are covered with some type of thin plastic foil, they say this was done to improve Braille cell robustness. Personally did not like how that felt at all. Just something to be aware of I guess.

@alexhall But yes, this display does use the more traditional piezoelectric Braille cells. I was personally happy about that, as they do feel very similar to the Handy Tech Active Star which I'm currently using, and which is also sadly in the process of slowly falling apart. To be fair though, I have been using this display for around 10 years, which means it has actually outlived all the other tech on my desk right now.

@alexhall I still need to find out about pricing, probably sometime next week. Awesome thing is I've bought from this distributor before many years back when they were mostly selling Freedom products. They still remember me and are even willing to send me a demo unit to test for a week or so, I'm definitely taking them up on that offer :-).

@clv0 @jackf723 @jaybird110127 Well, just found their developer manual and this does look very promising. https://www.eurobraille.com/download/download-the-b-note-developer-manual/

@jackf723 @jaybird110127 Possibly. Although I'm not exactly sure when the b.note came out and whether that was before or after the BTSpeak, the product page doesn't appear to have a release date.

@x0 Not super familiar with the BTSpeak myself, but given that the b.note is Raspi-powered there's probably quite some potential there. I also know that the unit has a headphone jack, but unsure if there's a built-in speaker as well.

While at #SightCity yesterday, I was introduced to a line of Braille displays called b.note by Eurobraille. Intriguingly, they are powered by a Raspberry Pi, using Debian Linux as their OS. Apparently there's a developer mode, which allows users to connect to it via ssh, and even extend functionality using Python scripts. I'm already in the market for a new display and now very strongly considering getting one of these, especially since I quite liked the keyboard and Braille modules as well.

@jason Yup, the upcoming Jaws driver is the big thing which they are presenting at SightCity. As I'm not a Jaws and not even a Windows user, that's unfortunately just not super useful to me personally. But, glad to hear from @Woody that Mac support will be coming eventually.

@Woody Awesome, thanks for confirming!

@Woody Hi David, I actually got a chance to take a brief look at Monarch yesterday at SightCity in Frankfurt. Do you happen to know by chance whether this is compatible with macOS and VoiceOver? Sadly the staff who were there yesterday didn't know.

@JessicaTegner Just read this and I'm super excited! I'll be there on Wednesday and will absolutely be stopping by, looking forward to chatting with you and your team!