This week on #PrideConnection, we continue celebrating our silver anniversary, as our members share their favorite BPI memories from the past 25 years and their dreams for the next. If you have stories of your own, feel free to share them here. https://pride-connection.pinecast.co/episode/7ae9aecb/pride-connection-presents-silver-anniversary-podcast #Blind #LGBTQ #Podcast

Hallo?!?

Das ist genial!
Und wir mögen doch so gerne viele Schildchen. Go for this one!!!

(Link zu deinem YouTube Video in dem eine blinde Person eine Braille-Karte einer öffentlichen Toilette zeigt und erklärt, denn ansonsten hat sie keine Ahnung, wo sie in diesem Raum was findet!)

https://youtube.com/shorts/GUugNzxkXeE?si=8TfcOA0NoDL3MFst

#blind #barrierefreiheit #letsdoit

Pioneering Progress 💡
—
Breaking Barriers,
—
Expanding Possibilities!

#Blind #Journey #Startup #Tech #Assistive

Something I've thought about today:

Android is kind of less "blind friendly". I use that to mean how well the OS, accessibility frameworks, and screen reader are working together to give an experience that doesn't assume a visual user. A really good showcase for this is scrolling. On iOS, if you swipe, you barely notice that the screen scrolls when you get to the bottom of it. On Android though, you can hear the half second or so it takes to scroll. Also there technically are no screen reader commands to scroll up, down, left, or right. There's just "scroll forward" and "scroll backwards," which means that if you scroll forward in an app with tabs, you might find yourself on the next tab rather than the next list of items.

Now, for those who only use speech, this is usable. But a lot of blind Android users who just explore by touch don't seem to get that "swiping" is all a Braille user can do. Like, the system should not care which way one navigates. And even though on a touch screen, you can scroll in any direction using two fingers, this isn't screen reader specific, so a Braille user cann't do that. But who cares about Braille, it's dead don'cha know? /s

Another thing that really gets on my nerves sometimes is putting in my PIN. I really need to try a password and see if that works better, but the PIN entry field isn't an actual keyboard, it's just an interface that looks like one. So, using a Braille display, I have to navigate one number at a time, and enter them by pressing Enter on the one I want. Sometimes I can press Space with dot 4 to go down a line of numbers, but sometimes that puts me on the bottom row instead of the next row. Of course, on iOS, I can type my passcode as expected.

It's also kind of baffling to me that Gemini on Android doesn't automatically speak or Braille responses whenever I type to it. It could easily send those responses to TalkBack. But, as usual, the hearing, speaking blind are the testers Google has, so of course the feedback is that it works, it's fine, and if there are any descenting voices, they're either drown out or unheard. And this is AI, the current money-maker and time-waster for all these companies. And yet, even in that, they still can't get accessibility right. Just look at it on the web. The thing says Gemini replied, except it hasn't even finished generating the response yet. Imagine if VoiceOver did that in iMessage and the person had just started typing, and VO didn't even say when they actually sent the message? The NFB would have all their resolutions on just that one topic.

Don't get me wrong, a lot of things in Android work well. But there are just these things that remind me that there really needs to be a big shift in Google regarding accessibility, and not just a surface-level cleaning, for Android to really lose that speech-only attitude of workarounds. Also I'm not saying iOS is anywhere near perfect, even for Braille. But when I do use Braille on iOS, I feel a lot closer to a second-class citizen than a third or fourth like on Android.

#Android #iOS #blind #accessibility

„Von Barrierefreiheit weit entfernt“: Kann Theater für Blinde zugänglich werden? – Nachrichten aus Stuttgart

Stuttgart. In Deutschland leben mehr als 13 Millionen Menschen, die eine sichtbare oder eine unsichtbare Beeinträch…
#Stuttgart #Deutschland #Deutsch #DE #Schlagzeilen #Headlines #Nachrichten #News #Europe #Europa #EU #Audiodeskription #Baden-Württemberg #barrierefreiheit #Behinderung #blind #Germany #MenschenmitBehinderung #Seheinschränkung #Theater
https://www.europesays.com/de/195477/

I released my new game for iOS today. It's called Shift The disks. It's my take on the classic Towers of Hanoi game. Enjoy the game. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/shift-the-disks/id6746863384 #blind #puzzle #puzzles #logic #towers_of_hanoi #accessible

After reading this thread, I don't want a new Mac anymore. I do wish there were posts like this going over Android and Windows' accessibility frameworks, but I'll take what I can get.

https://www.applevis.com/comment/188396#comment-188396

#apple #accessibility #VoiceOver #MacOS #mac #blind

Hey, got any plans this Saturday, Jun 21? BPI's having a party, and everyone's invited. https://blindlgbtpride.org/announcing-bpi-silver-saturday-on-june-21/ #Blind #LGBTQ #PrideMonth #SilverSaturday

"Smart glasses offering a combination of sensory substitution based 'raw' vision and AI-based scene description and OCR appears to be technically and economically the most feasible and sustainable way toward meeting expectations, needs and interests of many blind people." https://www.artificialvision.com/neuralink.htm

And yes, I did already check this statement with a number of totally blind people, including a congenitally blind and a late-blind person.

#BCI #NeuroTech #blind #blindness

Overlays were never AI. They papered over barriers, then blamed #Blind users for glitches. In 2025 we can do better: AI models that regenerate code with WCAG baked in, guided by disabled testers. Follow this 10‑day thread as I share how UK teams can build “born‑accessible” from day zero. 🌱 #AI #Accessibility #A11y #VibeAccess #Blind

My brother wants to instal this thing called slint, which is #Linux's supposedly, accessible distro for #Blind people. I'm skeptical, but if it works, great, though I still feel that Linux isn't for end-users. #Technology

From the Orca mailing list:

Hey all.

I plan to make all of Orca's commanded executable over DBus. It's going
to be a ton of work and I'm only getting started. That said, I just
landed what I have so far to Orca's main branch.

For users who said Orca must have a means for apps to tell it what to
say, Orca now has that. To try it -- assuming you have the very latest
Orca from the main branch -- do

gdbus call --session --dest org.gnome.Orca.Service --object-path
/org/gnome/Orca/Service --method org.gnome.Orca.Service.PresentMessage
"Bla bla bla I'm a message"

For those saying Orca's speech should be controllable, by other apps,
see what's available by doing:

gdbus call --session --dest org.gnome.Orca.Service --object-path
/org/gnome/Orca/Service/SpeechAndVerbosityManager --method
org.gnome.Orca.Module.ListCommands

Hopefully one of those commands is what you need. To learn more about
how to use them, here's some documentation:
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/orca/-/blob/main/README-REMOTE-CONTROLLER.md

Please play with it and let me know what you think.

#accessibility #linux #foss #orca #blind

I have no idea how when I mute a person's posts on #Mona, I still receive notifications from that person I muted? Just for an hour mind, and I just started muting? #Blind, @MonaApp

Anyone have any experience with the AromaTech app? How is it with voiceover?
#Blind #iOS #Voiceover

I got some #Meta-ai RayBans. One day I thought "what if"? Said `Hey Meta! Describe what is in front of me`. The glasses took a photo (which didn't get added to my photo library, an ephemeral photo) and it told me "You are in a kitchen, with a dark floor and appliances". I'm easily amazed!!! #Blind

I really hope this bug can be fixed this beta cycle.

FB18083880 (VoiceOver reading notifications breaks the reading from current item)

#apple #accessibility #wwdc #beta #blind #VoiceOver

Exactly - you've crystallized the real shift happening. "Agent bosses" is such a perfect way to put it. The #Accessibility challenge transforms from "make this website work with screen readers" to "make sure my AI agent knows I can't see and communicates accordingly."
This is already visible in how LLMs handle visual content. When I describe an image to someone, I'm essentially acting as a seeing agent for a #Blind user. The difference is whether that agent relationship is designed thoughtfully or happens by accident.
The "Google Zero" phenomenon you mention is the canary in the coal mine. If search results increasingly answer questions directly rather than linking out, then the web becomes infrastructure rather than destination. Websites become databases that #Agents query, not places humans visit.
For blind users, this could actually be liberating - no more fighting with poorly designed interfaces or waiting for sites to be retrofitted for accessibility. Your #Agent just knows you need audio descriptions, spatial information conveyed verbally, or text-based rather than visual confirmations.
But it requires intentional design. Agents need to understand not just that someone can't see, but how that affects information needs - that "the red button" means nothing, that "over there" needs coordinates, that visual metaphors need translation.
The key insight is that accessibility becomes a property of the agent relationship rather than the content itself. Instead of a million websites each needing to be accessible, you need agents that can make any information source accessible to their specific user.
Are you seeing this transition in your own digital interactions? How are you preparing for or thinking about this shift? #AI

This felt too valuable not to share. Braille-labeled maps of washrooms to help people find and use facilities in the washroom. Everyone deserves to get in, do their business, wash their hands, and get out in peace and safety.

This seems valuable for all public spaces.

#Blind #Accessibility

@masukomi Speaking as a #blind person, #braille is just another tool in the box, but it's a tool which does not really have an equivalent in certain circumstances. It's not surprising that young people don't see its value, it's hard to learn, it separates them from a sighted society (unlike a phone), it makes them feel blind... That's leaving aside the advantages to parents and teachers, less work, less money spent by school systems more people able to teach phones (both costing less and being easier to get), you get the idea. The point is that there are certain areas where there is simply nothing else. Language learning without braille can be... difficult. So can coding, certain math, maps, certain diagrams, and doing pretty much anything as a person with more than a severe hearing loss. We go back to the tool, there are certain tools in some sets which look like they can never be used for anything but, when you come across a certain issue, are the only thing which will let you get past it. There is just nothing else which will help, or everything else is so hard as to be impractical. Of course, people go a bit crazy the other way. If you're blind and don't use braille, you have personally violated all the moral laws of the universe. That's nonsense, but it's a reaction to the equally foolish view that braille is useless. As I see it, life as a blind person is significantly worse than life as a sighted person. Braille can make that life somewhat better than it would otherwise be. That's all. No need for either thinking braille is useless or that it's holy. It's neither.