To be fair to my colleague, when I explained it to them, they got it.
It literally hadn't occurred to them. Why would it? Their job was to sell out a conference on renewable energy or whatever it was.
But in my experience, almost everyone gets it once you give them context.
Almost everyone knows someone with #accessibility needs, even if they currently have none themselves.
#Ableism is a silent assassin in our culture. It pervades our discourse.
We must hear the voices of the #disabled.
I remember once, a long time ago, a colleague asked me to publish some content on our website.
It was marketing material, for a conference. PDF, of course. With no consideration to #accessibility whatsoever.
I declined, and we had a meeting. I explained why I couldn't publish the material in its current state and they said "But there won't be any blind people at this conference!"
To which I replied, "No, there won't, because your marketing means they can't possibly even know it is on."
@TheZeldaZone@mastodon.socialQuestion is not "do deaf people deserve subtitles", it's more that subtitles benefit EVERYBODY, and also some people CANNOT use (game, movie, etc) without subtitles.
So the experience is better for everyone (at worst, turn it off), and POSSIBLE for many it wasn't before.
Proud of the #gamedev community, #accessibility has been taken seriously there and not (yet) fallen to the global right wing backlash against...doing good things for people.
@TheZeldaZone@mastodon.socialAn aspect of disability advocacy that's oddly left behind by news sources (but regularly brought up by actual #accessibility experts...) is that making things accessible just helps...everybody.
Everyone's eyes and muscles will go poor.
Maybe you won't need a wheelchair (maybe you will!) but a ramp can still help.
Everybody benefits. Of course, we, as a society, seem to have largely decided in recent years that benefits are bad and everyone should suffer at all times.
@ErikUden It also interferes with text-to-speech users, it has been noted.
That's the dadgum truth, right there.
Time since I've opened a support ticket asking if a website could please give us the option to include alt-text in images we upload:
Fur Affinity: 527 days. 116 days since they closed it saying "we'll forward it to our team and see"
Inkbunny: 526 days
DeviantArt: 473 days
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Again: I don't expect them to do it "right now" but I'd sure love a positive reply like "damn, you're right, we need this!"
And I dislike FA closing the ticket before either implementing OR declining it.
I finally tested it successfully:
"Substital" is an add-on for Firefox and Chrome that allows you to display captions / subtitles in nearly any video that you can see on a website, either by searching for it on OpenSubtitles or by loading a caption file from your device locally.
This way you can, for example, watch an old show's episode on archive.org and add a local SRT file so the video gets captions.
Hey other Blind folks, what native software do you use to listen to internet radio stations on the Windows desktop and iPhone? @mastoblind @main #Radio #Accessibility #A11y
I'm thrilled to announce that I've been accepted as a student at #ColoradoChristianUniversityOnline! I'll be pursuing a B.S. in #ComputerScience. The school's class format seems much more manageable for me than other schools I've attended, and I'm feeling optimistic about this new chapter.
Now begins the challenging process of hunting for #scholarships. Unfortunately, I'm discovering just how inaccessible most scholarship websites are for screen reader users. If anyone knows of #accessible scholarship resources or platforms, I'd greatly appreciate your recommendations!
lost at sea
I’m quite enjoying the new Ally app from Envision. Being able to customise the AI is interesting, although the iOS app doesn’t seem to have all that many voices yet.
It’s very good at reading digital displays which other apps sometimes struggle with, but it’s not perfect. I was using it to check shopping items and it misidentified a couple of things. Still, it’s not bad and reasonably fast, although not as good as the Meta Rayban’s Look and Tell feature. Still since Meta have withdrawn that in the UK, Ally is a decent enough alternative.
#Accessibility #AI
Navigating iOS WhatsApp message threads is becoming very difficult with VoiceOver. Management of focus position, especially after performing an action is atrocious, it jumps largely back up the thread losing your position, this happens a lot especially on a busy thread. How can we get Meta to take heed of these issues #WhatsApp #VoiceOver #Accessibility #A11Y #iOS
I just used the braille on today's compartment off my pill organizer to double-check I was indeed about to take my AM pills while it was too dark in my room to clearly read the AM/PM printed on it, even with a dim light turned on.
#accessibility helps everyone, including the abled. A rising tide lifts all ships. 
@thibaultmol@en.osm.townWas searching online for pants to buy, and on https://gusset.com I noticed they had an #accessibility button in the bottom right. Out of curiosity I clicked on it and it has a ton of toggles for all kinds of things you want to change about a site. Really cool actually!
Announcing Altbot 2.0: The Privacy & Green Update 
Exciting news! After months of development, Altbot 2.0 is officially launching with major improvements to privacy, efficiency, and description quality.
The only data Altbot 2.0 records:
No images, no content, no personal data saved - ever.
For those who don't know, Altbot has been helping make the Fediverse more accessible by automatically generating alt-text descriptions for images. The project has grown beyond anything I imagined, now serving thousands of users across the network.
To bring these privacy and efficiency improvements to life, I had to invest in a more powerful server than initially planned. The server costs exceeded my budget by around $900, which I've covered out of pocket. Who woulda thought that competing with a $1.98 trillion dystopian mega corporation would be expensive? Shocking, I know.
I've set up a Ko-fi fundraising goal to help recover these costs and support ongoing development: Ko-fi.com/micr0byte
Your contributions will help ensure Altbot remains:
Even small donations make a huge difference and motivate me to keep enhancing accessibility across the Fediverse!
This milestone represents a commitment to ensuring accessibility doesn't come at the cost of privacy or environmental impact. I'm incredibly proud of what we've built together.
As Altbot continues to grow, I'm open to sharing more about this journey with anyone interested in accessibility, ethical AI, or Fediverse projects.
For press inquiries: inquiries@micr0.dev
Feel free to boost or reach out!
We need more #accessible apps for #bluesky because it's more user-friendly than #mastodon
#accessible #accessibility #blind #bluesky #fediverse #mastodon
Saying "No-one using our service has accessibility needs" is a bit like saying "We don't need a ramp, no-one in a wheelchair has ever come up the stairs".
From @LFLegal’s CSUNATC, a reminder that if you feel like you aren’t able to push back on the illegal actions of this administration:
“Staying the accessibility course is resistance right now.”
#a11y #accessibility
