Gregory's Server@Gargron some blind people I know on Twitter are freaked out by the Accessibility team being let go. I can still see, but I am a braille user. Twitter is one of the only usable sites on the internet with a braille terminal. I mostly have to go back to practicing on books. Facebook is ok too. Mouseless nav, and good text descriptions matter.
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14 comments
I literally got here a few hours ago. I will have a real opinion using my braille terminal from my iPhone. But I am working on a 16-key keyboard that is based on computer-braille layout; and it can do EVERYTHING that a US qwerty keyboard can do. I can't figure out how to nav between Home/Notifications/LocalTimeline/Input yet. On Twitter, I managed to figure it out without Googling, because I found a place to pop up the shortcuts. Mouseless navigation is everything. A challenge: get through the weekend with no mouse at all. It's so so hard. And that's before you try to rely on braille output, and spoken Voiceover only. Some blind users just rely on audio output and qwerty most of the time. "Hey Elon, Accessibility isn't just for blind people. How can I blast through my Twitter feed while driving a Tesla; unless I can ask Siri to turn on VoiceOver mode so that I am hands-free with eyes on the road?" I think the whole problem with most Accessibility approaches is that... You have government people threatening you with fines if you don't follow the government guidelines. And you get people that need it, reminding people of such laws on Twitter; constantly. Instead, think about use cases such as devices without good screens. Up/Down/Left/Right/Select and voice into your headphones. Tweeting while walking. Use cases for everyone. I'm building a tiny keyboard with only 16 keys so that it fits onto the backside of an iPhone case (with thumbs on glass). I'm not even thinking about blind people. I'm deliberately ignoring them for now, because contracted (expert-level) braille is too hard for general use. @robfielding that sounds like an awesome project. Do you have info on that somewhere? this link to starshipchangeling for instance. it says "g" and "N" to go to Notifications tab. I don't use JAWS on here, because the keyboard is braille layout to make it small... but it's not specifically for blind people; so it looks like a totally normal keyboard, in no specific Accessibility mode turned on. it's in Braille to make this mechanical keyboard with chonky keys fit in my pocket. ie: I am betting that a lot of people would learn a chorded keyboard layout if the keyboard is on the back of an iPhone case; and braille is amazing for that task. but the keyboard appears US qwerty to the OS. When I first got it working, I tried to get through days of computer use with no actual qwerty keyboard or mouse. Too much stuff doesn't do good mouseless navigation though. It's step 1 to accessibility; before you even imagine that blind people exist.  @robfielding @robfielding @Gargron yeah, but mastodon's accessibility is stil 🗑️ 3rd party apps to rescue here. |
@robfielding @Gargron what has been your experience of Mastodon and fediverse apps in general? Accessible to braille terminals?