edhowland

@edhowland@fosstodon.org

Software developer working on code for visually impaired programmers Interested in the intersection between #OpenSores and #Accessibility I have been blind since 2013. I use primarily Apple and Linux computers.
beginning my journey learning about #Nushell

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

BleepingComputer, to random

Many Discord users attempting to access the popular instant messaging and VoIP social platform today have been met with a scary "Sorry, you have been blocked" message.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/discord-is-investigating-cause-of-you-have-been-blocked-errors/

edhowland,

@BleepingComputer this just happened to me recently. Interesting to note that it's happening to others as well. I'm sure they'll probably get around to fixing it soon. Or at least we can hope so.

edhowland, to random

is suddenly now cool? With keywords like try catch finally defer and class and constructors in 5.36 and 5.38 you'd be forgiven for thinking it was 1995. Again. all good natured ribbing a side, you gotta hand it to the stalwart individuals, doggedly, persisting and keeping this great language alive. but last time I used it, it was recently updated to 5.8. have to brush off my Perl skills.

devinprater, to random

So yesterday, after my NLS EReader broke, I grabbed a Chemmilion 20 and connected it to my iPhone. And the thing where the display just doesn't show Braille when the iPhone goes to sleep and is woken up, just doesn't happen with this display. That's good. I'll probably give this display back though and either just use the Braille Edge or replace the EReader. I don't want too many of these displays just sitting here not being used much. Every display deserves a good user. And every Braille readr deserves a good display.

edhowland,

@devinprater do you know where I can get more information about this device?

stephaniewalter, to accessibility
@stephaniewalter@front-end.social avatar

Question to screenreader users: when sharing articles, I sometimes put a screenshot of the tool or resource. I often describe what's in the page, but I'm wondering if it's annoying, and I should leave the alt empty, since it's mostly a "decorative" screenshot. Also, should I mention "screenshot", since it's a specific "type" of media?

edhowland,

@stephaniewalter please always put the alt text in there. The best examples I have seen say something along the lines of screenshot, showing name of app with menu options displayed. Or something wrong along those lines. more information is better than less information, and we can always just quickly swipe over it without having to read the whole thing.

daringfireball, to random
@daringfireball@mastodon.social avatar

Elon Musk Renames Twitter to X
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2023/07/24/musk-twitter-x

edhowland,

@daringfireball that's going to fix it. Sure.

zoe_squonk, to accessibility
@zoe_squonk@mastodon.social avatar

Can anyone recommend some type of screen reader as I age into having problems focusing on text? Windows narrator doesn't seem to like reading the text on a PDF.

edhowland,

@zoe_squonk PDFs our a pain for most of us. although I don't use windows, I know of two other screen readers that others do use on that platform:
Ndvda: it is open source and free.
JAWS: it is proprietary and expensive.

in case you're wondering, I use Apple products for that reason.

lowqualityfacts, to random
@lowqualityfacts@mstdn.social avatar

Elon Musk: We should make all Tweets vanish ten seconds after they're posted.

Elon's yes men, sweating profusely: Another brilliant idea sir.

edhowland,

@lowqualityfacts Is that the reason for the name change to #X? The Roman numeral for 10?

edhowland, to Instagram

A somewhat sad and funny story regarding users of getting some amusing results when looking at photos with alt text, created by . https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/30/22587544/instagram-twitter-tiktok-accessibility-blind-low-vision

edhowland, to random

248 bytes issued from the wonderful mind of Woz:
wozmon the 6502 system monitor from the Apple one computer.
https://youtu.be/HlLCtjJzHVI
this video comes from Ben Eater, and the code is been modified to run on his 6502 breadboard computer. . .

ramsey, to accessibility
@ramsey@phpc.social avatar

How does a screen reader read a hashtag that includes an acronym and a pronounceable word, like ? I would say this as “P-H-P fig,” for example. How does a screen reader read it? I’d like to make my hashtags as accessible as possible.

edhowland,

@ramsey it doesn't do a good job, at least on iOS. What we usually are forced to do is to examine it character by character to get it it's annoying, but that's how it is.

edhowland,

@ramsey I don't know. It seems to be on a case by case basis. And also, it might very well be platform specific in which case there's no happy medium probably. in this message. I'm trying so now to see what happens.

it seems if it is a wordy like word, even if it's misspelled, it will pronounce it as that word. If it's a bunch of letters, with no good vowels in between them to make up common words, then it spells them out. But I can't make it consistent.

edhowland,

@ramsey you could just put them in the way you normally would for sighted people and then turn on voiceover for the iPhone. For example, by asking Siri to turn it on then tap on the text field. It should read it back the way voiceover would read it back and when you're finished, ask Siri to turn voiceover off again.

edhowland,

@chucker @ramsey awesome might depend on which voice your voiceover is using. And also I am on 16.5, and it sounded a little crazy to me. I needed to read it character by character.

edhowland,

@quadratur @ramsey the only thing I think that will improve the situation overall, is to integrate some sort of neural network or large language model into text to speech. if you were reading the post aloud to your friend, how would you pronounce it? so only by training a. with a lot of input samples would improve the situation. don't think writers of posts can do anything to help.

edhowland, to linux

Is there anyway in the upcoming or 12 to see if your favorite package is in the package system?
I am looking for htmlq a jq like utility but for raw HTML say from curl that let you slice and dice things using selectors.

lukem, to webdev

Feels good to remove a blob of JavaScript due to CSS offering the exact feature I need.

whatinput.js out, :focus-visible in.

edhowland,

@lukem yes, I feel that is often a better solution than JavaScript, especially for designing with in mind.

d_run, to programming
@d_run@mastodon.social avatar

Exciting times!

Hoot: a Guile -> compiler

https://spritely.institute/news/scheme-to-wasm-lambdas-recursion.html

edhowland,

@d_run here is the link to their handy-dandy scheme primer:https://spritely.institute/static/papers/scheme-prime🥋🥂🍘r.html

chrismessina, to fediverse
@chrismessina@mastodon.xyz avatar

Got to spend some time with @leo, @jeffjarvis, and @MikeElgan on TWiG yesterday — great conversation on social media, what's after Twitter, AI, , At Protocol, interop and more!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cUhWsqEVGY

edhowland,

@chrismessina @leo @jeffjarvis @MikeElgan Hi Kris. I did not know that you created the.. I just went back and looked at your profile and there it was. Don't know how I missed it. I just followed you because of your interesting posts.
And you also work on Firefox. Keep going you're doing good work.
And this weeks episode of this week, and Google is pretty good very thought-provoking and lots of information about#AI.

krzyzanowskim, to random
@krzyzanowskim@mastodon.social avatar

That is one of the wildest stories I've read recently about programming languages.

A C lexer in 200b is something that didn't even cross my mind.

https://xorvoid.com/sectorc.html

edhowland,

@krzyzanowskim the visual of Dennis, Ritchie and Ken Thompson, and Brian Kernahan as being lizard people is just too precious to ignore!

edhowland, to random

have a question about storing .
you can't eat them all in one or two settings, and if you eat them over several days, the final ones tend to over ripen.
what's the best way to store them so this doesn't happen? .

briankrebs, to random

I bet the Germans have a word for this already: TFW you are late for a video conference call and you realize your video client needs an update that requires you to approve all kinds of privacy changes without actually having read them because you don't have time to and also you have to agree to join the call.

edhowland,

@briankrebs that's happening to me at this exact moment.

Linux4Everyone, to random
@Linux4Everyone@fosstodon.org avatar

Sorry to keep you waiting so long. Welcome back to the Linux For Everyone !

https://www.linux4everyone.com/58-software-sustainability

edhowland,

@Linux4Everyone welcome back. This was a great episode. I really enjoyed it and it really open my mind about software sustainability, and the overall Linux and open source ecosystem.

killyourfm, to random
@killyourfm@layer8.space avatar

It's a shameless plug since I host and produce the @thunderbird podcast, but seriously: @mconley is a legend, and you're going to enjoy this conversation.

https://blog.thunderbird.net/2023/05/thundercast-episode-2-with-special-mozilla-guest-mike-conley/

edhowland,

@killyourfm @thunderbird @mconley as an independent app developer myself, I really appreciated the final segment in this episode. They talked about how early adopters of your project are not good barometers of the kinds of problems you're going to experience what you do the full rollout due to selection bias.

edhowland, to webdev

SE Radio is "Much Listen Podcast"
This week's episode is on in where Philip Winston interviews Bastian Gruber. and his excellent book:
Rust Web Development.
They talk about the Rust programming language and how it is different from more traditional webdev stacks.
Covers and
@bastian
https://www.se-radio.net/2023/05/se-radio-562-bastian-gruber-on-rust-web-development/

deilann, to accessibility

One thing to keep in mind with regards to screen reader accessibility is that convention can be adapted to, even if that convention is less than ideal.

When people ask about plain text emphasis, even if people by standard chose a method i didn't prefer, but could recognize, i'd be able to know that's emphasis. This is why I like star - it means something to me in a way underline doesn't because it's less common.

Consistency and reliability mean so much, and this extends to navigation and site maps as well. Be boring and predictable, not quirky and new. This actually benefits everyone. It's the curb cut effect. No one likes having to dig for how to get to the place they need on your website. No one likes having to decipher what your typing quirks mean. Be unique in your content and what you can deliver, not your method.

edhowland,

@deilann go plain text! Plain text should be a universal option for every possible content format on the Internet. If you can't go with plain text, then at least go with good accessible HTML. This is why I like the command line so much. It's all plain text and very accessible.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • tester
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • modclub
  • GTA5RPClips
  • InstantRegret
  • magazineikmin
  • Youngstown
  • thenastyranch
  • rosin
  • slotface
  • mdbf
  • khanakhh
  • ngwrru68w68
  • JUstTest
  • anitta
  • normalnudes
  • Leos
  • cisconetworking
  • osvaldo12
  • everett
  • Durango
  • tacticalgear
  • provamag3
  • megavids
  • ethstaker
  • cubers
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •