Good day all! Fireside Fedi TODAY! Yes we're still on, internet was fixed, thank you Brightspeed techs!
Livestream: https://stream.firesidefedi.live
Special Guest: @elettrona
#ally #accessibility #blind #wordporess #designer #hivawareness
Date & Time: 2025-12-02 1500 UTC-5
After the show:
#Peertube #VOD - https://video.firesidefedi.live
#Castopod #Fedicast - https://audio.firesidefedi.live
#Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@btfree_org
A severe #accessibility issue I've seen very few people talking about is the widespread adoption (in my country at least) of touch-only card payment terminals with no physical number buttons.
Not only do these devices offer no tactile affordances, but the on-screen numbers move around to limit the chances of a customer's PIN number being captured by bad actors. In turn, this makes it impossible to create any kind of physical overlay (which itself would be a hacky solution at best).
When faced with such a terminal, blind people have only a few ways to proceed:
* Switch to cash (if they have it);
* refuse to pay via inaccessible means;
* ask the seller to split the transaction into several to facilitate multiple contactless payments (assuming contactless is available);
* switch to something like Apple Pay (again assuming availability); or
* hand over their PIN to a complete stranger.
Not one of these solutions is without problems.
If you're #blind, have you encountered this situation, and if so how did you deal with it? It's not uncommon for me to run into it several times per day.
why do you think this is not being talked about or made the subject of action by blindness organisations? Is it the case that it disproportionately affects people in countries where alternative payment technology (like paying via a smart watch) is slower to roll out and economically out of reach for residents?
#Blind friends. It is long since time we took our responsibilities far more seriously and ensured our #sighted friends are more aware of where they are, where they are going and even where it is they hope to get. Next time an over eager person with sight approaches you, stop and ensure they know where it is they are, which direction they are traveling and even if they know what their destination is. when you encounter one who does congratulate them and see them on their way. #blindtravel #a11y
A severe #accessibility issue I've seen very few people talking about is the widespread adoption (in my country at least) of touch-only card payment terminals with no physical number buttons.
Not only do these devices offer no tactile affordances, but the on-screen numbers move around to limit the chances of a customer's PIN number being captured by bad actors. In turn, this makes it impossible to create any kind of physical overlay (which itself would be a hacky solution at best).
When faced with such a terminal, blind people have only a few ways to proceed:
* Switch to cash (if they have it);
* refuse to pay via inaccessible means;
* ask the seller to split the transaction into several to facilitate multiple contactless payments (assuming contactless is available);
* switch to something like Apple Pay (again assuming availability); or
* hand over their PIN to a complete stranger.
Not one of these solutions is without problems.
If you're #blind, have you encountered this situation, and if so how did you deal with it? It's not uncommon for me to run into it several times per day.
why do you think this is not being talked about or made the subject of action by blindness organisations? Is it the case that it disproportionately affects people in countries where alternative payment technology (like paying via a smart watch) is slower to roll out and economically out of reach for residents?
Good day all! Fireside Fedi TODAY! Yes we're still on, internet was fixed, thank you Brightspeed techs!
Livestream: https://stream.firesidefedi.live
Special Guest: @elettrona
#ally #accessibility #blind #wordporess #designer #hivawareness
Date & Time: 2025-12-02 1500 UTC-5
After the show:
#Peertube #VOD - https://video.firesidefedi.live
#Castopod #Fedicast - https://audio.firesidefedi.live
#Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@btfree_org
#Blind friends. It is long since time we took our responsibilities far more seriously and ensured our #sighted friends are more aware of where they are, where they are going and even where it is they hope to get. Next time an over eager person with sight approaches you, stop and ensure they know where it is they are, which direction they are traveling and even if they know what their destination is. when you encounter one who does congratulate them and see them on their way. #blindtravel #a11y
Good day all! Upcoming episode of Fireside Fedi!
Livestream: https://stream.firesidefedi.live
Special Guest: @elettrona
#ally #accessibility #blind #wordporess #designer #hivawareness
Date & Time: 2025-12-02 1500 UTC-5
After the show:
#Peertube #VOD - https://video.firesidefedi.live
#Castopod #Fedicast - https://audio.firesidefedi.live
#Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@btfree_org
Also, this is not the place for sighted people to tell their sob stories about how they struggle to write #AltText. The #Alt4Me hashtag is right there. It seems to me that to a #Blind user, the reasons why your image isn’t described, or why it’s incorrectly described by an #LLM, doesn’t change the fact that your image is impenetrable to them. (For what it’s worth, I have ADHD and still I manage to add reasonably meaningful AltText to all my images and videos.)
What I really do not want to see in this thread is sighted people telling #Blind people that their choices are wrong if they use #LLMs to get image descriptions that weren’t provided by sighted people who post the images. My followers know I hate LLMs for all the familiar reasons, but just as I don’t attack people who have no other options for using Amazon, I’m not going to criticize Blind folks for doing what they need to when the fault lies with inaccessible sight-centric society.
For all blind/visually impaired fetizens and those who know blind people who might be interested, Retena International is conducting a study on the psychological well-being and mental health impacts on people with inherrited retenal conditions. Learn more about it or take the survey here. #Blind
https://retina-international.org/survey/international/
What I really do not want to see in this thread is sighted people telling #Blind people that their choices are wrong if they use #LLMs to get image descriptions that weren’t provided by sighted people who post the images. My followers know I hate LLMs for all the familiar reasons, but just as I don’t attack people who have no other options for using Amazon, I’m not going to criticize Blind folks for doing what they need to when the fault lies with inaccessible sight-centric society.
Also, this is not the place for sighted people to tell their sob stories about how they struggle to write #AltText. The #Alt4Me hashtag is right there. It seems to me that to a #Blind user, the reasons why your image isn’t described, or why it’s incorrectly described by an #LLM, doesn’t change the fact that your image is impenetrable to them. (For what it’s worth, I have ADHD and still I manage to add reasonably meaningful AltText to all my images and videos.)
What I really do not want to see in this thread is sighted people telling #Blind people that their choices are wrong if they use #LLMs to get image descriptions that weren’t provided by sighted people who post the images. My followers know I hate LLMs for all the familiar reasons, but just as I don’t attack people who have no other options for using Amazon, I’m not going to criticize Blind folks for doing what they need to when the fault lies with inaccessible sight-centric society.
For all blind/visually impaired fetizens and those who know blind people who might be interested, Retena International is conducting a study on the psychological well-being and mental health impacts on people with inherrited retenal conditions. Learn more about it or take the survey here. #Blind
https://retina-international.org/survey/international/
Sooooo... thinking about the possibility and feasibility of big life changes, namely studying opera seriously in Europe. Would love to connect with other #Blind language learners, especially those using #braille as a component of their learning. Currently learning #French. Am particularly interested in chatting with people who have taught themselves grade 2 French Braille as well as those who are either conversational or fluent and/or who have worked in or currently live in a #Francophone European country. If this is you or you're in any way adjacent to this world, please reach out. Would love to talk to you. Would also love to chat with people who use #MusicBraille / #BrailleMusic in Europe.
#Francophonie #ClassicalMusic #Opera #LanguageLearning #Languages #Français #LowVision #VisuallyImpaired #BlindMasto #BlindMastodon #BlindFedi @mastoblind
PS: if I missed any hashtags or groups, please let me know and I'll add them.
Wondering which accessible dice to use or where to get them from?
We’ve put together a comprehensive guide to accessible dice, covering the different options available, tips on how to choose the right set and where to purchase them. Explore the full guide at the link below:
https://knightsofthebraille.com/2025/11/22/accessible-dice-guide-for-blind-visually-impaired-people/
#TTRPG #DND #RPG #A11Y #Accessibility #Accessible #Blind #VisuallyImpaired #VI #Dice
Sooooo... thinking about the possibility and feasibility of big life changes, namely studying opera seriously in Europe. Would love to connect with other #Blind language learners, especially those using #braille as a component of their learning. Currently learning #French. Am particularly interested in chatting with people who have taught themselves grade 2 French Braille as well as those who are either conversational or fluent and/or who have worked in or currently live in a #Francophone European country. If this is you or you're in any way adjacent to this world, please reach out. Would love to talk to you. Would also love to chat with people who use #MusicBraille / #BrailleMusic in Europe.
#Francophonie #ClassicalMusic #Opera #LanguageLearning #Languages #Français #LowVision #VisuallyImpaired #BlindMasto #BlindMastodon #BlindFedi @mastoblind
PS: if I missed any hashtags or groups, please let me know and I'll add them.
Wondering which accessible dice to use or where to get them from?
We’ve put together a comprehensive guide to accessible dice, covering the different options available, tips on how to choose the right set and where to purchase them. Explore the full guide at the link below:
https://knightsofthebraille.com/2025/11/22/accessible-dice-guide-for-blind-visually-impaired-people/
#TTRPG #DND #RPG #A11Y #Accessibility #Accessible #Blind #VisuallyImpaired #VI #Dice
@akamran @altbot @Jyoti be me, be visually impaired, notice comic boosted by mutual, start reading overly verbose alt text.
Sigh.
This was written by an LLM wasn’t it?
Continue being me, get confused by alt text, zoom into comic and strain vision to read it, notice alt text said it’s four panels arranged horizontally when it’s actually a 2 by 2 square, fail to find the “small cylindrical object between the two mice” from the alt text, realize one of the characters is that object but not a mouse and not cylindrical.
Sigh.
I was so happy with the culture of using alt text on the Fedi, but it’s being flooded by wasteful and incorrect descriptions promoted as helpful. The tech bros are winning. Human art and thoughtfully communication is being chewed up by machines that waste power and water while pretending to help people.
If AltBot provides you a description, I beg of you to write one yourself instead. You know what you posted, you know why, you know what’s important and what it means. I want that. I want what the human posting for other humans wants to share.