About #20days20books: "20 books that have had an impact on who you are. One book a day for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, just book covers (with alt text)."
I’m asking because it is really difficult to find a place for discussing accessibility in Fediverse posts beyond the limits of any one Fediverse server application....
I think a good approach could be to think about how you could reach users of different platforms.
A lot of Mastodon users follow hashtags, so including relevant hashtags (#accessibility and #blind seem like good starting points) might be a good idea. Tagging groups, such as @accessibility, might also help.
I think Kbin/Mbin might be better suited for this than Lemmy, as it integrates better with other federated networks. You can follow microbloggers and boost content, which in turn makes them likely to follow you back and creates a community beyond which Lemmy community you choose to post in. Your Mastodon followers will see your posts, but it won't matter to them which community you post it in.
It's hard for content to make the jump from Lemmy to Mastodon as Lemmy does not make itself discoverable, but as soon as content reaches Mastodon users nothing stops them from interacting with it (by boosting or replying).
Sadly Kbin.social lacks sufficiently active moderation these days, so you might be better off with an mbin instance. I also have no idea how accessible Mbin is to blind users.
Edit: I over-emphasized the point about reaching a broader audience. If you want to discuss a narrow topic but you don't want most ActivityPub users to see it because you don't value their input, I guess Lemmy is as good as it gets.
A lot of Mastodon users follow hashtags, so including relevant hashtags (#accessibility and #blind seem like good starting points) might be a good idea. Tagging groups, such as @accessibility, might also help.
As I’ve already said, for someone who is not on Mastodon, it’s pretty much worthless to try and discuss Fediverse post accessibility as applied on something that isn’t Mastodon with people who are on Mastodon. And Guppe is practically exclusively used by Mastodon users.
One example: Many Mastodon users have stuck in their heads that you can’t post more than 500 characters in the Fediverse. For even more Mastodon users, “alt-text” and “image description” are 100% mutually synonymous and mean the exact same thing. Image descriptions, no matter what they contain, always go into the alt-text. It’s like a law of physics, deviating from which is unimaginable.
If you talk about describing or explaining something in the post text body, whoosh, it flies over their heads. No matter how much sense that’d actually make.
Not to mention that you have to keep every post and every comment at 500 characters or below, otherwise a large number of Mastodon users will pretend you aren’t even there or mute or block you outright. I know that from personal experience. And there are things that simply can’t be discussed in glorified tweets.
Also, Mastodon seems to only know two kinds of pictures. One, screenshots of social media posts. The stuff that requires transcripts. Two, simple real-life photographs, especially cat pictures.
Edit: I over-emphasized the point about reaching a broader audience. If you want to discuss a narrow topic but you don’t want most ActivityPub users to see it because you don’t value their input, I guess Lemmy is as good as it gets.
Ideally, I’d discuss this topic with people from all over the Fediverse. And I want these people to discuss it with each other within the comments section. Mastodon users who really care a lot for accessibility, who want everyone’s needs to be catered to, and who are shooting for WCAG level AA, just as well as users of Pleroma, Akkoma, Misskey, Firefish, Iceshrimp, Sharkey etc. etc. who have much higher character limits in their post and users of Friendica, Hubzilla and (streams) who do not have a character limit.
I don’t just want a bunch of one-on-one discussions between myself and someone else. I want to discuss such matters with Mastodon users and non-Mastodon users, and I want the Mastodon users and the non-Mastodon users to read and reply to what the other side has written.
I want people on non-Mastodon projects to tell Mastodon users who only know Mastodon what things are like on other projects. I want Mastodon users to tell non-Mastodon users how important accessibility is and which aspects of accessibility is how important. And I want to learn from this discussion.
I want to read opinions and ideas from all over the Fediverse. And I want users from all over the Fediverse to read these opinions and ideas.
And in particular, I want to discuss with them edge-cases in accessibility that go far, far beyond Twitter/Mastodon screenshots and cat photographs.
So y'all may or may not have noticed I haven’t been around on here as much, especially since Sunday. That's because I am now officially a paid app tester! I’m working on an app to make the #DnD5e character sheet accessible for blind players. It's amazing how fast a work-day goes when you're working in your #ActuallyAutistic#SpecialInterest! @actuallyautistic
@Tarrenvane@actuallyautistic Yea! thank you so much! I'm a #Blind person and so making something like this accessible for the DND and blind community will bring in more people for sure. I've played DND and love it.
…and here’s Charmaine and the RNIB in the news talking about many London local authorities failing to offer rehabilitation services within the 28 day deadline for support #blind#Ddeafblind#PartiallySighted#London@disability | “she had to wait five months for "vision rehabilitation", a service provided by local authorities to help people rebuild their lives after sight loss.
Ms Ashpole said that following the programme she was able to go out with a white cane, navigate public transport and utilise braille, which was "an absolute game changer".
"If I'd had to wait longer I think then you're wondering who is supporting you, who cares?
"So then you've got a whole host of mental health ramifications coming on top of the grief of having lost your eyesight which is just a terrible place for any person to be in,"” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68621922
And now we have one of those few annoying moments in Trek, where no one says anything...and the #Blind viewers among us have to wait til someone does say something to figure out what happened... @allstartrek#AllStarTrek#StVoy#Voyager#Bliss
There are so many interesting events coming up on 4 Jan for #WorldBrailleDay - here are some just posted on The Braillists Foundation website #Braille#blind#Deafblind#PartiallySighted#WorldBrailleDay2024@disability
➡️The Braille You Need, When You Need It: A Special Event for World Braille Day, Thursday 4 January at 7:30 PM
➡️ Braille and Breakfast from Sight and Sound Technology Ltd, Thursday 4 January at 9:30 AM
➡️ Join UKAAF for World Braille Day, 4 January at 1:00 PM
➡️ Braille Matters International Extravaganza from the Braille Revival League, Thursday 4 January at 6:00 PM GMT https://www.braillists.org
Boundary Road by Ami Rao is going straight on my TBR list - a book set on a London bus, with all the possible drama that will likely involve and the glimpses of life outside the window - looks like it’ll be a Kindle read for me as it’s from a very small publisher called Everything with Words #bookstodon#blind#publishing@bookstodon https://www.everythingwithwords.com/books/boundary-road/
🛍️Research opportunity for blind people in the UK | ‘Greetings from our research group at the London College of Fashion! We are reaching out to you with an opportunity to be at the forefront of a study that aims to revolutionize the fashion retail landscape, making it more inclusive and accessible’
Eye Matter is a charity doing great things in the #blind and #PartiallySighted community in the UK. They are led by Suzie who is determined to get events going including online book groups, tech support and in person events. I very much enjoyed an audio described tour with a group at Tate Modern earlier this year and one at The Wellcome Collection last year. Eye Matter has recently been granted charity status and has just launched their website, so do have a look and spread the word ⬇️ https://www.eyematter.org.uk/about-eye-matter/ #Deafblind#charity@disability
A powerful essay from Dr M. L. Godin #Braille#blind#PartiallySighted#Deafblind#libraries@disability | ‘Nobody suggested I learn Braille, even though it was clear my vision was deteriorating. Adults seemed afraid of it, afraid of blindness itself. I know now that this is how ableism is passed from one generation to the next. But I didn’t have that word back then, so it’s not surprising that I accepted the stigma of blindness and refused to do or learn anything that might make me “look blind.”’
Need some suggestions on #books to read. My family is having a yard sale today and it's really nice outside, so I'd like to take my #Braille display outside and sit and read, but I'm out of new books to read. I love reading anyway and want to find something good. I like #scifi, #fantasy, #mysteries, #thrillers, and certain types of nonfiction. To those who are #blind, if you know of something on #NLSBARd or #Bookshare, that would be great. @bookstodon@mastoblind
I am looking for suggestions for social/party games that can be played digitally over zoom (can also take suggestions for in person games) that are accessible for as many ppl as possible, especially blind and deaf players.
I find with digital social meetings it's really difficult to get a convo started until everyone has warmed up to each other, and social games are a great way to fast forward that.
Stuff like werewolf can be made more accessible with a GM or narrator that recaps everything that's happened every night (and a sign interpreter or simul-subtitling), but I don't know how well it'd work for the wolf-meeting parts. I do not want to arrange any kind of game meant for ppl to get to know each other that excludes some ppl from some of the roles.
A great opportunity for #blind and #PartiallySighted people interested in #theatre - take part in a research and development week, based in Leeds, UK @disability | ‘Otto Weidt is a new musical by Amir Shoenfeld and Caitlyn Burt. The show is inspired by the true story of Otto Weidt – a blind German man who employed visually impaired Jewish people in his brush and broom workshop and shielded them from Nazi persecution. The show features integrated “stealth” audio description, weaving visual information into dialogue, lyrics and soundscapes to create an elevated experience for audiences with any level of sight.’
I've just finished "all the light we cannot see". It follows two kids, german orphan, and a blind french girl, in parallel, while their lives get derrailed by the war. Somehow they manage to be true to themselves among the mayhem. Starts slow, but picks up speed. I loved It.
For discussing Fediverse accessibility, where would you recommend me to go? Or stay here?
I’m asking because it is really difficult to find a place for discussing accessibility in Fediverse posts beyond the limits of any one Fediverse server application....