this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2024

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blind folks of the fediverse, how is it going? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 8 months ago by richardisaguy to c/asklemmy

7 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hi, i'm not blind, neither do I have any vision problem, but I was always curious to how blind folks use technology, talking about the fediverse, for you, blind or vision impaired, how is your experience?

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[–] Witchfire 36 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

I'm not blind but I work in web accessibility. A lot of people with low/no sight rely on screen readers to navigate phones and computers. It's up to devs to develop sites and apps that work nicely with accessibility software, so it depends a lot on the specific interface being used. Generally most things from big tech go through heavy accessibility testing, whereas government websites are seemingly designed to be equally inaccessible to everyone.

Accessibility testing usually involves things like checking that everything is labeled, checking that everything can be accessed via keyboard, checking that visual events are transmitted to the screen reader, checking that things work well with high contrast mode, and so on

Edit: I also want to add that this is one of the reasons people left Reddit. After they banned third party apps, it became unusable to people who relied on accessibility tools. They don't give a rats ass about making the official app accessible.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Is there a comprehensive checklist on the net for a web developer to follow?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

WCAG. The standard has different levels - A, AA and AAA with A being the most basic. AAA is quite difficult to achieve. A lot of government sites are required to reach A or AA level. Currently I'm building a web app for use in schools that needs to meet AA.

The AInspector extension for firefox will show you what needs fixing on any web page.

I've put a lot of effort into making https://piefed.social work well on screen readers, including installing a screen reader and using the site. Browser extensions and standards can get you a long way but there's no substitute for experiencing it the way a blind person would. It's a work in progress but is a high priority.

https://rblind.com/ is a Lemmy instance intended for those leaving the /r/blind subreddit. The admin was making some changes to the instance to improve the screen reader experience.

[–] CaptainPedantic 2 points 8 months ago

RedReader is a 3rd party Reddit app that has an exemption from the API bullshit because it has accessibility features that Reddit can't be bothered to implement themselves.

[–] HurlingDurling 10 points 8 months ago

I don't see any comments from actual blind people so I guess they didn't see this post yet.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

Not blind, but I have two followers on Mastodon who are, and I asked about their experience.

They said the "Mastodon etiquete" of describing images makes it better to use than any of the "mainstream" social media they use.

Since I found they are following me I doubled down on describing images. It is specially pleasant trying to describe a meme the funniest way possible.

[–] LemmyKnowsBest 3 points 8 months ago

I can't imagine what a black hole in life it would be for a blind person to go down and end up spending all their leisure time in the fediverse.

I have full faculty of all my five senses and it's already a black hole down here in the ~~reddit~~ fediverse