#accessibility
https://social.noleron.com/@clackups/113024501014864971 clackups@social.noleron.com - Here's my new project, a keyboard for one-handed typing. Tens of thousands Ukrainians have injured arms and hands during the war, and my goal is to make an inexpensive keyboard for anyone to assemble at home.
https://github.com/clackups/qmk_userspace/blob/main/ONE_HANDED_CSTC40.md
#accessibility #onehandtyping #disability #UkraineWar #ukraine #veterans
Update on Newton, the Wayland-native accessibility project
"There’s incredibly good news for people who use accessibility tools on Linux, but who were facing serious, gamebreaking problems when trying to use Wayland."
https://www.osnews.com/story/139996/update-on-newton-the-wayland-native-accessibility-project/
https://tweesecake.social/@weirdwriter/112465274302648993 weirdwriter@tweesecake.social - Ugh! So #Libby is selling our data, not shocking after they were acquired... but there are alternatives that are below that public libraries can use! I personally recommend libraries use the Palace Project because of their #Accessibility focused design but links are below!
For the Libby #Enshittification background, read https://buttondown.email/ninelives/archive/the-coming-enshittification-of-public-libraries/
Part 2 https://buttondown.email/ninelives/archive/a-novel-a-wedding-and-some-heavy-petting/
For the targeted ad investigation, read https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/18/mystery_of_the_targeted_mobile_ads/
One of them is Library Simplified https://librarysimplified.org/get-started/
The Palace Project looks awesome and is fully accessible, screen reader wise! Librarians should check out https://thepalaceproject.org/platform/
Real-time text on Android and iOS is helpful for those with hearing or speech disabilities to converse in real time with text
While texting is great for asynchronous conversations, calls are still the way to go if you want real-time conversation.
That’s not an option for people who are hard of hearing or have speech difficulties. RTT or Real-time text solves this issue by allowing people to text in real-time. In this guide, Android Police explain the RTT feature, how to activate it on Android smartphones, and how to use it in different situations.
One benefit of RTT over text messaging is that it allows you to connect to businesses, government agencies, and emergency services. To connect to emergency services using RTT, all you do is dial 911 (in the USA) in RTT mode.
This feature makes emergency services accessible to people with hearing or speech disabilities and allows everyone to connect to emergency services without speaking. If you are in a situation where speaking out loud can be detrimental to your safety, use the RTT feature to connect to 911.
To connect to government agencies or businesses, you can use the Relay service. People who are hard of hearing or have speech impediments can connect to the relay service by dialling 711 (probably also USA). An operator picks up their call and connects them to the desired service.
See https://www.androidpolice.com/what-is-rtt-calling/
#Blog, #accessibility, #disability, #technology
Wireless earbuds, such as AirPods and Galaxy Buds 2, can actually help you hear conversations better with Ambient Sound
Apple’s wireless earbuds are routinely praised for their natural-sounding transparency mode, and for good reason. But did you know you can customise the level of ambient noise that transparency mode lets through? And if that’s not enough, there’s a separate “conversation boost” mode that’s designed to make it easier to hear face-to-face conversations happening in front of you.
Samsung also provides granular control over the ambient sound mode on the company’s Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. You can choose between five different levels of amplification and set individual preferences for each ear. Moreover, there’s also a slider that can adjust ambient sound from “soft” to “clear” based on what sounds best to each person.
And there are also more dedicated ear buds for hearing aid type use. Yes, they do cost a lot more, but are still way cheaper than actual medical hearing aids. In all cases, our ears become less sensitive to certain frequencies, which accounts for some noise sounding louder than someone speaking next to us. All these ear buds are doing is normalising that sound so that what you want to really hear, is more audible to you.
See https://www.theverge.com/23811197/hearing-conversation-apple-airpods-pro-samsung-galaxy-buds-otc-aids
#Blog, #accessibility, #hearing, #technology
Reddit has now sufficiently broken their own site that moderators of the blind community's subreddit who are themselves blind can no longer access the moderator tools.
This statement by the mod team is worth a read to understand the full extent of the failure.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Blind/comments/14nzwkm/they_finally_did_it_reddit_made_it_impossible_for/
it's also worth noting that this community now has a dedicated Lemmy instance. https://RBlind.com
Jabra Enhance Plus review: These $800 earbuds are close to $5,000 hearing aids but are only compatible with iOS for now
An interesting review, and it was much expected that cheaper earbuds would probably do a similar job. There are some minor drawbacks, but still for those who can’t afford $5,000 these may be quite liveable.
On the Android side of things, the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro look like a good choice as a first foray into hearing enhancement. The company recently rolled out an update that offers higher levels of amplification for its Ambient Sound option, which passes and enhances outside sound before it reaches your ears.
See https://www.androidpolice.com/jabra-enhance-plus-review/
#Blog, #accessibility, #hearing, #hearingaids, #technology
iPhones will be able to speak in your voice with 15 minutes of training, assisting those who’ve lost the ability to speak, or who are blind or have low vision
According to Apple, users can create a Personal Voice by reading a set of text prompts aloud for a total of 15 minutes of audio on the iPhone or iPad. Since the feature integrates with Live Speech, users can then type what they want to say and have their Personal Voice read it to whomever they want to talk to. Apple says the feature uses “on-device machine learning to keep users’ information private and secure.”
There’s also a new detection mode in Magnifier to help users who are blind or have low vision, which is designed to help users interact with physical objects with numerous text labels. As an example, Apple says a user can aim their device’s camera at a label, such as a microwave keypad, which the iPhone or iPad will then read aloud as the user moves their finger across each number or setting on the appliance.
See https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/16/23725237/iphone-personal-voice-speak-training-accessibility
#Blog, #accessibility, #disability, #iphone, #technology
Webbed Briefs: What happened to text inputs
Brilliant video from @heydon@front-end.social about web designers making the web worse:
https://briefs.video/videos/what-happened-to-text-inputs/
