dankeck

Meta's new social media network, Threads, launches without taking into account how users with various disabilities access software.

As a follow up to a similar post from last month, here is a more detailed list of barriers to access, compiled by AbilityNet.

• Inaccessible images
• No headings
• Navigation issues
• Button trouble
• Reloading difficulties
• Color contrast problems
• Media issues
• Portrait-only orientation

Via the A11yTalks webinar Accessibility in Action: Indigenous Communities by Meggan Van Harten

Link to font:https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/services-for-government/policies-procedures/bc-visual-identity/bc-sans

Several typefaces were examined that matched the criteria and a handful of these were tested. Noto Sans stood out as an option as it already had an extensive set of characters supporting over 800 languages, including many Indigenous languages in Canada. The typeface was also originally designed for enhanced readability on-screen.

Under an open-font license, Noto Sans presented the opportunity to access the font files and modify and improve its character sets. With expertise from a typographic Indigenous language expert, and from FirstVoices (an initiative of the First Peoples’ Cultural Council), additional characters and syllabic glyphs were added to support Indigenous languages in B.C. This new typeface was named BC Sans and first launched in 2019.

Accessible Ohio is the first-ever coordinated effort in Ohio to support businesses, communities, attractions, and venues in becoming more accessible and inclusive.

...

We are seeking input on strategies to reach local partners and share information about Accessible Ohio services, personal or observed experiences in public activities and environments, examples of ways to overcome barriers to access, and possible funding resources for partners.

If you have a disability and have been excluded at a place of public accommodation in Ohio, this event may be an opportunity to bring the problem to the attention of state employees.

Via the Focus State newsletter:

This is an article about a lawsuit filed against a digital accessibility advocate named Adrian Roselli. Adrian has been outspoken against a type of software called an overlay. This type of overlay promises to make websites accessible for disabled people with just one line of code.

With Meta’s claim that Threads will “focus on kindness,” it remains unclear how accessibility aligns with the platform’s definition of inclusivity. As CEO and founder of web accessibility company UserWay, Allon Mason, stressed, social media should be accessible to everyone, including the 1 in 5 individuals living with disability.

Via @LFLegal@mastodon.social

This is an article about the delay in web access regulations. The regulations will help state and local government agencies in the United States make sure websites work for disabled people. They will help people with disabilities fully participate in all activities of state and local governments. This includes education, recreation, citizenship, and more. The regulations have been delayed. They are now stuck in a part of the United States government called the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB. The OMB helps the President of the United States meet their goals about what regulations are needed. The wait for regulations has been too long. The Americans with Disabilities Act is about to have its 33rd anniversary. It is long past time for these regulations.

Recently there was a thread in the IAAP discussion board about "dyslexia simulators," software that is meant to simulate the experience to people who do not have dyslexia. The simulators work by taking text on a web page and randomly switching letters around.

• Here is an example at Harvard's Teaching and Learning Lab.
• You can also go to the Google Web Store and get a Chrome extension that will do the simulation on any web page.

In the discussion thread, there was a dissenting voice who shared an article by Carolyn D. Cowen, who objects to the use of these simulators.

To quote Cowen:

As a person with dyslexia, as someone with dyslexia running throughout generations of both branches of my family, and, finally, as an educator who has taught countless children and adults with dyslexia over the decades, I feel pretty confident saying that this simulation is NOTHING like what it is like for most people who have dyslexia.

The simulation is a devilishly clever coding trick and well intentioned, but contrary to the dramatic headlines, it does little to deepen anyone’s understanding about what having dyslexia is really like.

...

the simulation’s likely take-away for the casual viewer with little or no knowledge of dyslexia is that this problem primarily is in the visual domain. From there, it is a short hop to assume that the solutions lie in the same domain.

...

And those notions can lure families into time- and resource-wasting wild-goose chases pursuing costly, ineffective interventions.

If you have dyslexia, would you be interested in commenting on these ideas?

• Do you think dyslexia simulations are dubious?
• Do you have a preferred way of describing your experience?

In her weekly Better Allies newsletter, Karen Catlin highlights the importance of using stock images featuring people from underrepresented groups.

She maintains a list of sources for such images, to which she has just added a collection of public domain images from the Consumer Product Safety Commission of the United States federal government.

Article by @amberhinds@fosstodon.org on the use of infinite scrolling in websites:

• How it can be difficult for users of screen readers or keyboard input, and for users with cognitive disabilities, attention disorders, or obsessive-compulsive disorders

• Ways to make it better for assistive technology

• Pros and cons of using it

Via Project Gutenberg:

Helen Adams Keller was born #OTD in 1880.  She lost her sight and her hearing after a bout of illness when she was 19 months old. She then communicated primarily using home signs until the age of seven, when she met her first teacher and life-long companion Anne Sullivan.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/778529

“Where are you from?” Hanna asks between bites.

“Columbus, Ohio,” the family guest says.

Hanna built the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium into one of the nation's best. He then captivated national audiences on David Letterman’s late-night talk show, "Good Morning America" and a number of his own Emmy-winning animal series that still run in syndication. He traveled the globe as a leading animal conservationist promoting Columbus. It was his home for decades. It’s even where he once said he wanted his ashes spread whenever he passes away.

But in this moment, none of that history feels familiar.

Hanna pauses, then asks a question. “Have I ever been to Columbus, Ohio?”

“Where are you from?” Hanna asks between bites.

“Columbus, Ohio,” the family guest says.

Hanna built the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium into one of the nation's best. He then captivated national audiences on David Letterman’s late-night talk show, "Good Morning America" and a number of his own Emmy-winning animal series that still run in syndication. He traveled the globe as a leading animal conservationist promoting Columbus. It was his home for decades. It’s even where he once said he wanted his ashes spread whenever he passes away.

But in this moment, none of that history feels familiar.

Hanna pauses, then asks a question. “Have I ever been to Columbus, Ohio?”