Accessibility

Breaking change in Android!

"Starting with Android 16, [Google] will phase out manifest attributes and runtime APIs used to restrict an app's orientation and resizability, enabling better user experiences for many apps across devices."

Changes will come with API 36 and will be mandatory with API 37.

cross-posted from: https://rblind.com/post/3476242

> As part of OurBlind's continued efforts to provide accessible online spaces for the blind and visually impaired community, we've developed custom themes for Lemmy, to use on our Lemmy instance on Rblind, and to make available for others, in keeping with the themes' license terms and the spirit of free and open source software. > > If you're reading this on www.rblind.com and are not signed in, you're using RBlind-Dark. We hope you're enjoying it! If you log in, you can switch to RBlind-Light. Once logged in, go to your username, then Settings and, use the Themes dropdown to make your selection: we suggest RBlind-Dark or RBlind-Light at the end of the list. > > ## Why these themes matter to us > > We started this Lemmy instance back in 2023, prompted by the Reddit API protests. Reddit Inc., the company that controls the website our community r/Blind is on, had announced policy changes that made the apps most of us used to participate in the Reddit community impossible to maintain. During this time it became clear to us and many other online communities that a corporate-owned platform would always be subject to pressures that are contrary to our needs. We launched this site as our blind-friendly home base in the fediverse, a decentralized and often self-hosted social media platform. > > The goal of having our own home server was always to be able to make our own decisions about the software we run on it. One of those decisions is that the visual styling should always be comfortable for low-vision users and other disabled people, as part of our core audience. That meant designing and providing themes that, within our technical limitations, conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). > > ## How we designed our Lemmy themes > > OurBlind admins contracted Travis, a talented graphic designer from within the community, for this project. Check out his website here. Together we went over specific requirenments within WCAG and the site's usage, colors, layout, preliminary testing, and communication, to develop both the themes themselves and the framework for future work and sharing. > > ## How these themes meet our goals > > In short, the new themes ensure high contrast, colorblind friendly colors, readable fonts, and appropriately-sized and readable buttons and links. > > Following are examples of the home feed using the new themes. > > ### RBlind-Dark example > > !RBlind Lemmy homepage with Local selected in RBlind-Dark > > ### RBlind-Light example > > !RBlind Lemmy homepage with Local selected in RBlind-Light > > ## Time for testing and feedback > > These have been audited by OurBlind admins, but that's only part of the validation process. If you're using this site and have low vision, colorblindness, a cognitive or a motor disability, consider providing feedback. Do they work well given your needs and use case? Do you like them? Does something not work quite right? Comment below or fill out the anonymous survey. Don't hesitate to comment if you're not a member of this instance or not disabled - we want these to be helpful to as many people as possible. Thank you! > > We'll be collecting feedback and open to revisions until February 1st 2025. Even after that, we'll still be interested in your experience, but will take longer to respond and adjust. > > ## How to use these themes on your own instance > > As mentioned, this project is all about the value of free and open source software in ensuring control and autonomy. We're making this our home in the fediverse and we want to be good neighbors. We already offer the broader community a place for discussions around blindness, but we also want to contribute back. > > These themes are licensed under GNU AFFERO General Public License and available at the Codeberg repo to be used or modified. Updates to the themes that come as a result of user feedback will be available there. Definitely give Travis a star and consider hiring for your own design needs, he's been a delight to work with. > > The repo is also mirrored on GitHub for accessibility reasons. > > ## Thanks, from RBlind > > This community's journey has been long and thrilling, across three platforms and over a decade. Everybody on the admin and moderation team has deeply benefitted from and grown with the community. These themes are a humble gift to our members and our neighbors on the fediverse. May they make all our lives that bit more comfortable.

cross-posted from: https://rblind.com/post/3476242

> As part of OurBlind's continued efforts to provide accessible online spaces for the blind and visually impaired community, we've developed custom themes for Lemmy, to use on our Lemmy instance on Rblind, and to make available for others, in keeping with the themes' license terms and the spirit of free and open source software. > > If you're reading this on www.rblind.com and are not signed in, you're using RBlind-Dark. We hope you're enjoying it! If you log in, you can switch to RBlind-Light. Once logged in, go to your username, then Settings and, use the Themes dropdown to make your selection: we suggest RBlind-Dark or RBlind-Light at the end of the list. > > ## Why these themes matter to us > > We started this Lemmy instance back in 2023, prompted by the Reddit API protests. Reddit Inc., the company that controls the website our community r/Blind is on, had announced policy changes that made the apps most of us used to participate in the Reddit community impossible to maintain. During this time it became clear to us and many other online communities that a corporate-owned platform would always be subject to pressures that are contrary to our needs. We launched this site as our blind-friendly home base in the fediverse, a decentralized and often self-hosted social media platform. > > The goal of having our own home server was always to be able to make our own decisions about the software we run on it. One of those decisions is that the visual styling should always be comfortable for low-vision users and other disabled people, as part of our core audience. That meant designing and providing themes that, within our technical limitations, conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). > > ## How we designed our Lemmy themes > > OurBlind admins contracted Travis, a talented graphic designer from within the community, for this project. Check out his website here. Together we went over specific requirenments within WCAG and the site's usage, colors, layout, preliminary testing, and communication, to develop both the themes themselves and the framework for future work and sharing. > > ## How these themes meet our goals > > In short, the new themes ensure high contrast, colorblind friendly colors, readable fonts, and appropriately-sized and readable buttons and links. > > Following are examples of the home feed using the new themes. > > ### RBlind-Dark example > > !RBlind Lemmy homepage with Local selected in RBlind-Dark > > ### RBlind-Light example > > !RBlind Lemmy homepage with Local selected in RBlind-Light > > ## Time for testing and feedback > > These have been audited by OurBlind admins, but that's only part of the validation process. If you're using this site and have low vision, colorblindness, a cognitive or a motor disability, consider providing feedback. Do they work well given your needs and use case? Do you like them? Does something not work quite right? Comment below or fill out the anonymous survey. Don't hesitate to comment if you're not a member of this instance or not disabled - we want these to be helpful to as many people as possible. Thank you! > > We'll be collecting feedback and open to revisions until February 1st 2025. Even after that, we'll still be interested in your experience, but will take longer to respond and adjust. > > ## How to use these themes on your own instance > > As mentioned, this project is all about the value of free and open source software in ensuring control and autonomy. We're making this our home in the fediverse and we want to be good neighbors. We already offer the broader community a place for discussions around blindness, but we also want to contribute back. > > These themes are licensed under GNU AFFERO General Public License and available at the Codeberg repo to be used or modified. Updates to the themes that come as a result of user feedback will be available there. Definitely give Travis a star and consider hiring for your own design needs, he's been a delight to work with. > > The repo is also mirrored on GitHub for accessibility reasons. > > ## Thanks, from RBlind > > This community's journey has been long and thrilling, across three platforms and over a decade. Everybody on the admin and moderation team has deeply benefitted from and grown with the community. These themes are a humble gift to our members and our neighbors on the fediverse. May they make all our lives that bit more comfortable.

Hi, does anyone know of a program that will automatically lower sound / set a maximum sound level so as to prevent hearing loss? Preferably something that works with mpd.

Some details about improvements in accessibility features embedded within iOS 18

A small publication with a Swift gist about a SwiftUI custom View which will swing to HStack or VStack dependent to the dynamic type size.

Tota11ylost ― the escape game that aims to offer you an immersive experience, raising your awareness of the challenges faced by people with digital disabilities

You will be immersed in a scenario, in which you will play as a character with different deficiencies with each new step taken. You will have to solve the puzzles and challenges one by one, overcome obstacles related to accessibility and ergonomics to advance in the game. It’s up to you to get out of it, alone or in a group, against these difficulties!

The game is available in English, French and Spanish, and the source code is available on GitHub (https://github.com/Orange-OpenSource/Tota11ylost) under the GNU Affero General Public License 3.

Be My Eyes connects people needing sighted support with volunteers and companies through live video around the world. The Android and iOS apps now embed pictures analysis with chatGPT4.

Sony has released a new PlayStation 5 controller called the Access Controller, which is designed to be customizable for disabled gamers. It allows users to configure different buttons, triggers and sticks to suit their individual needs. The kit aims to help people who struggle with thumbsticks, pressing buttons, or holding a controller. Feedback from disabled gamers was incorporated into the design. While a step forward, some find issues like the lack of a right stick limits gameplay in certain genres. Overall though, the product and others like Microsoft's Adaptive Controller are helping make gaming more inclusive for disabled players.

Crossposting the original post here as this seems relevant to improving accessibility!

Please consider upvoting the OG post as it helped me learn about this🤗

Here are some tips about how you can make accessibility tests for your iOS apps with some screen shots and code samples

Here are some tips to know so as to build accessible iOS apps in SwiftUI and UIKit, e.g. use of traits, notifications and zoom, with code samples.

I found this article fascinating, and wasn't expecting the initial part of it to talk about climate change, something I'd never considered about different filetypes. I kind of knew what I would expect to read about PDF vs HTML when it comes to accessibility, but interesting nonetheless.

Orange group keeps alive and available an interesting and very rich web site providing plenty of rules and advices about accessibility. The content targets iOS, Android, web and also other mediums.