I woke up to a comment so smug, so perfectly soaked in gatekeeping and faux-righteous posturing, it earned its own blog post.
You want freedom? You want GNU/Linux to mean something?
Then maybe start by not telling disabled users to go fuck themselves with a smile.
This commenter thought they were defending "software freedom." What they were really doing was kicking people out of the room. Dismissing accessibility. Mocking effort. Pretending that cruelty is some kind of rite of passage. They quoted Stallman like it was scripture, ignored real-world experience like it was noise, and wrapped it all in condescension dressed as virtue.
I’ve spent over a decade in this ecosystem. Writing patches. Rebuilding broken stacks. Helping blind users boot systems upstream doesn’t even test. I didn’t "just install Arch and whine about the terminal." I lived in it. I survived it. I held it together when maintainers disappeared and no one else gave a damn.
But apparently, because I didn’t call it GNU/Linux™ and because I dared to talk about how this OS chews people up and spits them out, I’m lazy. I’m weak. I should "get a dog."
So I wrote a response. Line by line. No mercy. No euphemisms.
This isn’t just about one comment. This is about every time someone’s been told they don’t belong because they couldn’t learn fast enough, code well enough, or survive long enough. It’s about everyone who was pushed out while the gatekeepers patted themselves on the back for "preserving the spirit of free software."
You want a free system? Start by making it livable. Because freedom that demands you crawl bleeding through a broken bootloader isn’t freedom. It’s abandonment dressed in ideology.
And if this kind of gatekeeping is your idea of community?
You can keep it.
https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/you-dont-own-the-word-freedom-a-full-burn-response-to-the-gnulinux-comment-that-tried-to-gatekeep-me-off-my-own-machine/
#Linux #GNU #FOSS #Accessibility #BlindTech #FreeSoftware #Gatekeeping #DisabilityInTech #OpenSource #Orca #ScreenReaders #ArchLinux #BurnItDown #blogpost
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Samuel ProulxJust published a blog post tearing into hCaptcha’s so-called “accessibility” mode.
It’s not accessibility. It’s a cookie. And to get that cookie, you now have to submit your email and send a code via SMS to an U.S. phone number. It fails silently. It doesn’t confirm anything. You click “Confirm Code” and get “An error has occurred.” No cookie. No fallback. No support. And if you somehow get it? It’s a third-party cookie your browser probably blocks, and it expires. Then you get to do it all again.
Meanwhile, hCaptcha’s text-based challenge — the only mode that might actually work with a screen reader — isn’t tied to the cookie at all. It only shows up if the website owner specifically enables it. Most don’t. So even if you’re blind, even if you’re using assistive tech, you get the same unusable image grid as everyone else.
This isn’t accessibility. It’s exclusion wrapped in PR.
The blog post breaks it all down: how the cookie flow works (or doesn’t), why the system is broken by design, how developers got misled, and what real alternatives look like. If you care about accessible design or just want to understand how bad this gets, read it.
Link: https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/hellcaptcha-accessibility-theater-at-its-worst/
In the distant past circa 2000-2006 I had a link to a page that listed how screen readers supported various HTML elements, Have tried but cannot find it in 2025, anybody have any recollection or pointer to such a page?
Following today's post on the Microsoft Edge blog, I've started a page of ARIA Notify examples that currently only function in Edge Canary:
https://jscholes.github.io/ariaNotify.html
The blog post:
https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2025/05/05/creating-a-more-accessible-web-with-aria-notify/
“complications can arise with event handling, because screen readers intercept events, and don’t necessarily pass them on to the browser. Even then, events don’t always match the input type, since desktop screen readers are typically controlled with a keyboard, yet keyboard actions might fire mouse events.”
To other #blind #students, what tools have you used to help you format your papers with #APA styling and #citations? My #university provides #Perrla for free to students, but it doesn't seem to be the most #accessible with #ScreenReaders, at least not the online version. I haven't tried the add-on for #MicrosoftWord. With the online version, though, I don't see any keyboard shortcuts, and when you move into the edit box to start writing a paper, focus gets trapped there and it's hard to get out, so I don't think it's the best tool for me. The only other tool I know of is the reference manager built into Microsoft Word, but it seems to have fewer features and doesn't really help you format your paper like Perrla does, something I was looking forward to since all the APA rules for styling seem hard to remember.
#College #CollegeStudent #accessibility #JAWS #ScreenReaders #writing
@mastoblind @main
@i0null @cR0w copy / paste the #shruggie #ASCII #emoticon in the #AltText for the attached image^ into your keyboard text replacements & assign your preferred shortcut, voilà! 
^ better #accessibility for folks using #ScreenReaders that way
I have an #accessibility question for #screenReader users.
If I use hashtags within flowing text, like #this, does that annoyingly interrupt the narration flow and should I rather list them all at the end?
Or is in-text tagging the preferable alternative to a large wall of hashtags at the end, like this:
Question for folks who use screen readers: what is your preferred way for someone to write individual letters? Example, spelling out the letters on a sign that do not add up to a real word.
I did alt text for a picture of signs that were badly made. When describing the text layout, I went with "Capital Letter space Capital Letter". How well does that work versus maybe "Capital Letter dash Capital Letter"? Or is there a better option?
If something I boost has image(s) without alt text, please check the following posts in the thread. I don’t boost posts without providing alt text (and often I just don’t boost posts without alt text that I might have otherwise unless I think they’re worth the time/effort for me to do it).
If I do this for one of your posts, please edit the post and copy/paste the text I’ve provided into the image descriptions so people who rely on screen readers can know what’s in them too.
Let’s keep the fediverse accessible.
Thanks 
Hey, folks who use screenreaders. I often use asterisks and parentheses in my writing, because the structure forms as I write. I've just realized that may make my stuff less accessible for you.
Is there a different way for me to add short snippets of clarifying text that's more accessible?
Thanks!
Hey #Blind friends using #ScreenReaders like #JFW how on the earth do you now edit your #Amazon.com shopping cart I.E. if you wish to remove an item? I'm in Chrome today and can't figure out how to do it.
When you use mathematical bold caps in your posts, you make it inaccessible to #ScreenReaders.
I have looked everywhere, but I can't find this post from 11 February! It isn't showing up in my Sent timeline. So if it is on my profile, and/or if you have seen it, I apologise.
I am not closing my account here, but I need to try something other than Friendica, due to accessibility issues. I am considering Akkoma, but am open to other networks if they are compatible with Mastodon.
I am seeking an instance with the following specifications.
Accessible interface (I use a screen reader called NVDA). If it uses Semantic html and isn't cluttered, that's a great start. I would prefer it to be compatible with Mastodon so that I could also use TweeseCake as a client. I need to easily be able to access things such as notifications, follow requests, my own posts, to be able to search for tags, people, my posts etc.
Posting limit of 5,000 characters or more (more preferred.
Ability to pin, unpin, edit, and delete posts.
Ability to filter content, so that I don't see certain words or phrases. (This doesn't work with TweeseCake, so it's not as important as the rest, unless the site is so accessible that I can use it often.)
Ability to select between seeing all posts of someone or only some, and to choose whether to let someone follow me without my seeing his posts or to follow him completely. (Friend versus Subscriber on Friendica).
Extensive profile with keywords. (Keywords may be a Friendica feature, so can be skipped.)
Most people write in English and are not politically, technologically, or gaming obsessed. No radicals of any pursuasion. (the English bit is just to help me find friends on my particular instance.)
Free speech (nothing illegal or homophobic). I personally avoid obscenities.)
If such an instance exists, please tell me. I found https://akkoma.fediverse.observer/list[7] but that's just a list with no real information about each instance. I would have to go through over 400 of them, choose the ones from the UK, Canada, and America (they're the most likely to have English instances), then go through those to see if they meet my requirements, but that's ridiculous.
I am not a programmer, so please don't suggest I start my own instance or join a network that is not set up with a webpage and/or to accept a client, as I know nothing about these things other than that they run on Linux and I'm a Windows user. I just want something that works. Also, if there are any demonstration instances, please let me know. I heard of one where accounts only lasted five days, but it seems to be gone.
I tried to post this to the Friendica support forum, but it kept timing out when I entered my information. I am now attempting to subscribe to their e-mail list. However, I thought I would write this here so that those who know coding, etc. might be able to offer a solution, or at least, to pass this on to the developers.
I joined Friendica in October of 2024, when Facebook decided to shut down their Basic Mobile site (not app). I am totally blind, and their main page is a nightmare to use with a screen readre (NVDA in my case). I chose Friendica because of the huge character limit, the ability to edit and delete posts, local posting, extensive profiles with keywords, and the ability to connect with all sorts of accounts in the Fediverse. For the most part, I am enjoying my time here. However, I am noticing a lot of inaccessibility on the Friendica page. I am not a programmer, but I'm guessing this is at the core of the software and is not due to the instance I'm using (friendica.world). I am also guessing that the page is not written in HTML5 and does not follow WCAG guidelines, though I may be wrong about that. If not, I strongly urge the developers to review them and implement them if possible. If so, perhaps, some changes can still be made that would make this a more screen reader-friendly site. Note that I tried this with Firefox and Supermium (a direct fork of Chrome).
Mostly, I use TweeseCake to access the site, but there are some things I can't do with that client. All of the following refer to the site itself.
- There is a list of links at the top of the page that acts like a menu. This causes many problems while trying to perform basic tasks, particularly editing posts and handling notifications. I can't always activate said links/menu either.
1A. I can't stress how frustrating editing posts is. It sometimes takes over ten minutes. The "edit" option is a link/menu, and it can only be found via another menu. Once I finally find and activate it, I hear the sound indicating that I have entered focus Mode. Usually, this means that I am in an edit box and can type. However, in this case, I am taken back to the main page, as if I never entered the option to edit my post. Using e to try to find an edit box doesn't help, as it just sends me to the replies to different comments. So I am forced to find the post, and start all over again. The only way I can do this successfully is to try to tab through the links/menu at the top of the page (when it works), then through other posts, until, finally, I am placed in an edit box where I can type.
1B. When I go to the Notifications" link, I have to tab to "Mark all System Notifications as Seen". This isn't even a regular link, as I can't copy and paste the text from it. Once I tab to and out of that, I can then read my notifications. But here is what I have to do if I want to see follow requests.
1. Try to get the notifications link to work, then click on it.
2. Tab to marking notifications.
3. Perform a search for the word follow.
4. Click on the link of the notification that someone wants to follow me. I open this in a new window, to try to keep the original one available.
5. Make my choice as to whether to approve that notification, then close that window.
6. Return to the main window. Only now, I am not where I left off. Instead, I am placed back at the beginning of the page and the Notifications menu is not open.
7. Repeat steps 1 through 3.
Ideally, I should be able to go to a normal notifications link, perform steps 3 through 5, then return back to the link, and perform steps 3 through 5 again, as many times as necessary, without having to repeat 1 through 3.
- I can't just go to the site and enter an edit box to post. I must go through a menu to find the link to do so. Yet there is an edit box for searching for content, tags, etc.
- Some pinned posts don't always read properly. I can see my name, when I posted, that it's pinned, a public message, tags (if applicable), buttons for resharing, etc., and the number of comments. But I cannot simply read the post itself. ""Comments" is also a button, not a link. Even when I expand them, I still can't see my post, and finding the button again to close them takes a lot of time, as posts also have their own buttons. Note that unpinned posts are read properly.
- While the process of editing my profile is completely accessible, finding the edit option might be slightly confusing for new users, as it requires entering yet another link/menu, this time with the user name as the title..
- If I go to a profile of someone not on Friendica (usually Mastodon) and wish to reply to a post, after I enter my credentials, it takes me back to my profile, not to the relevant post. It only worked once.
- The Friendica app for Windows is basically the site itself. I don't understand this at all.
If you want to see a truly accessible site, try this link. I don't work for them, though I do have an account there.
Please, if any changes can be made, I urge you to do so. The site is otherwise a pleasure to use, but my frustration at not being able to easily perform such basic tasks is increasing.
I’m diving into Reddit for the first time and decided to start with the Dystopia app, which is designed to be more accessible for blind users. I’ve found the r/Blind subreddit, and it seems like a great place to connect with others, but I’m still figuring out how to post on there. If anyone has tips or guidance on how to navigate the process, I’d really appreciate the help!
I’m excited to explore Reddit and see what the community has to offer. Any advice for a first-time user would be awesome!