2022 could be the dawn of a Braille renaissance in the US.
The National Library Service for the Blind and print-disabled is poised to send 20-cell eReaders to patrons upon request: in some states, the program's already underway.
loc.gov/search/?fa=par… Historically, Braille displays have cost thousands.
Blind folks w/o the cash must petition schools, employers & state agencies for funding to secure access to literacy.
These days, a basic display costs as little as $500: still 10x more than a cheap tablet for reading print.

As we gear up for Season 3 of COVID19, no at-home test kit is nonvisually accessible. Blind folks who aren't tech-savvy enough to use a visual interpreter app or Facetime a friend have to disclose test results to, and potentially expose, a sighted person. Let me address some replies right quick. If you Googled "accessible home COVID test": that's marketing copy for "within reach" & doesn't pertain to the Blind. Some app-centric tests probably are accessible, but folks w/ low tech access, or privacy concerns, can't use those.

My absolute joy about Google Translate's new Transcribe feature for iOS withered and died as I failed to escape a bias-driven abuse of screen reader detection that enforces a special rule just for Blind users. Here's what occurred. I wanted to watch House of Flowers, using Transcribe to fill the gaps in my Spanish. Since audio description on Netflix isn't part of subtitles, I wanted to use Transcribe to catch both the dialog & the AD. I propped my phone on my laptop near my Braille display, feeling smart.

Dear instructional designers: i process speech at 600 WPM. My brain does not want to listen at 160. If your "self-paced" learning module presents the text but makes me wait out the speaker before i advance), i can't focus on learning bc i'm boiling with frustration. Forcing anyone into a learning modality they don't enjoy is counterproductive, hostile & — especially with asynchronous learning — avoidable. Imposing a speed limit on a Blind or disabled speed listener is also an ableist microaggression. Have some respect.

It is glorious to be able to walk outside maskless. I learned to deal with wearing one (happily), but it subtly threw off the acoustics i use to navigate. I have my old soundscape back and and it feels fantastic. Guide dog ramona is picking up her pace and targeting objects with confidence. When I was masked, my caution and hesitancy were very clear to her, and she acted accordingly. It is so great to see her owning the streets again, 10 years old and still in her prime

I don't speak out against unethical tech because i want to be "hostile". I want to be nurturing my curiosity, strengthening my community and celebrating progress. I'd rather talk about recipes, books and art. Dealing with predatory tech bros is a survival strategy, not a hobby Today, someone told me that the #AccessiBe saga is easy to understand because our posts are so thorough and clear. That's a matter of survival: I've had to explain my rights and needs as a Blind person since I learned to speak. A day without explaining is a rare & joyous freedom

Happy Blindness Awareness Month!
Braille was invented in 1824 by a Blind student at a French school that taught raised print (slow to read, produced only with a press).
Sighted teachers didn't want students reading and writing Braille. So, they burned it.
pri.org/stories/2018-0… Boston Line Type and other raised-print systems were promoted by sighted educators for decades after Braille was refined.
These shapes can't be written by hand,
are larger than Braille,
and take longer to decode than a Braille cell's elegant 6-dot binary.
touchthispage.com

Happy Blindness Awareness month. Awareness is a wildly low bar that other marginalized groups would rightly reject. This month, please trust, respect, appreciate, learn from and promote us. Actually please do that all the time. When you see someone putting their hands on us in a nonconsensual, paternalistic attempt to direct us, and when we speak out, don't be quiet. Don't explain that handsy strangers are "just trying to help". Back US UP.

Yesterday, visual interpreter app for the Blind @AiraIo sent an update to some users that its optional smart glasses are discontinued and will be bricked on Mar 31. While this decision may be strategically sound, its announcement is a study in startup opacity & hubris. The message claims to seek customer input on more viable hardware alternatives, but only users of the discontinued Horizon product were emailed: those users most likely to be using other hands-free strategies were not included. N

Educators and disability service folk: please be very careful not to perform steps in assigned work for your Blind student! They should be able to do the thing or direct a reader in precisely how to do the thing. Even / especially if they are still learning and need more time. If your Blind student has foundational gaps — typing, screen reader skills, note-taking — address those directly. These skills will not show up through mystic rite when your student gets their first job. Students deserve honesty about gaps and how to fix them.