#using a screenreader

[wxrmeaterz]

"I care about accessibility" motherfuckers when you ask them to make shit readable and possible to view with a screenreader

[ Image ID: A light brown cat with darker stripes and spots in a car. He has both right paws on the shoulder of the person taking the photo. His back left paw is on the seat of the car and his left front paw is out of frame against the window of the car door. The cat has a surprised expression on its face with its mouth wide open as well as its eyes. He is looking at something behind the camera. // End Image ID ]

#accessibility #actually disabled #screenreader friendly #using a screenreader #low vision #visual disability #visually impaired #accessibility issues #fuck ableists

[whumpacabra]

Writing Accessibility PSA

Please avoid using long strings of characters as line breaks in your writing - these are not screen reader/TTS friendly!

Every ‘°’ will be read as ‘degree’ - can you imagine how long it takes to read out a string of 25? Let alone more complicated combinations of characters (eg. imagine listening to TTS read out ~*~ |°| ~*~ multiple times per line break)?

A good rule of thumb is to stick with short, 2-3 character line breaks (eg. I don’t find — or *** too egregious to listen to). Your readers can tell there’s been a scene change whether you use two or twenty em-dashes, but if you use twenty, some of us might have to listen for 30 seconds to read the next scene. If you’re more concerned about aesthetics, you can insert an image of your aesthetically pleasing line break with alt text simply reading ‘line break’ for accessibility.

Don’t feel bad if this is something you’ve never thought about before - now you know better and can make your writing more accessible moving forward!

I would like to invite any other screenreader users to add their own thoughts or preferences to this post. We’re not a monolith and there’s a variety to how different softwares interact with repeating character strings and images with alt text, so there’s bound to be some conflicting opinions on what I’ve suggested above. Let’s try to make the stories we share accessible for everyone :]

#writing #accessibility #line breaks #linebreaks #screen readers #tts #text to speech #whump community #<- applicable to any digital writing but tagging for my own reference. as this is my whump blog. #maybe I’m old but back in my day there was a little kerfuffle about how many people kept using complicated character string linebreaks #on ao3 which has a native line break you can insert via html #I don’t know if you can still do that on tumblr desktop with all the changes recently so I’ve been sticking to my trusty — #this is all in good faith no harm no foul and I’m not a cop so do what you want with your linebreaks. #I’m just putting this out there because it wasn’t something I really thought about before using a screenreader myself

[jaskierx]

*smooch*

[drum beats]

dear ed,

(baby baby baby)

❤️ i love everything about you.❤️ i love being near you.❤️ breathing the same air.❤️

ғᴜᴄᴋ ʏᴏᴜ sᴛᴇᴅᴇ ʙᴏɴɴᴇᴛ.

do you think blackbeard's gonna 🔪murder🔪 you?

i don't care what any of you say. he's actually 𝐚 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐠𝐮𝐲 👍

he's a ꜰᴜᴄᴋɪɴɢ ᴍᴀᴅᴍᴀɴ

if anyone 🅞🅑🅙🅔🅒🅣🅢. speak now or forever hold your peace 🤐

i think of you 💭 often. hope you're thinking of me as well.

[gunshot] 𝖔𝖇𝖏𝖊𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓.

aaaaaaaaa

wooooooo

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[𝕜𝕟𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕤]

YOU WANT HIM? OR DO YOU WANT ME?

𝒾 𝒹𝒾𝒹 𝒶 𝓅𝓊𝓃𝒸𝒽 :))

YES I DO

[gunshots] [knives] [swish swish] [zwing] [drama] [cannons] [drums]

baby baby baby i want yoooooooooou 🎶

#yes i'm a professional transcriber nbd #also sincerest apologies to anyone who uses a screenreader #ofmd #ofmd s2 #lyse.jpg

[khaotunq]

#not me #not me the series #notmeedit #yok jade #my gifs #my edits #mine: not me #mine: sean #mine: yok #as promised 5548 years ago #yok: the training montage #ft. sean who truly is the strongest among us #don't read the alt text i've lost my mind #sorry to all screenreaders #i kept it... factual? ish. #these are the worst gifs ever so i'm not tagging anyone lmao sorryyyyyyyy #ok i'm tagging chiara but that's because she bullied me 5548 years ago about not posting them #so. #mushiemaradame #sufferrrr

[snuffkip]

Riz Junior Year doodles!!!

(& bonus Riz in trashcan below cut for your morale and pfp needs)

If you do use it as a pfp, please include credit <3

#riz gukgak fanart #riz gukgak #fantasy high fanart #fantasy high #fantasy high junior year #d20 fanart #d20 #digital art #snuffkip art #HES HERE #id in alt text #id in alt #please let me know if the id is alright if you use or know someone who uses a screenreader #is it better to describe every drawing or just give a general impression? its hard when the canvas is full of many different things #anywsy #this was fun #will probably do this for sophomore but maybe slightly less creauturey or diff art style? creauture style is super fun to draw though #ok new taako art soon hopefully #now im going to sleep for a thousand years goodnight <3

[piplupod]

btw artists you should maybe stop posting your art on pinterest if that's something you've been doing, i know a few ppl who have been sharing their art there

i'm not sure if this section has been updated at all or if it's always been this way but I was taking a read through their soon-to-be-implemented update to their TOS to see if they'll be adding anything with the increased usage of AI and this looks like perhaps this section exists (at least in part) for that reason 🤔 [thinking emoji]

unfortunately their report function for art theft/reposting has historically been less than stellar (an understatement) and I don't really see it improving any time soon but perhaps they will improve it with this update to their TOS and privacy policy! one can hope at least!

link to the preview of the new TOS: https://policy.pinterest.com/en/terms-of-service-preview

alt text for the screenshot below, as well as linked in the embedded image description feature:

A screenshot of a section of Pinterest's new Terms of Service. The subsection heading reads: "How we and other users can use your User Content". The highlighted text reads: "By providing any User Content on the Service, you grant us license to use, store, publicly perform or display, reproduce, save, modify, create derivative works, monetize, download, translate and distribute your User Content. Nothing in these Terms entitles you to any payments or the right to share in any revenue from any monetization of User Content."

Image description note: If you want to read the full paragraph, please visit the page I've linked in the post.

#pinterest #artists on tumblr #pippen needs 2nd breakfast #i'm not sure if anyone needs alt text anymore or if tumblr's image descriptions are finally playing nice with screenreaders #please let me know if I have made a mistake or anything with that! #also disclaimer idk how standard all this is for a platform's TOS but I figured i'd bring it to people's attention anyways ... #additional disclaimer: i am not very smart and i will not claim to be very smart lol so if i've said anything weird lmk! i'm happy to learn #i am just a little freak that likes to read through TOS and community guidelines on platforms occasionally bc i find it interesting lmao #and i figured a lot of artists esp those who are teens who use pinterest may not know this so ... 🧍‍♂️ here i am ! #but it is entirely possible that i am misunderstanding the wording in their TOS and this isn't actually a ''bad'' thing for artists 🤷‍♂️

[zeralight-asks]

H̵̼̱̝̫̟̄̎̾̆̈͒͘͘e̵̼͌̔l̷̦͎̜̃̿̍l̸͙̝̯̲̈́̇̋̾̈́o̴̤̩̻̱̠͍͇̒́͝ͅ ̴̨̧͎͔͚͓̌̎p̵̺̭̾̏̈̓̏͂̈́̓͋ỏ̵͈̖͕̭̝̍̊͐͐̃̽k̸͖͍͎̬̩̒͛̈́e̸̩̲̳̘͎͑m̷̢̛̤̜̠̫̍̂̏̌̉͂o̴̧͉͈͓͔̗̳̊̐̈́̓͜ṋ̴̢̢̢̻̺̠̲͙͋̄̌̓

[plaintext: Hello pokemon/ end pt]

Uhh, hello-

#screenreader unsafe #writer ask #as writer #anonymous #// PLEASE let's stop using zalgo text-

[chaos-cousins]

Sligoogle how to impress new possible thief friend without overwhelming them

#pokeblogging #rotomblr #text to speech #//ren still cannot fucking see and hes been using tts + a screenreader all day

[tragedykery]

please guys I’m begging you to look in the notes for image descriptions. it’s like. one of the easiest ways to make your blog more accessible

#accessibility #SO many posts on my dash have undescribed images while I KNOW someone has added a description and it’s like. #it takes 10 seconds. maybe a bit more if the post is popular but even then #elli rambles #I know ‘curate your online experience’ and all but like. it’s so disheartening to see how few people I could follow if I only followed #(mostly) accessible blogs #and even though I’m often the person writing IDs sometimes I’m also the person who needs them!!! #and when I have to use my screenreader there’s so much content that’s inaccessible to me #and it would be so easily avoided if people just took like. a few seconds to think about disabled people

[fire-water-grass-core]

//OOC it doesn't leave my head so i have to make a post asking about it and really really hope it gets somewhere?

If you are using a screenreader, is it able to read coloured text? For reference, the text above the poll is coloured pink, the version below is not coloured.

When i tested it with my phone and my computer, both integrated screenreaders had no trouble reading coloured text. All evidence i found online yesterday, except from one person, points to the conclusion that screenreaders are able to read solid coloured text just fine. It's only a problem if single letters are coloured differently like a rainbow (the word rainbow is coloured accordingly)

I don't mean this to dismiss this single person. I'm really just very curious. And frankly, it killed a lot of my motivation to run my blogs, because using coloured text is a huge deal for me, and just putting that away is something i don't want to do. At the same time, posting everything twice feels just, plainly wrong. But i also don't want to just ignore the issue, so stopping to do anything at all is the first thing my brain jumps to. I think i found a solution though, but I'll make a different post about that.

(on that note, i really hope that your screenreader works with polls? I don't have any experience. Also "able to read" means in a way that you feel it is fulfilling it's job as accessibility tool, however you want to interpret it.)

//OOC it doesn't leave my head so i have to make a post asking about it and really really hope it gets somewhere?

If you are using a screenreader, is it able to read coloured text? For reference, the text above the poll is coloured pink, the version below is not coloured.

When i tested it with my phone and my computer, both integrated screenreaders had no trouble reading coloured text. All evidence i found online yesterday, except from one person, points to the conclusion that screenreaders are able to read solid coloured text just fine. It's only a problem if single letters are coloured differently like a rainbow (the word rainbow is coloured accordingly)

I don't mean this to dismiss this single person. I'm really just very curious. And frankly, it killed a lot of my motivation to run my blogs, because using coloured text is a huge deal for me, and just putting that away is something i don't want to do. At the same time, posting everything twice feels just, plainly wrong. But i also don't want to just ignore the issue, so stopping to do anything at all is the first thing my brain jumps to. I think i found a solution though, but I'll make a different post about that.

(on that note, i really hope that your screenreader works with polls? I don't have any experience. Also "able to read" means in a way that you feel it is fulfilling it's job as accessibility tool, however you want to interpret it.)

#ooc #screen readers #disability #please tell me if coloured text is still troubling #even if you don't use a Screenreader #i should have made that an option

[wxrmeaterz]

we use a screen reader fairly often cus we struggle to read and have worsening vision- meanwhile the non-existence of alt text on images / image IDs is depressing as fuck

not to mention the amount of people who use alt text as a joke, completely exclusing groups of people

#crip punk #cripple punk #screenreader user #screen readers #using a screenreader #visually impaired #vision problems

[bromantically]

quick reminder that its better to put ur id on the post instead of in alt text bc not everyone who needs ids can access alt text or uses screenreaders (like me!)

#kitty purrs #its still better than nothing to put it in alt but #its still inaccessible #i still need to access it. i dont use screenreaders. i cant see the alt text

[lettersregardingjeeves]

So Mr. Wooster contacted me recently to let me know that he's awfully braced about adding some of the original illustrations he got when he published his stories in magazines, but he's got a dilemma about the image descriptions and hasn't the foggiest idea how to solve it. And as his secretary, I would like to ask a question on his behalf.

#letters regarding jeeves #lrj #jeeves and wooster #bertie wooster #reginald jeeves #my dear friend dovand has been kind enough to provide ids for me because I am very much not great at them #but I feel like I always see conflicting opinions about whether or not alt text or in-post image descriptions are better #and much of the time those conflicting descriptions suggest that the other option is really terrible #and as someone who doesn't use a screenreader i'm not quite sure which one is right #i also have absolutely no idea how well the 'caption' section of substack for images works with screenreaders #so i'm putting the question to a vote. would greatly appreciate your feedback!

[dizzeners]

CHAAAAAAT I GOT CONVERSES!!!! HAJSDKJHASGDJHAGSDFGJAHSDVXFASDGFDGHFAHDGFASG

#screenreader unfriendly #screenreader unsafe #i'll be honest chat i dont know which of the two previous tags im supposed to use so imma just use both

[gothhabiba]

.

#the spelling thing is actually a little hurtful lmao #I've held off on voice-to-text for so long because I'm wary of the tech that makes it possible #(read: capitalist or fascist / police state uses for said tech) #but also I know it makes errors of homophone usage and other seeming malapropisms common #but even without it my hands are getting worse--I have to type lying down which makes my wrists worse #I'm tired and foggy so much of the time and making spelling and grammatical errors that I never used to make #and as someone trying to express sometimes not super sj 101 ideas--I know how much that relies on your seeming 'intelligence' #as far as people's willingness to listen to you #and as a person of colour I also know how white people get about you speaking 'their' languages #and how a mistake will hurt your credibility much faster than it would hurt someone else's #and I spend a lot of time and effort going back and correcting things my hands have messed up #even when it puts me in more pain. also because like I'm concerned about people who use screenreaders #idk there's no easy answer but surely we can agree that 'you misspelled something therefore you don't know what you're talking about' #is just mean-spirited on so many levels. lol

[isobug]

do blog badges affect anything accessibility-wise? I got one as a gift from a mutual and I'd like to use it as a reminder of them but I'm curious.

#iso.bug #i've never had any issues with them and i occasionally use a screenreader #but it never hurts to ask