#Screenreader user

[rikaklassen]

Poster gave permission:

[cafedragons]

I went back and forth on whether to post this or not because I normally don't like callouts, but ultimately, I've decided this one is fair. This is a serious issue for low vision people like me, who have a hard enough time finding places and communities where we are accepted. This is a common issue. I run into this OFTEN. I will no longer be silent about it.

Ultimately: If you don't want me to talk about you being ableist, don't be ableist! It's very simple. I wouldn't have posted this at all if the people involved had met me with any semblance of respect, curiosity, or care, but they decided to double down on their hypocrisy instead.

Recently, I joined (and then immediately left) The Daemonism Forum's Discord server because I was invited to check it out by a friendly acquaintence and I was curious to see what it was all about. Like most servers, it's not very accessible to screenreader users, but there wasn't any place for me to make a comment on this. I couldn't open a ticket and there was no channel for server feedback, so I mostly just kept to myself and put it at the bottom of my folders, muted.

There was no suggestion for image descriptions or alt text. There was no rule banning unicode. There was nothing showing that the space was friendly for screenreader users.

The single time I tried to speak there (beyond the first day when I was giving hellos and thank yous back to the welcomers), which was yesterday, it blew up in my face.

First, I was asked to add my system tag into my username. Cool, no big deal, I'd just forgotten!

Then, when I added it, Fern (the mod) said this:

[ID: fern replying to my comment of "i forgot to put my tag in my sn, lemme fix it np! thank you for the reminder"

with "thank you for that !! we do ask that you don't use emojis only for your system tag, however, for ease of screenreaders and communication purporses! if you could please put a tag that's got a word in it also"

me replying to that with, "as a screenreader user myself (low vision), your server name is unreadable due to the unicode. emojis read fine on all three of my screenreaders. i'd be willing to add a word if it were actually to benefit screenreaders (and i will, since i am aware all are built differently), but it definitely looks quite a bit hypocritical to me that unicode symbols are perfectly allowed but my own tag is an issue. /not mad"]

Fern's display name has two unicode characters in it.

Now, I've been blind for a long time and low vision for a much longer time after that, so I'm pretty familiar with screenreaders considering I often use one! Every single screenreader I have ever used, across every device, cannot read unicode. This is fairly basic knowledge on screenreaders. This is a very quick "search or ask any screenreader user" sort of thing.

Clearly, Fern is unaware of how screenreaders work, yet is enforcing a rule in a large public space claiming it's for "screenreader accessibility" when the entire server is far from accessible whatsoever. I pointed out that there probably are screenreaders out there that struggle with emojis and that I'd add a word, but it felt very hypocritical to police me on assistive technology she clearly knew nothing about and didn't care about.

Other users (who aren't mods and therefore I've censored) chimed in.

[ID: User saying "Generally it is way easier to search for someone by their system tag if it's a word rather than emoji, at least for me"

Me replying "the issue i'm facing is correcting me claiming it's "for accessibility" while actively being far more inaccessible to far more screenreaders, showing that the person who corrected me very likely isn't educated on blindness, low vision, or how screenreaders actually function. it'd be way less an issue on my end if it were asked just for lookup purposes and not using "screenreader accessibility" as the reason whilst actively breaking my screenreaders."]

[ID: A different user saying "This is an issue we've brought up before, on the other end, as currently the rules around emojis in display names only apply for pluralkit display names instead of for everyone."

Kipling & Arkadius, another mod, replying "We ask for system tags to include text for multiple reasons. Accessibility is one, but also the ability to search (also important for moderation), a more unique and recognizable system tag (as multiple systems may use the same or similar emojis), and the fact that emojis are not universal across devices and may not even show up on some. You can still add emojis to your name but we ask that the system tag is present in text form. As far as I know we have not been made aware previously of screen reader issues with Unicode characters, so that is helpful feedback to have! I also want to say that the mod team has been discussing the current pk display name rules. This is also not the proper channel for extensive discussion of this rule."]

This is where I actively got angry. Kipling clearly doesn't know about screenreaders either, since the mods "have not been made aware previously of screenreader issues with unicode" when that's... VERY common knowledge among literally anyone who cares to look. Why are these mods making rules on assistive technology with zero knowledge of it in a large server? Did they even think to consult a blind person for two seconds?

It then somehow got worse.

[ID: Fern saying "yes sorry if I worded that incorrectly, we need a word name at least (if you want an emoji too that's fine)"

Me replying "there's not exactly anywhere for anyone to offer feedback, though. the emojis are not the issue. i do not care about the emojis. the issue is that this server claims to care about accessibility without even knowing how the assistive technology they're making rules about works. you (the staff) are actively being ableist by doing that.

here's my suggestion: you cannot claim to care about "accessibility" when you only care if it doesn't apply to you personally and you don't listen to actually legally blind people on the matter. my other suggestion is that if you (the staff) actually care about screenreader accessibility, then you need to look into what that means instead of throwing it around at everyone with absolutely zero clue of how the assistive technology you claim to care about even works to begin with. whatever, I'm out"]

The fact that the SIGHTED mods of such a large and long-running server are actively watering down and silencing my issues with actual hypocrisy and ableism when I'm the one who actually uses the screenreaders they're making rules about is disgusting.

These mods do not need to be a pillar or an educator of ANY community if they lack the emotional maturity to even read what my actual issue was. This is disgusting, abhorrent, and blatantly ableist behavior, and I know nothing will change unless people talk about it.

This space is NOT safe for screenreader users, low vision users, or blind users. The mods are actively blatantly ableist towards us, just so you're aware before you join or consider joining.

[tcc-mojis]

[ID one: The words "Image desc" (short for image description) in a fiery red. /end ID]

[ID two: The words. "Using screen reader." The dot in the “I ” replaced with a star. The “A” in the word “reader” replaced with a star. In a color gradient fading (top to bottom) from purple to magenta. /end ID]

[ID three: The words. "Using screen reader." The dot in the “I” replaced with a star. In a color gradient fading (top to bottom) from purple to magenta. /end ID]

[thecoffeecrew404]

I want to make a rentry about screenreader accessibility!!

Why do you use a screenreader? Is it due to a disability?

What are common inaccessibility issues you come across?

What information would you like to see in an informational rentry or carrd about screenreaders, plaintext, and image descriptions?

Feel free to link to resources in your reblog for a resource masterlist as well!

Pings: @mightyoctopus @accessibleaesthetics @accessible-tumbling

[ghost-jester-sys]

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

[lyrring]

this is my nun her name is neve and she's quite honestly gone through it.

[nebulations]

heyy i saw you wrote an ID on a post that was "copied from ALT" and i was curious if there's something about alt-text that is less accessible ID-wise compared to the ID being in a reblog? i thought if there was a description in the ALT text that was accurate enough there would be no need for a written out ID in the post or reblogs? i'm asking you specifically because you seem to have a lot of experience with IDs so i think you're a reliable source for the answer to this question :,D

Hi anon, hope you're doing well!! Alt text isn't less accessible than plain text IDs by any measure, it's just a matter of competing access needs between low-vision folks, to my understanding. Alt text is made for screenreader users, but not everyone who needs IDs uses a screenreader, and plain text is simply preferred over alt by some. My personal practice for my blog is to ensure everything I post has a plain text ID, but there's nothing wrong with sticking just to alt! If anyone who uses IDs would like to chime in here, I'd appreciate your input!

[just-another-userbox-maker]

Just a reminder:

I am pro-endo. Please do not interact/use my userboxes if you are anti-endo, thank you.

[tecchuu-hoarde]

Hi, not quite sure what you mean, but if you're using standard emojis, they have a unicode label assigned to it. For example, 👍 reads as thumbs up with my screen reader. However, not all symbols are labeled. Hope that helps!

i’m gonna say what needs to be said. everyone here needs to start caring about disabled people. i’ve seen too many new blogs popping up that are completely inaccessible.

it’s great that people are continuing to keep making new genders! but people need to understand that while yes, your typing quirk is cool and all those symbols are pretty, they are so so inaccessible. screen readers can break trying to use those symbols.

and the worst thing? people have been saying this for so long and nobody cares enough to make a change. mogai/liom is supposed to be inclusive of disabled people and neurodivergent people, by not translating things or adding image descriptions you are excluding them completely. that’s all i’ll say

[taboo-delusion]

Lë`m-mœù(L)ff~`!

[lazycranberrydoodles]

artfight 🥰

attacks on: Sasha by dracosauria, Eliana by @morelpepper, Niesha and Youkie by Space_Boy, Alethea by SummerCLatimer, wifi by @ataraxixx, Laura by @rubynymphyy , Triston by distortedheart, Thalia by @fishyjpg, Glow by @glowry000, and Lihua by Teriyaaki!

[raccooninapartyhat]

so many news articles I want to read but can't because my accessibility settings completely break the site and make it unusable

[kernel-emojis]

wall punch emojis

uhhh yep what it says on the tin

shaded and unshaded versions, and these can be used for "FUCK i love this character/thing so much i can't express it other than punching wall" or "FUCK im so angry right now i cant express it other than punching wall (in digital space)"

please dont actually punch your walls its bad for you and the people around you this is silly okay

List: 1. a yellow guy punching a wall, the wall has cracks in it and the yellow guy is shaking and red in the face with anger, they have an intense expression 2. a yellow guy punching a wall, the wall has cracks in it and the yellow guy is shaking red in the face, they have an intense expression

[dirtboyfriend]

[image ID: a poem titled “an earthquake and a loose lid / under the red light.” the body of the poem reads: “memory pools / in the cluttered kitchen of my mind like / syrup / the bottle sideways on the counter / slowly drip / drip / dripping / from its clear mouth / dark, thick, sticky liquid / onto the cold tile floor”]

[ghost-jester-sys]

GREAT alt text dude!

the alt text "image"

was SUPER helpful to me!

(/sarcastic)

reality:

*struggling to make out a series of comic panels because of my visual impairment so i look and see it has alt text*

me: great! I'll use my screen reader, which i use most days.. due to my visual impairment.. wow i wonder what..

screenreader: image.

me: huh? image.. wow this alt text isn't even alt text.