#accessible blog

[potato-head-kids]

Intro post:

We’re the acorn system! We collectively go by Rae. We’re bodily 23. We’re autistic and have glaucoma. (Important edit: we were under the impression that we had glaucoma when we wrote that. But apparently we actually have ocular hypertension instead-)

We’re traumagenic but don’t consider ourself disordered; we’re chill with any system origins/types

Our collective interests change frequently!! At the time of writing, they include: the muppets, reading, cooking and baking, and The Amazing Digital Circus

We have a main host (Cove) who’s almost always fronting. But since he’s 12 (edit: he’s 13 now) and a persecutor + possible symptom holder, we always try to have someone fronting with flame so it doesn’t spiral or act too impulsive

We all have different pronouns and genders and stuff—when in doubt, please use she/they and assume you’re talking to a bigender aroace!

We strive to make our blog accessible. That means image Descriptions, plain text, and tagging for a lot of things. We usually don’t say things this harshly, but when it comes to accessibility: if you don’t like it, then don’t interact with us.

We have some fictives from problematic sources—for example, Kyle and Eric are from South Park. We didn’t choose to introject them; we saw some memes or clips of their source and the brain got fictive-happy /lighthearted

On a lighter note, we love asks as long as they’re nice!! /positive

[wolfofarthur]

👋🐺 Hello!

Pardon me the moment of self-promo-ing, here!

I'm a new described images/accessible nature and aesthetic blog with a focus on organizing and providing for therians and otherkin, though obviously everyone is welcome here. I'll be doing a mix of reblogging others (adding IDs when needed) or sharing works from elsewhere online (always with credit!). Once I build up some followers I plan to open requests from time to time too, if anyone wants specific landscapes, vibes, or aesthetics, and providing other therian/otherkin-related 'services' as well (recipes, moodboards, potentially comfort items, etc).

I've got an about page, request information, and a slowly growing tag directory linked in my sidebar/pinned post if anyone wants to sniff around before following.

Thank you for your time! Hopefully I'll be seeing you around!

[queerdisagreeable]

Hello, you do a lot for accessibility on your blog and I really admire and appreciate what you do, this is a bit of a silly question and it's no trouble if you cannot answer!! (Hopefully your day is going cozy, I am sending you hellos and pillow forts :D) Is there any way to check less obvious colors for being too straining, like any websites you've come across that can check for readability or just general accessibility? I'm learning to make my blog more accessible, and it would be cool to have a way to check colors, since I love bright colors but would like to choose ones that people's sight will like as much as I do. Colors are nice and so are people hehehfhsggh

Hi, thanks for the question -- it's not silly at all! Sorry it took me a second to reply to this -- I've had a helluva 24 hours (everyone say a sweet farewell to my phone o7). The pillow forts are infinitely appreciated!

As for your question... I don't particularly know of anything to check for eyestrain; though the rule of thumb is generally to avoid having a lot of super highly saturated colours, and ensure that your text is contrasting enough with your background that it'll be readable to people with low vision & dyslexia. (Note: I'm by no means an expert, but this is just what I've picked up from other folk online and when I'm looking at our more accessible books at the library :" )

Since you enjoy bright colours, I might suggest going not for the highest saturation on them, and throwing together a quick colour palette! You could use a site like Coolors (link) to develop your idea, then ask some friends to tell you if it's too bright before you commit your blog to it!

Not exactly related to eye strain, but also on colours: you might find it useful to run things through a colour blindness simulator (link), especially when checking for readability. A blog should try to be easily readable on most/all of the settings.

Those are my main points, but if anyone does have any suggestions/tools that help to check for eye strain, you're welcome to throw them in the replies.

Thanks again for the question, I hope I could help some! Have a great day :)

[restarting-over]

i feel like people explode everytime someone realizes that blind people DO use social media and AREN'T incapable of doing human things. it's almost like disabled people are human as well...

[described-and-described]

I'll be reblogging described images for Halloween (and always)

[canwegivetheplatypusaboyfriend]

Welcome to @canwegivetheplatypusaboyfriend!

A blog to put all my crazy PnF art and encourage me to draw

archive link

[teapot-studies]

Random writing tips that my history professor just told during class that are actually helpful

Download all your sources or print them so you can turn off your wifi

Give your phone to someone

Just. WRITE. Writing is analysing, you’ll get more ideas as you write. It doesn’t need to be perfect, for now you can just blurt out words and ideas randomly. You can fix it later.

Create a skeleton/structure before writing.

Stop before you get exhausted. It’s best to stop writing when you still have some energy and inspiration left, this will also motivate you to get started again next time.

Make a to do list

Work in bite sizes. Even if it’s not much, as long as you put some ideas on paper or do some editing.

Simple language =/= boring language, simple language = clear language.

Own your words. If they are not your words, state this clearly in the text, not just in the footnotes.

STOP BEFORE YOU GET EXHAUSTED. Listing it again because it’s easily one of the best tips a teacher has ever given me.

[raavenb2619]

I’m not sure when exactly this happened, but I think it’s clear that the aro community really is a community, now.

For the longest time I’ve felt like we were still in stasis, not quite there; a proto-community, yes, but not quite a community. But we have more history now to lean back on, more of each other to talk to and laugh with and cry with and learn from. More people that’ll go forward and make a part of modern aro history. More people that believe us, believe in us, will stand with us if we ask them.

I wouldn’t consider myself an aro elder yet, though each year I’m surprised at how long aromanticism has been a part of my life, how long I’ve been free of doubt or insecurity about my aromanticism, how far we’ve come since I was questioning. Then again, when I was questioning, some of the people I looked up to for guidance were probably close to the age I am now, so I might be there sooner than I think.

And, I’m so so hopeful for all aros, young or old, new or not, because we’ve come so far. Day by day, progress is slow (and yes, it’s unfair, it should be so much faster), but looking back it feels fast. We are our own role models, the people we look up to for guidance. We carve our own path through life, making things up as we go. I used to find that terrifying, because I had no idea what the future would bring. But it’s actually amazing, because I can ignore all these silly “rules” and guidelines about what my life should be, and instead ask, “what do I want my life to be?”

Younger me, you have no idea how awesome your future is gonna be. I’m sorry about the pain and hardship you’ll go through first; it won’t be fair and you shouldn’t have to deal with it. But you’ll make it through, and one day you’ll be me. I can’t wait for you to get here.

[dracudyke]

Accessibility can be easier than you think! Please take the time to read this!

I don't think people realize how easy it can be to find an image description in the notes. I'm not gonna lie to you and say it's always super fast and painless, but it can be. Especially on posts with a lot of notes, simple images (like text screenshots), and/or only a few images. It usually takes me less than 10 seconds to scroll through the notes of a post to check if it has an ID.

Just click on notes and sort by comments only. With just a quick scroll through looking for comments that start with things like "[ID:" or "Image Description:", you can check if it has a description or not. You will get better at spotting these quickly over time and it will get easier and faster! Once you've found one, just hit reblog from there. If there are mistakes or something, you can copy paste the ID with any necessary corrections into your own reblog instead with no credit necessary. Credit is not needed for image descriptions, because they are an accessibility measure.

Please check the notes for IDs, even (especially!!) if you don't take the time to write image descriptions normally. It's such a small, fast thing you can do when reblogging something to make your blog more accessible. Please, take the time. It takes less than a minute.

[Plain text: please check the notes for IDs. End PT]

[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 :]

[theyellowmistress]

“The World”

(my contribution to the @ themagnusarcana zine over on ig)

Image 1 [ID: A digital illustration of the end of the Magnus Archives podcast. Jon and Martin are situated in the pupil of a great eye taking up residence in a red sky. The panopticon/institute is burning and crumbling in the background, as Martin stabs Jon in the heart. Jon’s blood flows down and pools at the base of the House at Hill Top Road, which sits atop a large web made from the tape of large cassette tapes lining the sides of the image, acting as anchors for the web. Annabelle Cane sits at the bottom half of the image, pulling strands from the blood-soaked web and connecting them to a group of planets she sits amongst. /end ID]

Image 2 [ID: close-up of Martin stabbing Jon. /end ID]

Image 3 [ID: close-up of Annabelle Cane. /end ID]

[soledadcatalina]

[id: a digital sketch of kim kitsuragi and harry du bois from disco elysium playing boggle. the two are frantically scribbling down words in their respective notes while studying the boggle board. harry on the right is being consulted by his skills visual calculus, encyclopedia, reaction speed, and hand/eye coordination, who are all similarly absorbed and frantic over the game. /end id]

you know how it is with boggle

[batgirlcopia]

illustrations for the second chapter of Copia's Conundrum (@lincopia-otrogothia)

[dahyun]

i’m really sorry to post this, but i am struggling a lot right now and i could use some help. my job search has come to a standstill because i no longer have a reliable means of transportation. i have been using what little money i have left to help buy food for my family. i don’t know what i’m going to do once it’s all gone

any little amount will help immensely and if anyone can share this i would be extremely grateful!!!

(here is a pic of hazel as a token of apology lol)

[described-and-described]

description reference:

[post]

reblog:

your reblog:

[ID: The above post with a Tumblr pop up saying “Post without tags? Adding tags to your posts helps people find them” with two options, to “Post” or “Add Tags”. The option "add tags" has a higher contrast to the post than "post".]

or in alt as:

The above post with a Tumblr pop up saying “Post without tags? Adding tags to your posts helps people find them” with two options, to “Post” or “Add Tags”. The option "add tags" has a higher contrast to the post than "post".

[smolnchubby]

Fit for the day