Here’s a snap of my partner in crime, Finnegan. He was a rescue pupper that was the missing piece to our family… don’t let the icy stare fool ye, he’s a sweetheart! #dog #doggo #dogsofmastodon #finn #finnegan #ohio #ohiodog #ves #vesakimbo
This is mostly for @loriemerson “Emma Nutt became the first female telephone operator on 1 September 1878 when she started working for the Boston Telephone Dispatch company, because the attitude and behavior of the teenage boys previously employed as operators was unacceptable.“
I've actually been reluctant to post more on Mastodon since the controversy on PoC being blocked for not using CW when talking about their shared experience.
As a WoC from a disadvantaged background, I care deeply about socio-economical issues and it's something I've always tweeted about.
I'm curious to know how other BIPOC are dealing with this, or if non BIPOC folks are adamant about using CW liberally.
ACCESSIBILITY TIP: Adding emojis to your display name is terrible for people who use screen readers.
I was just reminded by someone that when you do this (as I had done), then they have to listen to the screen reader read out all the emojis/icons BEFORE getting to your actual post.
So my name came across as:
----
dan york satellite graphic satellite studio mic graphic studio mic curling stone graphic curling stone
----
Thank you to the person who reminded me of this!
Enhancing biodiversity in a spruce plantation. A blog we wrote a few years ago has been reposted. Hope to reassess recruitment and structure again next year. https://www.ontarioparks.com/parksblog/biodiversity-killarney-tree-plantations/
1. People used to eat a lot of raccoons. Particularly impoverished and enslaved people.
2. Some people still do.
3. One lady sent a live raccoon to President Coolidge for Thanksgiving. For dinner. Obvi.
4. The First Lady liked it so much she named it Rebecca and kept it as a pet.
You are welcome. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/did-president-always-pardon-turkey
So, if Twitter goes to hell and just becomes defunct, we’re going to lose entire chapters of recent history — including evidence of war crimes, human rights violations, and more. I hope we’re all paying attention to this and considering what we need to do to ensure that a billionaire can’t decide which parts of history to retain — and which parts to erase forever.
long post on accessibility advice from a blind screen reader user
OK #Mastodon. I've seen several toots on #accessibility for #screenreader users, however, I've not seen one from a screenreader user (as far as I know). I've used ZoomText, Outspoken, JAWS (AKA JFW), Supernova, NVDA (Windows), and VoiceOver (both on Macs and iPhone). I don't have experience with Windows Narrator or TalkBack. I would like to rectify and clarify a few small things.
First off, any awareness of accessibility issues, and endeavours to make things more accessible is great. Keep going!
But…
Blind/low-vision people have been using the internet as long as everyone else. We had to become used to the way people share things, and find workarounds or tell developers what we needed; this latter one has been the main drive to get us here and now. Over the past decade, screen readers have improved dramatically, including more tools, languages, and customisability. However, the basics were already firmly in place around 2000. Sadly, screen readers cost a lot of money at that time. Now, many are free; truly the biggest triumph for accessibility IMHO.
So, what you can do to help screen readers help their users is three simple things.
1. Write well: use punctuation, and avoid things like random capitalisation or * halfway through words.
2. Image description: screen readers with image recognition built-in will only provide a very short description, like: a plant, a painting, a person wearing a hat, etc. It can also deal with text included in the image, as long as the text isn't too creatively presented. So, by all means, go absolutely nuts with detail.
3. Hashtags: this is the most commonly boosted topic I've seen here, so #ThisIsWhatAnAccessibleHashtagLooksLike. The capitalisation ensures it's read correctly, and for some long hashtags without caps, I've known screen readers to give up and just start spelling the whole damn thing out, which is slow and painful.
That's really all. Thanks for reading! 😘
The fallacy of mandatory mobile SIM card registration #SimReg
Nigeria. 'Why tracking kidnappers remains difficult despite SIM-NIN [national identity number] linkage'
https://guardian.ng/saturday-magazine/insecurity-why-tracking-kidnappers-remains-difficult-despite-sim-nin-linkage/ <from experience. There are a number of ways to track kidnappers without #SimReg
Living in the #wetlands of #Polesia (also spelled #Polesie) in #EasternPoland. Surrounded by #bogs and #forests, trying not to fuck up surrounding nature too much.
Taking care of a small pack of #dogs – #IdąPsięta.
Luddite working with hi-tech.
#RuralBroadband provider by accident. Starting a small LoRaWAN project to monitor our wetlands. Coding in #Python. Dealing with dirty data, cleaning them when time allows.
#Atheist. I don't *believe* in #science – science is the *only* thing that protects us from belief.
Fuck nazis.
My account on Twitter is still up, for good reasons. https://twitter.com/szescstopni
I check facts before I toot.
I sometimes toot in Polish.
Zdolny, ale leniwy.