So in today's edition of #screenreader problems: reading a book with a #Japanese character named Mami is deeply disconcerting, because my screen reader pronounces it "mommy". I just thought...the character was weirdly being called mom by everyone until I finally stopped to check the spelling. Screen readers of the time are also why I thought "anime" rimed with "time" until I was like 14. Uselessly, looking it up online gives me four different examples of how to pronounce Mami, all with different emphasis and "a" sounds. Including one joker who really is pronouncing it exactly like "mommy". So I dunno.

I have been diligently at work working on the #adventOfCyber 2025 content again this year, checking the various tasks for #accessibility hurdles and, where possible, providing ways to dodge/hack around them. This wasn't always possible, but at least more possible than the last two years.
Today at 3 PM EST we'll blitz through the last 6 days on stream, showing that while #accessibility issues are rampant, a #screenReader user can absolutely complete the majority of these and might even learn a thing or two in the process!
See you in 6 hours over at https://twitch.tv/ic_null and/or https://youtube.com/@viewpointUnseen #aoc2025 #tryHackMe #thm #selfPromo #stream #tech #blindness

Been doing #adventOfCyber again and recording my findings ... #accessibility could definitely be better as a handful of rooms aren't even remotely doable with a #screenReader, but marginally less so than last year. I can't tell if this was deliberate or an accident though :)

Today I learned why Sonata #TTS created a framework to run AI voices outside of #NVDA. First, NVDA doesn't come with all of the #Python standard libraries. Second, there's no good way of updating dependencies in a bundled addon. Third, NVDA really, really hates it if you include several hundred dependencies in your addon. Anyway, here's kitten TTS, the other synthesizer I wanted to try with NVDA. Unfortunately, the model doesn't support streaming output, so even though it's actually faster than Supertonic, it feels slower when used with NVDA. Also, it takes several minutes to install, makes NVDA startup 30 seconds slower, and freezes the change synthesizer dialogue for about 45 seconds when you open it. It does miss words less frequently, though, and pronounces text better. The ultimate result of my two-day investigation is that even the highly optimized open-source AI imbedded models are not yet ready for screen reader use. Some tree-shaking could fix some of these issues, but it still won't allow for streaming, so it's not worth it. I'd really like to know what Microsoft and Narrator are doing to get the natural voices so snappy. github.com/fastfinge/kittentts-nvda/ #screenreader

Fengshen Tale CONFERRED GODS: I felt bad about kind of trashing the last Chinese mobile game I played. So I looked around for something better. But did I find it? stuff.interfree.ca/2025/12/22/confered-gods.html #a11y #accessibility #audiogame #blind #screenreader