Eugen RochkoI don't think Mastodon or the fediverse has ever received this much attention before. It's a great opportunity for people to finally see that social media can be done differently, that it can be a protocol not under control of any single company.
Rob@Gargron some blind people I know on Twitter are freaked out by the Accessibility team being let go. I can still see, but I am a braille user. Twitter is one of the only usable sites on the internet with a braille terminal. I mostly have to go back to practicing on books. Facebook is ok too. Mouseless nav, and good text descriptions matter.
Hugo Slabbert ⚠️@robfielding @Gargron what has been your experience of Mastodon and fediverse apps in general? Accessible to braille terminals?
I literally got here a few hours ago. I will have a real opinion using my braille terminal from my iPhone.
But I am working on a 16-key keyboard that is based on computer-braille layout; and it can do EVERYTHING that a US qwerty keyboard can do. I can't figure out how to nav between Home/Notifications/LocalTimeline/Input yet.
On Twitter, I managed to figure it out without Googling, because I found a place to pop up the shortcuts. Mouseless navigation is everything.
@robfielding @Gargron I've only done tiny bits of text based nav when e.g. working on headless servers with text based browsers, in a pinch before mass availability of smart phones or when in poorly connected areas. I can only imagine.
I'm not personally familiar with the screen reader experience or if there are specific instances geared to the blind community. I did come across a guide geared towards screen reader users for Mastodon, with a focus on keyboard navigation. I'm not sure of that's a helpful starting resource? There are several chapters in the guide as a whole, but this one is geared towards interaction and timeline navigation specifically:
Changeling’s Guide to Mastodon for Screen Reader Users: Chapter Five. Timelines and Interacting
What is This? This is the fifth in a series of posts that explains how to use Mastodon if you are a screen reader user. It is an alternative form of documentation, and is not intended to relace the…
this link to starshipchangeling for instance. it says "g" and "N" to go to Notifications tab. I don't use JAWS on here, because the keyboard is braille layout to make it small... but it's not specifically for blind people; so it looks like a totally normal keyboard, in no specific Accessibility mode turned on. it's in Braille to make this mechanical keyboard with chonky keys fit in my pocket.