Anthony Williams
Robert KingettJust had a sighted person tell me they often use features, clients and programs that were made for us, they don’t use screen readers, but they use accessibility features, even when they do not have disabilities, but also clients like a blind Mastodon client, or a text editor designed with screen readers in mind such as the ones I list on my Tools page at the end, as an example, because they said, the interface is 1000 times cleaner, there’s a lot of keyboard shortcuts, clutter free interface, even though the UI is basic, speed, less bloat, and a whole host of other things including, but not limited to, and never having to put up with distracting animation nonsense. You know software development has vastly sank in quality when sighted folk are using blind clients. To see the tools and stuff I use, go to https://sightlessscribbles.com/tools/ #Programming #Software
Matt Campbell@WeirdWriter I've never heard of a Mastodon client called SonarPad. Now, I did just find this program called SonarPad, that's apparently a modern Notepad plus document reader for Windows: https://github.com/Ambro86/Sonarpad
GitHub - Ambro86/Sonarpad: Modern Notepad in Rust: read PDF/EPUB/DOCX, play MP3 audiobooks, create audiobooks with high-quality TTS, and manage bookmarks.
Modern Notepad in Rust: read PDF/EPUB/DOCX, play MP3 audiobooks, create audiobooks with high-quality TTS, and manage bookmarks. - Ambro86/Sonarpad
@matt Yeah I was refering to the text editor SonarPad. Will edit to make it clearer
@WeirdWriter On the subject of Mastodon clients developed by and for blind people, though, I'm guessing that Fedra (https://github.com/trypsynth/fedra) would probably be the best one for sighted users, because it doesn't directly assume it's being run in conjunction with a screen reader, or use TTS output as a fallback. I would be surprised, though, if many sighted people found the typical blindy Mastodon UI, showing posts in a list box, one line per post, with no styling, satisfying.
@WeirdWriter To clarify, I don't mean to criticize any of the blind developers of Mastodon clients. They're using the GUI environment that we're all practically required to live in, in a way that works for us. I just doubt that it would work that well for sighted users.
More controversially, we, especially on fedi, are currently bombarded by negativity about software, and I wonder if you're reading too much into one or two anecdotes about sighted people using blindy apps. Confirmation bias.
Marco Zehe@matt @WeirdWriter Yeah, sighted people obviously expect to see a preview of the avatar, a preview of any included images, and also a preview of a website if a link is included. Moreover, most sighted people I know just use the browser. So they'll probably just use the Mastodon UI.
Anthony@matt @WeirdWriter Do people expect to see previews of avatars? I've never really paid them much notice despite being sighted, and quite happily use several services (including Mastodon) with clients that omit them.
@aps @matt @WeirdWriter Then you're the exception. Most sighted people I know actually skim the avatars to recognize which posts they want to read more closely. Everytime I read of someone changing their profile picture, many other sighted people are irritated by it, because their pattern recognition no longer works until they have adjusted.
@matt @WeirdWriter Interesting! That does actually make a lot of sense.
Random Geek@marco @matt @WeirdWriter well, there's a certain type of sighted user that finds common visual design elements distracting: avatars, animations, tiny text, unlabeled "mystery meat" navigation icons, stuff like that.
These interfaces also often hijack common keyboard shortcuts, breaking muscle memory.
That's me. I'm one of them. Yes I enjoy an aesthetically satisfying visual presentation, but I also enjoy the lower cognitive cost of "here's a post. And here's another post. Read and enjoy!"
@randomgeek @matt @WeirdWriter Oh yeah, I can see that. Would be curious to know what you'd actually think of the visual appeal of such blindness-centric apps like FastSM or so. Because, created by blind people, we often don't consider any kind of visual amenities.
@marco @randomgeek @WeirdWriter I'd specifically suggest trying Fedra (https://github.com/trypsynth/fedra), not FastSM, because FastSM assumes that you either run a screen reader or want direct text-to-speech output, while Fedra just uses a live region within the GUI for its explicit announcements.
@matt Can't use it because of a) Windows and b) I use FastSM for Bluesky, not for Mastodon, which I have Mona for.
@marco Sorry, I wasn't clear. I wasn't suggesting that *you* specifically try Fedra, but the sighted person you were replying to.
@matt FWIW, on the Mac, FastSM uses VoiceOver and normal screen controls only to speak things. I haven't had instances where it tried to use Apple's speech and therefore circumventing VoiceOver. The Braille display also tracks focus as normal. But then, there's no hidden UI on the Mac, so that's that.
James Scholes@matt I wonder if the Fedra UI does visually only show one line per post? Because at least with the NVDA review cursor, I can navigate by line within a list item when a post has multiple ones.
Jernej Simončič �
@jernej__s @matt Ugh! Damnit, I do find this to be a useful text editor. Ugh. Were they racist or other hate? If so I will edit the original post since I do not want to promote hate
@WeirdWriter @matt No, it means it's vibecoded, so the quality will likely suffer.
@jernej__s @matt Ah. Ugh. Vibe coded stuff never lasts long/works well for long. Will edit when I get to a computer again
@WeirdWriter From their page
Sonarpad is a modern, feature-rich Notepad alternative for Windows, built with Rust. It extends traditional text editing with multi-format document support, advanced accessibility features, and Text-to-Speech (TTS) capabilities. It also includes an integrated MP3 audiobook player, a bookmark system for both text and audio, and the ability to create audiobooks directly from text using Microsoft voices (Edge Neural) and SAPI5,
Sonarpad is a modern, feature-rich Notepad alternative for Windows, built with Rust. It extends traditional text editing with multi-format document support, advanced accessibility features, and Text-to-Speech (TTS) capabilities. It also includes an integrated MP3 audiobook player, a bookmark system for both text and audio, and the ability to create audiobooks directly from text using Microsoft voices (Edge Neural) and SAPI5,
Wayne Werner@WeirdWriter and a rising tide and all that
🏳️⚧️PepperTheVixen🦯@WeirdWriter When you build software with accessibility in mind from the start, everyone wins. Good accessibility usually requires that you have good UX in general
@PepperTheVixen Which is why I've been recommending your developments like crazy to anyone that will listen!
@WeirdWriter My developments? Like, my Gentoo/Linux adventure? O.O
@PepperTheVixen hah! Oh sorry! I am getting you and the person that makes Fast SM and such mixed up. This Mastodon client https://github.com/masonasons?tab=repositories
@WeirdWriter I can see this. Far too many developers forget how detrimental things like animations can be. And these days they'll make a, oh lets say web browser that requires your device to have good specs and all because of some fancy scale-altering feature that you might not be able to disable even, or some fancy drawer opening animation thing. All that requires good resources to function and if you don't have them, said thing lags or breaks in other fascenating ways.
Raven667@flamulous a frustrating thing about that is those kinds of animations are only slow because they are built badly with overcomplicated javascript frameworks rather than using the native css animations built into browser engines. Granted there was a time when the native features didnt exist and js was the only way but a lot of frontend havent updated their thinking and tooling
Kevin Karhan 
@WeirdWriter I personally prefer #CLI / #TUI tools because they are faster, cleaner, work on #narrowband connectivity and barely sip system resources.
- Just an overall better experience.
That's why I'm workibg on a CLI/TUI-centric, mininalist #Linux distro: @OS1337
- Because there's no reason modern computing can't be done in an 80×25 MDA terminal!
@WeirdWriter Granted, I don't use Windows but I do prefer simple applications that I can just download and run in a pinch...
For #OS1337 I did write myself a wishlist as I try to make it something I could daily-run.
- Cuz I think that #FrugalComputing has it's merits, and being able to design a device with a runtime measured in days would be kinda useful...
Trammell Hudson@WeirdWriter there's the curb-cut effect, where everyone benefits from an accessibility improvement, and there's sometimes just a nicer aesthetic, like a wristwatch where you feel the time.
Richard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴♂️📷 🗺️A sundial you wear on your wrist might actually be cool, but would you not have to readjust it every time you moved.
Frost, wolf of winter 🐺🎄
@th @WeirdWriter Okay that is a _cool_ watch. I wonder how hard it would be to provide both hour and minute hands.
(edit: apparently it does have another hand around the outside, and that one's the hour hand! oops!)
Kim@WeirdWriter Makes sense, if only because keyboard navigation is so often an afterthought.
@WeirdWriter This is also a great reminder that Accessibility benefits everyone!
suzanne@hallen @WeirdWriter
That was my thought. I don't necessarily see it as all software sinking in quality. I don't really want keyboard shortcuts and some things that seem crufty to others are useful to me because I mostly use touchscreens. But having a broad range of interface types is useful for all sorts of people whether designed expressly for all of them or not.
That was my thought. I don't necessarily see it as all software sinking in quality. I don't really want keyboard shortcuts and some things that seem crufty to others are useful to me because I mostly use touchscreens. But having a broad range of interface types is useful for all sorts of people whether designed expressly for all of them or not.
@WeirdWriter Software development was sinking in quality for a while from what I've been gathering. But sighted folk using blind clients might just convince people to keep things accessible, seeing how when blind people say there's a lack of accessibility in something, we're pretty much ignored.
Ben Cox@WeirdWriter Accessibility is for everyone.
Abraxas3d W5NYV@WeirdWriter yes! Strongly concur!
konstruct-960T-BF64.gguf@WeirdWriter the sidewalk effect in action!
נחום Philoxenon וו.@WeirdWriter I always look at alt-text of images when those are available in spite of being sighted, just because it helps me understand the image's context. If I have to give one single reason why the Fediverse is so awesome, it is alt-text culture.
Carlos SolísYep - alt-text is a blessing when I'm on the bus and the bandwidth doesn't let me finish downloading the pictures properly. Also, when I don't quite get what am I supposed to find in the image to begin with.
Ah, the good ol' curb cut effect in action. I'm of the belief that accessibility should be also understood as future-proofing (so you can also keep using your apps whenever you eventually have an accident), so testing the app with disabled focus groups, or at least attempting to dogfood the app while running an accessibility suite test, can allow users to find optimizations that can be useful for both disabled and average-abled people.
@WeirdWriter I mean. Sonarpad is crap at least in terms of code. But yeah, this is honestly just... Wow.
@draeand Hmm, seems to run fine for me, but I do hate how the developer says you can't fork this, blah blah. Got any similar recommendations?
@WeirdWriter I don't honestly. The tool is completely vibe-coded, to the point that the developer doesn't even understand how their own app works at even the most basic of levels, and writes every response with an AI instead of writing it themselves. I hope this situation changes, because the dev has a lot of promise/potential, but Idk if that actually will
@draeand Ugh. Jesus Christ. I can’t stand this flood of vibe coded things. I did genuinely get some good use out of it but I don’t want to promote any vibe coded things because the quality will inevitably decrease. Ugh. Instead, I would much rather promote a fork of the accessible markdown editor that a fan of mine is trying to make for me
mirabilos@WeirdWriter not "made for" but still useful is
lynx and yes, it’s my favourite webbrowser. For these reasons. Also, speed.
bricks@WeirdWriter Same here. I am using several accessibility features of iOS 26 to tame its ridiculous glass design because it annoys me.
Thank you for the nudge.
One of the main reasons I use antiX Linux with ICEWM is distraction free efficiency.
I am sick of blinky desktop animations crazy system sounds, ads and other distracting nonsense.
Stopping all intrusive ads is pretty much impossible but trying hard.
Deadly Headshot@WeirdWriter
The dropped kerb effect, basically?
The dropped kerb effect, basically?
@WeirdWriter I think that if sighted users that want to navigate mouse-free were aware they can use a screenreader without TTS to utilize its powerful keyboard-based navigation commands, they could seriously up their navigation efficiency game. :)
The BirdI admit, as a sighted user, I use screenreader sometimes just because of the keyboard navigation. Using a mouse can cause my hands to hurt after awhile as there really isn't any "ergonomic" left-handed mice out there in the wilds. Keyboard has less stress as all my fingers are equally used instead of just two.
Plus some websites have the worst contrast so I can turn on TTS in those cases. So very useful honestly.