If you missed my Inclusive Design 24 talk, the GitHub Annotation Toolkit is now open source! Download it from the Figma Community or our open source repository.

To hear others tell it, it's the most comprehensive annotation kit there is. It supports both iOS & Android (finally). It has everything you would expect from an accessibility annotation kit AND components for tables, lists, live regions, language, video and audio embeds, checklists, gestures, and much more.

https://github.blog/changelog/2025-09-22-open-sourcing-the-github-annotation-toolkit/

I have been using email for 40 years. It used to work.

As an (independent) academic researcher, I need to contact new people, primarily in universities, to ask questions.

I refuse to use Google, Microsoft or the other American IT giants.

But they are increasingly preventing refuseniks from sending email at all.

I know what RFC, DNS, MX, SPF and DMARC mean. My email goes through small British companies with intelligent, friendly and helpful staff.

mxtoolbox.com says that I must have DMARC to send email to M$. So I set it up. I now get a dozen copies of the same report from G or M$ for each email that I send out.

They show that my email gets to G and M$ sites, but then it is marked as spam.

The stupid senior management of numerous universities has surrendered their staff email to M$.

Web searches and AIs preach about spam. I don't send spam - I want to contact my colleagues.

Rumour has it that previously unknown senders are treated with suspicion and their emails are sent to spam. In other words, it is impossible to **initiate** communication with someone.

Let's be blunt about this. They are a mafia that is enforcing an **oligopoly**. It's got nothing to do with reducing spam --- I have no doubt that they let through emails from "trusted partners", ie companies that bribe them enough to send their spam.

The result of this is that it will only be possible to send emails by paying M$ to do it, and then it will only be allowed to express "approved" opinions.

What can we do about this?

At the very least, those of you with senior positions in universities can tell your management to revert to competent standards-based email systems hosted on Linux systems.

A researcher invented a fake eye condition called bixonimania, uploaded two obviously fraudulent papers about it to an academic server, and watched major AI systems present it as real medicine within weeks.

The fake papers thanked Starfleet Academy, cited funding from the Professor Sideshow Bob Foundation and the University of Fellowship of the Ring, and stated mid-paper that the entire thing was made up. Google's Gemini told users it was caused by blue light. Perplexity cited its prevalence at one in 90,000 people.

ChatGPT advised users whether their symptoms matched. The fake research was then cited in a peer-reviewed journal that only retracted it after Nature contacted the publisher.
#AI #AImistakes
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01100-y

Recently at Delta gate boarding, they taped a sign about checking passports OVER the face scanner screen, but they CUT OUT holes just for the facial recognition camera so you would not know you were being scanned as you read the sign.

I heard the familiar confirmation beeps as each person read the sign and walked through, facial recognition WITHOUT CONSENT.

This is illegal by the way. I always wear a mask, cap, glasses, and other methods, so it didn’t beep for me.

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@beyondmachines1/116340430386264988

The story here focuses on LinkedIn, who should definitely be held accountable for what they’re doing with our data, but the real question is “Why does Chromium allow this?”

If Chromium allows this, then anyone—not just LinkedIn—can do this.

Most certainly, Google already knows all of this if you use Chromium. Meta probably does this. I’m sure others do, too.

Happy Opt Out Of Github Copilot Data Collection Day, to those who celebrate.

https://github.blog/news-insights/company-news/updates-to-github-copilot-interaction-data-usage-policy/

Trump's DOJ trying to do an end-run on Title II accessibility requirements for the web.

Don't let this happen!

What it all means, and what you can do to help...

#a11y #webAccess #accessibility #ADA #HTML

https://convergeaccessibility.com/2026/03/17/red-alert/