#accessibility helps everyone

[bodgei]

Do I keep trying for accessibility?

I know this isn’t gonna go anyplace, I don’t really have followers here and although I follow people here, since there is no way for me to read my dashboard I don’t think anyone will read this. I started trying to use this site again about a year ago, but there is no way to make it readable for me. I can’t read posts. Something about the site coding means I have to restart a screen reader for each line brake. 

like this

and this

I have been asking for and suggesting reasonable accommodations since March - with not much in the was of response from the staff - depending on how you count it early March, second attempt first week of September, and the last update was 11-9 (basically ‘give us what phone you are using and we will see what we can do about the app. I gave them the info and they haven’t said anything to me since) I posted to humans asking how long I should wait to hear back - nothing, I tried to blaze it (hoping a mod would look at it and reach out, I didn’t expect them to actually let it blaze. Them letting something less than positive out there? LOL) also nothing. 

So here is the thing, accessibility is hard. It takes time and money, and the staff is overburdened with everyone coming here. But here’s the thing, if they had starting addressing it in March this wouldn’t be an issue at this point. They could have been working on it for months before we got here. 

Here are my suggestions as someone who is working on accessibility at her job: 

Accessibility NEEDS to be part of your FAQs and a choice for your service tickets. I searched the FAQ and could only turn up a short thing about alt text - for tickets there is “Customize your blog” and “something else” 

 on the app serif fonts should be an option, with both light and dark           background.

 look into a accessible fonts there are tons of them out there (I know sans have been sold as more accessible and for some they are, but not for everyone. 

There needs to be a way to make your dashboard have a dark serif font on a light background. I can make my blog look like that - so I can post but I can’t read my dashboard (guess what 4th person to touch my service ticket, low contrast doesn't have a serif font, so the wait for that answer was not productive) 

Also, from my reading of the case law around websites, you need to be offering different sized fonts.  

Twitter is going away, so basically I’ll be out there looking for a place that, or without social. I guess I will have a ton of spare time.    

The TOG fandom is here, so I will never really be a part of it. Once twitter is gone I will have some affinity groups on discord - but the over arching fandom? So much of it comes back to this site and without pulling whole posts off into Word to change the font I can’t even know if it is something I want to read (also I use likes to denote the posts I want to try to read and culturally this site is super shitty about that) 

One last thing - every bit of accessibility added helps non disabled people as well. 

For my fandom friends from twitter and discord, how many of you had issues when dark mode was taken away? Think about how you would feel if the staff response was “you never needed that, you just need to try harder” and then they ghost you. And then every time you try harder your fellow fans are talking about how shitty it is for people to do the only thing that, ironically, is allowing you to read that post. 

Do I care enough about this site to fight to make it better? Because I think that is what the staff isn’t understanding - I am trying to help them make this site better.

OK this really is the last thing, have some song lyrics: (from Working In A Coal Mine by  Lee Dorsey)

workin' in a coal mine Goin' down, down, down Workin' in a coal mine Oops, about to slip down Workin' in a coal mine Goin' down, down, down Workin' in a coal mine Oops, about to slip down'Course I make a little money Haulin' coal by the ton But when Saturday rolls around I'm too tired for havin' funToo tired for havin' I'm just workin' in a coal mine Goin' down, down, down Workin' in a coal mine Oops, about to slip down Workin' in a coal mine Goin' down, down, down Workin' in a coal mine Oops, about to slip downLord, I'm so tired   

[thatonebirdwrites]

Accessibility - The Bird Rants Again

Questions for Leftists:

Is your anarchism or justice movement only allowing abled bodied people due to a lack of accessibility in your spaces? If so, why?

Do Disabled People, like myself, not matter to your movement? Failing to make events, spaces, programs, virtual spaces accessible isolates and excludes.

Are we not worthy of life and care? Failing to make justice and your movement accessible implies this.

Do we not deserve the same access to information as you? Failing to make virtual spaces accessible implies this.

Do we not deserve the same access to food, housing, public spaces, virtual spaces, and clean water as you do? Failing to be accessible creates massive barriers to these basic needs.

Are we not worth your time and effort to create an inclusive and accessibility world for all of us to thrive and live? Failing to be accessible isolates and excludes entire swatches of people from all walks of life, and thus it negates the movement's claims of inclusivity and justice.

Accessibility isn't just for disabled people either. It helps all people regardless of (dis)ability. Creating a place or movement that includes disabled people requires a commitment to justice, which opens up the movement to more people and more diversity and more people to imagine better and more inclusive solutions to our current troubles.

We need more imagination, not less of it, and being inaccessible? Stunts our imagination of what a better, more just world can look like.

Being inaccessible means excluding an entire swathe of people from the movement for equality, equity, justice, and autonomy. Anyone can become disabled at any time too, so being inaccessible means that someday the movement may end up excluding you.

Being inaccessible also means complicity (conscious or not agreement) with the tenets of eugenics and white supremacy/abled-bodied supremacy. Both fight to erase disabled people of all identities and walks of life, and have created horrific institutions to demonize, erase, kill, and harm us (see links below for references).

When Leftism fails to be accessible, when they adopt these inaccessible approaches, they are taking from white-abled-bodied supremacy's tenets on oppressing others, regardless of whether they meant to do so. They have failed to be inclusive, to be just, to engage in collective care, and they betray the fight for justice.

Either your movement includes us -- nothing without us -- or your movement is part of the oppression that kills and harms us.

In the fight for justice and for our right to exist, there is no middle ground here. Either be accessible and include disabled people of all walks of life OR consciously or not fall into line with eugenic practices of exclusion and isolation. Ignoring this and/or refusing to put in the time to be accessible (citing a myriad of excuses) gives more power to white abled-bodied supremacist tactics and institutions. Stop giving in to their power and injustice, please.

Accessing information, accessing physical spaces, accessing transportation, accessing social platforms, accessing virtual spaces, accessing public spaces -- these are all the many elements of accessibility. Mimi Sheller wrote a good book about this called [https://www.versobooks.com/products/753-mobility-justice](Mobility Justice)

Accessibility is more than just AltText, ramps, doors that open with a button, and apps that work well with screenreaders.

Accessibility means that disabled people are able to access all the things abled-bodied people can access in all the spaces of life: physical space, transportation space, information space, community space, justice space, virtual space, and collective space.

To say that this is impossible to include everyone, to not even try to be inclusive and accessible in such places? That is being complicit in oppression and eugenics.

We can work together and generate ideas on how to be accessible to as many people as possible, and it's why organizing with disabled people is crucial. Leverage our knowledge and abilities, and stop excluding us from organizing.

It is possible to be accessible. It is possible to create a movement that LEAVES NO ONE BEHIND.

And if we are not willing to utilize our imagination to create that? If we fight against that and claim it's too hard?

Then what the fuck are we fighting for? Because it's not justice. It's not a future that will end oppression. It will only continue the oppressive institutions that harm and kill.

Leave No One Behind. Be Accessible. Talk with disabled folks like me and learn ways to be more accessible.

Here's some good articles on the marriage of ableism and white supremacy: https://truthout.org/articles/ableism-and-white-supremacy-are-intertwined-we-must-confront-them-together/

And:

And: https://bcrw.barnard.edu/videos/ableism-is-the-bane-of-my-motherfuckin-existence/

And: Sami Schalk's Black Disability Politics: https://samischalk.com/black-disability-politics/

For some definitions of spaces with examples of what it may mean:

Anyway, wanted to put that out there because inaccessibility is really fucking irritating to see in movements that claim to be about justice and equality and equity.

[melodynamic]

We all deserve breaks and rest, it's a part of life 💙 Accessibility for all ♿

[milk-lover]

Sobbing uncontrollably reading through a dissertation about the college experience of students with ADHD. It is like reading a report about my life that just says over and over "My experiences are real. My hardships are real. I am not lazy, I am not dumb. My struggles were not my fault, and they were not a moral failing. The failure was with the system, not with me."

Here's a line that got me in particular:

"Hotez et al.(2022) compared the health, academic, and non-academic capacities of a nationally representative sample of U.S. first-year college students with ADHD and without ADHD. Students with ADHD self-reported lower academic aspirations and more feelings of depression and overwhelm, ranking themselves lower in their general emotional health. The fact that students with ADHD scored in the highest 10th percentile for many non-academic traits, such as artistic ability, computer skills, creativity, public speaking, social confidence, self-understanding and understanding of others, compassion, and risk-tasking, suggests that this population has strengths that are frequently underappreciated in academia."

(the paper is a thesis called "Understanding the Collegiate Experience for Students With ADHD" by Gia Long, 2022)

[giantkillerjack]

Me: hm, I want something to put on the TV as background noise... Huh. Looks like YouTube is recommending something called The Last Unicorn. That's perfect, it's probably some old shitty animation that has aged poorly! I can watch it ironically!

Me, 2 hours later as the credits roll: *crying, cheering, buying the book, composing the songs*

Me, 2 weeks later: So I have compiled all of the quotes from the book that I think could make good tattoos, and also, HOW HAVE I NEVER LEARNED ABOUT HOW THE LAST UNICORN FUCKING SLAPS??? This gay-ass little fairytale fed my soul! Watered my crops! Transed my gender! Can't believe I heard of this story from youtube recommendations, of all places!!

[royalarchivist]

Quackity: These past days I've been in many calls, and I'm not done yet. I've spoken to a lot of people and creators. I've read your comments and I'm well aware of what needs to be done to carry out this project. I want to tell you all, beforehand, that for me the team's well-being is fundamental. I'm very involved in this topic to sort it out and I want to make that very clear. I want to tell you something... I want to tell you all that the administrative staff responsible for so much harm to the project has been fired. Specifically, those who made decisions without my permission, affecting the administrative and financial area of the project. Consequently, after this, I was in charge of doing a financial analysis that's carrying out for the QSMP.

Guys, to be really honest, it was not going to last. Therefore, I've had to make deep drastic structural changes that have lead me to reduce the performance of the server down to the most essential, and this is in order to ensure the well being of everyone involved in it. Having said this, I want to give a very important update: I want to let you all know that the QSMP will have to slow down temporarily. This is to ensure this new structure adapts to the project, because it's a restructuring that's taking place. I'm letting you know, and I reiterate, there are no voluntary positions inside the QSMP.

At the moment, there will not be any more individual update accounts of all 5 existing languages in the project. In any case, during this transition, there's going to be a temporal absence of all Eggs and NPCs. I know these are difficult changes, and I repeat, it's temporary until we adjust to these new conditions that will improve the performance of this new structure that's being made from scratch, both in the administrative and financial part. I'd like to reintegrate people fro the QSMP as time goes by if a financial viability can be found for the project Taking advantage of this update to tell you guys that within the changes of the server as it is, creators will have full control of their lore and stories. The team will not intervene in the way that it was being done. Moreover, efforts will be made to change the competitive dynamics inside the game so as to ease up the game style for the creators. Like I'm saying, all of these changes, and more, are being carrying out to have the project as best as possible, and they're being done little by little. This is a whole new structure that will ensure the best continuity and experience for the creators, the community and the team behind.

Guys, I want to make very clear that this is restructuring process, and again, it's not a fast one. The server being open does not mean everything's perfect, I understand that very well. Conversations will keep taking place, communication will continue and the constant improvement of the project as well. I ask, please, for everyone's patience and understanding regarding all changes. Please do wait for official announcements since a lot of incomplete and incorrect information is being spread. I want to tell you all something- if you don't trust in these changes or have many doubts about it, and don't want to consume any more of the project's content, I understand 100%. I have a personal commitment with the QSMP and I will work until it functions in the way it is supposed to do.

Lastly, I want to let you know that it was being worked on for months on finalizing the integration of Korean creators to the QSMP. For that reason, tomorrow we will be welcoming the new Korean creators of the QSMP, of course, taking into account all the changes I've just mentioned. I hope you can give the new Korean members warm welcome to the project. And as you know, their schedules are earlier. For everyone who would like to watch, they will be joining at 11am Mexico time and at 9am US time. Basically, I wanted to give that update regarding everything that's being done within the project. Again, thank you for your patience and understanding- these are necessary changes and I'm glad they're being done now. And many more things will keep being adjusted.

via @QuackitySubs

[i3utterflyeffect]

i spent 5+ hours trying to glaze this dumb joke about if dark survived in stick!alan au. anyway my vision when i was talking about this last night

(reblogs > likes)

[bodgei]

@humans @wip @changes July is disability pride month, saying something about accessability would be appreciated

[embervoices]

I often watch things with the sound low and subtitles, or even sound up and subtitles, just so that I have options on how to absorb the information, and whether or not to let audio play in my environment.

Not being able to get the information I’m looking for because the subtitles are poorly written is frustrating as all hell, and my hearing is just fine. I’m pretty forgiving if it’s videos on YouTube where the creators don’t have a professional setup, but if the media is fully professionally produced, there’s no excuse.

I shouldn’t have to make an argument that disability access isn’t just for the disabled (and I’m disabled, too, so I frankly am not quite making that argument anyway, am I?) but accurate subtitles give everyone a suitable range of options for how to consume the media they are choosing to consume. There is literally no downside to this.

Y’know, except the expense of paying people what they’re worth to do a job that needs doing.

Ableism in Subtitles

Something that really pisses me off is the litany of ableist issues found in subtitles. So, let's talk about 3 huge issues that need to stop.

Subtitles should never ever say [Speaking -language-]

When a hearing person is watching a TV show, or a stream, if someone starts speaking another language, if that hearing person knows that language, they will get to know what the person said, regardless of if the average viewer knows that foreign language.

Deaf and HOH viewers deserve the same opportunity, and to rob them of that opportunity by putting [speaking -language-] in the subtitles is ableist.

Every word spoken in a show or movie, unless given translated subtitles in the uncaptioned version of the show or movie, should have every word captioned exactly as it's spoken. If someone starts speaking Spanish, the words spoken in Spanish should be subtitled in Spanish. If someone starts speaking German, the words spoken in German should be subtitled in German.

When a show or movie is created, if you want a character to speak a foreign language, you get an actor who can speak that language. When you hire someone to transcribe a show into subtitles, your hire someone who can speak the languages spoken in the show, or you have them mark points where a foreign language speaker will need to assist and then have someone who speaks that language add in the parts that the transcriptionist can't.

Subtitles should never be cut short for convenience

This is something I see constantly. Shows and movies will frequently cut out words or even large chunks of a sentence from the subtitles to make the subtitles shorter.

When you remove descriptive words, parts of a sentence, or even whole sentences to cut down on the amount of subtitles in a given segment, you are completely changing the attitude, mood, and expression of those sentences. You can completely ruin all of the implicit feelings in a sentence if you remove words that show feelings or the way a person phrases things.

It is not your moral right, as a company or transcriptionist, to decide that deaf or HOH viewers shouldn't get the original phrasing.

I am not deaf or HOH. I have APD and have to use subtitles to keep up with what's being said, or I won't process it fast enough. Because of that, I get to see all of the ways subtitles deviate from the original wording all the time. This isn't an issue that just happens here and there. It happens in pretty much every episode of every show I've watched. And it's unacceptable.

Even if we ignore the way this impacts the intent of a sentence, this is ableist by its nature. When subtitles are made, they are made to fill the gap in a deaf or HOH person's TV experience. When you don't accurately fill that gap, or fill it partway, or half ass it, you are cutting corners on a disability aid. It's like if you sold someone a wheelchair with the wheels not pumped with enough air, or giving someone a hearing aid with damaged battery capacity.

When deaf or HOH people watch TV or movies and they use subtitles, they are relying on those subtitles to give them the most accurate wording possible. So why are companies directing or allowing their transcriptionists to half ass or cut down their subtitles? Every piece of media should be having its subtitles checked for accuracy before they're approved, and subtitles that cut corners should be amended before a show with subtitles is published or aired.

Subtitles should never censor words that aren't censored in audio

If a show or movie has swearing in it, of any kind, the subtitles should accurately depict what is happening audibly. If the audio has swear words censored, the subtitles should depict the noise - or lack thereof - that is used to censor the word. Subtitles should never be censored when the audio isn't.

Not only does this touch on the same issue from the last section, it's also ableist in another way. Not only are you giving deaf and HOH people a different experience than hearing people, you're also infantilizing them by disallowing them from hearing swear words that hearing viewers can hear.

Deaf and HOH adults are not children. They have just as much right to read the word "fuck" as a hearing person does to hear it. Censoring subtitles is disrespectful, ableist, and infantilizing and it needs to stop.

Make a change

I'm not familiar with the details of the ADA and how it regards subtitles, but if anyone would like to work with me to do something about this, I would really like to fight for subtitles to have more regulation.

If the ADA prohibits inaccurate subtitles, we should be reporting companies like Netflix who constantly provide inaccurate subtitles. If it doesn't, we should be fighting to amend the ADA to include regulations for subtitle accuracy.

Anyone who's researched this before or who knows more about it than I do, please tell me what you know or give me some sources I can look into myself. I would research from scratch but I'm disabled and don't have a lot of spoons for it, which is why I'd like to work together with others.

[redlilith5]

PJO X DC

Bruce: "Tim this is Duke Thomas. He's gonna be living with us from now on and is th-" *keeps talking*

Tim and Duke: *staring at each other and remembering how last summer they bombed a whole group of monsters, killed a humanoid monster in front of mortals which forced them into stealing a mortals vehicle while getting chased by mortal police and monsters in disguise*

Tim: "Nice to meet you Duke" :)

Duke: "Nice to meet you too" :D

[anghraine]

jenndoesnotcare replied to this post:

Every time LDS kids come to my neighborhood I am so so nice to them. I hope they remember the blue haired lady who was kind, when people try to convince them the outside world is bad and scary. (Also they are always so young! I want to feed them cookies and give them Diana Wynne Jones books or something)

Thank you! Honestly, this sort of kindness can go a really long way, even if it doesn't seem like it at the time.

LDS children and missionaries (and the majority of the latter are barely of age) are often the people who interact the most with non-Mormons on a daily basis, and thus are kind of the "face" of the Church to non-Mormons a lot of the time. As a result, they're frequently the ones who actually experience the brunt of antagonism towards the Church, which only reinforces the distrust they've already been taught to feel towards the rest of the world.

It's not that the Church doesn't deserve this antagonism, but a lot of people seem to take this enormous pride in showing up Mormon teenagers who have spent most of their lives under intense social pressure, instruction, expectation, and close observation from both their peers and from older authorities in the Church (it largely operates on seniority, so young unmarried people in particular tend to have very little power within its hierarchies). Being "owned" for clout by non-Mormons doesn't prove anything to most of them except that their leaders and parents are right and they can't trust people outside the Church.

The fact that the Church usually does provide a tightly-knit community, a distinct and familiar culture, and a well-developed infrastructure for supporting its members' needs as long as they do [xyz] means that there can be very concrete benefits to staying in the Church, staying closeted, whatever. So if, additionally, a Mormon kid has every reason to think that nobody outside the Church is going to extend compassion or kindness towards them, that the rest of the world really is as hostile and dangerous as they've been told, the stakes for leaving are all the higher, despite the costs of staying.

So people from "outside" who disrupt this narrative of a hostile, threatening world that cannot conceivably understand their experiences or perspectives can be really important. It's important for them to know that there are communities and reliable support systems outside the Church, that leaving the Church does not have to mean being a pariah in every context, that there are concrete resources outside the Church, that compassion and decency in ordinary day-to-day life is not the province of any particular religion or sect and can be found anywhere. This kind of information can be really important evidence for people to have when they are deciding how much they're willing to risk losing.

So yeah, all of this is to say that you're doing a good thing that may well provide a lifeline for very vulnerable people, even if you don't personally see results at the time.

[witchhazelevesque]

Wait… I get that Venus’s warning to Reyna about how “no demigod shall heal your heart” hit her hard because it meant she and Jason wouldn’t be together, but it also didn’t completely rule out A LOT of her people because like… so many of them weren’t demigods, they were legacies.

And okay, yeah, maybe that could be explained but, no not really because in BoO, when Reyna tells Piper about it, Piper says: “There is someone out there for you, maybe it’s not a demigod. Maybe it’s a mortal or… or I don’t know. But when it’s meant to happen, it will.” (492)

Like… the narrative literally forgets that legacies as a concept existed??

And no, it’s not that Piper isn’t aware of that or was distracted by Leo’s death because: “Piper kept busy helping Reyna and Annabeth coordinate between the Greeks and Romans. To Piper's surprise, the other two girls valued her skills as a go-between to smooth over any conflicts.” (489)

Now, Piper gets the short end of the stick when it comes to being written with nuance (hello one off lines about her best friendship with Hazel with talking, crying and sword fighting in HoH), but we’re meant to assume that she’s doing more than is actually written, and she’d have to be aware of these dynamics between demigods and legacies, that SHOULD have been a significant element here since all of Camp Half-Blood are demigods while a large, if unknown, portion of Camp Jupiter are legacies.

But no, the conflicts are like: “Piper did manage to return some Roman helmets that mysteriously made their way into the camp store. She also kept a fight from breaking out between the children of Mars and the children of Ares over the best way to kill a hydra.” (489)

Like.

The narrative itself goes out of its way to make a one to one comparison between the camps in terms of how directly descended from the gods the camper are. With the same god’s two aspects and everything! Ignoring the other descendants of Mars!

But actually!! No, in the same book they do bring up legacies! Nico asks Reyna: “So… is your whole family descended from Bellona? I thought you and Hylla were her daughters, not legacies.” (284)

So why? Is it so inconsistent? (This is a rhetorical question, I know why but feel free to add more)

And all he had to do was change the word ‘demigod’ to ‘hero’. At least for Reyna’s situation.

TLDR: Legacies? Wasted potential. Reyna? Victim of inconsistent writing, vol 132.

[thatonebirdwrites]

Cobblestone is a trip hazard. It can flip my wheelchair easily, and I'd rather not get a face-full of cobblestone or need stitches. The cracks in them easily catch a cane or crutch or rollator too. They just aren't safe. The same goes from strollers too! So I'm sure parents likely have to contend with the fact their strollers can get tipped or caught in the cracks as well. Please will cities stop using them and pave them over with a smooth surface?

I'm thinking about this stuff for a school project so I've come to the most reliable source for data!

But in seriousness all input is appreciated

(Tagging for reach i guess?) @autistic-culture-is @autismswagsummit @autistic-bowlcut-swag @disabled-comic-showdown

I'm really sorry if you don't like being tagged, I hope you don't mind it. This is just importsnt to me

[puppetmaster13u]

Gosh I am so freaking tempted to write/draw a DCxDPxPokemon crossover.

Like I just want Danny and Damian to be friends with their lil creachur buddies. And like, pokemon not just in battles. Like Jason having a pokemon trained to help him out of panic attacks, Bruce having an emotional support pokemon, etc

I just want to write some found family with all of them honestly.

[jaedoesart]

New bean? Maybe? 👀

[drreadnought]

the best thing you can do for yourself right now if you are scared is to find comfort in community. reach out to friends and family, surround yourself with supportive people, you aren't alone