#turns out it was the damb stereo audio my one true enemy

[gentil-minou]

Devices come with mono audio now!

They didn't used to, which meant that when listening to music that was meant for stereo audio i had to choose which side of the music I wanted to listen to, which meant I'd miss an entire part of the song

Im not a musician or familiar with how recording works but for context, music was recorded only with stereo sound which meant certain parts of the song would be in your left ear while others would be in your right. Sometimes it would only be for specific bridges or parts, sometimes it would be the whole song. Sometimes it'd be just a guitar strumming in the background, Sometimes it was lyrics alternating between the left or right ear.

I'm sure the effect was very nice for people with hearing in both ears but for me it was actually so upsetting. It meant if I loved a song enough to get it on cd or download it and burn it to one, I'd run the risk of then basically not being able to hear half of it. There were a few songs I straight up had to delete and not listen to because they'd make me so upset about my deafness that I'd start to cry. It really messed with my self esteem

I imagine this feature was added because more people started using only one ear bud, but for someone like me with unilateral sensory hearing loss who can ONLY use one ear bud I am not exaggerating when I say the day I saw this feature on my phone I wanted to cry. It was so wonderful to finally be able to hear how music is supposed to sound without having to blast it, I really really am so happy it exists

“Little” things that are accessibility features

Some of these might not have been intended for accessibility but are nonetheless very valuable for disabled people:

Railings on stairs

Textured stairs and walkways

High visibility markings on obstacles (again often found on stairs)

Easily accessible rewind features on videos

Ability to edit the size and color of captions/subtitles on videos

Ability to change the playback speed of videos and audio content

Features to boost or cut the bass, high end, or mid range frequencies (this feature can be found on Spotify)

Similarly, features to fine tune the presentation of different colors and contrast on devices

Wide passageways in shops, classrooms, offices, sidewalks, etc

RB with more small things that make a big difference to disabled people!