Crossposted from https://europe.pub/post/9269750

A utility bill came on paper using:

• black text (on a variety of different backgrounds- white, orange, gray..)
• white text (on a variety of different backgrounds- blue, green..)
• very light grey text (on a variety of different backgrounds- white, intermittent light green imagery..)
• blue text (on a variety of different backgrounds- white, intermittent light green imagery..)
• 2 kinds of bold text (extra heavy black and dark green)

I’m not blind. I can see it just fine. But when I try to scan this thing into a bi-level doc, it’s impossible because of this shit-show of color combinations. There is no possible level by which all the text can be made clear. As soon as a level is used to eliminate the colored backgrounds, a lot of the light gray text goes white. This forces me to scan it as color, which wastes file space.

So I thought-- what about blind people? Aren’t they fucked in this situation? If I were blind, I would scan, OCR, then use a screen reader on the text. Some OCR tools can work on color docs but I don’t think all OCR software has that.

Reaching the accessibility law is itself a shitshow in the EU now that the EU blocks Tor. Indeed, only clearnet users are permitted to be aware of the law. I had to pull directive 2019/882 from the archives, where the most recent capture was bad but an old capture was fetchable.

Directive 2019/882 seems to only address “products and services”, and documentation for that commercial category. I see nothing about paper bills. That seems bizarre, no?

I found this Color Contrast for PDF Accessibility: Why Does It Matter?, but that’s not exactly relevant.

So is the utility company legally compliant with this shitty unscannable invoice design?

NVDA 2026.1 Beta 1 is now available for testing! Info & Download: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2026-1beta1/

Includes MathCAT built in, improvements to speech, spelling errors, OCR, Braille, highlighter, add-on virus scan results, new languages & more!

Fixes for language not supported error, LibreOffice, Outlook, screen reader web content, malformed links in Chrome

Notes:

• Only 64-bit Windows 10 & 11 are now supported
• Add-ons for 2025.x & earlier are incompatible

Intopia's Australia & New Zealand Assistive Technology Survey is open, only until the end of this week.

The survey is open to users of assistive technology in AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND: https://intopia.digital/articles/intopia-launches-assistive-technology-survey-2025/

If you are eligible, please do take part.

@doubletap I'm listening to today's episode ("The Best NVDA Add-ons and Keyboard Tricks You Need") and really enjoyed the discussion around #NVDA workflows and keyboard customisation. I smiled when one of you mentioned struggling to remap an Applications key on a Keychron, because I ran into exactly the same issue after buying my Keychron shortly after Christmas.
What finally worked for me was not using the Menu / Applications keycode directly at all. Even though it's exposed in the Keychron Launcher, it didn't actually do anything reliably on Windows with NVDA.
Instead, I created a macro for Shift+F10, which is the standard Windows keyboard equivalent for the context menu and is very screen-reader friendly. In the Keychron Launcher, I went to Macro, selected a macro slot, chose Start Recording, pressed Shift+F10, stopped recording, and then assigned that macro to the key I wanted.
One important gotcha I ran into: the launcher shows what look like “duplicate” key entries in the macro (for example multiple F10s or Shift appearing twice). Those aren't mistakes. They're the key-down and key-up events. If you delete them, you can end up with Shift getting stuck. Leaving the macro exactly as recorded solved that for me.
Once I did this, the key worked reliably everywhere I’ve tried it, like File Explorer, browsers, and with NVDA, and it's honestly been more dependable than trying to use the Applications key directly. Thought I'd share in case it helps others listening to this episode or experimenting with Keychron keyboards.
#ScreenReader #Accessibility #Blind #keyboard @mastoblind @main

I refuse to send email to most recipients (those using MS or Google mail servers). It’s not individuals who receive my mail, but gov offices, NGOs, and corporations.

So my question is, is there anything I could do if there is a blind recipient? I figure an office would never task a blind worker to handle postal mail. A blind worker would likely be working with email because it’s more easily read (using a screen reader).

Am I accommodating enough if my documents are scannable and OCR-able?

@FastSM I'm noticing a couple issues with #FastSM, and I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if they're bugs.
First, when I try to update using check for updates or the new update popup, I get:
Failed to download or apply update: [WinError 5] Access is denied: 'C:\Users\lanie\Apps\FastSM\FastSM-update\FastSM\_internal\enchant\data\mingw64\bin'
Second, search doesn't seem to work reliably. I'll do a search for a hashtag and get an empty timeline that never loads anything.
Has anyone else noticed either of these?
@mastoblind @main

Ok does anyoneknow if the #Braille Extender add-on for #NVDA is still being maintained? I checked the GitHub and cannot determine this, but the amount of open issues makes me wonder.
@main @mastoblind @NVAccess@fosstodon.orge

Okay, this is weird. I enabled streaming for home and notifications in #FastSM, restarted the app, and now my home timeline is just...gone. I know I didn't hide it or anything. Has anyone else seen this? I even tried restarting the app a second time. It's still gone.#accessibility #ScreenReader #Mastodon @main @mastoblind @FastSM

How is everyone doing this evening? I'm sitting in bed drinking my medical food shake, listening to music, with a few #IncrementalGames idling, and maybe doing a bit of #Python practice on #Codecademy.
I'm not 100% yet, but I feel stronger than I've felt in a while. I don't particularly care for the taste of these shakes, but my mom and I are working on ways to improve them. It's also a relief not having to worry about whether food will stay down or whether I'm getting the nutrients I need.
I'm also still using and enjoying #FastSM for #Mastodon on #Windows. It's been working well for me so far.
Accessibility / tech note for fellow screen reader users:
If you use #NVDA with #MicrosoftEdge (and possibly #GoogleChrome) and have been dealing with freezes or heavy lag, especially when you have multiple tabs or web apps open, check whether you have the BrowserNav add-on installed. I was experiencing some pretty severe freezes, sometimes to the point where NVDA would become unresponsive for minutes. Disabling BrowserNav made a noticeable difference for me right away, including being able to keep more tabs open without issues.
#Accessibility #ScreenReaders #BlindTech #Disability #ChronicIllness #AssistiveTechnology #WebAccessibility
@main @mastoblind

Accessibility-focused Mastodon question.
I’m currently using the Enafore web client and generally like it. I’ve been seeing some chatter about FastSM, and I’m curious how it compares in real use.
Has anyone here used Enafore and then switched to FastSM? If so, how is it with a screen reader, and what feels different or better (or worse)?
I don’t have much energy for trial-and-error right now, so firsthand experiences would be especially helpful.
#Mastodon #Accessibility #ScreenReaders #BlindTech @mastoblind @main

@NVAccess so I spent an hour on the phone with my credit union yesterday because I could not log into their site, got in eventually but the issue was when typing into the edit fields with a #BrailleDisplay I had to space to actually have the text enter, and running across similar issues with #GitHub, though there I am running across quite a lot of places where it just does not register that anything was entered, yet #NVDA and the display can see it.

@main

Our In-Process blog is back for 2026! And we've got a bumper issue to start with:

We highlight the "Switching from Jaws to NVDA" guide, we have tips for running NVDA on a Mac and creating a new NVDA Shortcut. We hear from a user on their achievements in 2025, and we want to hear yours! And finally, a quick tipe from Jen on Using Clip with the command line!

All available now at: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/in-process-23rd-january-2026/

Ok @main @mastoblind @NVAccess got a puzzler for all my #nvda users. So somehow yesterday I managed to bungle my way into where NVDA was acting like it was locked into focus mode everywhere, and could not be brought out of it, received "unsupported input" for single letter nav everywhere, and hotkeys like alt+tab would not register. I ended up having to do a full reset on it to fix the problem.I use #Braille Extender, and full#BrailleDisplay operation. Anyone got a clue what the fuck I did?

Does anyone have any idea how to get a Cosmo working on something other than Duxbury DBT? Like Braille Blaster, maybe? My makerspace can't afford Duxbury, so this thing is only half as useful as it's supposed to be... Neither the Cosmo manufacturer nor the Braille Blaster maintainers could figure it out.

The past year has seen an explosion in new text to speech engines based on neural networks, large language models, and machine learning. But has any of this advancement offered anything to those using screen readers?

Happy World Braille Day!

Each January 4th, the birthday of Louis Braille, the day aims "to raise awareness of the importance of Braille as a means of communication in the full realization of the human rights for blind and partially sighted people."

https://www.un.org/en/observances/braille-day

Ok so can anyone using #NVDA and Docs tell me why it stops announcing indentation info after page 2? I have checked everything twice, reloaded everything, no change.

@main @mastoblind @NVAccess

While NV Access enjoy some well earned rest, we may be delayed in replying for the next few weeks. Please do refer to the tips and links in our last In-Process: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/in-process-16th-december-2025/

A very Merry Christmas if you celebrate & a safe & happy New Year to all!

In this article, I will discuss the details of 10 innovations throughout history that were only possible through unlocking the power of accessibility and including the voices of people with disabilities. In the disability community, it is a deeply believed and often repeated fact that improving accessibility leads to innovations that improve the world for everyone. Necessity is the mother of invention is, after all, a proverb so frequently quoted that it has become a cliché. And yet, people with disabilities still find ourselves left out of research and design, and all too often we don’t get a seat at the product development table. This leaves our inventions overlooked, unrecognized, and sometimes unrealized.

Welcome to our last In-Process blog post for 2025! https://www.nvaccess.org/post/in-process-16th-december-2025/

In this edition:

• Holiday Season Trading Hours
• NVDA with Digitech Reece
• World Blindness Summit Presentation
• Finding Things

Do check it out, have a wonderful break if you are having time off or a holiday, spend time with loved ones, and we look forward to catching up with everyone in 2026!

Following on from that last In-Process, I (Quentin) am mostly off until the a week or so into January. I will pop in from time to time just to make sure everything is running smoothly, but if you need a reply from us specifically, unless it's urgent (eg the website is down), we likely won't get back to you until the new year. If you need help with NVDA, please do check the resources in the "Holiday season trading hours" article in the blog. Happy New Year everyone!

cross-posted from: https://blackneon.net/post/94922

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So just out of curiosity this morning, I did a search on YouTube for Braille embossers to see what was new and I discovered the Braille Buddy. The thing is the size of a usual printer apparently, and only weighs 11 pounds. Back when I was in school, a little over a decade ago, Braille embossers were huge and definitely not portable. It says that it apparently works with Windows and Mac and comes with Tiger and can work with Duxbury, but if I was going to use it, I would want to use it with Linux. So I wonder if that would be possible.

While I was at it, I also decided to look up Braille displays and see if there was anything as cheap or whatever as the Orbit Reader 20, which apparently has been discontinued, but I don't see anything.

But I got a blast from the past when I opened an APH video talking about the Mantis Q40 Braille display and saw that the person talking about it was a previous co-worker of mine.

Shoutout Jennifer Wenzel. We were co-workers like six years ago.

This week's In-Process is a bumper one - but don't miss it because as well as all the news on NVDA 2025.3.2, more on configuration profiles and the NEW Web interface for the add-on store, we've also got a BLACK FRIDAY SALE!

All that and EVEN MORE at: https://www.nvaccess.org/post/in-process-27th-november-2025/