mastodon 4.7.2+glitchAT Instructor interested in accessibility, weather, space, and of course cats. (Willow and Athena are babies).
I still very strongly believe that AT device software should be open source in certain cases, such as, again, something like a book player.
Oh, and then lord the fact that you drive the ship over people's heads by gatekeeping whichever bug fixes or suggestions get implemented.
Must it be that you ship community contributions with the stock version on devices you sell? Hell no, and that's the beautiful part! You still get to dictate the OOBE! You get to decide which, if any, community contributions get shipped from the factory. People can fork the software and users get to choose if they want to risk flashing said forks! Hell, void the warranty if they do so.
There's probably some legal red tape BS that, when applied, invalidates my arguments for reasons completely unrelated to them and because someone somewhere decided they were good ideas. I don't know much about that. I also understand that I'm kicking the skeleton of a long-dead horse at this point because so many devices work like this, and that alone could be the perfect dismissal for my entire premise, individual points notwithstanding.
I'm happy to say that I was promoted from Quality Assurance Tester for XRNavigation, to Junior Software Engineer. This happened on Tuesday. I am beyond excited about this! I am honored that they've given me further opportunities to improve Audiom and grow as part of the team! I can't wait to see what the future holds. It's long been a dream of mine to develop for a project like this, one that actively works to solve challenges faced by the blind and visually impaired. In this case, it's exploring maps on any platform - the same ability sighted people have when they open Google Maps, or look at any website that contains a map "region" or "graphic" that those of us who are blind can't access.
https://audiom.net
https://xrnavigation.io
Sometimes I'm frustrated at the general world for how they view blind people, but then other times I read books... about blind people.
Like the one I was reading today. This lady drops her keys near the front door. She feels around in a potted plant for a bit, but then gives up and starts crying until... this knight in shining armor comes to save the day. He grabs those keys and sets them gently in her palm.
Then she's got some broken glass because she drops groceries on the front step. It's okay, her sister who she obviously lives with will take care of it. Then her sister will scold her for being so independent.
She works part time... but as someone who answers phones for a blind charity.
Her sister picks out her clothes, and she only wears 2 colors.
People read these kinds of books never having met a blind person before. Then they meet a blind person... and what are they supposed to think?
I want to read a real cool book with a blind character in it. This blind character cleans up the broken glass with gloves, a vacuum, some wet paper towels or something. They fan their hands around looking for the dropped key. They scan the clothes with seeing AI or maybe they put some Way Around tags or something on them. They live independently alone or with a roomate, or an equally contributing family member. They work an office job or something.
Books are one of the ways we learn about things or people we've never encountered before. They'd be such a good opportunity to teach sighted individual how it is possible for a blind person to exist. Instead, that was another one where the blind lady was a family dependent emotionally fragile flight risk. It evoked feelings of pity and stress for that character.
I'm sure such books as I'm talking about exist, I just felt it necessary to rant about that one.
I seriously don't get how many blind people manage to do 90 something percent of their online/logistical tasks on their phone. If I did that, with all the random screen reader bugs and "something went wrongs" and buttons that clicked yesterday but repeat their titles today and on and on, I'd be a quivvering jibbering gelatinous blob of insanity. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
Sure. There are lots of horrible things going on in the world right now. Many of them controlled by powerful people that most of us will never get anywhere close to speaking to. But I agree with some people, let's catagorically shit on everyday ordinary people and dictate their political views and their views on human rights... for reading a fucking book. Oh by the way, all of you are fundamentally against me because you give money to services that aren't screen reader accessible.
Lol. This is very specific.
Tonight. A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8pm, then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms between 8pm and 3am, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms between 3am and 5am, then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy. Low around 86, with temperatures rising to around 89 overnight. North northwest wind 0 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
Athena got to eat at the kitchen table for her birthday. I squirted out one of those squeezable treats onto a plate, and put it on the table right in front of a kitchen chair. So, she stood on her heind legs in the chair and ate at the table. :D
Last year on July 14 I had what I thought was gonna be a dream come true, but it ended in disappointment. This year on July 15 and 16, I've potentially had 2 more huge ones, I hope these work out. One of them looks almost like a certainty, but time will tell. :)
I love how if I wait 5 or 10 minutes to cancel a Lyft/Uber, I get charged a fee for their precious "time and effort." If a driver has me waiting for 10 minutes and cancels when they're 2 minutes away, of course nothing happens to them. I guess the paying customer's time isn't a big deal.
Willow popped up. This occurred at 3:39 PM MST, 07/10/2026.
Athena popped up. Oh and you better be careful. It's gonna start squeaking and purring and bonking you on the leg with its tiny cotton ball head.
Oh brother, here comes trouble. :D
I've lived here for 4 years and I finally saw a storm in early July in Phoenix. Apparently that's what the monsoon does when it exists. That storm produced more than the 2023 and 2024 seasons combined in terms of rain: 0.15in and 0.16in respectively. While I apparently have to remind myself that I'm not in Austin when I leave for work in the morning because it's so damn humid now, I hope there are many more to come.
I tried to get back into @ramblio@tweesecake.social but it doesn't let me sign in because I'm using Tailscail. I won't shut off Tailscail just to use an app. rip.
I ended up having to replace my automatic cat feeder after 3 years because I needed to make some changes to the servings, and realized it's not possible even with glasses/phone/AI/live agent, unless they also have the same one. So I got a Petlibro feeder to replace it. That was only like $80, and the app is kind of annoying and requires screen recognission about half the time. The good thing is though I can adjust it without any assistance.