dyedgrey @dyedgrey@qoto.org

I see some people talking about screen reader accessibility, so I want to point out a real bad habit some people have gotten into on Twitter and on Carrd pages which wreaks havoc on screen reader accessibility. I thankfully haven't seen it on the fediverse much.

Usually people refer to the habit as "Twitter fonts". This is a misnomer, though; these so-called "fonts" are just misusing various Unicode characters (mostly those designated as mathematical symbols) because someone thinks they "look cool". DO NOT DO THIS. Depending on the screen reader, some of them might be moderately legible, some of them might get spelled out, and the worst of them will spit out garbage like "JAPANESE LETTER JAPANESE LETTER CHINESE LETTER SQUARE ROOT CHINESE LETTER".

I recorded a video a while back to demonstrate how bad this can get:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLDvg0cZYZ8

🦇

#ScreenReader #Accessibility

If you enjoy someone's post on #Mastodon go ahead and click the star. If someone tells you that's meaningless because there's no #algorithm, ignore them. Sure, boost the post too if you want others to also see the post, but don't think telling someone you like what they posted is somehow unimportant. In real life I don't tell someone, "good job," or "well said," or "I love that," for the sake of some algorithm, I do it because I'm human and they are too. It's fundamental to being truly social.

In about three hours from now, I’ll be spending most of my day observing two spider pulsars with the iconic Parkes radio telescope (remoting in) for my project …. So, let’s try something out ….

If you have any questions about our beautiful Dish or about pulsars, drop them below and I’ll try answer them as best I can during my observing run! A little 🐘 site A.M.A. on pulsars!

#Astrodon #RadioAstronomy #Pulsars #Astronomy

Imagine you're a visually impaired Mastodon user and your screen reader encounters a post that says something like "A stunning view I saw this morning" or "This is hilarious." But the image is the equivalent of what you see below: a blank. Wouldn't it be frustrating to encounter post after post like that?

Describe images. It's an act of love. Describe them as you would to a dear friend you were talking to on the phone.

Saying something like, "Mastodon is open source. Don't like the functionality? Get to work." is not only useless 'advice' but actually pushes people away from open source and the tool you are telling them to fix.

Why are you combative that someone doesnt have time, energy, expertise or actually enough care to fix it themselves? Imagine telling that to a reporter, doctor, lawyer, or geologist?

The first black child ever allowed to attend a white school is only 68 years old now.
White parents pulled their children from school. White teachers refused to teach her.
Ruby Bridges now works as an activist & public speaker
This wasn’t a million years ago. /1

Hi, just a friendly reminder that masks not only protect you from COVID but also from other nasty seasonal respiratory viruses, and basically everybody should be wearing them indoors with other people during the winter months.

From, someone who just lost a family member to RSV that kids brought home from school

#ImposterSyndrome

I love it when someone finds out I’m an #atheist and cracks some lame joke about how you never have to ask, atheists & vegans will always tell you they’re atheist or #vegan.

But last I checked, atheists & vegans don’t go around knocking on doors, wearing atheist & vegan symbols on a necklace or erecting 200 ft highway-side reminders that we exist. We certainly don’t vote or lobby for policies that would force you to live by our rules. No, lovelies, that’s Christianity.