Blind Main MostlyBlindGamer • 3 weeks ago • 100%

I’ve been using full screen magnification on computers since Windows 7 came out. I could have been doing it earlier on macOS, but there you go. ## The problem Since then, I’ve had my settings locked in: using the mouse or trackpad to pan, not allowing the zoom window to follow keyboard focus, because the snapping makes me dizzy. I was rewarded for my efforts with a generally comfortable desktop computer experience, and chronic wrist pain that stopped me from really learning the guitar or playing serious FPS games. Mind you, the closest I’ve gotten to a diagnosis for this is “oh, that does make sense, maybe that’s why.” I’ve been trying to get used to using keyboard focus following, but it just hasn’t worked for me. Until today, that is. ## The solution? Did you know on macOS you can adjust the speed at which the zoomed in screen follows focus? And that you can have it only move when the cursor reaches the side of the screen? I sure didn’t! I already have a collection of ergonomic mechanical keyboards, but I already have to complement them with a trackpad. I’ve considered throwing even more money at this problem and getting a trackball. I guess I don’t have to? ## Next steps I’m going to try to get used to this on my personal computer. I may need to create new keyboard macros or adjust settings further. I’ll have to get used to a whole new workflow that’s very different from what I’ve been using for 15 years, but the potential advantages are huge. I need to be as quick navigating the computer this way as I am with the trackpad, but I always use a lot of typing for actions - Spotlight search, Raycaat, the command palettes on VS Code and Rider - so I think it’s doable. ## Takeaway I, at least, accept that there are takeoffs when accommodating for and dealing with my disability. In this case I’ve practically been accepting developing a new disability in exchange for being able to work with one I already have. Gotta keep that shareholder value ticking up. You may or may not be doing the same, but chances are you’ve figured out what works for you and gotten into a local maximum of efficiency, like I did. Alternatives similar to this are worse, so I that this was as good as it got. I had to experiment with what I knew wouldn’t work for me to have the opportunity to find something that works even better. Maybe that’ll be an absolute maximum in efficiency for me or maybe I’ll learn something better later on. The bottom line is experimenting and trying different approaches is always a good idea. Worst case scenario, you confirm you’re doing the best thing for you. Do you have any experiences like this? Finding out your perfect setup wasn’t so perfect after all?

Blind Main MostlyBlindGamer • 2 months ago • 100%

Communities like this (rblind.com) and r/blind are focused on serving the blind and visually impaired community, including friends and family. They’re also valuable as an opportunity for people outside the community to learn about the blind experience. That brings us to the question: sighted friends, what have you learned that you’d like to share?

Coffee MostlyBlindGamer • 3 months ago • 93%

With global warming (and other factors) affecting coffee production and prices, I’ve noticed a couple of interesting patterns in marketing strategies for household and white label brands. Everything is extra intense, high intensity, intensity 11 (probably comes with a free Spinal Tap record)… Robusta roasted past 5th crack, no doubt. I also spotted a bag of highly exclusive “100% Robusta.” At this point I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop and for them to market “0% cyanide” coffee. How’s everybody else’s grocery shopping experience these days? Is this a big trend in your area?

Linux Gaming MostlyBlindGamer • 4 months ago • 94%

I switched to macOS pretty for all my day-to-day, development and work uses, but still have a Ryzem+RTX (I do use Ray tracing features) desktop that I only ever use for gaming anymore. I play games from Steam, GoG, Epic, and occasionally Xbox Game Pass. The big problem here is I’m visually impaired and need a desktop environment that will let me consistently use a lime green mouse cursor and zoom in full screen via keyboard and scroll shortcuts. At the risk of 1) nobody having actual experience and 2) the current Linux distro/DE ecosystem being hopelessly broken, what should I try? I also only have some 2 hours a week for videogames. I can’t afford the time to tinker, after the transition and setup period. I’m perfectly happy with “you’re outta luck, buddy, just suffer through Windows,” but I figure it can’t hurt to ask…

Blind Main MostlyBlindGamer • 4 months ago • 100%

Life is hard - for everybody, but in many ways more so for blind and visually impaired folks. It’s also awesome though, so let’s talk about that. What did you recently succeed in and want to talk about? Work, relationships, travel… something else?

Blind Main MostlyBlindGamer • 7 months ago • 100%

Blind On The Move was incredibly useful to me, when I couldn’t get O&M training during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Besides that convenience, video resources like this are also very interesting for family and friends, and for dipping your toe into rehab, when you’re still coming to grips with blindness or low vision. I’m excited for this series!

Blind Main MostlyBlindGamer • 7 months ago • 100%

I use full screen zoom/magnification on all my computers. That works fine on laptop displays or on a single desktop monitor, but if you use more than one monitor, the computer zooms in both as if they were a single display and it all becomes a huge mess. I know ZoomText supports zooming in on a single monitor and I know ZoomIt can be coaxed into working the same way on Windows, but, until a little while ago, there were no acceptable options on macOS. So what changed? Well, the other day I left my work laptop open at the office after plugging it in to the dock and accidentally zoomed in on the internal display and… it zoomed in on that alone. Nothing funky happened with the other display. I’ve tested this at home with my own MacBook Pro and it worked the same. I guess it was a macOS update? There was no mention of any of this on any release notes I read. There you go: rational multi-monitor zoom on macOS. Enjoy! Have you noticed this at all? Who else had my use case? I really like using macOS with magnification, compared to Windows, so I image a few other people will get good use out of this feature.

Patient Gamers MostlyBlindGamer • 9 months ago • 96%

I have a huge backlog of free giveaway games, because I have less time for playing than I think I do and because I never know if I'll be able to play a game or if it'll be too visually challenging - my username is both literal and relevant. I finally got around to trying Prey (2017) and, so far, I'm really enjoying it. The visual style is manageable, text is usually large and clear enough, and the "Story" difficulty setting means I can enjoy the game in a way that's balanced between relaxed and challenging. I'm still always on edge, but I'm not as pushed for my poor aim and lack of situational awareness. Accessibility aside, I love the BioShock (I'd say System Shock, but I wasn't playing video games then) vibes. The gameplay, the concept and setting, the aesthetics... it's all there and I'm here for it. I for one am excited to poke myself with dystopian technology McMuffins in a city consumed by its own hubris. How are folks here liking the game? Am I late to this particular party? Do any Something Shock players have an opinion to share?

Blind Main MostlyBlindGamer • 10 months ago • 100%

As the holidays are warming up, let's share our suggestions and idea requests for gifts for our blind and VI family and friends. When requesting or offering suggestions, please include: - Budget (free, just about free, rough Dollar, Pound or Euro range) - Relevant recipient characteristics (level of vision, age, interests, devices owned, etc.) - Time constraints, if any (something that goes on sale for a short period of time or your favorite event that only takes place for a few months every 17 years) Let's use this thread to avoid clutter, to make searching easier and to have a nice reference to build upon, for the future.--

Photography MostlyBlindGamer • 12 months ago • 100%

I've been having issues getting decent photos of sea life at aquariums. I went to two different ones recently. I used a Canon R10 at both: for the first I took a 24 f/2.8 pancake lens and felt like the maximum aperture wasn't providing enough light to autofocus fast enough. For the second trip, I used a 50 f/1.8 and that did address that problem, but I'm still left with blurry photos and massive blue-yellow chromatic aberration. It's a challenging environment to begin with with how dark it is and how fast and unpredictability some fish and other animals move. The best - still pretty bad - results I got were at f/4, 1/300 or faster and moderate ISO speeds. Part of the issue is that, with my username being very literal, I can't really adjust my settings in response to image quality, on the spot. Reviewing images in the EVF with magnification is awesome and helpful, but I still end up getting disappointed when I open the photos up on my 32 inch monitor... So... any tips? Is there a secret for this, something like a Watery 16 rule I don't know about? For what it's worth, one of these places is pretty close by. I could get an annual pass and head there every weekend and try something new. I don't want to, but I could. Hehe.

Espresso MostlyBlindGamer • 12 months ago • 90%

I usually make doubles, but often split them to make a milk drink for my partner and have a single for myself. For some reason, those split singles tend to taste better. Same weight in, same time, same yield, just half the coffee. Do I just like less coffee? Is it a temperature thing? Am I missing something here? Does anybody have a similar experience?

Blind Main MostlyBlindGamer • 1 year ago • 100%

youtu.be

This is actually surprisingly good. The ophthalmologist goes into some very common and relevant topics, like the difference between an ophthalmologist, optometrist and optician, what “legally blind” means, different causes of blindness… I can see myself recommending this video for a lot of general questions.

Blind Main MostlyBlindGamer • 1 year ago • 100%

I figured I should share some of my thoughts on this. Think what you will about my perspective or decisions and formulate your own - we should all get to act on our values.

Blind Main MostlyBlindGamer • 1 year ago • 100%

Pro tip: set your home instance, so links open there directly and you can subscribe from the sidebar. It’s possible to run into errors if the server doesn’t know the other one, but those should be resolved by refreshing.

This community is meant to promote understanding, awareness and research in the fields of blindness and visual impairment. Posts are only allowed by mods: this means they were approved by the mod team, giving users high confidence in their quality. To share your request for research participants, contact the mods.

Blind Main MostlyBlindGamer • 1 year ago • 100%

I’m having a really weird issue with VoiceOver on iOS and I’ve decided not to stress out about it. I scheduled a phone call with Apple Support. One of the cool reasons to do this is they’ll log bugs and escalate them better then through their forums. Their main goal is to solve your issue, but things will still move forward, if they can’t. In all previous calls, I’ve talked to really nice people.

Blind Main MostlyBlindGamer • 1 year ago • 100%

Dealing with the same old questions from people who don’t get us was one of the hardest things about the other site. At one point, it was easier to create a rule against them, than it was to foster communication and awareness. Here though, we have the flexibility of creating extra communities. How do we feel about a ask@rblind.com community to support a “there are no wrong questions” attitude? It would still be moderated, of course, but it would let people decide whether or not they want to engage in this outreach, if you will.

Blind Main MostlyBlindGamer • 1 year ago • 98%

As the r/Blind mod team announced on July 1st 2023, [Reddit has made it impossible for blind people to moderate on mobile](https://www.reddit.com/r/Blind/comments/14nzwkm/they_finally_did_it_reddit_made_it_impossible_for/). We're bringing you this post to update the community on the developments since that time. ## Reddit's Apps Are Now Less Accessible As a point of order, r/Blind mods will not be exhaustively auditing Reddit apps or providing Reddit Inc. with unpaid accessibility testing services. We have and will continue to report bugs whenever appropriate, as would be expected from most users. That being said, the [updates to Reddit's Android and iOS apps announced in June](https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/14n9426/) have significantly degraded the user and moderation experience. There are mounting issues regarding stability and functionality affecting disabled users and the [broader Reddit community](https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/158l2le/modmail_just_broke_completely/). In the specific context of screen reader accessibility, the current app versions have regressed in: * Control labelling * Focus order * Focus control * Feature discoverability * Stability * Efficiency This situation further cements the mod team's perception that Reddit Inc. is ill-equipped to provide an accessible experience, compatible with the expectations set by the broader social media landscape - at least [when Twitter had an accessibility team](https://www.wired.com/story/twitter-layoffs-accessibility/). ## Accessibility Feedback Sessions On July 19th, Reddit announced ["more ways to connect live with" them](https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/1541p7x/lets_talk_about_it_more_ways_to_connect_live_with/), including an Accessibility Feedback Group. Several r/Blind mods have filled out the feedback group form and have yer to be contacted, in fact, u/MostlyBlindGamer expressed [concern that more direct feedback options were not available](https://www.reddit.com/r/modnews/comments/1541p7x/comment/jsmg3j1/). ## So How Do We Report Bugs? Reddit admins have been aware that the [Reddit bug report page](https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=360000644872) crashes when using assistive technology, since June 25th 2023. The recommended mitigation has been to mod mail r/ModSupport. In this process, an r/Blind mod has been asked to submit screen recordings through mod mail, which does not support attachments, notwithstanding the futility of this request, since Talkback audio isn't recorded when screen recording on Android. This further shows that Reddit Inc. is not equipped to triage accessibility bugs. Since then, the user experience has degraded to the point of making communication over mod mail ineffective. On July 19th, u/MostlyBlindGamer explicitly told Reddit admins blind moderators were effectively unable to use mod mail and reiterated the request for contact for email. Today, twenty-nine days after being made aware of the issues when reporting bugs, as per our continuous request via DM and [the latest r/Blind announcement](https://www.reddit.com/r/Blind/comments/14nzwkm/they_finally_did_it_reddit_made_it_impossible_for/), the accessibility@reddit.com email address has now been made available, hopefully making it easier to raise these issues. As of this writing, Reddit has not replied to a message sent to this address by a moderator. ## A Note On r/blindsurveys We do what we do, despite adversity, to support our community. A part of that is making r/Blind a place for and by blind and visually impaired people, while still enabling research and awareness from the sighted and academic communities. That has been accomplished by hosting r/blindsurveys. Much to our disappointment, all of our efforts to provide proper moderation and safety for this subreddit have been hamstrung by Reddit's increasing accessibility failures. We have made the subreddit private, not as a form of protest, but as mere self-preservation. While we acknowledge and appreciate the support of our sighted moderators, r/blindsurveys is not essential to our community and their efforts serve r/blind best. Its loss will be subtle, quiet and perhaps forgotten, but its impact may be greater than some assume. Effective today, easily searched questions and surveys directed at blind and visually impaired people, are not allowed on this platform. ## OK, Is There Any Good News? Yes! A few buttons are now labeled - hooray! Not enough to make the apps useable, but we like to acknowledge progress. r/place is not blind, low-vision or even keyboard accessible, however [the broader Reddit community is supporting r/Blind in keeping our Snoo on r/place](https://www.reddit.com/r/Blind/comments/156pn6b/rplace_is_not_accessible_but_the_community_is/). Because we care about accessibility, we shared that news on an alternative platform that supports alt text for images in posts and comments. In fact, r/save3rdpartyapps and r/ModCoord have been supporting this community since the start. The r/Blind team would like to thank all of the Redditors who through great deeds or kind words have made us feel seen, heard and welcome. ## As u/spez said > ["(...) there is no excuse."](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/145bram/comment/jnkccq7/?context=3)

Blind Main MostlyBlindGamer • 1 year ago • 95%


Blind Main MostlyBlindGamer • 1 year ago • 100%

 This our new logo on Lemmy! It's a line drawing of a lemming's face - Lemmy’s logo - but with an added small body, wearing sunglasses, holding a white cane on its right hand with a dog sitting to its left.

Blind Main MostlyBlindGamer • 1 year ago • 100%

I’d been recommended a sternum height cane, but I noticed it was pretty bad for my posture. I also wanted to switch to something lighter, because it really strains my wrist. I got a slimline cane that’s a bit longer than armpit height and I have to say I’m very impressed with the difference. My posture is better and my wrist is happier, but what I didn’t expect is that the fact that the added length let’s me walk faster, but also makes my fair intuitive and effortless, allowing me to swing in step, without a care in the world. My O&M instructor wanted me to walk slower, but that’s incredibly unnatural for me - I had to overthink each step. I feel a lot more comfortable and confident now.