Elijah Massey

@overholt@glammr.us @jpellis2008@dragonscave.space When you train an AI model on information, it is like giving it to a lossy compression algorithm, so information can never be fully preserved that way. And its not like MP3 or a copy machine either, where what is lost is just characteristics of the information not the information itself. The information itself is subject to lossy compression, since the AI could give you things like summaries of the book and its sections, its writing style, quotes of some passages, etc but it wouldn't be able to quote the whole book back to you. Also it is doubtful that AI models created inside companies like that would last longer than a physical book or a digital archival copy of it, meaning even the lossily compressed copy created this way is temporary.

I went to the non-24 session, which is hosted by Vanda Pharmaceuticals. They had a lot of good information about how non-24 works and its symptoms and they answered people's questions about it. However, there were some odd things about the session. First, they didn't talk about treatment at all, and were forbidden from talking about that. They said it was a legal requirement that they can only talk to groups about the condition itself and not treatment, and it seems that they don't advise individuals one on one on treatment either, although the company develops Tasimelteon, one of the treatments for non-24. Also, they were telling people not to self-diagnose and to talk to your doctor about it and about treatment. But I think exactly the opposite advice should be given; when I told my doctor about my issues with sleep and tiredness during the day and how it seemed to be on a cycle where my sleep and wake times shifted forward over time until it was back to normal and then repeated, and described all of this in detail, he didn't seem to think any of it was a big deal and suggested techniques for better sleep hygene like going to bed at the same time every day and stuff like that. Even after last year's convention, when I talked to him again about it saying I thought I had non-24 and told him about Tasimelteon, he still didn't seem to take it very seriously. He perscribed it to me because I asked him too not because he thought it was necessary, but didn't try to diagnose me or suggest other treatments or anything like that. And my grandparents said he is a good doctor. So if that's how a good doctor reacts to non-24 and its symptoms, I think most doctors would not know about it and would be likely to be dismissive of reported symptoms. So I think doing your own research and self-diagnosis is a good thing and what you should do. The speaker said that out of people with no light perception, 70% have non-24, so to me that means that if you have no or little light perception and have trouble falling asleep at night or staying awake during the day, or if you feel very tired a lot during the day, and especially if it seems to be on a cycle where your day-night rhythm shifts over time, then you probably have it. In addition, last year at the convention, WhyAmIUp, another company specializing in non-24, was here, although they are not here this year. I think I missed their session but I went to their exhibit, and they gave me a link to a survey. On the survey it asked me questions about sleep patterns and tiredness during the day and light perception and similar things. Then after the survey was completed, a few days later I got a call from a special services pharmacy about Tasimelteon. A telehealth doctor had perscribed that to me based on the survey, and my insurance (Medicare and Medicaid) covered it without sleep tests or anything like that. Honestly I think this is a good thing; if my doctor wasn't as accomodating, I could have still gotten the medication I needed, and it makes sense for a company specializing in a rare condition and expert in it to recommend and make available treatment for it. Since I started taking Tasimelteon, my sleep has been so much more consistent and my tiredness during the day has been so much better. I don't blame the speaker at all because I think she did her best with the requirements that were given to her and she did give a lot of good and useful information, and she explained the condition and the symptoms very well. It also seems like she truly cares about this a lot. And I would recommend people who think they might have non-24 or blind people who have trouble sleeping or tiredness during the day to go to the Vanda booth in the exhibit hall to learn more about the condition, or if you're not at the convention to go to their website and contact them. Also talk to your doctor about your symptoms too in case it is another sleep condition and not non-24. But if your doctor is dismissive or doesn't know about non-24 and doesn't research it for themselves, do your own research and self-diagnosis and push for what you need. And I would recommend taking the survey at WhyAmIUp's website and getting treatment if that's what you need to do. We seriously need to take this into our own hands and do whatever is necessary to deal with this condition, because non-24 is seriously debilitating. Its a large part of why I failed in college the first two years and something I struggled against all through junior high and high school and even earlier, being so tired during the day and not knowing why, and parents and teachers not knowing why either and often dismissive of what I was going through. #NFB26

NLS announced that sometime in the future they will add synced reading positions to BARD Mobile and the DA2 and other BARD platforms, so that you can stop a book on one and start it again on another from where you left off. #NFB26

@pixelate@tweesecake.social @alexchapman@vee.seedy.cc Okay, from the documentation it seems a bit better; at least it supports all standard controls and supports announcing roles and states. But its still MSAA only and not UIA. However, its still significant progress; with how long Wine has been developed, and how popular it is now with Proton, it should have had better accessibility support a long time ago.

Also both devices are very insecure, with SELinux in permissive mode and root access exposed with no permission prompt or password. On the Orbit Player the bootloader is unlocked so anyone can easily flash their own firmware image, and on the SensePlayer the Android build is userdebug and root is enabled by su shipped in the system image which is usually something you would only do in a debug build. On the Orbit Player, Magisk is installed on top of the image for root access. File-based encryption works on both, but on both I tested setting a lockscreen password and the Android screen reader couldn't handle it either. On the SensePlayer I could type the password and unlock the device but then when I restarted it, the screen reader didn't work so I had to use ADB and SCRCPY to get back in. On the Orbit Player, I can type the password on the lock screen, but for the Android screen reader to read the lock screen and let me navigate, I had to launch an Android app with ADB. And then when I typed my password, I couldn't press enter and the unlock button didn't activate when I pressed it, so I had to press enter from the ADB shell. So basically file-based encryption is useless on both because setting a lockscreen password makes both devices unusable without ADB connected. So I guess that means you should never store any sensitive information on these devices. At least the BrailleSense 7 allows you to set an encryption password as described in the manual so it should be more secure, but I wonder what the Orbit Speak and Strata are like. I hope they are more secure so you can store sensitive documents and passwords on them.

@pixelate@tweesecake.social @alexchapman@vee.seedy.cc This sounds very interesting, how good is the Wine accessibility support? A few years ago I got an old version of NVDA working inside Wine, but it only read a few things like button labels without the word button, and the contents of text fields, and some other things. But it was very limited.

@stevenscott I use Syncthing. It syncs folders between devices similar to something like Dropbox, but it does not store anything in the cloud; the folders are synced directly between your devices. It runs on Windows, MacOS, and Linux, and there is also the Synctrain app for iOS and the Syncthing-Fork app for Android. It can sync over the internet as well so your devices do not have to be on the same network. I can just send a file to the Files app on iOS, choose a folder that I sync with Syncthing, and then press save and it will sync. Opening the Synctrain app after doing this will make it sync faster though because background sync does not run all the time.

@jscholes@dragonscave.space @TheQuinbox@dragonscave.space I used to write code on an Orbit Reader 40 with the Perkins keyboard. it did feel a little slow but I think the obstacle was the slower refresh rate rather than the keyboard. More recently I've written code on an Nls eReader paired with a BT Speak, and then some on a BT Braille, and it doesn't feel slow. But perhaps that's because when writing code I don't usually write fast anyway; I often consider each small section carefully before writing it, go up a line or a few to correct or review something, etc. But I also have done much of my document writing on a Perkins keyboard for years including large essays for school, emails and posts and text messages, and math homework with long equations and that doesn't feel slow, although the literary writing is contracted Braille so that speeds it up so that may be influencing this.

@fasnix@fe.disroot.org Right now they are just hosted as individual files, but I can create zip files as well if you want.

@hmig@front-end.social @matt@toot.cafe I could help with that. I have access to NVDA, JAWS, and Narrator on Windows 11, VoiceOver on MacOS 15, Orca on Linux (both Arch Linux and the BT Speak), VoiceOver on iOS 26, and TalkBack on Android 16. I also have a 20-cell Braille display and a Monarch if Braille testing is important.

@AccessOn @JonathanMosen @ChanceyFleet On the episode a few people mentioned a Github hackathon for open-source accessibility, and one of the guests mentioned that the Monarch was a part of this and it will be called hacking for the Monarch or something like that. Where can I find this and how do I join? Or was that just in-person at CSUN? I am curious what kind of programming they are doing for the Monarch and if they have access to the SDK or if they reverse engineered some of the APIs like I did.

@ChanceyFleet @JonathanMosen @AccessOn Thanks, this sounds pretty cool but it’s unfortunate you have to travel to California to participate.

@jcsteh@aus.social @DavidGoldfield@allovertheplace.ca I did the exact same thing with my Geekom A9 Max mini PC, an HDMI capture card, and Be My Eyes on my laptop. Although instead of taking screenshots, I took pictures with the Windows Camera app, and I kept the folder where the pictures went open in File Explorer. Then each time I opened each picture in Be My Eyes from the context menu. It was able to tell me which option was selected as well as read the options. Before I got the mini PC, I used to use Seeing AI on my phone to scan the laptop screen. I was able to tell which option was selected by the description of the current option which always appeared on the right side of the screen.

@JessDail@caneandable.social @DavidGoldfield@allovertheplace.ca @1password@1password.social @bitwarden@fosstodon.org I use Bitwarden on Windows, Linux, MacOS, iOS, and Android, and I use the Edge, Safari, and Firefox browser extensions. I haven't really had issues with it. In the desktop application, I can search my items and copy passwords and those buttons are labeled. I think the add item button is labeled too although the interface could have changed recently. Sometimes they seem to have accessibility regressions in the UI that show up randomly but then they are usually fixed pretty soon.

@tspivey@dragonscave.space @jscholes@dragonscave.space @matt@toot.cafe @ricky_enger@mindly.social @alpuzz@mastodon.social And when Eloquence always says South Dacota card instead of SD card when reading user manuals. Or when reading Tolkien it will say Arkansas when saying the name of Ar-Pharazón, which just sounds ridiculous.

@TinaSohl@mindly.social @ACBNational@mastodon.social I posted a lot about the technology sessions and some exhibits during the NFB Convention under the #NFB26 hashtag, including all the ones you named. About BARD specifically, I think the biggest news was that they are adding syncing of reading positions, so you can listen to a book in the BARD Mobile app or the DA2 player and switch to another device, and resume from where you left off.