Woo! The Bay Area’s Regional Transit Measure passed. Now we don’t have to worry about losing all train service on the weekends, and other terrible service cuts. I’m glad more than enough voters realized how important public transportation is.
This actually works well with VoiceOver, except for one thing: To move the selection through lists/menus, you have to use the scroll wheel, which appears not to be exposed to screen readers. I’m not sure what HTML element would be best suited for an infinitely scrollable/adjustable thing like that, but someone figured out how to make literally everything else properly accessible, and could probably figure that out. They got so close. https://hachyderm.io/@lexfri/117490369487898815
I forgot to check where the side toolbar elements are in the focus order relative to the elements in the main area of the app. Do they all come before the main app area elements, or after? Or some before and some after, since they come from what would have been both the top and bottom of the app? I’ll have to go back and play with it some more.
The status bar with time, wifi, battery, etc. is in the bar on the side with all the toolbar items from the app. But just like all existing iPhones, you can’t swipe directly between the status bar elements and the app’s toolbar elements. You have to use explore-by-touch at first to move focus between the app and status bar elements.
In general I found it difficult to avoid accidentally focusing or activating stuff while folding and unfolding. It takes quite a bit of force to start folding, and to unfold, you really have to get a fingertip in there to pry it open.
I was also wondering what would happen to VoiceOver focus when the phone is folded or unfolded. So I opened an app on the inner screen, put focus somewhere, and folded it. I also did the opposite, going from outer to inner. In both cases, focus goes to the first element. Maybe that’s the right choice because you can’t guarantee all the same elements exist in the other layout.
When two apps are in this split view, with BoiceOver off, you can swipe up on one side to go back to the home screen on that side. But with VoiceOver on, I could not figure out a way to do that. All I could do was just go back to the fullscreen home screen. It didn’t seem to matter if I tried swiping up from the bottom on the left or right; it would close both apps.
I played around with an iPhone Duo at the Palo Alto store yesterday. I was curious how VoiceOver would work in a few situations.
When you enter the app switcher, each app has actions for placing it on the left or right side. After putting an app on one side, the home screen is on the other side, and I could launch an app on that other side to have two apps side-by-side.
For years, I haven’t been able to leave VoiceOver on when I’m not using a Mac because otherwise I have to listen to it say, “authentication application application” once per minute indefinitely. https://mastodon.online/@AppleVis/117423160938192258
I’m thinking about writing an article describing the problems with these critical transit connection points in the bay area, like Milpitas, Millbrae, and Larkspur.
The Golden Gate Ferry and the SMART train still don’t coordinate their schedules or run frequently enough, so I’m hanging out in Larkspur for 45 minutes.
“2 upvotes, you have upvoted, button”, VoiceOver reads after a comment in the Github app.
No, I have not upvoted.
It’s ridiculous that people have to resort to workarounds like this just to be able to navigate properly with VoiceOver on macOS.
For context, this VoiceOver setting randomly changes itself, which messes up keyboard navigation, and you have to go into settings and change it back, sometimes multiple times a minute. Some condition must be triggering the bug but I haven’t been able to figure out what it is. https://mastodon.online/@AppleVis/117213038223050557
I'm ready for a career shift.
I've been on Google Search for more than 6 years. My favorite part of my job has been helping people design user interfaces that are not only accessible but great to use. I want to join a team who shares my passion for making great user interfaces.
Based in Mountain View, prefer roles in the San Francisco Bay Area, but open to remote work.
Please reach out if you know anyone I should talk to. Boosts appreciated.
“Accessibility users” has got to be one of my least-favorite phrases. Even worse, “a11y users”.
New CEO of a company that makes things for blind people is not blind or low vision and comes from private equity, and before that, the mining/fossil fuel industry. 🤔
I’ve always been able to create a deep rumbling sound in my ears, but it’s hard to describe and nobody I’ve mentioned it to has had any idea what I’m talking about. Turns out, some people have voluntary control of the tensor tympani muscles, which mostly involuntarily tense to protect the eardrum from loud sounds.
“Start window. We’re having trouble loading your feed window”
This is what NVDA says each time I press the Windows key to search for something.
@BorrisInABox Also, my parents’ toilet had something in it break a couple months ago, so my dad bought a new part to replace the faulty part. He accidentally got the wrong size of part though, but somehow made it work. However, this resulted in flushes sounding very interesting.
@BorrisInABox I was recently on an Amtrak Superliner train, and I wanted to get you a recording of the toilet flush.