Hello all,
my new audio game, convenience express: convenience store simulator, is entering a public beta testing phase. this is an AgNow exclusive title during the testing phase, because it's the most convenient way to get testing reports, and helps promote ag now, so a win win.
this is a convenience store simulation game, with lots of twists and chaos as well. run your very own corner store, keep the books balanced, keep the store stocked with its over 2500 products, scan people's ID for cigarrette and alcohol sales, survive inspections, prevent drunks from knocking down whole shelves, fight off thieves with a fly swatter or let police handle them, or just chill in the main menu and watch a demo store play out without player input. it's up to you.
download AgNow from agnow.brynify.me, create account, and play convenience express (agnow exclusive alpha) from the games library. please make liberal use of ctrl+shift+r in the game to report any issues, and most importantly have fun!
please boost for reach!

It's finally here: Paperback 1.0! My fast, fully accessible ebook and document reader is now out on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android, with iOS following the second Apple decides to actually look at it. The changelog is once again way too big for any post, so here are the highlights:
New platform: Linux! As an AppImage or a tarball, with desktop integration so documents open straight from your file manager.
New formats:

• Comic book archives (.cbz).
• M4B and MP3 audiobooks, split into their chapters.
• Man pages, both man and BSD mdoc, gzipped or not.
• reStructuredText.
• Windows Write (.wri) files. Thanks, Mastodon.
• WinHelp (.hlp) files. Yes, really.
• Word 6 and Word 95 documents.

Big new stuff:

• OCR for scanned PDFs, using the engine built into Windows and macOS. Press Enter on a scanned page, or batch OCR a whole range of pages with Ctrl+Shift+O.
• MathML in EPUB and HTML is now rendered as AsciiMath via MathCAT. Jump between formulas with M and Shift+M, and open the original MathML in a formula view with enter or space.
• Find All, listing every matching line so you can jump right to the one you want.
• Tables, Lists, and Pages views in the elements dialog.
• Mark a spot with Alt+F9 and copy everything from there to where you are with Alt+F10, no more shift-arrowing through 40 pages.
• Audio book playback speed, from half speed to 3x.
• Any document can now be opened in the web view.
• Headings are drawn at a size matching their level.
• Relative Go To: +n and -n in Go to Line, Page, and Percent.
• Heading navigation from the table of contents for EPUB, MOBI, and CHM books with no headings of their own.
• A Ukrainian translation.

Plus a mountain of fixes, especially to PDF (I still hate PDF), MOBI/AZW3 books, which are now much faster and no longer cut off at 20 MB, FictionBook, and large books in general.

And of course, the mobile apps. They open every format the desktop does, with seamless read aloud using your choice of voice, background audio book playback, navigation by headings, pages, links, tables and more, a sleep timer, export, and keyboard shortcuts that match the desktop. They're $19.99, once, per platform, and buying them is what pays for the work on Paperback. The desktop versions stay free.
Desktop downloads: https://paperback.dev/downloads
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dev.paperback.android
Full changelog: https://paperback.dev/readme.html
Huge thanks to everyone who tested, filed bugs, translated, and put up with me during this development cycle. Enjoy! #Paperback #accessibility #blind

I'm getting the iOS 27 bug where voiceover crashes randomly and refuses to turn back on. I just had to force restart my phone.
Imagine Apple releasing a supposedly stable version of the OS where the display driver randomly stops working and won't restart. It wouldn't happen. But it's perfectly acceptable for them to release it where the screen reader does it. Bunch of fuckwits.

I feel bemused when people compare the ubiquity of AI to how the blockchain was supposedly crammed into so much software. Which software are they talking about?

I don't know about you, but I've thus far managed to lead a completely blockchain-free existence. As far as I know, it wasn't added to my email client, personal and workplace chat apps, or music streaming services. It didn't come up in my interactions with healthcare providers, and I didn't hear ads for it on the radio.

Am I ignorant or sheltered here? Are people reaching for a bit of an imperfect comparison? Is it a bit of both, or something else entirely?

Wondering how many votes I'd get if I ran for President on the single issue of banning PDF documents. #a11y

If your website tells me I need an account to download the free thing I'm looking at:

1. Consider removing such a ridiculous requirement.

2. If you insist on retaining it, at least redirect me back to the thing I wanted to download after account creation is complete.

Yes, that means keeping track of where I came from throughout, including in the URL I click to verify my email. If that seems like too much work, goto 1.

@destranis The majority of PDF reading software is not accessible.

Much of The software with accessibility features has show-stopping bugs, like list items being unreadable with iOS VoiceOver, Windows screen readers serving up poor performance for large documents, skip links not moving the screen reader cursor, and Acrobat crashing when NVDA's visual highlight is enabled.

As a complex, binary, proprietary format, it's disproportionately difficult to write software that can parse it correctly. As a result, many conversion tools, braille translators, and other reading apps end up stripping the accessibility tags or only rendering a subset.

Most PDF readers don't support accessibly picking up from where you left off upon reopening a document.

And these are mostly just the issues for screen reader users; I haven't touched on any of the problems for other audiences.

#Accessibility documentation must never be published only in PDF. From one-page cheatsheets all the way to international legislation and standards, multiple formats are a non-negotiable need.

This is a Hill I'm not merely content to die on. I will set up camp there, make it known as a necromancy hotspot, and be revived and extinguished as many times as it takes for this insidious, unconscionably normalised practice to be banished.

Signed,

A disabled professional who can only entertain the idea of enthusiasm about resources in formats I can use.

#amazon #aws #jaws #DadJoke #Flachwitz

@davidgerard You'll love this https://the-decoder.de/deutsches-gericht-rasiert-googles-ai-overviews-google-haftet-fuer-unwahre-ki-antworten/

2 publishing houses have sued Google for libel in their AI overview and have won the case. Google can still appeal.

According to the Bavarian High Court, AI overviews are not free speech. Search engines generally are not liable for their content because otherwise they could not legally function, but since this is their own content creation that can't be corroborated by the linked sources, they have to proofread their shit or stop

#GoodNews

RE: https://social.heise.de/@heisec/116651725981007636

Oh look, another Brexit Benefit! 🥳

Can I safely charge my laptop on a phone charger? It is working thanks to the EU's USB-C mandate but I don't want to burn down the house.

No, I won't ask ChatGPT on a safety issue 😱

#DuckDuckFedi #AskFedi #electronics

1/3 of the servers hosting disinformation bots that were listed by @iftas at https://mastodon.iftas.org/@iftas/116454764255267372 are either silenced or suspended by the sample configuration of my version detection bot, simply because their server software is out of date. This really is an indicator of people not minding their shop.

#MastoAdmin #FediBlock

RE: https://mastodon.scot/@gunchleoc/111974599296575736

Current rough stats for blocking servers with out-of-date software versions using this script: ca. 3490 servers silenced, ca. 3180 servers suspended.

This greatly reduces the amount of spam I have to deal with. I'm also not keen to federate with servers that have big gaping security holes that will go unpatched for years.

#MastoAdmin

Hello everyone—how’s it going?

Quick question for my Windows crew, especially folks using NVDA: what email client are you using these days? I’m looking for something that plays nicely with Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

Also curious… how’s the new Outlook holding up in 2026? Has accessibility improved, or is it still hit or miss?

Would love to hear what’s working well for you.

#Windows #NVDA #ScreenReader #Accessibility #BlindTech #AssistiveTechnology #Outlook #EmailClients #MicrosoftTeams #Zoom

RE: https://caneandable.social/@WeirdWriter/116287307838318731

Ich tagge #IchBinArmutsbetroffen #DisabledAlltag rein, damit ihr auch mal was zu lachen habt. Rache ist Blutwurst!

@daniel @unifiedpush I'm also wondering whether the alternative app stores @altstore and @fdroidorg could help raise awareness of UnifiedPush among app developers?

Also, I think we don't necessarily need 50% of apps to move to get on top of the curve - we'll need 50% of the market share, which means getting some of the big players on board. Maybe organizations like @Vivaldi, @mozilla and @libreoffice could help there.

I have an eSIM sent to me as a QR code in an email, but the image isn't labelled and doesn't show as an attachment. As such, I can't reach it with VoiceOver.

Other than manually copying and pasting the SM-DP+ address and verification code in to Settings, how do I add this to my iPhone?

Dear Gazans,

I am getting tagged by more people in need than I can handle, so from now on, I'll mute anybody who tags me.

I will still continue support via @gaza_verified_campaigns and posts I see in my timeline normally.

Sorry about that, but I need to take care of my own health too.

#TootWales could have a theme song https://youtube.com/watchv=GntIbQHOkbA