I rarely quit. Sometimes, I may push too hard for too long. But after a night's sleep, I was determined to see this through.

Yesterday's frustrations had to do with the truth that Codex and I simply couldn't get speech and braille working as I wanted in the project I'm currently trying. I didn't want to simply keep building features and hope for lots of help later. I knew I had to fight through it and that by doing so I would learn important things and produce a better product.

I'm not going to go through everything I tried and maybe I have spent too many hours on this. But I have finally gotten to where the speech and braille in this project are close to where they are in PresentAble. Even better, I think I may understand how to ensure this level of speech and braille support from the outset in future projects.

Returning to Codex, I had to offer it resources in order to get it doing what I want. But I'm thinking that with some good updates to my AGENTS.md file, this trouble could be very worthwhile in the long run.

Now, to do something else for a bit. I'm so glad my wife has the vibe coding bug and can relate when I go down these rabbit holes.

Well, I didn't think I would say this, but I'm starting to consider trying Claude. I have lost a lot of time and money today with Codex not following directions, failing to do things correctly it has done correctly before, and seemingly not knowing how to do things I think it should know how to do. So, it might be time to try something else. I guess I will sleep on it.

I'm really tired of all of the text, emails, an voicemails businesses think we need to keep track of appointments. I made an appointment for our 14-year-old yesterday. In less than 24 hours I have received an email, a text, and a phone call reminding me about the appointment that is this Thursday. Since their systems don't link, the fact that I replied to the text confirming the appointment didn't stop the voicemail or email from being sent. Even worse, none of their communications tell me how I can opt out of them. There is no question that once the appointment is over I will be sent a survey link and maybe an invitation to give them a five-star review on Google. Eventually, they will start sending me marketing communications too.

For centuries we got by without all of these reminders. If someone needs constant reminders like this that seems like an individual issue. For the rest of us, it's getting close to being harassment.

I just got an email about the changes to Microsoft's family subscriptions. Here is a part of the email I found particularly interesting: In select markets, we're also adding 5 TB of bonus storage at no cost, for 7 TB in total.

So, people living in some as yet unidentified places get 5 TB of additional storage simply because they live in these places. This message only makes Microsoft look worse. What does geography have to do with a family's need for cloud storage?

It's funny how most people, including me, who drink coffee every day actually hate coffee. Since drinking it black is better for me than drinking it with cream, I'm going to see if I can force myself to drink my morning coffee black tomorrow.

Leasey's speech history makes reporting to Codex exactly what JAWS is saying so easy and efficient. I should have been doing this a long time ago.

Desiree and I have both upgraded to Pro $100 monthly. We will see where that takes us and our projects.

Desiree's as of yet to be named, because we suck at naiming things, media app is goingwell! She thinks it will replace a certain tool she has used for a couple of years.

I have seen a lot of posts lately, because it's Disability Employment Awareness Month, talking about how relatively inexpensive accommodations are for blind people. If we are being honest, a lot of that is not actually true. If employers were actually interested in accommodating people correctly, and if many of us weren't willing to accept less than sighted employees get, accommodations would actually cost more.

I have never worked somewhere where employee benefits portals were fully accessible to me. I have never worked somewhere where all employee trainings were accessible to me. I have never worked somewhere where all the documents I needed were accessible. In reality, most of them, if not pretty close to all of them, were not accessible to me.

The myth that accommodations don't cost much would only be true if employers were following Title I of the ADA. Since there isn't a single employer that is most likely actually following Title I to its fullest, the reality is that much around most jobs is simply far less accessible to us than it is sighted people, if not very inaccessible to us.

We don't actually do our community any favors when we continue pretending otherwise or accepting far less access than sighted people have on the job. If we really want to improve the sad employment rate of those of us with disabilities, we need to start with improving the sad reality that employers simply don't follow the law unless forced to do so. Even better would be if the law required basic access to be provided prior to someone with a disability working somewhere, but that's for another post. Also, the law shouldn't be based on employers being completely responsible for accommodating employees with disabilities. If software companies were actually required to ensure software was usable, not just the WCAG pretend definition of accessible, the myth so many pretend is true would be closer to reality. And, as we know, employers aren't even technically required to follow WCAG and all of its inequities.

Microsoft's decision to remove 4TB of storage from the family plan and to give everyone in the family access to Copilot sucks. We are going to have to delete a lot of stuff from One Drive storage. I have tried Copilot several times and never found a use for it. So, we are losing something we use and getting something we don't want.

I want to thank those of you who were supportive around the issue I had with Codex not following my instructions. Even though I lost time and money, there is no way I'm giving up on vibe coding. The accomplishment of PresentAble is something I never thought I could achieve. In the end, I needed Brian Hartgen's skilled assistance to actually bring it to market. But without vibe coding I could have never solved a longstanding problem of mine with a solution that works so well.

Yes, Codex did the coding for me. Yes, it would be better if I knew more about code than I do. But the reality of it is that because you can create an entire app without knowing how to code is what will actually result in our community continuing to be able to design the solutions to our digital access needs in ways we could have never done before.

Even if I don't get a refund, which I should, I look at the hundreds of dollars spent by me vibe coding so far and I compare that to the thousands of dollars I'm sure I would have had to pay a professional developer to get PresentAble to the point where Brian was interested enough to help me, and I wouldn't go back and decide not to vibe code.

And, who knows, maybe OpenAI will learn something from this experience and Codex's understanding of coding for accessibility, not to mention its following directions, will be improved.

In closing, I say to any blind person who is frustrated by some inaccessible software or website and an Idea for how access could be provided, take your best shot. As in everything there will be ups and downs, but if you stick with it, you too can produce something that solves a problem for you and may even solve a problem for the rest of us.

I will add that working with Codex's AI chat support was a wonderful example of how terrible AI support is when someone actually needs help. The chatbot couldn't fully understand what I was saying and it kept trying to direct me to all kinds of steps it wanted me to complete. Eventually, it said my ticket was escolated and it stopped replying.

I gave Codex explicit instructions to use WxPython and native Windows controls. Last night I suddenly encountered an edit field that couldn't be navigated using braille. After working through several tests, I discovered Codex had ignored my instructions and used something called QT.

I have submitted a refund request for the hours of time wasted testing controls that violated my explicit instructions. In my request, I pasted Codex's admition that it ignored my instructions and that I should get a refund. I also said I needed to do all of this testing because Codex isn't sufficiently trained on accessibility.

While I wait to see if my refund request is addressed, I need to have days worth of work redone. Then, I will have to redo a lot of the speech and braille testing I thought had been finished.

AI is a great tool. Sometimes, it's a huge pain in the ass.

Another nice evening vibe coding with Desiree is winding down. It's so nice working on different projects and bouncing ideas off of each other.

@DesireeRenae

The Future of Demand Our Access

Demand Our Access isn't gone. I had to take a break from the podcast do to lots of family responsabilities. But i really will be coming back to Demand Our Access. When I return, the podcast will be presented in a different format. I will provide an update on the new format soon. I think it will be a good change for all of us.

https://demandouraccess.com/the-future-of-demand-our-access/

He's choosin' Texas is a stupid song. I can't believe it set the record for most weeks at number one in America. No wonder I'm stuck in the early '90s and prior in terms of music.

That was a huge win for Atlanta! The series is tied, and they are headed home.

Now that I can create accessible and visually appealing presentations, I'm considering moving my Demand Our Access podcast to a video format. I could have the PowerPoint presentation and me on the screen. I think that would enabl me to reach members of the disability community beyond those of us who are blind or low vision.

So, I want to hear from people with ideas as to how I could host such a podcast and ensure the audio of it is still available on Apple, Google, Spodify, and all the places people regularly get podcasts. Any thoughts?

When tools within Codex fail, or when they aren't available, customers shouldn't be charged tokens to discover why things aren't working.

I'm working with PresentAble this morning. Honestly, if I didn't have the idea to create it, I would pay more for it than Brian and I are going to charge for it. If you are a blind professional who has to create your own presentations and/or review presentations created by others, PresentAble is going to make your workflow so much more accessible and independent.