[NFB-Mastodon] From Hartgen Consultancy: One Week to Go Until Mastodon Training Course

Tue Jul 4 14:36:29 UTC 2023

From: Leasey at groups.io <Leasey at groups.io> On Behalf Of Brian Hartgen

With Twitter accessibility getting worse and worse every day, it may be worth people thinking about an accessible social media platform.

In the wake of the noisy takeover of Twitter last year, people have been looking for alternatives to the microblogging social media platform. Many of those fleeing or hedging their bets have turned to Mastodon, which has attracted millions of new users since Twitter's acquisition.

Like Twitter, Mastodon allows users to post, follow people and organizations, and like and repost others' posts. But while Mastodon supports many of the same social networking features as Twitter, it is not a single platform.

Instead, it's a federation of independently operated, interconnected servers. The interconnected Mastodon servers, along with other servers that can talk to Mastodon servers, are collectively dubbed "the fediverse". Sound confusing? It isn't when it is explained to you in easy to understand language, and that's the subject of our new training course.

Over several hours, you will learn that using Mastodon with Windows is not as difficult as you perhaps suppose. Undoubtedly, when considering the various social media platforms, Mastodon is by far the most accessible. So it's important to encourage as many people as possible to be part of it. Moreover, new features and ways of doing things are being discovered all the time.

There is a myth that it is not especially easy to sign up to Mastodon. If you think that, or you've been told that, don't worry. If you don't have a Mastodon account. We'll help you set one up.

During two Zoom webinars on 12 and 19 July, we will explore this platform together. We will begin with some theory before getting to the practical. Topics will include:

  *   A discussion as to the advantages of using Mastodon.
  *   How does Mastodon compare to Twitter?
  *   Getting to grips with the terminology.
  *   Finding a server to host your account. For various reasons this may need some consideration. If you make an inappropriate choice, all is not lost. You can change it later and we'll explain how.
  *   Creating and Modifying your profile.
  *   Accessing Mastodon with a Windows screen-reader: using a browser and Tweesecake.
  *   Creating a Bio.
  *   Observing Mastodon Etiquette.
  *   Working with Toots: Reading, Favouriting, creating, bookmarking and boosting.
  *   How much text can I write on Mastodon?
  *   Finding people to follow.
  *   How to Unfollow.
  *   Mentioning users.
  *   Sending more private messages.
  *   Viewing an entire conversation.
  *   Accessing a user's timeline.
  *   Content warnings.
  *   Opening web pages derived from a post.
  *   Working with audio and images.
  *   Adding alternative text to images.
  *   The importance of modifying the Tweesecake and TWBlue templates.
  *   Viewing the local timeline.
  *   Viewing the federated timeline.
  *   Accessing the profile of a user.
  *   Viewing followers of your friends.
  *   Blocking and unblocking users.
  *   Muting and Unmuting.
  *   Hashtags.
  *   Viewing the details of an Instance or Server.
  *   Scheduling Toots.
  *   Getting Further Help.

Accessing Mastodon.

At the time of writing, our preferred method of accessing Mastodon is using a Windows application called Tweesecake. Tweesecake makes it super easy to undertake many of the tasks being discussed and demonstrated. Even if you cannot remember all the keyboard shortcuts, there are other ways of accessing everything you need.

TWBlue also provides an alternative way of accessing Mastodon. In addition, time will be devoted to accessing the platform using a browser and even that is highly accessible. It is less convenient on several levels but there may well be reasons why you would want to at the time of writing. In summary, at the present time one specific method of access may not allow you to do everything you want, so it may be necessary to use a combination of these.

Training Course Structure.

In the training course you will receive:

  *   The chance to join the Zoom webinars so as to ask questions after each demonstration.
  *   A recording of the sessions.
  *   A text transcript of the sessions.
  *   A DAISY audio book of the sessions.
  *   Access to an Email list for course announcements and to ask questions.
  *   A text guide containing shortcut keys for the various clients covered in the training.

Please note: The demonstrations will be delivered using the JAWS for Windows screen-reader. You are welcome to join us if you are using an alternative screen-reading program, however the same results cannot be guaranteed.

The structure of this training course will be a little different to usual practice.

The first two training sessions will be held on 12 and 19 July 2023. However, it is our hope that access to Mastodon generally, and through access technology, will change over time. So for this training course only, we are offering an additional two hour-long sessions: one in late September and a further one in early December. This will give sufficient time to update course participants on current developments. You will also be able to access an Email list so as to discuss topics.

Each session will be held at 7 PM UK time which is 2 PM US Eastern.
You do not need to participate in the session as it happens. To repeat, you can access the recordings and text transcripts later.

The cost of Masto-Done; Riding the Elephant is £50 which is approximately $61 US.<https://www.hartgen.org/mastodon>

Alternatively you can request an invoice and this will be sent to you by Email. The invoice can be paid by any major credit or debit card. Send an Email to brian at hartgenconsultancy.com<mailto:brian at hartgenconsultancy.com>.

Conclusion.

Join us to find out how truly accessible and usable Mastodon is when using Windows. You can start chatting with people in no time!

Brian Hartgen
Hartgen Consultancy.
Our usual opening Hours are 9 AM to 5 PM UK time, Monday to Friday.

Telephone (in the UK) 02921-051325.
Telephone (in the United States of America) 239-256-7779.

David Goldfield,
Blindness Assistive Technology Specialist
[JAWS Certified, 2022]<https://www.freedomscientific.com/Training/Certification>
NVDA Certified Expert<https://certification.nvaccess.org/>

Subscribe to the Tech-VI announcement list to receive news, events and information regarding the blindness assistive technology field.
Email: tech-vi+subscribe at groups.io<mailto:tech-vi+subscribe at groups.io>
www.DavidGoldfield.com<http://www.DavidGoldfield.com>

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