[NFBCS] generating discussion: what accessibility barriers would you like to see documented?

Mon Sep 5 17:42:19 UTC 2022

I love this idea as well, and GitHub sounds like the best place for it.
Would it be possible to have a section on accessible resources for learning
CS topics if you're not able to go to college for whatever reason? I have
multiple disabilities besides blindness, and when I tried college, I wasn't
able to keep up, so I'm trying to teach myself using self-paced courses on
platforms like FreeCodeCamp.org and codecademy.com. I want places where I
can get certifications, and unfortunately a lot of places I've tried aren't
the most accessible. I can contribute information about the two platforms I
mentioned. Thanks.

On Mon, Sep 5, 2022 at 12:24 PM Littlefield, Tyler via NFBCS <
nfbcs at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> I firmly believe that any resources that can be linked to externally are
> better than trying to reproduce the information. Think of it as a nexus
> of sorts. Where information can't be linked to, we provide information.
> Basically this is a super long-winded way of my saying that I agree.
>
>
> On 9/5/2022 1:16 PM, Tracy Carcione via NFBCS wrote:
> > I think that Applevis.com does a better job of covering iOS and Mac OS
> than
> > anyone else, so a link listing them as a resource would be better than
> > trying to have all they've got.  The exception might be programming for
> > Apple OS's. JMO.
> > I know I've seen and used tutorials for MS Office apps like Word and
> Excel
> > from a screen reader perspective.  Maybe we could have links for those as
> > well?  Though Googling, for example, MS Word and Jaws, might turn up as
> much
> > useful stuff.  Not sure, as I haven't done it for a while.
> > Tracy
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: NFBCS [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Amanda Lacy
> via
> > NFBCS
> > Sent: Monday, September 05, 2022 12:45 PM
> > To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
> > Cc: Amanda Lacy
> > Subject: Re: [NFBCS] generating discussion: what accessibility barriers
> > would you like to see documented?
> >
> > I love this idea. Sighted developers have no clue what the NFB is, but
> they
> > understand Github, and can also contribute to it.
> >
> > Despite having a bachelors in CS and now being in grad school, I still
> > struggle to read and do mathematics. If I'm lucky, I get math in LaTeX.
> > LaTeX is technically readable, but I have a very hard time understanding
> the
> > math in it when I read it. It is far too verbose, with too many
> irrelevant
> > symbols. I wish I could convert it to MathML and read it in Nemeth.
> >
> > I spent a lot of time in school wondering if the tools I was trying to
> use
> > were inaccessible, or if I was just stupid/not trying hard enough. Then I
> > would hear about some other blind person having success with the same
> tools,
> > so I would try harder and beat myself up for the minimal results I got. I
> > had to take an Ms Office class where the lessons were taught using
> > screenshots, and nobody knew what the keyboard shortcuts were. Now I
> find Ms
> > Word with its ribbon and all its unpredictable behavior to be so
> > intimidating that I basically don't use it. I use MacOS much of the time
> > anyway. We need to cover applications for the Mac as well as Windows and
> > Linux. My point is that there were and still are big gaps in my technical
> > knowledge, even at this level, and I cannot be the only one of us to
> > experience this. A blind-friendly list from which to fill these holes
> would
> > make a huge difference.
> >
> > Topics can include the following:
> > * A broken applications list, for all the apps we know are unusable, so I
> > can just look it up and say "nope, not installing that one."
> > * Applications for reading math.
> > * NVDA extensions, JAWS scripts, and VoiceOver scripts.
> > * Tools for reading PDFs, especially academic papers. Why don't any of
> the
> > programs I know about have a setting to skip over citations? I can't
> imagine
> > anyone else likes hearing sentences interrupted by lots of numbers.
> > * Accessible editors for all platforms and how to use them.
> > * How to use LinkedIn.
> > * How to use HackerRank, and other online code assessment tools.
> >
> >> On Sep 4, 2022, at 10:48 AM, Littlefield, Tyler via NFBCS
> > <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> >> Hello all,
> >>
> >> If you've not read any of the current thread about creating a wiki or a
> > platform to share content, I'll give you a TL/DR; a few of us have
> committed
> > (as we're able) to creating a platform to document accessibility issues.
> I
> > am pulling together a site and a resource over the next week or so to get
> > this going. My question to you (and anyone you want to circulate this
> to) is
> > as follows:
> >>
> >> What accessibility barriers have you encountered as a student or as a
> > professional that had solutions that could be documented?
> >> Further to this point, what would you yourself be willing to document?
> >>
> >>
> >> If you don't have time or resources to assist with the second point,
> > please still respond. It would be very easy to take your tips and ideas
> and
> > still generate documentation around the issue. The goal here is to
> generate
> > discussion and ideas around what could be placed here, and how helpful it
> > could be.
> >>
> >> I'll lead the race, just to get us all started:
> >>
> >> * Editor accessibility with JAWS and NVDA
> >>
> >> * Using AWS through AWSCli as well as other services (linode, etc). This
> > is more important for AWS because that website would make anyone sad.
> >> * Usable frontend design tools (document Bootstrap here).
> >>
> >> * Accessible SSH clients and workflows for using them.
> >>
> >> * Maybe a section like applevis where services (Jenkins, Github, etc)
> can
> > just be noted as being accessible with notes either way? Sometimes I just
> > want to know if something is accessible or will be, without installing
> it or
> > using it first.
> >>
> >> Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this!
> >>
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >>
> >> Ty Littlefield
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> NFBCS mailing list
> >> NFBCS at nfbnet.org
> >> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
> >> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> > NFBCS:
> >> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/lacy925%40gmail.com
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > NFBCS mailing list
> > NFBCS at nfbnet.org
> > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
> > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> NFBCS:
> > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/carcione%40access.net
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > NFBCS mailing list
> > NFBCS at nfbnet.org
> > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
> > To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> NFBCS:
> > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/tyler%40tysdomain.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> NFBCS mailing list
> NFBCS at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> NFBCS:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/laniebird91%40gmail.com
>