[NFBCS] Mastodon accessibility problems

[David Andrews]

The client is separate from the server you join. 
I signed up with mastodon.social earlier. They 
have a HCAPTCHA thing going.  It is accessible, 
and if you follow the steps -- it worked for me.

Once you have an account somewhere you can use 
any client you like, or the server's web site.

Dave

At 06:37 PM 6/4/2023, Sabra Ewing via NFBCS wrote:
>A few comments art respectability politics ish. 
>what servers did you all join then and what did 
>you do? I don't want to get used to a client 
>only to have accessibility get broken. Leaving 
>Facebook sounds great if there were a better 
>alternative. Sabra Ewing > On Jun 4, 2023, at 
>4:06 PM, Mike Gorse via NFBCS <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> 
>wrote: > > Last I saw, the NFB isn't planning 
>to set up a server for members to use, although 
>it sounded like they would consider doing so if 
>enough people are interested. Also, as an update 
>on what I posted last night, I am able to set an 
>accessibility cookie on the hcaptcha site that 
>mastodon.social is using and bypass their 
>captcha if I use Edge, but not when I use 
>Firefox. Now I've tried on both Linux and 
>Windows, so I'm guessing it isn't specific to my 
>system. I've emailed their support. > > 
>-Mike > >> On Sun, 4 Jun 2023, Christopher 
>Chaltain via NFBCS wrote: >> >> Since Mastodon 
>supports an open programming interface, there 
>are a lot of Mastodon clients in the App Store, 
>Play Store, and so on Some of those are 
>accessible and some are not. Just as whenever 
>you have multiple clients in the App Store that 
>do the same thing, you'll find some of the more 
>efficient to use than others. I can't recall all 
>of the Mastodon clients I've tried, but I know I 
>settled on Tusker as the client that I prefer, 
>and as I said, I find this client more efficient 
>for me than using either the Twitter client of 
>the Facebook client. I'm kind of taking a 
>holiday from social media at the moment, but 
>before I went on this holiday, I was more active 
>in Mastodon than any other social networking 
>platform just because I found it so much more 
>efficient. >> >> I can't follow the rest of your 
>post, but if you don't bring this to the 
>attention of a site administrator then they may 
>never know there's an issue to address. I didn't 
>have any trouble signing up on a Mastodon server 
>myself. Also, no one is forcing anyone to use 
>Mastodon, so if you have problems with the 
>platform or a particular server then you don't 
>need to sign up. You might just wait until the 
>NFB sets up a server. Like I said, I'm sure 
>it'll be accessible. >> >> -- >> Christopher 
>(AKA CJ) =>÷ >> Chaltain at Outlook, USA >> >> 
>-----Original Message----- >> From: Sabra Ewing 
><sabra1023 at gmail.com> >> Sent: Sunday, June 4, 
>2023 1:43 PM >> To: NFB in Computer Science 
>Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> >> Cc: 
>Christopher Chaltain <chaltain at outlook.com> >> 
>Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Mastodon accessibility 
>problems >> >> What do you mean the right 
>client? Also, I'm not sure I'm interested in 
>speaking to an administrator who puts other 
>protected classes in their rules but not ablism, 
>and who mentions accessibility while creating a 
>high barrier of entry for disabled people. They 
>can't even provide an audio one, even though 
>that would not be accessible to deaf blind 
>people. It could at least be accessible to more 
>people. I bet they ban disabled people from 
>accessing their server more often then they get 
>rid of robots. >> >> Sabra Ewing >> >>>> On Jun 
>3, 2023, at 7:21 PM, Christopher Chaltain via 
>NFBCS <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> wrote: >>> >>> I 
>signed up on a different Mastodon server a while 
>ago, and it was a breeze. I'm not sure if 
>anything has changed in the Mastodon software or 
>the administrator of that particular server put 
>something in place, but the Mastodon community 
>is very conscientious when it comes to 
>accessibility. I'm fairly certain that the 
>administrator of the server you're trying to 
>sign up on will be very helpful. If not, there 
>are other servers to choose from. If the NFB is 
>setting up it's own Mastodon server then I'm 
>sure it'll be accessible. >>> >>> Since Mastodon 
>is open source with an open API, it's possible 
>to find some very accessible clients. I found 
>Mastodon to be just as accessible as Twitter or 
>Facebook and a lot more efficient to use as a 
>blind person, once you find the right client you 
>prefer. >>> >>> -- >>> Christopher (AKA CJ) 
>=>÷ >>> Chaltain at Outlook, USA >>> >>> 
>-----Original Message----- >>> From: NFBCS 
><nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Mike 
>Gorse via >>> NFBCS >>> Sent: Saturday, June 3, 
>2023 7:59 PM >>> To: Sabra Ewing via NFBCS 
><nfbcs at nfbnet.org> >>> Cc: Mike Gorse 
><mike at straddlethebox.org> >>> Subject: Re: 
>[NFBCS] Mastodon accessibility problems >>> >>> 
>I just tried signing up on mastodon.social using 
>firefox and also had trouble with the CAPTCHA. 
>There is a link to hcaptcha.com that is supposed 
>to allow you to get a cookie, but I haven't been 
>able to get that to work so far. The first time 
>I signed in and used the button to set a cookie, 
>I think that it told me that the cookie was set, 
>but I still got a challenge when I went back to 
>mastodon.social. I tried again to set a cookie, 
>and the site told me that it could not set a 
>cookie and to email their support if it 
>continued to happen. So I think I'll try again 
>later and email their support if I still have 
>trouble. But I'm curious if other people have 
>had success with it. >>> >>> Signing up on a 
>different Mastodon server might be another 
>option. >>> >>> -Mike >>> >>>> On Sat, 3 Jun 
>2023, Sabra Ewing via NFBCS wrote: >>>> >>>> 
>Before you say this is off-topic, there isn't 
>really a list or category where this can fit 
>neatly. >>>> >>>> The Nfb has said they are 
>going to focus on Mastodon instead of Twitter 
>because Twitter fired their entire accessibility 
>team from what I understand. However, mastodon 
>is also not accessible. I was trying to create 
>an account and it had a caption with no audio 
>caption, and it said I would be able to skip 
>past it if I have an accessibility cookie, and I 
>was using voice over but it did not scared me 
>past it. I was trying to join the social server 
>and I'm not sure if things would be different if 
>the Nfb has its own server and I tried to join 
>that one. For the one I joined it was saying 
>they will not tolerate attacks against a number 
>of protected classes, but disabled people were 
>not listed. >>>> >>>> I mean, I don't know 
>Facebook has an accessibility team either, but 
>they have just broken accessibility on 
>messenger, and it is not accessible to create an 
>event. And their support menu is not accessible, 
>probably because the accessibility on messenger 
>is broken.' >>>> >>>> Again, the only reason I'm 
>asking is because the Nfb specifically is using 
>Mastodon now. >>>> >>>> Sabra Ewing >>>>