#blindthings

[nisa4444]

I swear, every time I say I’m blind on social media, there’s about a 50% chance that someone is going to reply, if you’re blind, how are you typing this? Now, I understand that most people don’t know what a screen reader is, why would they? It’s not like they teach about them in school. Kind of wish they did, but that’s neither here nor there. The thing that really makes me shake my head here is, do you really think that blind people are just sitting in a basement not doing anything? With all the technology we have right now, do you seriously think that there isn’t a way for blind people to access the Internet? I’m always polite to them, though, at least now that’s one more person who knows what a screen reader is, and a little bit more added onto the chance that more things will be accessible overall. 

[nisa4444]

OK, I’m saying it, we need more accessible games!

I’m blind, and have the attention span of a baby monkey who just discovered Espresso shots, so it feels like no amount of accessible games are enough. In the meantime, there are seemingly endless mainstream games out there. Anything I could possibly think of, it exists. My options for games I can play, though are so limited. I feel like I should be grateful for what I do have, and I definitely am. The developers who make the games I can play work so hard and so diligently, and often don’t get the recognition they deserve. Touch mint, for instance, the developers of the accessible RPG series, adventure, to fate, work tirelessly to create an ever growing absolutely amazing RPG experience, and they really take player input into account. From what I heard, the first adventure to fate game wasn’t even made with accessibility in mind, but once blind people discovered it and found that it just happened to be somewhat screen, reader, accessible, the devs took notice and started to work to make it as accessible as possible. Now, accessibility is a top priority for them, and their games are so accessible, it’s almost unbelievable. They’re working on a new one now and I can’t wait. Even so, there are only like two or three companies that put out accessible games like this, and they’re usually like once a year or so. I need more than that. My limited attention span needs more than that. I am bored as hell, sitting alone in my house doing nothing. I want to do something with my brain, something with my life! This boredom may be literally driving me crazy, and video games help me feel like I’m actually doing something. If anything, they at least give my brain some exercise. I don’t want to turn into a brainless cottage gremlin, and I feel that happening every time I go more than a few months without playing anything. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, because I seriously am grateful for the games I can play,  but please! If any game developers are reading this, please please please take accessibility into mind. I will buy your game! I will shout praise about your game from the rooftops if it is accessible. I feel like part of the problem is that accessible games just don’t get the recognition. They deserve. Sure, A Dark Room went mainstream, but that’s one of the only ones that people seem to know about. We need more. I want to talk about games I play with non-blind friends. I want to help. I can’t code to save my life, but I can do my best to spread awareness, advertise, I don’t know, something! I’m so bored!!! 

[nisa4444]

I have never been able to understand why people seem to think that they have to tiptoe around my blindness in conversation. I’ve had people ask me what the “ politically correct” term for it is more than I would like to admit. It’s just blind. I understand that they’re trying not to offend me or make me feel bad, but I’ve honestly never met a blind person who is offended by that. I think most of us are happy to talk about our condition, so that we can spread awareness and hopefully encourage more accessibility overall. We don’t bite!

[nisa4444]

One of the things that bothers me the most about being blind right now is that whenever I want to publish something that I’ve written, I have to have my mom go over it and help me edit. I use speech to text on my iPad to write, and there’s just no way for me to do that and make sure that the grammar is correct. I would have to go through it letter by letter, and even then, my screen reader doesn’t always catch capitalization and punctuation errors. It doesn’t read paragraph breaks at all. This means that no matter what I’m writing, no matter how questionable, no matter how explicit, no matter how personal, if I want it to be grammatically correct, my mom has to read it and edit it. I have had to ask my mom, multiple times, to stop what she’s doing and help me with my weird explicit erotica that I sometimes end up deciding not to even publish in the first place.  honestly, I’m just glad I have a patient and understanding mom.

Oh, and don’t even get me started on trying to use speech to text to text my friends in front of family members. 😣    

[nisa4444]

Tumblr could really use some work when it comes to screen reader accessibility. 

First of all, I’m grateful to the devs for making this app accessible at all. When I first tried to join a couple years ago, my screen reader wouldn’t read anything. Even though I can Access most parts of the app, I’m using iOS, it can be incredibly frustrating, and I sometimes need cited Assistance. First of all, many of the buttons on the screen, such as the reply buttons underneath of replies on posts, just do not have alt tags, so my screen reader just reads, button, and I have to guess what button it could be. Trying to find my reply in a long thread can be a nightmare, as for some reason, swiping left and right, the way I use my screen reader to scroll, completely skips over the show more replies button. it would be nice if when I clicked on a notification, it would take me straight to the reply in question, so that I wouldn’t have to open the notes of a post and scroll through sometimes thousands of replies to find mine. I hope this makes sense. If there is an easier way to do this, and I’m just a newbie, please tell me. 

PS, I don’t want this to sound rude or demanding in Any way. I am truly grateful for the accessibility work You have already put into this app, as it allows me to have more community, which I desperately need right now.

[nisa4444]

I swear, every time I try to say the word thoughts, my speech to text translator, just the one that comes with all Apple products, inevitably turns it into farts. Seriously every time! I’m dreading the day I try to say, my  thoughts and prayers go out to you or something like that and you know what happens. I’ve already had some pretty close calls. 

[nisa4444]

Here’s another unpopular opinion from me. I know no one asked, but I really don’t think all AI is inherently bad. Yes, it’s being horribly overused and miss used, and yes, it poses quite a bit of danger to our society, but it’s worth mentioning that as a blind person, AI has made my life much easier. I can actually view memes using voiceover’s built in image  description feature, which while it doesn’t sound like much, being able to understand and laugh along with funny memes makes me feel much more connected to my communities than I did before.  I also use meta glasses to get around my neighborhood by myself. The whole thing is super empowering, and makes me feel like just another young adult dealing with young adult stuff, not an outsider looking at life through window. 

[nisa4444]

I’m just now realizing how little most sided people think we can do. I know most people rely heavily on their vision, and can’t imagine not having it, but what they failed to take into account is that for those of us who can’t see, our other senses are stronger to compensate. Of course, that is generally common knowledge, but it’s hard to imagine what you don’t know. I’m amazed at how many things I do that people are shocked by. Yes, I can feel the difference between similarly shaped and sized pills. Yes, I can feel the difference between different chargers; and Yes, I can navigate most areas by myself using smell and hearing.  I may stumble around a bit at first, and it does often take a little while  to get my bearings, but I am resourceful, and always find my way eventually.