Decided to sign up for #Codeberg, the #GitHub alternative that the Fediverse at large is insisting is worth a try and, in some cases, claiming will improve project contributions by avoiding some of the GH antipatterns. I expected to find some #accessibility issues; this is the modern web, after all.
I did not expect a fully inaccessible visual CAPTCHA with no workarounds. I'm unable to solve it, so I cannot create an account.
In short: If you want people who are #blind or #lowVision to contribute to your projects (you do, right?), Codeberg is currently not an #accessible platform.
One significant way Mastodon and the Fediverse have transformed digital culture is through the use of alt text. When I look back at my older images online and in my blogs, I rarely included alt text - even though I actively work on accessibility. For some reason, I simply overlooked it.
Now, every time I post something online, I take a moment to write alt text. Mastodon has changed my mindset, and I believe its impact extends far beyond this. The Fediverse encourages a level of consideration for others that no other social networking platform has before.
I have looked everywhere, but I can't find this post from 11 February! It isn't showing up in my Sent timeline. So if it is on my profile, and/or if you have seen it, I apologise.
I am not closing my account here, but I need to try something other than Friendica, due to accessibility issues. I am considering Akkoma, but am open to other networks if they are compatible with Mastodon.
I am seeking an instance with the following specifications.
Accessible interface (I use a screen reader called NVDA). If it uses Semantic html and isn't cluttered, that's a great start. I would prefer it to be compatible with Mastodon so that I could also use TweeseCake as a client. I need to easily be able to access things such as notifications, follow requests, my own posts, to be able to search for tags, people, my posts etc.
Posting limit of 5,000 characters or more (more preferred.
Ability to pin, unpin, edit, and delete posts.
Ability to filter content, so that I don't see certain words or phrases. (This doesn't work with TweeseCake, so it's not as important as
... Show more...
I have looked everywhere, but I can't find this post from 11 February! It isn't showing up in my Sent timeline. So if it is on my profile, and/or if you have seen it, I apologise.
I am not closing my account here, but I need to try something other than Friendica, due to accessibility issues. I am considering Akkoma, but am open to other networks if they are compatible with Mastodon.
I am seeking an instance with the following specifications.
Accessible interface (I use a screen reader called NVDA). If it uses Semantic html and isn't cluttered, that's a great start. I would prefer it to be compatible with Mastodon so that I could also use TweeseCake as a client. I need to easily be able to access things such as notifications, follow requests, my own posts, to be able to search for tags, people, my posts etc.
Posting limit of 5,000 characters or more (more preferred.
Ability to pin, unpin, edit, and delete posts.
Ability to filter content, so that I don't see certain words or phrases. (This doesn't work with TweeseCake, so it's not as important as the rest, unless the site is so accessible that I can use it often.)
Ability to select between seeing all posts of someone or only some, and to choose whether to let someone follow me without my seeing his posts or to follow him completely. (Friend versus Subscriber on Friendica).
Extensive profile with keywords. (Keywords may be a Friendica feature, so can be skipped.)
Most people write in English and are not politically, technologically, or gaming obsessed. No radicals of any pursuasion. (the English bit is just to help me find friends on my particular instance.)
Free speech (nothing illegal or homophobic). I personally avoid obscenities.)
If such an instance exists, please tell me. I found https://akkoma.fediverse.observer/list[7] but that's just a list with no real information about each instance. I would have to go through over 400 of them, choose the ones from the UK, Canada, and America (they're the most likely to have English instances), then go through those to see if they meet my requirements, but that's ridiculous.
I am not a programmer, so please don't suggest I start my own instance or join a network that is not set up with a webpage and/or to accept a client, as I know nothing about these things other than that they run on Linux and I'm a Windows user. I just want something that works. Also, if there are any demonstration instances, please let me know. I heard of one where accounts only lasted five days, but it seems to be gone.
With the latest update to #Mastodon's web app, we show you a little reminder when you're about to post a picture without adding alt text. Alt text is crucial for accessibility, but has other perks too, such as making it much easier to search for your post—or filter it. Of course, the reminder can be simply toggled off in preferences.
Bekijk je favoriete video's, luister naar de muziek die je leuk vindt, upload originele content en deel alles met vrienden, familie en anderen op YouTube.
Our Design Systems team at Datadog is looking for a Frontend Staff Accessibility Engineer. That's the team I am in :)
Ideally, in-office in Paris, France, but some other remote and in-office options are possible: careers.datadoghq.com/all-jobs… (this is one position, with separate entries for different locations).
Global Switch Day: How to Get Started with Mastodon
I recently wrote about some terrible big changes at Meta, like censoring all hashtags related to Democrats and falsely labeling unflattering photos of Trump as AI-generated fakes on Threads and Facebook. The issues don’t just stop at Zuck’s empire though. Since taking over Twitter, Elon Musk has blocked links to competitors, banned journalists, heavily censored words like “cisgender”, and manipulated the algorithm to match his personal views. Meanwhile the ban on TikTok, the other major social network, has been temporarily lifted but it’s unclear how long that will be the case and what major compromises
... Show more...
Global Switch Day: How to Get Started with Mastodon
I recently wrote about some terrible big changes at Meta, like censoring all hashtags related to Democrats and falsely labeling unflattering photos of Trump as AI-generated fakes on Threads and Facebook. The issues don’t just stop at Zuck’s empire though. Since taking over Twitter, Elon Musk has blocked links to competitors, banned journalists, heavily censored words like “cisgender”, and manipulated the algorithm to match his personal views. Meanwhile the ban on TikTok, the other major social network, has been temporarily lifted but it’s unclear how long that will be the case and what major compromises the platform will make to avoid Trump’s scrutiny.
If it’s not clear yet, now is the time to leave corporate social media behind. Luckily, there are plenty of decentralized alternatives like Pixelfed and Peertube. Today, I’ll walk you through getting started on Mastodon—an open-source, microblogging platform with a thriving community and some fantastic features.
Community-Driven: no single company or user owns Mastodon
No Ads, No Algorithms: Your feed is in your control, showing posts in chronological order without corporate interference.
More Control: Edit your posts, set custom visibility, and use content warnings to shape your experience. It is 2025 y’all, how is “editing your post” still not a core feature of all social platforms?!
Federated & Interconnected: Follow and engage with users across platforms like Pixelfed and Lemmy, all from Mastodon. Once you experience how amazing this is, you’ll never want to join another social platform that isn’t part of the fediverse.
Decentralized & Resilient: No single entity can buy or shut it down. If Elon Musk bought a server, folks could switch to other servers without losing any followers.
Great Vibes: After 17 years on Twitter, I thought finding a real alternative would be tough. But Mastodon’s community is thriving with artists, journalists, musicians, and even yo-yoers. There’s truly something for everyone… except Nazis.
Stronger Privacy: No invasive tracking or data mining—your posts and interactions stay yours.
Network effect: Mastodon is part of the open social web, powered by ActivityPub. With integrations across WordPress, Pixelfed, Flipboard, and even Threads (for limited ActivityPub support), the decentralized network keeps growing. Every day, new ActivityPub-powered tools and platforms expand this ecosystem. While Mastodon itself may not be the biggest social network, the broader fediverse creates a massive, interconnected space for online communities.
How to Get Started on Mastodon
1. Choose an Instance
This sounds confusing at first, but choosing an instance is no harder than picking which email client to use or where to host your website. Each Mastodon instance has its own rules, moderation style, and community vibe. Some are general-purpose, while others focus on specific interests like art, tech, or activism. You can browse and compare instances at joinmastodon.org or instances.social.
Don’t worry too much about what instance you join because you’ll still be able to interact with any other instances, and you can always bring your followers with you if you decide to move. I personally like Mastodon.social and would recommend it to new users.
2. Create Your Account
Picked your instance? Great, now sign up and create your profile. You’ll set up your username, add a bio, and upload a profile picture. Your handle will look a little bit like an email handle, with a username in the front and a server name in the back. For example, I’m @docpop
Please take a little time to flesh out your profile before diving into the next step. Whenever I see new followers, it’s nice to see they have bios and an avatar, otherwise I assume they are bots
3. Follow People and Explore
You’ll get the most out of it by following people and engaging with conversations. Mastodon’s “Federated Timeline” shows posts from across the network, and the “Local Timeline” shows posts from your server, but hashtags are a great way to find users around a topic that interests you. For instance #Caturday, #graffiti, #accessibility, and #IndieGames are tags that I like to explore. The search function helps you find users, hashtags, and posts.
4. Post and Engage
Whenver I hear complaints about Mastodon, it’s usually from users who sign up and never posted anything. The best way to find a community and get used to Mastodon is by actively posting. Posts on Mastodon are called “toots”, but you can call them whatever the heck you want. Posts can be up to 500 characters long (or more, depending on the instance). You can boost (like retweeting), reply, and favorite posts. There’s also built-in content warnings and post visibility settings, giving you more control over who sees your posts. For instance, you can set a toot to only be seen by your followers, by people specifically mentioned, or by people on your server. I set all of my posts to public, but I know social media is different for each person. There’s no right or wrong way to share your posts on Mastodon.
5. Customize Your Experience
The easiest way to use Mastodon is through an app. The default Mastodon app is great and available on most devices. Personally, I like to use Ivory for iOS and Mac. OpenVibe is an awesome tool that allows you to post to multiple platforms (like Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads) and see your feed all in one place. OpenVibe is free, open source, and cross-platform.
The biggest advantage of using an app is that you’ll never have to think about signing into different servers. If you are using Mastodon on the web, you might occasionally find yourself on another server, which is basically like being on another website. It can feel disconnected at first, but there are really cool tools like Graze (for Chrome or Firefox), which makes all these different websites feel interconnected. I highly recommend it!
6. Spread the word
Now that you are on the fediverse, it’s time to bring your friends here too. Social is always more fun with folks you know. Remember, if your friends still join another federated platform, like Pixelfed, you can still follow each other. You can spread the word by sharing a link to your profile, sending them a link to this post, or by sharing any of the great youtube videos on the subject with them. I highly recommend @JenJen@mastodon.art‘s guide to Mastodon for artists!
I love Mastodon, but I remember how confusing it seemed at first. “Servers”, “federation”, and “decentralization” all seemed too complex at first, but these days I don’t even think of them. Plus I can see how these tools make open social web much better than silo’d platforms like X or Instagram.
It reminds me of podcasts, which are powered by RSS and downloadable on any podcasting app. These days everyone understands podcasts, without needing to think about RSS and the open protocols that enable it. In a few years, the fediverse will be as commonly understood as podcasts, email, or the internet.
Today is a great day to take the plunge; try it out, find your community, and experience a healthy new form of social media! Have questions? Drop them in the comments or find me on Mastodon at @[url=https://mastodon.social/@docpop]docpop@mastodon.social[/url]! I’d be glad to help out in any way that I can, but I don’t want to hear complaints about the fediverse if you haven’t been posting, following, boosting, and engaging yet.
Add reminder when about to post without alt text in web UI (#33760) by Gargron has been merged! https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/commit/1e70da5e3c279c8e632abb6bdf90b1ddc67b035e
There’s been an overwhelming amount of bad news over the last week, and those with chronic illness are struggling.
They’re worried about whether they will lose healthcare, federal assistance, be deported or targeted.
The constant stress is damaging to our baseline.
I spent the last week researching executive orders, funding cuts and listening to the Inauguration address.
My goal was to try and parse out the news that was most relevant to the disability community… and there was a LOT
Many people don’t realize that DEI is actually DEIA, with the “A” standing for accessibility.
Accommodations like remote work have been eliminated for federal workers. DEIA departments are being defunded & employees fired.
Disabled people are being targeted
We really shouldn’t be surprised. Five years of “you do you” Covid policies have conditioned many within society to view as expendable. Not worth protecting. “Useless eaters”.
They shout at us to “just stay home” a
... Show more...
There’s been an overwhelming amount of bad news over the last week, and those with chronic illness are struggling.
They’re worried about whether they will lose healthcare, federal assistance, be deported or targeted.
The constant stress is damaging to our baseline.
I spent the last week researching executive orders, funding cuts and listening to the Inauguration address.
My goal was to try and parse out the news that was most relevant to the disability community… and there was a LOT
Many people don’t realize that DEI is actually DEIA, with the “A” standing for accessibility.
Accommodations like remote work have been eliminated for federal workers. DEIA departments are being defunded & employees fired.
Disabled people are being targeted
We really shouldn’t be surprised. Five years of “you do you” Covid policies have conditioned many within society to view as expendable. Not worth protecting. “Useless eaters”.
They shout at us to “just stay home” and gloat about survival of the fittest
Of course there’s no outcry when the new admin targets us, we’re loathed within society.
We deserve better.
We have intrinsic value that should not be tied to our health or our capitalist contributions.
We’re also in no way the only group being targeted. Poor people, immigrants, the uninsured, the unhoused, people of colour and the LGBTQ+ communities are also seeing policies aimed at making their lives untenable.
So what can we do?
This is a powerful moment of intersectionality. There are more of us than there are of them
We must organize and work together. Stay informed of the dangers that are headed our way while committing to not losing hope.
We can all find one thing to do every day to make life better for someone who’s being targeted. One way to help someone breathe a bit easier.
Mutual aid, community outreach, working with charities & elevating marginalized voices.
Every act of kindness makes a difference
For more on how COVID policies delivered us a second Trump presidency, what week one policies are most harmful to disabled people and why this is a powerful moment for intersectionality, check out my article.
It's been a heck of a week. A problematic inauguration address, flurry of harmful Executive Orders, silencing of public health agencies & more. A look at how the disability community is being impacted
@Georgiana Brummell First of all, I've just noticed that you seem to not have joined the Friendica support forum yet. As far as I know, you can't post to a Friendica group/forum without fully connecting to it first.
As for the accessibility issues: To most people, it appears like Friendica has only just been made since they haven't heard of it before mid-January. But actually, Friendica is from 2010. And its frontend is largely stuck in the early 2010s, including technologically.
Friendica has always been a spare-time hobbyist project. It was mostly developed by one single man for almost two years. That guy is a protocol designer and not a frontend developer. Also, I think Friendica never had more than two regular developers, and it definitely never had any developer who really knows how to make a modern and appealing user interface. I mean, you've obviously never seen Friendica's user interface, but let me tell you that it's quite old-fashioned. It'
... Show more...
@Georgiana Brummell First of all, I've just noticed that you seem to not have joined the Friendica support forum yet. As far as I know, you can't post to a Friendica group/forum without fully connecting to it first.
As for the accessibility issues: To most people, it appears like Friendica has only just been made since they haven't heard of it before mid-January. But actually, Friendica is from 2010. And its frontend is largely stuck in the early 2010s, including technologically.
Friendica has always been a spare-time hobbyist project. It was mostly developed by one single man for almost two years. That guy is a protocol designer and not a frontend developer. Also, I think Friendica never had more than two regular developers, and it definitely never had any developer who really knows how to make a modern and appealing user interface. I mean, you've obviously never seen Friendica's user interface, but let me tell you that it's quite old-fashioned. It's just meant to do its job.
Hobbyist, spare-time developers of such an extremely niche piece of software who are not trained in Web UI design normally don't know a thing about accessibility. And truly, they don't care. If the UI covers all features, and the users don't have to SSH or telnet onto the Web server to use it, it's often good enough.
Friendica's regularly active user community has never been more than maybe a few thousand at a time, maybe even only a few hundred, as opposed to the over two million at which Mastodon has topped out. Thus, Friendica has never encountered blind or visually-impaired users yet.
You can see it all over the place. Alt-text is not part of Friendica's culture. Some Friendica veterans staunchly refuse to describe their media because they think alt-text is another Mastodon fad that Mastodon fundamentalists want to force upon the whole rest of the Fediverse with Mastodon's entire culture. Alt-text, to them, is like limiting your posts to 500 characters.
All this is why nobody has noticed yet that Friendica is not accessible at all.
I've got a suspicion that Friendica can only be made fully accessible by throwing the entire Web frontend away, developing an entirely new one from scratch and then also making all-new themes for it.
Also, it's only natural that TweeseCake doesn't support many of Friendica's features. As it looks to me, TweeseCake's Fediverse side is built against Mastodon and only Mastodon. If Mastodon doesn't have a feature, TweeseCake doesn't cover it either. Thus, TweeseCake probably only covers about 20% of Friendica's features because Mastodon doesn't have the other 80%.
I tried to post this to the Friendica support forum, but it kept timing out when I entered my information. I am now attempting to subscribe to their e-mail list. However, I thought I would write this here so that those who know coding, etc. might be able to offer a solution, or at least, to pass this on to the developers.
I joined Friendica in October of 2024, when Facebook decided to shut down their Basic Mobile site (not app). I am totally blind, and their main page is a nightmare to use with a screen readre (NVDA in my case). I chose Friendica because of the huge character limit, the ability to edit and delete posts, local posting, extensive profiles with keywords, and the ability to connect with all sorts of accounts in the Fediverse. For the most part, I am enjoying my time here. However, I am noticing a lot of inaccessibility on the Friendica page. I am not a programmer, but I'm guessing this is at the core of the software and is not due to the instance I'm using (friendica.world). I am also guessing that the page is not written in HTML5 and does not follow WCAG guidel
... Show more...
I tried to post this to the Friendica support forum, but it kept timing out when I entered my information. I am now attempting to subscribe to their e-mail list. However, I thought I would write this here so that those who know coding, etc. might be able to offer a solution, or at least, to pass this on to the developers.
I joined Friendica in October of 2024, when Facebook decided to shut down their Basic Mobile site (not app). I am totally blind, and their main page is a nightmare to use with a screen readre (NVDA in my case). I chose Friendica because of the huge character limit, the ability to edit and delete posts, local posting, extensive profiles with keywords, and the ability to connect with all sorts of accounts in the Fediverse. For the most part, I am enjoying my time here. However, I am noticing a lot of inaccessibility on the Friendica page. I am not a programmer, but I'm guessing this is at the core of the software and is not due to the instance I'm using (friendica.world). I am also guessing that the page is not written in HTML5 and does not follow WCAG guidelines, though I may be wrong about that. If not, I strongly urge the developers to review them and implement them if possible. If so, perhaps, some changes can still be made that would make this a more screen reader-friendly site. Note that I tried this with Firefox and Supermium (a direct fork of Chrome).
Mostly, I use TweeseCake to access the site, but there are some things I can't do with that client. All of the following refer to the site itself.
There is a list of links at the top of the page that acts like a menu. This causes many problems while trying to perform basic tasks, particularly editing posts and handling notifications. I can't always activate said links/menu either.
1A. I can't stress how frustrating editing posts is. It sometimes takes over ten minutes. The "edit" option is a link/menu, and it can only be found via another menu. Once I finally find and activate it, I hear the sound indicating that I have entered focus Mode. Usually, this means that I am in an edit box and can type. However, in this case, I am taken back to the main page, as if I never entered the option to edit my post. Using e to try to find an edit box doesn't help, as it just sends me to the replies to different comments. So I am forced to find the post, and start all over again. The only way I can do this successfully is to try to tab through the links/menu at the top of the page (when it works), then through other posts, until, finally, I am placed in an edit box where I can type.
1B. When I go to the Notifications" link, I have to tab to "Mark all System Notifications as Seen". This isn't even a regular link, as I can't copy and paste the text from it. Once I tab to and out of that, I can then read my notifications. But here is what I have to do if I want to see follow requests. 1. Try to get the notifications link to work, then click on it. 2. Tab to marking notifications. 3. Perform a search for the word follow. 4. Click on the link of the notification that someone wants to follow me. I open this in a new window, to try to keep the original one available. 5. Make my choice as to whether to approve that notification, then close that window. 6. Return to the main window. Only now, I am not where I left off. Instead, I am placed back at the beginning of the page and the Notifications menu is not open. 7. Repeat steps 1 through 3. Ideally, I should be able to go to a normal notifications link, perform steps 3 through 5, then return back to the link, and perform steps 3 through 5 again, as many times as necessary, without having to repeat 1 through 3.
I can't just go to the site and enter an edit box to post. I must go through a menu to find the link to do so. Yet there is an edit box for searching for content, tags, etc.
Some pinned posts don't always read properly. I can see my name, when I posted, that it's pinned, a public message, tags (if applicable), buttons for resharing, etc., and the number of comments. But I cannot simply read the post itself. ""Comments" is also a button, not a link. Even when I expand them, I still can't see my post, and finding the button again to close them takes a lot of time, as posts also have their own buttons. Note that unpinned posts are read properly.
While the process of editing my profile is completely accessible, finding the edit option might be slightly confusing for new users, as it requires entering yet another link/menu, this time with the user name as the title..
If I go to a profile of someone not on Friendica (usually Mastodon) and wish to reply to a post, after I enter my credentials, it takes me back to my profile, not to the relevant post. It only worked once.
The Friendica app for Windows is basically the site itself. I don't understand this at all.
If you want to see a truly accessible site, try this link. I don't work for them, though I do have an account there.
Please, if any changes can be made, I urge you to do so. The site is otherwise a pleasure to use, but my frustration at not being able to easily perform such basic tasks is increasing.
The current version of Ultra Accessible Plus+ theme on mementomori.social:
- More visible alt text bag and font size - Bigger emojis - Better contrast for hovers, selects, buttons and tabs - Contrast to the max! - Way larger font sizes - Accessible colors for people with color blindness - Different colors for links, mentions and hashtags
We now have "plus" version of our Ultra accessible theme that has 200% font size enabled by default. Thanks for the suggestion @mustikkasoppa. Sorry for the quick restart and ~5sec break you might have encountered.
I want you to know that your CAPTCHA is inaccessible for disabled people: - blind people can't see the clock; - visually impaired people may not be able to see it correctly too; - dyscalculic people (like me!!) have difficulties reading a clock (moreover when all numbers are not written on it)!
Various approaches have been employed over many years to distinguish human users of web sites from robots. The traditional CAPTCHA approach asking users to identify obscured text in an image remains common, but other approaches have emerged.
Fediverse knows many bot accounts. There's informal way to indicate you do not appreciate being followed by a bot, by adding #nobot to your profile.
Some bots have great functionality, others are 'Meh', and yet others may be malicious.
The #BBC is looking for a Head of Digital #Accessibility, with the role only open to #deaf, #disabled, and/or #neurodivergent applicants. Hybrid working, based at any UK BBC hub. Salary up to £110,000.
