Today is an important day in assistive technology history. On June 13, 2003, the version of DECtalk that shipped with Window Eyes was compiled. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of this event, I have published a blog post titled “The strange mystery behind Window Eyes and DECtalk, evidence and analysis.” It can be found at https://datajake.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-strange-mystery-behind-window-eyes.html

@datajake1999

You old fucking fidiots need to step back and let people who actually know what the real risks are to this stuff do the talking.

Half these old fuckers can’t even program the clocks on their old 1980s VCRs, and we want them talking about how to approach AI? No, thank you.

Safeguards should be a thing, but let people who know something about it sort it out, not some dumbasses who think it’s a good idea to hook AI up to our weapons.

https://mstdn.social/@cnbc_rss/110537277077848569

@LavenderPawprints

In reply to @weirdwriter.

@weirdwriter @MostlyBlindGamer So one more thing, because I yelled at you over this. If it makes you feel any better, this one time I started a fight with Karl fucking Groves, publicly and while sober as a judge, and I lost spectacularly. And I promise, this isn't the end of the world. So while I've yelled at your take and think it's shitty, there is online life after incredibly dumb/shitty takes in this space.

In reply to @weirdwriter.

@weirdwriter @MostlyBlindGamer Why is it a problem for non-disabled people to use a numeronym? I mean it's not like they're not stepping up and doing the fucking work. Often without thanks. Some of the most patient, hard-working people in the accessibility space are non-disabled people, and if any of them ever decides fuck it I quit, we're in sorse trouble than we already are. And you're mad they're putting a numeronym on stickers and t-shirts?

In reply to @BorrisInABox.

@BorrisInABox So this one time, I was working on a project for a not blind musician, and they wanted flac on their website because quality. Let me tell you that was not a fun conversation to have because I quite literally had to tell them that (1) it just isn't happening and (2) even if we could bolt on some js to make it work in one particular version of one particular browser there was no way we could do something that would be maintainable across all the browsers current.

In reply to @MostlyBlindGamer.

@MostlyBlindGamer @weirdwriter I think it's fine to use both where possible. What I have a problem with is the assertion that we all started using a11y because not disabled/think accessibility is a dirty word. There are plenty of people who work in this space who are either disabled themselves or have disabled children/spouses who bust their asses, often at no cost to those they are helping, to be getting extra shit over a numeronym that we've been using for +