ChanceyFleet

@ChanceyFleet@mas.to

I'm a Blind tech educator in New York. I'm passionate about making sure accessible tech isn't harmful or extractive, building digital literacy, and bringing tactile graphics and Braille within reach for all Blind people! I run the Dimensions Project at NYPL — we're the world's only free and public tactile graphics lab and we've got all the equipment and training you need to learn the art of tactile design

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ChanceyFleet, to random

Tech industry friends: please stop advertising fireside chats and then showing up with nothing to burn

ChanceyFleet, to random

Registration is filling up fast for our inaugural accessible tech conference at NYPL!
You Are Invited! NYPL’s Accessible Technology Conference 2023 | The New York Public Library

https://www.nypl.org/blog/2023/09/07/you-are-invited-nypls-accessible-technology-conference-2023

ChanceyFleet,

@dotsonapage some sessions will be recorded and offered for download later.

ChanceyFleet,

@dotsonapage @JeffBishop I don’t think we can but we’re making recordings available.

ChanceyFleet, to random

APS — accessible pedestrian scissors https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT82GjDmj/

ChanceyFleet, to random

Where do i go to find a cool dress in Berkeley/Oakland now that Convert has closed? I have a fancy event thing Saturday night and nothing i love the thought of wearing. Please boost so some dress-finding experts see it! I love: pieces that are wearable/comfy while stylish; fun and unusual cuts; fabrics that feel amazing and last a long time. I despise pencil-cut and sheath designs and i will not step foot in a chain store. Thank you

ChanceyFleet,

@flowers Sometimes i am! You live in Berkeley? Do you show your pottery anywhere??

ChanceyFleet, to random

If anyone ever tells you that "good" verbal description for accessibility should be objective, swing this at them like a chair https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8NN5TTg/

ChanceyFleet, to random

Today in Blind girl surprises: i learned the body pose that people use to propose, down on one knee (my husband did not do this: i said "should we get married or something" and he said "i reckon" and there were no contortions). I’m sorry — this is romantic? I might take this stance if i really had to pee, or needed to tie my shoe, or started to trip but wanted it to look cool. Y'all do this on purpose in front of cameras?

ChanceyFleet,

@mattmay Assuming that the other time you just had to pee

ChanceyFleet, to random

I like the AV people who mic me up at conferences bc they’re the only people there who are as excited as i am that my dress has pockets

ChanceyFleet, to random

Nonprofit / activist friends — who knows about affordble retreat spaces in New York State that will be open in the late fall and could fit 75 people? So far, I know about Stony Point …

ChanceyFleet,

@jzimba ?!

ChanceyFleet, to random

Working vacation for guide dog Ellie She looks so poised right? She won’t let me post photos of real life like when she tries to steal pizza.

ChanceyFleet, to ai

Claude 2, the "more honest, helpful, harmless" new large language model from Anthropic, just taught me about "la lota": a colloquial Latin American tech term rootedin early 2000s consumer culture. Except: this term isn’t real. https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vT55qU8aQgj0_uEs_4alQFiYu3GhFIH2jbtIMEVZ6I9x-3kECmMWZwCQcxovHxEaUs5EWkKCAjUzJ7v/pub

ChanceyFleet, to random

This is how I entered the AI lottery of facts and got played.
It's a story about how we can be led to accept hallucinations even when we we think we’re braced for them.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-lqhijvjYzVuhPdecLY1XX_7XD1VB9vSy4txozbWf30/edit

KaraLG84, to random
@KaraLG84@dragonscave.space avatar

Tagging @ChanceyFleet since I think she'll find this interesting.
The thing at Sight Village that I'm still thinking the most about now is the tactile pictures ViewPlus had on their stand. The last time I saw a picture done with a Braille embosser was well over 20 years ago and the technology has moved on since then so much. It's fantastic.
Not only can they represent different colours by varying the dot height as they've been able to do for years, they now can do it with textures. I imagine the dots per inch has increased as well.
On the stand they had a 7 colour wheel as a guide, so blue is horizontal lines, yellow is vertical lines and green combines them both because it's apparently a mix of blue and yellow.
after showing me that, they then showed me several pictures, including cartoon characters such as Bart Simpson and Donald Duck made using the colours in the wheel, so I was able to tell what colour Bart's hair and shorts are, for example. I'm very much out of practice in parsing tactile pictures and diagrams since the last time I used them was probably in secondary school, so I couldn't immediately figure out what I was looking at, but still it's wonderful that they can do this now.
Some of the embossers can also print as well as Braille, and the pictures were also done in ink.
Obviously there's the problem of things appearing to be stripy or having squares on when they don't, but that's when the old system would come in handy I guess. I wonder if they can do both dot height and textures to represent more colours.
Even though I'm genuinely amazed about this, I think the price of these embossers is ridiculous. I understand it to a point since I believe they make them in-house in the US rather than getting a factory in China to do it, and I imagine they're done in small quantities, probably to order. It's the same with small companies making music synthesisers. I have a friend who made synths, and she paid a company to build her PCBs, which of course cost her quite a bit. This was no doubt why her instruments were expensive.
But still there's no need for what's probably not too far off being a dot matrix printer costing several thousands of pounds. The cheapest model they do - Embraille - is about £1500 and they go up from there. No wonder there's only a few people who are Braille literate with embossers and Braille displays being so expensive. Something needs to be done.
If I could afford it I'd have one of these and would be printing out all sorts of pictures.
I also would love to get a 3d printer.

ChanceyFleet,

@KaraLG84 I love Viewplus embossers. My husband and I are experimenting with getting a Silhouette cutting machine to emboss tactile lines: those are way more affordable. I’m hoping to have a good-enough method using these machines by the end of the year. Also, I would love to talk to any library, makerspace etc about building an open lab like the one I started at NYPL.

ChanceyFleet, to random

I was in a great mood this morning — fast-walked to the trainwith my guide dog, loving the teamwork appreciating the birds. Dressed up and confident as hell. Then we step onto this subway car and some absolute zombie of a sighted person wordlessly grabs me around the bare elbow so hard that I feel fingernails. This is not how you offer a seat, folks. This is how you replace somebody’s good vibes with a fight-or-flight response: thoughts scattered, heart racing, body tense as a bow. Can we not?

ChanceyFleet, to accessibility

Introducing a different kind of conference at the New York Public Library, October 21-22! Free to attend: focused on maker culture, affordable tech, intersectional / human factors, and emerging technologies. No web accessibility 101 talks and no talks focused on sales. Our proposal window has closed but we’ve left open a crack — fill the form this week and you're good! https://www.nypl.org/blog/2023/07/05/upcoming-nypls-accessible-technology-conference-2023

ChanceyFleet, to random

Today i let a little girl at the library play with my guide dog out of harness as a reward for finishing a Braille lesson her mom wanted her to have. For five minutes kiddo and doggo are happily visiting, wagging, talking and giggling. And then … i hear this rattle. i investigate. Guide dog Ellie has wriggled under her harness and has halfway put it on unassisted. She has now mastered the timeless library worker classic: "I’d love to keep chatting but i need to get back to work!"

ppatel, (edited ) to accessibility
@ppatel@mstdn.social avatar

Over on Blindbargains, JJ has posted this interesting announcement.

First Ever New York Public Library Assistive Technology Conference Seeking Presentation Proposals.

The deadline for submissions is July 15th. Conference will take place on October 21 and 22.

https://blindbargains.com/bargains.php?m=22567
#accessibility #a11y #AssistiveTechnology #blind

ChanceyFleet,

@ppatel Octobar 21st and 22nd, actually

ChanceyFleet, to blender

I’m a Blind technologist and i’ve built the Dimensions Lab for #accessible tactile graphics and #3d models at New York Public Library. With the right tools, skill-building opps and community support, Blind people can break out of image poverty and excel at spatial thinking + design. This is me waving hello to folks in #Vis #Art #Graphics & #CreativeCoding https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/06/15/1074036/ending-image-poverty/amp/

ChanceyFleet,

Our lab is free and open to everybody. We use low-tech tactile drawing tools + digital methods like graphics embossing, 3d printing, swellform & cutting machines. We’re always looking for new community members projects that need our support — and for volunteers! https://www.nypl.org/about/locations/heiskell/dimensions

ChanceyFleet,

@matt I have contacted both but no dice yet. Would love some help with this!

ChanceyFleet,

During lockdown, i launched an SVG study group to explore the proposition that Blind people can hand-code to draw, since traditional CAD software is painfully inaccessible. Thanks to @Marconius — a visual artist gone Blind who joined the SVG Study Group one year ago — we now have this friendly, comprehensive, accessible resource for anybody who wants to draw with code: https://www.blindsvg.com

ChanceyFleet, to design

Library staff & patrons were sad when APH discontinued the Peg Slate, a beloved Braille learning tool that we use for word-building & games.
But thanks to Noam and friends at Makers Making Change NYC, we have a fresh take on the classic idea — Braille cells that are poppable, swappable, rackable & so colorful! You can download and print your own right here:
https://thangs.com/designer/noamplatt
Start your Braille adventure with us here:
https://talkingbooks.nypl.org
#tactile #design #a11y

ChanceyFleet,

@remixman They do not!

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