So, I know generative AI is supposed to be just the most incorrect thing ever, but I want you to compare two descriptions. "A rock on a beach under a dark sky." And: The image shows a close-up view of a rocky, cratered surface, likely a planet or moon, with a small, irregularly shaped moon or asteroid in the foreground. The larger surface appears to be Mars, given its reddish-brown color and texture. The smaller object, which is gray and heavily cratered, is likely one of Mars' moons, possibly Phobos or Deimos. The background fades into the darkness of space. The first one is supposed to be the pure best thing that isn't AI. Right? Like, it's what we've been using for the past like 5 years. And yes, it's probably improved over those years. This is Apple's image description. It's, in my opinion, the best, most clear, and sounds like the ALT-text that it's made from, which people made BTW, and the images it was made with, which had to come from somewhere, were of very high quality, unlike Facebook and Google which just plopped anything and everything into theirs. The second was from Be My Eyes. Now, which one was more correct? Obviously, Be My Eyes. Granted, it's not always going to be, but goodness just because some image classification tech is old, doesn't mean it's better. And just because Google and Facebook call their image description bullshit AI, doesn't mean it's a large language model. Because at this point in time, Google TalkBack does not use Gemini, but uses the same thing VoiceOver has. And Facebook uses that too, just a classifier. Now, should sighted people be describing their pictures? Of course. Always. With care. And having their stupid bots use something better than "picture of cats." Because even a dumb image classifier can tell me that, and probably a bit more, lol. Cats sleeping on a blanket. Cats drinking water from a bowl. Stuff like that. But for something quick, easy, and that doesn't rely on other people, shoot yeah I'll put it through Be My Eyes. #accessibility#AI#LLM#BeMyEyes#blind
@mutualaid I'm £0.10 short of my £9.49 phone bill this month, and it's due in 5 days. I'm trying to get some help to find a job, but until then, #MutualAid is all I can rely on.
Hey, if you don't like the fact that many #blind people have to rely on AI to describe images for them, you can help by, you know, describing images for them.
So fellow #blind#Android folks. I'm not as impressed with my Google Pixel Watch as I thought I would be, and am contemplating switching to a Samsung one. How #accessible are they with #Talkback? I have a #Pixel phone, in case that matters. Thanks in advance!
New instance, new introduction. Hello, I am Adam from Ottawa Canada. I am a totally blind man, identifying as he/him.
My primary interests are technology and music. I was a former professional drummer, playing the bar stages of Ottawa and the ocasional out-of-town show.
I've always been rhythmical, annoying the heck out of my parents at the tendor age of four on up banging on pots, pans, spoons, and whatever else I could get my grubby little hands on.
I got my first drum kit when I was 12, back in 1999. I got a couple of upgrades over the years, and then switched to electronic kits in 2007 when I managed to save and purchase a Roland TD-12 kit with my own money. That was like buying a car for me, LOL.
I was professionally active from 2007 until 2019.
Some hearing issues with extended loudness causing anxiety and unease started my issues with playing live shows, and then COVID19 really finished that career.
I've been interested in technology from a young age as well, receiving my first electronic note taker for the blind, a Blazie Engineering Braille Lite in 1996 at the age of 9.
I then got my first computer in the summer of 1998, learned DOS, then eventually Windows 3.1, 95, and on up.
I've had many, many, many computers and other technological devices since those days, and I have done any serious compute work in Linux, where in I am mostly referring to running servers, hosting things, and distributed compute projects.
Professionally, I am currently a systems/server administrator, backend web developer, database administrator, and infrastructure administrator.
Other interests include animals, documentaries, listening to most kinds of music, having deep intellectual conversations, and pondering the meaning of life. #Mastodon#Introduction#Ottawa#Canada#Blind#Music#Technology
Alright. Here's how it is. Once you appoint yourself as gatekeeper, you become part of the problem. We as #disabled people have precious few allies as it is, without actively alienating the ones we have. You can stand up and offer to help, stand up and provide constructive feedback on how to improve, stand up and show appreciation, or just sit your ungrateful self down. Just stop. Thanks @stefan for raising awareness of #AltText. #blind#accessibilityhttps://stefanbohacek.online/@stefan/112451222240570433
@stefan It occurrs to me that the #AltText hall of fame is not run by a #Blind or #VisionImpaired person because in the decades that alt text has been a thing, nobody from within this community has stopped to think that demonstrating how to do it well might be helpful for our cause. When an ally does it, we treat them like an intruder. Whatever. Enjoy your internet full of suboptimal alt text.
Just listened to my second podcast of the day 🎧, where the hosts are puzzled about who wants all this AI vision stuff they've seen this week. All they can come up with is blind people. Yes! Yes! Yes! We do! 🙌✨ #Blind#AI#TechForGood#Inclusion#Accessibility#ThisDayInAI#Verge
It's June 10, 2024, at 4:00 PM Central US time. Almost every blind person that owns an iPhone has installed the iOS 18 beta. Some are playing retro games with the new, AI driven screen recognition. Others are gladly using DecTalk as their main voice, the Enhanced Siri voices that use ML to speak using emotion and context, as their reading voice, Eloquence as their notification voice (sent to one ear to minimize distractions), and finding it amazing that VoiceOver emphasizes italic text, and emboldens bold text. Others are finding it amazing that they can navigate their whole phone using Braille screen input, searching to find things by typing a few letters, or just swiping down through everything. A few are connecting their multi-line Braille displays, and feeling app icons and images, made much more understandable through touch, using an AI filter.
The next day, when news of all these features filters down to Android users, they quickly begin hammering Google, wanting DecTalk and Eloquence on their Pixel phones, like iOS users have. But Google is silent as always, only just now having given Chromebook users high quality Google TTS voices.
Note: great liberty has been taken to imagine the coolest outcome for the vague feature announcements Apple gave for VoiceOver users. We'll see just how cool, or not, they actually are on June 10.
Chromebooks already have great screen reading capabilities built in...
Awww Google, how cute of you. Great? Nope. Next time, remember. Nothing about us, without us. ChromeVox has barely been updated in years, just like VoiceOver for Mac, and Narrator. ChromeVox barely has any options for fine-tuning verbosity, keyboard commands, pronunciation, and some keyboard commands, like Search + Control + A for accessibility actions, aren't even well-documented. I should know. I had to use an Acer Spin 713 for a good 3 months as my primary laptop. So kindly stop talking, then ask, then act before you speak further.
"Updated keyboard shortcuts and first-letters navigation in Google Drive"...
First letters navigation? Come on. Any blind person can tell that this wasn't written by anyone who uses these technologies.
And nowhere in this article is anything new for ChromeVox. See? This is the kind of, frankly, bullshit that I hate on GAAD. Just shut your mouth and listen for once.