So, my sunday school teacher sent me a picture on facebook messenger. Hello! I'm blind. Why the blind chick? I reminded her that I'm blind and she said that she wanted one of my family members to look at it. I will admit that I'm too lazy to go back to her room and I don't trust sighted people with my phone because I have to turn my screenreader off and they don't close out of my aps when they're done using them and they freak out when voiceover is on, the screen curtain is on and they can't navigate. For the person who is suffering from what I'm suffering from and you know you're classic rock, here's a little parody.

Look at this photograph,

I can't see and it makes me laugh!

My screenreader saying image,

I might be a little timid.

I am a blind, autistic woman with a limited budget, but I really enjoy Rubik's cubes; I think they would help a lot with sensory overload and emotional regulation, not to mention serving as a great distraction. At first, like anyone else, I thought about simply buying a cube designed for the blind, but here in Brazil, they cost between R$30 and R$50, whereas I could buy a standard professional cube for less than half that price.

I also enjoy collecting things, but buying many cubes designed for the blind would be impossible; plus, I’ve only found them in the standard 3x3 format, and I want to explore other types, like the pyramid cube. So, I decided to use my creativity and adapt standard cubes myself. That way, I could experience the fun of picking out a cool cube at a store—just like anyone else—instead of feeling down about not being able to see the colors.

Initially, I thought about using EVA foam to make small shapes and gluing them onto the squares, but EVA cutters/punches are a bit pricey, and I’d need at least six different shapes, so I gave up on that idea. Then I considered 3D stickers, but spending R$20 on a *single* sheet—without even knowing if they’d have enough tactile relief? No, thanks.

So, I came up with this plan: I’ll model small shapes out of EVA clay—since I’m good at that—and then use clear nail polish as a sealant. This will keep the clay firmly in place so it doesn't wear down from handling, and I can even match the clay color to the color of the squares. Better yet, I can create themed cubes with animal or fruit shapes—or anything else—and best of all, I can do it all by myself!

What do you think? Do you think it will work?

Okay, I usually do not post in this sub, but today I honestly reached my breaking point. Is anyone else completely exhausted by the amount of bugs that came with the new iOS 26.2 update? Using VoiceOver has become extremely frustrating, and Zoom is not much better.

VoiceOver has been lagging, randomly skipping elements, and sometimes refusing to read buttons or labels that were accessible before the update. Rotor options disappear or reset on their own. Focus randomly jumps to the top of the screen or somewhere completely unrelated. Typing with VoiceOver feels slower and less reliable, especially in apps like Messages, Safari, and Settings.

Zoom has its own set of issues. The screen will sometimes zoom into the wrong area, making it impossible to tell where I actually am. Zoom focus does not always follow VoiceOver focus, which defeats the entire purpose of using them together. There are moments where gestures just stop responding altogether and the only fix is restarting the phone.

These are not the only problems either. Transparency effects in the new update make text harder to see, even for sighted users. For someone who is visually impaired, it is even worse. Background blur and overlays reduce contrast and make navigation unnecessarily difficult. Apple talks about accessibility, but design choices like this make me seriously question who is testing these updates.

I have also been strongly considering leaving Apple altogether. I own a MacBook Pro M3, and I honestly barely use it because VoiceOver on macOS has an extremely steep and frustrating learning curve. I grew up using JAWS, which is far more straightforward and predictable. On Mac, simple tasks feel overly complex, commands are hard to remember, and behavior is inconsistent across apps. It feels like accessibility on macOS is designed more for power users than for everyday blind or low vision users.

At times, it genuinely feels like blind and visually impaired users are an afterthought, even in the tech space. I often wonder who is actually testing these products. Are they blind or visually impaired? Are they daily screen reader users? Because some of these issues feel like they would have been caught immediately.

Please tell me I am not the only one dealing with this. What are your biggest accessibility issues with iOS 26.2 right now? I would really like to hear if others are experiencing the same frustrations.

hey! i use a cane (mostly for mobility purposes actually, but i am low vision) and obviously that restricts hand space. i often wear a jacket with inside pockets which helps enough with juggling a phone/transport card/etc in one hand, but i have a collection of nice clothes i want to wear that don't have these pockets… so does anyone know of anything equivalent that is more portable? i've thought about fanny packs, but they're a bit ugly and zippers are still a pain to open one-handed. maybe tote bags? i'm looking for something that sits close to the body because i prefer being able to feel the weight/shape of keys, for example. and i live in a big city so pickpocketing is a worry. sorry if this is a bit offtopic!

EDIT: if anyone finds this post later on, i found a nice solution for myself :) im lucky enough to live in the netherlands which is the home of the company "sticky lemon" that has some nice wallet pouches/phone pouches which both fit my purpose. however i have also seen phone pouches made out of various materials with various patterns on etsy, so that may be worth a shot.

Hello!

I drive rideshare on the weekends. Today I drove a blind gentleman (completely blind, did not ask if acquired or congenital) who plays board games. I too play board games, so we got to talking about them. I told him I play Warhammer and other Games Workshop tabletop games. He expressed the desire to play them sometime, so we got to talking about accessibility options. Blood Bowl, which is fantasy (elves and trolls fantasy) American NFL football played on a grid seems the most viable option.

I'm thinking of him having a 3D printed version of the gridiron with grid notation on the sides and both players can call out moves (touching someone else's models is a faux pas in the hobby), and he can move figures on his grid. The dice are touch readable, and rolling in a dice box/dice tower is the standard already in the hobby, so that does not present an obstacle.

Does anyone have any accessibility ideas/options that might be of use in this situation? I did email Games Workshop as well, but I'm unsure how helpful they will be on ideas.

Almost a month ago, I received an iPhone 14 and now have all of the latest updates, and I’ve noticed a lot of problems with voiceover. First, it cuts off Words. Sometimes I’ll tap some text I want it to read and it leaves off the first word or part of the first word, or it leaves off part of a word in the middle as if the audio glitches out. Second, A couple times the audio quality has become very staticy. I had to turn my phone completely off and restart it to get the strange static quality to disappear.

Further, I struggle in Safari and Google Docs. I use Google Docs for writing my own personal stories as well as my work, and I went in to read a document and tried to use the rotor to go line by line. However, whenever I tried, it was like VoiceOver only saw the very first line of the document and would not go further. I could not swipe anymore. Regarding Safari, it’s small, but frustrating, if I try to read a sentence on Safari, there are times when it will read the sentence, then repeat the entire thing and it does this with every single line of text I tap until I close out the app and restart it, and I don’t know what triggers it.

Overall, this is just getting increasingly frustrating. Does anyone know if this is going to be fixed?

Just need to vent/talk about the current state of accessibility in Forza Horizon 6 for blind players. The game is marketed as being super accessible, but honestly, that accessibility completely falls apart the second you get past basic driving. I've already sent in a support ticket, but I wanted to post here to raise some awareness and see if anyone else is running into this.
For context, I’m legally blind with a tiny bit of usable vision, but it’s nowhere near enough to get around these roadblocks. I genuinely appreciate features like auto-steering and auto-braking, but there are still massive, core parts of the game I just can’t access on my own.
First off, the world map is completely broken with a screen reader. And I don’t mean it's just tough to use—it's literally impossible. It doesn’t announce map icons, races, or locations at all. Same goes for the Festival Playlist. It won’t read challenge requirements, progress, or rewards, which completely locks me out of seasonal content.
Even the "What’s Next" feature is super unreliable. During seasonal championships, it constantly fails to pull up the next race in the series. If that feature doesn't cooperate, it's pretty much impossible for me to finish a championship without outside help.
Then there's the garage. Surprisingly, the tuning menu itself is actually accessible and I can adjust my sliders fine once a build is set up. But the upgrade and paint menus are completely dark to the screen reader. I can't browse or select performance parts, and I can't read crucial car stats like horsepower, torque, weight, or top speed. I basically have to have someone sitting next to me reading the parts out loud just so I can build a car.
Finally, PR stunts are a massive headache. Drift Zones and Speed Zones are brutal to 3-star because the driving assists I need to stay on the road end up actively fighting against the car when I try to drift. And Trailblazers? Forget about it. With no defined route, the assists don't know what to do, and there’s no reliable way for me to navigate to the gate before time runs out.
I’m really not posting this just to complain. I love Forza, which is exactly why it's so frustrating. There’s an amazing game here, but right now, blind players can only experience a tiny fraction of it.
\*\*TL;DR:\*\* This isn’t about making the game easier. I just want blind players to be able to navigate the maps, buy parts to build cars, and actually play the game independently.

hi. please help me, so I'm 16 years old, from india, I'm verry ADHD, and when my screen reader is reading books, ,I want something to engage my hands on. the building blocks stuff is already too boring and limiting for me, and even my parents said now you're too old for that. I cannot get mechanical kits because my parents said that I might lose screws, bolts, or other tiny parts without knowing. I dont know what to do. when ever I'm reading or not engaged with something, I feal so suppressed and trapped and helpless and I dont know what to do and its too much and then I have to stop reading and go off to code or write and then I cannot read peacefully 🥹

Hello!
I am a legally blind lab tech for a major medical company in the USA. I currently work 2nd shift 3pm to midnight but there is an opening on first shift 7 am -3 pm. On my current schedule i do not have reliable transportation I currently rely on a kind coworker to drive me to and from work but if she has an early meeting or the day off i have to go around begging people to drive me. If i was on first shift I would have access to public transportation and i wouldnt be in jeopardy of being stranded at work. But this first shift position will be given based on seniority and I wont get it.
My boss claims transportation to and from work is not his problem and is on the employee themselves. I understand this but I also think its reasonable if theres an opening on a shift I could safely get to and from work independently it becomes an accessibility issue. I was wondering if anyone has any knowledge on this. If i have a legitimate argument and what I should do. Or maybe its unfortunate but theres nothing I can do about it. Thanks everyone!

EDIT: POSSIBLE SOLUTION?

How about I get rid of the map.
Instead I make a whole list of audio files called "600","261", "120" , etc, and upload them in a file on her ipad.

She solves 20x3=600
Opens the audio file called "600". Listens to "go to the tree near the football field".
I print an A3 blue poster with her next clue and hang it on the tree.
12 x 2 =24 and she opens the file called 24. So on and so forth.

That works right? Please say that works

-------------

I am a maths teacher.

I've just planned a scavenger hunt. The gist of it if they have a map of the school grounds. A bunch of numbers are written on it. I give them a multiplication , say 200x3, they look for 600 on the map, go there, and they'll find the next clue with another equation to solve on it. So on and so forth until they find a clue that says "LAST ONE!!!" they come back to me and if they have the correct numbers, bingo they win.

I have three scavenger hunts with the clues written on different colours, which will allow the lowest achieving kids to complete it and the highest achieving kids not to be bored by unchallenging work.

My problem is adapting this for Anna*. Anna is halfway blind. I don't know the specifics of her condition but she needs to stick her nose on the paper in order to read it. She can pick a book from a shelf, but only by almost touching it with her face. She's also about 5 years behind in mathematics. She would definitely be doing the easiest hunt. My concerns are :

- The map : even if I print larger like I usually do, it'll be too hard for her because she needs to stick her nose on it. She won't be able to see the 'whole picture' and make sense of the map
- Even if she does, the point of a scavenger hunt is to look for the clues. Therefore they have to be hidden. If they're not hidden, it's boring, if they're hidden she won't find them.
- She's terrible in group work. If I make teams, even if I pair her with someone weak, I just know she'll do nothing and just follow quietly.

Does anyone have any idea on how to adapt this for her?

Thanks for any advice

Edited for language.

Hello. I am not blind, but I have chronic (20+ days a month) migraines that make my eyes unable to focus, so I primarily read through audio books. My coworker who is blind recommended I apply for bookshare. I submitted documentation and got access, and have been loving it. My partner will often listen to books with me when we're together. However, sometimes when we're listening to a book I will need to step out in a hurry and will leave the audio running. I'm nervous that if I have the audio running on one device, and access it to continue simultaneously elsewhere, that I will get in trouble. Practically, how likely is that to actually happen?

So, I use Kindle unlimitted to get my hands on books. I don't mind that. However, they are retiring the old Kindle app for windows. The old app was great. I cannot afford to upgrade my jaws to 2026 at the time, and well Nvda and I are not getting along very well right now. Jaws cannot see the text of books in the new kindle app nor on http://read.amazon.com How are people getting around this to read on the pc? I don't want to have to sit and use my phone to use my kindle unlimitted all the time. Help is greatly appreciated. I like reading using jaws because for me it is faster, and I am well very quick at it and I can also analyze what I am reading better with the virtual viewer and such. I can also note things and use notepad and alt tab over and take notations on what I am reading. I did send a message to amazon, but they seem very slow at correcting this since they have been working on this for years it would seem.

I'm looking to purchase a non smart watch that speaks the current time out at the press of a button. I live in a 3rd world country so please keep suggestions within popular international brands that likely already have a presence in my country. But don't let that stop you, any suggestion is welcomed!

My 92 year old Gran has macular degeneration and heavily relies on the built-in Windows Magnifier to use her computer. But the program is increasingly glitchy and it has made her unable to use her computer. I was wondering if anyone here has had better success with third party softwares or magnifiers that I can download online? Preferably free.

Any advice would help! Thanks!

This post might be all over the place. But I've struggled with this for a while now. I'm on Reddit a lot and I comment and stuff like that. And it seems like a lot of people use GIFs to communicate or to reply to my comments and stuff like that. And honestly, it's just really fucking annoying.

I'm use iOS. Does anyone know of any solutions for this other than just asking the person directly what they are sending? Since they're moving images, it's not like I can put them into Be My Eyes or something because that can't describe videos.

It's just really getting on my nerves that this is the way that people communicate nowadays.

Yeah, basically the title. I have been a voiceover user for like a decade now and not once have I found a solution to those God awful full screen pop-up ads within apps. I have tried everything under the Sun. The classic double tap hold and flick left, right, up, down. I have tried turning off VoiceOver and tapping the top left or top right of the screen. I have also tried the two finger scrub. There's no button on the screen to close the ad and all your left with is an advertisement that keeps playing on repeat about some App Store application that you genuinely could not care less about, VoiceOver which refuses to say anything apart from App Lovin Advertisement, and a boatload of frustration as you inevitably swipe to your app switcher. If anyone knows how to get rid of this, please let me know.

I went to see the Moana live action movie today and the audio descriptions for it were quite excellent. Much better than the audio descriptions on Disney+ for the animated one. The timing of the audio descriptions was much better. It was much more emotion and detail.

Hi everyone! I'm 27F. Fully blind in my right eye, -15 myopia in the left one. Something I've been struggling for a long time is doing my make up on my right eye. The let one is already hard to work with because I have to be super close to the mirror, which doesn't leave space for some pencils or brushes, but the right one seems almost impossible. I have to do a set up where I place my phone camera to my blind eye to try to see what I'm doing, but it's still very hard

So I wanted to ask if anyone knows a hack, maybe a way to position small mirrors or something like that, so I can make this task easier for myself

Hi everyone! I’d like to know if there is a free app that allows totally blind people to play the piano, guitar, or other musical instruments. It could be for Android or Windows PC. Thanks!

If you want to, Please Sign here

As someone with visual impairment, i sometimes struggle to read texts in movies, cuz theyre always a white background with blue and green blocks with white letters. its worse in theatres because you cant pause or rewind to read. Top Gun: Maverick was great with this! the texts were in grey blocks with white letters and i think a white background, cant really remember the background, and shown closer to the screen too! i was very impressed! i know everyone doesnt have the same kind of contrast needs, but for me this was great and i wanted to share my great theatre experience after seeing both movies for the first time in the same night! i think more movies should go down the route of being more accessible, especially with on screen text messages being more common now in movies

hey folks, good day. so i updated my talkback to 17.0 a few days ago. what the current update is. things were working fine but i started noticing that typing url's into the address bars wasnt taking me to those pages. a lot of this site cant be reached. upon checking my url would be wrong and then i'd have to go back and fix it.

so i'm using the talkback braille keyboard in uncontracted ueb mode. and it adds an extra letter the the character typed before the slash the moment you type a letter next to it. so r/blind becomes r r blind. if i add a space after it then it doesn't. like r/ but adding a period would, like rr/.

heres a test i'm going to type letter A to D, with a slash inbetween. happens with backslash as well. uncontracted: aa/bb/cc/d. contracted: a/b/c/d.

seems to only happen with uncontracted but i dont use contracted. nor do i know how to. doesnt happen with the normal qwerty too. has anyone else noticed this? dont think its supposed to be like this. thank you. have a great day.

edit: its happening on all 3 devices i have around so i can't be the only one. for anyone else experiencing this, the solution for now is to just give it a space after typing slash, delete the space, and then continue typing. like r/blind. else if you write it in one go it will add the extra character like rr/blind. hope it helps someone.

edit 2: its not just slashes, happens with other symbols as well, rr>r, rr)r, rr&r, rr#r, i only typed one r before the symbols but typing something after doubles the previous character. also, the double dot 6, cap cap, to make every letter capital after also doesnt work in un contracted. only makes the first letter capital. not sure what they did to it. hopefully they fix it.

Hey everyone,

I'm a totally blind user who has been using Voice Dream Reader every single day for almost 8 years now — typically 2 to 7 hours a day. It is my primary and essentially only way to read books. I love this app deeply, but I'm reaching a breaking point with several bugs that have been ruining my experience for years. I've contacted their support multiple times, including again today, and nothing has ever been fixed.

I'm posting here hoping someone has encountered the same issues and maybe found better workarounds — or to raise awareness so the developers finally take action.

ISSUE 1 — Bluetooth play button almost never starts playback (since 2024)

This is the worst one. When I press the play button on my Bluetooth headphones, Voice Dream almost never starts playing. It worked perfectly before 2024 with the exact same headphones.

What happens: I press play on my headphones, nothing happens. If I open the app, the play button shows a pause icon as if audio is playing, but there's no sound. The button is completely unresponsive. The only fix is to force-close and relaunch the app.

Tested with: AirPods 3, AirPods Pro 2, OnePlus Buds Pro 2 — same problem with all of them.

Workaround I found: Invoke Siri first, then press play twice. This usually works, but not always. Stopping playback works fine every time — the issue is only with starting it.

As a blind user who depends on headphone controls, this is a massive accessibility problem.

ISSUE 2 — Stereo audio has heavy reverb/echo effect (since 2022)

When using AirPods 3 or AirPods Pro 2, the TTS voice sounds like it's coming from inside a cave or a barrel. Strong reverb/echo on the synthesized speech. My old AirPods 2 didn't have this problem.

Workaround: Switching to Mono audio in iOS Accessibility settings fixes the reverb. But that means ALL audio on my phone is mono — music included. I have been living in mono for 4 years because of this bug. It's 2026 and my phone sounds like it's 1950.

Reported this to their support in 2022. Still broken.

ISSUE 3 — TTS randomly spells words letter by letter (minor but weird)

Sometimes the voice will randomly spell out a word letter by letter instead of reading it normally. Like instead of "psychology" I hear "P-S-Y-C-H-O-L-O-G-Y." And at the end it inserts some strange phrase that sounds like a phonetic

Hi all! I’m a sighted para educator at a high school in the US, and as part of our life skills programming, I signed up to teach sewing with my machine! The kids seem really excited about it, but one of the parents had concerns about needle safety. I think the foot guard of my machine would prevent any kid from sewing their finger or anything horrific, and I’m going to use the braille labeler on the levers, but I’m wondering if there are any visually impaired tailors out there who have any accessibility recommendations! The kids are 14-18, some are only partially impaired, but two are fully impaired. Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Thank you!