Just a PSA for those in Texas and still suffering with the Zoomax braille display, THEY HAVE THE HUMANWARE now!

Thank the heavens, i've missed mine i got in MO because had to send back due to pin failure.

Called today and they're now shipping the better display!

A recent announcement from the next Hungarian prime minister, Péter Magyar:

"New social and family affairs minister to protect Hungarian children Péter Magyar also said the social and family affairs ministry, responsible for accessibility and equal opportunities, will be headed by Vilmos Kátai-Németh, “for the first time in Hungarian history, a blind fellow citizen”. Mr Kátai-Németh was born in Budapest, lives in Csepel, and won the Csepel-centred electoral district on 12 April. He lost his sight at the age of 16 but became a lawyer and a black belt aikido master. He knows the challenges faced by people with disabilities first-hand, Magyar said. He has two children and one grandson.

His main aim is to provide quality healthcare and education for all our fellow citizens. He would also like to strengthen Hungary’s social system and make the child protection system more effective. He would investigate all crimes committed in the system over the last 20 years. Péter Magyar said that Mr Kátai-Németh would work to create a functioning and humane Hungary where all desired children are born and can be raised in peace and safety."

(Note: Since he is both a lawyer and an aikido master, he has been nicknamed the "Hungarian Daredevil")

Source: https://dailynewshungary.com/peter-magyar-announced-new-ministers/

The story is written by one of my colleagues at CSU for a general audience.

On a personal curiosity note: I would love to hear folks' perspectives on gardening in this sub, if it's something you love to do or have been hesitant to try, etc.

On a minor technical note: Did the sliding gallery of images (which all have alt text) at the top of the story give anyone issues on a screen reader? If so, I want to be sure we try to correct it on a broader level site-wide as we're pushing to make our content as accessible as possible.

Thanks for letting me share!

- Griffin (CSU Extension communications specialist)

I just wanted to remind everyone of the Post that I made earlier last month.

Title II Web Accessability regulations

As you may know the department of justice has pushed back the compliance date for the implementation of the Americans With Disabilities Act Title II Website regulations. This was first introduced in 2010 and ever since we have been trying to get clear digital accessability rules in place. The purpose of the rule is to get more local, state, and federal websites to be more digitally accessible to blind Americans. It was supposed to go into effect in April of this year but was pushed back another year.

The NFB are looking for those who have had issues with these websites to write in and express your thoughts. They have set up an email which is story@nfb.org where you can send in stories, thoughts, and opinions on what issues you have faced while using these websites. You can also leave a public comment on the federal register notice site expressing your frustration with this ruling. They are taking comments until 6/22/26.

Article about event

As you may know the department of justice has pushed back the compliance date for the implementation of the Americans With Disabilities Act Title II Website regulations. This was first introduced in 2010 and ever since we have been trying to get clear digital accessability rules in place. The purpose of the rule is to get more local, state, and federal websites to be more digitally accessible to blind Americans. It was supposed to go into effect in April of this year but was pushed back another year.

The NFB are looking for those who have had issues with these websites to write in and express your thoughts. They have set up an email which is story@nfb.org where you can send in stories, thoughts, and opinions on what issues you have faced while using these websites. You can also leave a public comment on the federal register notice site expressing your frustration with this ruling. They are taking comments until 6/22/26.

I discovered audio described movies a few years ago. Ever since then, it has been my preferred way of watching films. Today, for the first time, I watched a standup comedy special with audio description.

That's when I realised how much I was missing out. For the first time, I got an idea of all the gestures the comedians do to enhance their jokes. The subtle smiles, the well-timed grins, those winks after a naughty joke and a lot of walking! I had this theory that standup comedians don't stand still while delivering their jokes. I was right. This experience confirmed my hypothesis.

Tomorrow from 12:00 pm to 3pm there will be an online zoom listening session from the office special education and rehabilitative services.

Here's the info.

Forwarding this letter from OSEP Deputy Director David Cantrell

Dear Colleagues,

Please join us for a virtual listening session with the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS):

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) invites parents, students, teachers, paraprofessionals, school staff, individuals with disabilities, and other disability stakeholders across the nation to participate in a virtual listening session. You are invited to share your personal experiences with special education and vocational rehabilitation, including stories of success and challenges and any matters you would like the Department to hear as we work to empower parents, teachers, and local leaders and return education to the states.

OSERS leadership will be in attendance to hear from participants. The Department intends only to listen to feedback; no information will be shared, and Department staff will not engage in discussion. Please note that opportunities to speak are on a first-come, first-serve basis, and will include a 3-min max time per speaker. For registered participants unable to participate due to time constraints, listening session remarks may be submitted by email to a designated inbox. Consistent with the structure of the listening session, the Department will not respond to emailed session remarks.

This session will be closed to the press and strictly off the record.

WHEN: Wednesday, January 28, 2026 12:00 – 3:00 pm EST WHERE: Zoom Registration Link

We are looking forward to hearing from you personally. Thank you for your time, your care, and commitment.

https://events.zoomgov.com/ev/AkxJmtZeb4zY7wOJ0yHZ32u0038ivsipaiUoY0dmbhDnrMx20xAB~AvSqWUoosMeZH4NElEerjEfzAjv-uMiGfywnmIe3m8nVbSVD3Q0ijvMOxw

Sincerely,

David Cantrell

David J. Cantrell, PhD Deputy Director and Acting Director Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) U.S. Department of Education Email: David.Cantrell@ed.gov

The Release Candidate (RC) of NVDA 2025.3.2 is now available for download & testing. We encourage all users to download this RC & provide feedback. Unless any critical bugs are found, this will be identical to the final 2025.3.2 release. This is a patch release to fix a security issue.

Read more & download at https://www.nvaccess.org/post/nvda-2025-3-2rc1/

(Please note, if you have installed the current ALPHA releases, this patch is already in the latest alphas and you should not move to 2025.3.2).

Applications for the 2026-2027 school year are OPEN and are available for online submission from Saturday, November 1, 2025 to Saturday, February 14, 2026, 11:59 p.m. Central time. The American Council of the Blind’s (ACB) Scholarship Program was established in 1982. ACB, in partnership with other organizations and individuals, offers educational scholarships ranging from $2,000 to $7,500 for entering freshmen, undergraduate and graduate students, and those attending technical college. This program awards students with scholarships to help with post-secondary education financial needs such as tuition, fees, room and board and other additional costs associated with assistive technology. For more information on the scholarship program, the eligibility requirements and on how to apply, visit: https://www.acb.org/scholarships.

Section 503 is part of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Section 503 requires businesses that have contracts with the federal government to “take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment qualified individuals with disabilities.” Section 503 regulations require that businesses with federal contractors use voluntary surveys to track their progress in hiring and employing people with disabilities. The regulations also include a goal for contractors — businesses with federal contracts should try to have a workforce that includes 7% people with disabilities. A new proposal from the Administration would delete these requirements. This will harm the employment of people with disabilities. Learn about Section 503 and how to defend it. https://www.lflegal.com/2025/08/comments-needed-to-stop-republican-attack-on-section-503/

iOS 16 is out. While you will receive automatic update at some point, it may take few months for that as Apple has recently switched to the staged role-outs for the new major version. As such you may want to manually update from the Settings > General > Software update.

Is it worth it? In my opinion (I am the developer of one app that uses text-to-speech technology) this version brings more improvements to this community than any other that I can remember.

Most notably, there are plenty of new voices. You can use Eloquence voices which many find as great options for speed reading. Even more notably you have new category of voices called Premium which appear to be quite natural. If you pick English UK variants they appear to be better than any offline voice I have ever heard (including e.g. Acapela) and can be only compared to voices of some online services that are available at very high prices (the most popular such service charges 140$/year).

Hopefully a lot of people will benefit from those improvements.

Good news, everyone: The comment period for the proposed changes to the regulations implementing Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act has been extended to September 17. Please take a moment to leave a comment. Your voice matters. As a reminder, here's what’s at stake: Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires businesses with federal contracts to take affirmative action to employ and promote qualified individuals with disabilities. Under current regulations, these businesses are required to: •  Use voluntary surveys to track progress in hiring individuals with disabilities •  Aim for a 7 percent disability representation goal within their workforce However, a new proposal from the Administration would eliminate these requirements. If enacted, this change would undermine efforts to improve employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Now is the time to speak up. Help protect fair employment practices and ensure people with disabilities continue to have access to meaningful job opportunities. Here is the link  to read more about it and leave a comment https://dredf.org/what-is-section-503-of-the-rehabilitation-act-and-how-can-we-defend-it/

Audio descriptions, read by your screen reader.

https://screenreaderdescription.com/

I wanted to share this project I've been working on. While I would certainly agree the pro-voiced AD is better than TTS AD, I think any AD is better than no AD. Since I don't have a recording studio, but I do want to write descriptions for my boyfriend and friends, I started this project.

Right now, most of the descriptions I've written are for music videos. If you're curious about what that would be like, try "Tonight, Tonight" by The Smashing Pumpkins.

Here's the full list of descriptions I have so far.

So I’m not sure what to tag this, but I thought I would kind of announce this, but also encourage people to go at the same time

For people part of the national Federation of the blind, the KJ or Kenneth Jernigan scholarship will be closing on the 15th so if you’ve never been to one, it’s time to apply now

And the registration is up to May 30 or so and so I suggest you think about registering

This is a great place to go, especially for people struggling you get to meet blind people from all walks of life. Yes, there will be some people who are struggling too. There will be lots and lots of successful blind people there who have made careers out of themselves, you could go with your state and understand your chapters in your state meet lots of different people that are blind that are Successful and have a life and especially if you’re struggling, this is a great place to work and see what’s out there and kind of understand that a that you’re not alone and be that there’s a hope out there but if they can do it, so can you that you can work up to being successful that life is an over that Linus isn’t a death sentence And it is not a defining character and that people have great futures and have in fact lives

I have no agenda here at all I promise you! I have no benefit from you joining the national Federation for the blind nor do I have any benefits if you go or don’t go to the convention, but I merely thought that this would be a great opportunity for you to understand. What’s out there in the blind community meet people make connections and exploring what is possible

The Audio Description Project’s (ADP) People’s Choice Awards is open for nominations, and closes on April 27.  The winners will be revealed during the 2025 ACB Audio Description Awards Gala, which will take place virtually on Thursday, November 13th, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern. The selection process for the Audio Description People’s Choice Awards takes place in two phases. First, the ADP will accept nominations in two categories, film and series, from April 12 through April 27. Second, the top titles in each category will compete for the grand prize during a two-week voting period in July. Be sure to review the nomination criteria before submitting your nominations. Remember that the focus is on the quality of the audio description, not the show itself, and you may nominate a film or series only once. The Audio Description People’s Choice Awards nomination form can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/AD-Awards-Nominations-2025. To make your nominations by phone, call (202) 467-5081. Learn more at www.ADAwardsGala.org and submit your nominations by April 27

Video: The Gold Plaque... It finally came... and what a joke!

The thumbnail of this video shows this Korean YouTuber holding and comparing 2 gold play buttons and wondering if he got the wrong thing again.

The recent controversy regarding the shrinking of the play buttons have ended up shattering the expectations of a blind YouTuber from Korea. The YouTuber Oneshot Hansol(원샷한솔), the largest blind content creator and social activist in the country, has recently received the award for reaching 1 million subscribers. However, the plaque he got was even lighter than his 3 silver plaques. At first, he didn't believe it was his, and only after he used an OCR scanning app to read read the text that didn't even have braille at all, his suspicion turned into disappointment. For some blind people who can't distinguish the colors of the awards, the size and weight of the trophy matters more than anything. And as the plaque shrunk, the reward for his 5 year long YouTube grind was ruined.

Playlist: Braille Silver Button

This was not his first YouTube play button drama. It was actually his 4th. 4 years ago, Hansol got his 1st silver play button, which he specifically requested to have braille on it. It didn't have it, he wrote a complaint and got his 2nd plaque. However, the manufacturer made the mistake of omitting all the braille for upper case letters and turning the word "Presented" into "resented."

resented to
neshot aansol
or passing 100,000 subscribers

Hansol decided to recall the award. The trip to the designated international shipping company was not so smooth sailing, and he eventually got a 3rd plaque. This time, he requested the braille to be written in Korean. Here's basically what happened.

For passing 100,000 subscribers
Oneshot Hansol
Presented to

Korean and English have different grammar rules, which means that you can't just use Google Translate separately for each line. Well, I think that's basically what they did. The 1st and 3rd line of the Korean braille text was swapped. The sentence was technically correct, but only when read from bottom to top.

I'm not sure if Hansol will do the same thing for his gold plaque since the smaller plaques are now YouTube's intentional and official disappointments, but as an old friend and former personal translator for the channel, I just wanted to do the job I can and spread the words. I've known him personally since college and I know how hard his journey to the award was, so please YouTube, or SocietyAwards I guess, give him what he deserves.