I assumed that Fediverse could really be an open, progressive environment where to discuss ideas and grow up, with different points of view. But what I'm finding lately, is something different. Narration going from "pro AI / glasses" to "no AI / glasses" so if you don't maintain a position, you are just in favor of fascists or perverts.
The last one I had a discussion with, called me "a waste of time" because I made him realize that a sighted pervert can use his own eyes, without glasses, while I fasten my shoes strings, bent over. Instead of joining me, thinking of a proposal to satisfy blind people's needs while protecting privacy, no. The problem is me.

Same for github/codeberg stuff: do AI-built pull-requests ruin open source software? Yes.
Is AI-generated code dirty and unreliable? Yes.
Have hand made coders the right to prohibit automated code? Yes, of course.
But same coders, went on for years saying "I'm an independant coder, a small company, I have no resources to make it accessible to blind, if you need it, make it yourself".
Now, thanks to assisted coding, many of us blind are doing exactly this: trying to solve their gaps by having the bots fix the issue. Then, to help other users (and the coder himself), they place the fix in form of pull request, into the repository. And it's often refused.
But, would the original coder ever solve accessibility? No. I'm alone, it's a small company, you're the first blind user I hear, and similar bullshit.
What, the fuck, should, we, do?

From far-right, I know what to expect: they're racist, ableists, and all the worst. They don't hide it. But I couldn't definitely expect such behaviours from people caring for freedom, ethics, open technologies, etc. I'm fed up of being considered an object who can gladly be sacrificed for purity of something or someone.

UPDATE: on blindness, coding and AI, please read this story, wrote by an experienced blind guy, about the topic:

mosen.org/ai

And as the discussion must be complete, I also add another point of view, together with the one pro vibe-coding.

On the link below, Robert (another experienced blind person) talks about "disability dongle", meaning those super-tech hardwares made for disability, but are more for inspirational videos than for real time usage. Expensive and uncomfortable.

Robert talks about hardware but it can easily be applied to AI as well: it's far from affordable, not with disability in mind, it must be well trained and you use more tokens to get what you want...

I'm not pro, I'm not against, I'm in the middle. Appreciate good, hate the bad. And want the discussion to be more balanced.

sightlessscribbles.com/posts/d…

#ableism #accessibility #ai #fediverse

“You’re not fun anymore”

This was one of the last things a friend said to me before ghosting me over my disabilities & covid caution.

My wearing a mask? Not fun

My being bedbound? Not fun

My inability to travel? Not fun

She then said “I don’t know how you can live this way”

Almost everyone with chronic illness experiences this at some point.

Many ableds want us to hide our disabilities.

They want us to be the same as we were before because it makes things more comfortable for them.

If we show them the depths of our suffering?

They can’t cope.

They see us as better off dead.

Let me be perfectly clear… we live this way because we have no choice.

No one taps you on the shoulder and asks if you’re ok with becoming disabled.

No one gets your consent before stripping you of your health and leaving you bed bound.

It just happens. It can occur in the blink of an eye, and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it.

We can’t just go to the doctor and demand to be “fixed”.

We have to adapt. We have to grieve. We have to learn to accept our new life and find ways to cope.

Is it fun? Of course not.

Is it necessary? Yes.

Does it mean we aren’t fun anymore? No.

We’re still the same people we were before we became ill, our bodies just don’t function the way they used to.

We still experience joy and sadness. We still crave human connection.

People who decide we aren’t “fun anymore” are missing out on all the joy and friendship we have to offer.

They’re also denying the reality of the human condition:

Disability happens to almost everyone eventually.

It’s a minority group you can join at any time.

Chronic illness isn’t “fun”. I’m not going to lie and say otherwise.

It’s a difficult life filled with pain, sadness and a lot of disappointment.

But there can also be so much joy, and my former friend’s inability to see that is a poor reflection on her, not me.

We must stop treating people like commodities.

We must stop acting like their value is tied up in what they can produce or their physical ability.

We all have value.

We all have worth.

We all have things that light us up.

I was angry at this person for a long time.

I did so much for them over the years and then got tossed aside like garbage when I was no longer useful.

I’m trying to let the anger go.

I’m trying to remind myself that anyone who can’t love me as I am isn’t worth my time.

It’s not easy.

The pain we experience when people abandon us is real and adds insult to very real injury.

But I promise you there are better days ahead.

There are people who will stick by you no matter what.

People who won’t make you hide your pain and suffering.

There are people who will show up for you and accept you as you are.

Who will wear a mask, hold your hand in the hospital or visit you when you’re laying in bed.

Cherish those people. Nurture those relationships. Make sure they know how much it means to you.

If you’ve read this far and have a disabled person in your life, please reach out to them.

Say hi. Ask how they are. Offer to visit or provide some help. Show up for them.

Never underestimate the power of a small act of kindness, and refuse to leave people behind.

#disability #ableism #chronicillness #eugenics #inclusion #COVIDisAirborne

More and more Mastodon users are acting like alt-texts for profile images are becoming mandatory Fediverse-wide. Never mind that they're currently being rolled out by and by and only on Mastodon even.

Here on Hubzilla, they aren't even a thought, also because Hubzilla doesn't know the concept of images having their own dedicated alt-text database field. (Before you ask: Hubzilla handles images and therefore alt-texts in messages vastly differently from Mastodon to begin with.)

At the same time, more and more Mastodon users are acting like image descriptions for the images in the link previews that are generated automatically in Mastodon timelines are becoming mandatory Fediverse-wide. Never mind that Mastodon itself has barely got enough character capacity to describe these preview images at the high level of detail that so many Mastodon users love, what with its meagre default character limit of 500.

Also, never mind that you'll have to edit your post to describe the preview image because it only appears after you've tooted your toot, so you can't see it before you toot your toot.

Also, never mind that everyone outside Hubzilla will get an image description for an image that's entirely absent because they don't have Mastodon-style link previews, because these link previews are a Mastodon-only thing.

Again, this is even worse here on Hubzilla. Unlike Mastodon, Hubzilla has a preview button that lets you look at your message before you actually send it. But Hubzilla doesn't generate link previews. And Hubzilla's preview button doesn't offer you the option to show you what your message will look like on Mastodon.

So I'd have to

• write and send my message as usual
• switch to a tab with mastodon.social
• look for my message by using the hashtag search
• check whether Mastodon has generated a link preview, and if so, which image it has chosen
• find a copy of the image with the highest resolution possible;
  alternatively, if it's an in-world image from OpenSim, log into OpenSim, travel to that place and take a close look at the place to write a highly detailed image description (takes from five hours to two days)
• switch back to my Hubzilla tab
• edit my message
• add the image description
• re-count the characters in the message
• edit the message
• add a long post content warning with the current character count if there is none, and it isn't a comment; edit the character count of the existing long post content warning if there already is one
• save the edit
• discover that Mastodon hasn't recognised my edit as such, and now there are two copies of the same message on Mastodon, the old one without the image description and the new, longer one with the image description

All just to describe an image that isn't even there for my fellow Hubzilla users. Nor is it there for my contacts on Friendica, (streams), Forte, Misskey, Iceshrimp-JS, Iceshrimp.NET, Sharkey, Pleroma, Akkoma, snac2, GoToSocial, Hollo, Socialhome, Mitra, PieFed, Wafrn etc.

By the way, if a message comes from something else than Mastodon, and there's no actual link in it, Mastodon often creates a link preview for the profile or channel page of whoever has sent the message and picks their profile photo as the image for the link preview. Essentially, I'd have to reliably know when Mastodon does that, write two image descriptions for my profile photo (it's a rendering from OpenSim, and I always describe these twice; besides, people should have a shorter description next to my usual detailed description) and copy-paste both into each post for which Mastodon will generate a link preview for my channel page.

Fortunately, Mastodon doesn't show Hubzilla profiles or channels like Hubzilla itself shows them, and neither do Mastodon apps. Otherwise, if Mastodon users figure out that the background image of my channel is part of my channel customisation and not a default Hubzilla Web UI element, they may demand I add an alt-text for the background image, lest I be mass-blocked as an ableist.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta #Ableist #Ableism #AbleismMeta #CWAbleismMeta #CharacterLimit #CharacterLimits #CharacterLimitMeta #CWCharacterLimitMeta #Fediverse #Mastodon #Hubzilla #MastodonCulture #FediverseCulture #MastodonCentricity #MastodonNormativity

It’s Disability Pride Month and I’m mourning one of our elders…. Alice Wong.

Every year on July 1st she would talk about disabled rage.

She would remind us that it’s ok to be angry at the eugenicist, capitalist, patriarchal system we’re trapped in.

She would encourage us to embrace our disabilities AND our anger.

She would give us permission to be our true selves… to refuse to hide for the comfort of others.

She passed away last November but left an indelible mark on our community.

I want to honour her this month by continuing the tradition she started and inviting all my disabled peers to be proud, unapologetically themselves and angry if that’s what they feel.

Don’t hide.

Don’t smile and say “I’m fine” when you’re in pain.

Don’t settle for being treated as “less than”.

Don’t let the bastards grind you down.

#disability #ableism #eugenics #chronicillness #patriarchy #capitalism