Posts by fireborn@dragonscave.space
(DIR) Post #Au55uMAURdju3ffdOi by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-03-12T10:52:49Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Please boost for reach:Assistive Technology Training for the Blind & Visually ImpairedAre you or someone you know blind or visually impaired and looking to get the most out of assistive technology? I offer personalized training to help you navigate your devices with confidence—whether at home, school, or work.I provide expert training on:✅ Screen Readers – VoiceOver (iOS, iPadOS, macOS), JAWS & NVDA (Windows), TalkBack (Android)✅ Braille Devices – BrailleSense 6, BrailleNote (HumanWare), BT Speak, and other Braille displays✅ Technology Integration – Connecting Braille displays to computers & smartphonesTraining is available remotely via Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or other platforms. In-person sessions may also be arranged.📍 Rate: £15/hr📞 Contact: 07447931232Empower yourself with the right tools for independence. Get in touch today!
(DIR) Post #AuS3CgUuuIXlqEoPpo by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-05-25T10:30:01Z
3 likes, 2 repeats
GrapheneOS: Where Licenses Matter More Than PeopleGrapheneOS could have shipped real accessibility support. They had a screen reader. They had a libre speech engine — one they requested a feature from. They got that feature.And then they said no.Because the license was GPLv3.They’ll ship sandboxed Google Play Services.They’ll let you install GPLv3 software from their app store.But a working screen reader for blind users?Blocked. On principle.This isn’t a technical limitation.This is not a matter of priorities.This is cruelty by ideology — and they’re proud of it.So here it is. My full public dissection of the excuses, the hypocrisy, and the sheer contempt they’ve shown to the people who need privacy and security most: the disabled.They chose licensing purity over basic humanity.I chose to write this.https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/grapheneos-where-licenses-matter-more-than-people/#GrapheneOS #Accessibility #FOSS #Blind #DisabilityTech #Inclusion #GPLv3 #espeak #a11y #Security #FreeSoftware #DisabilityRights #Android #Rant #TechShame
(DIR) Post #AudfzItkpvg9p7ml60 by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-05-30T10:47:14Z
0 likes, 2 repeats
I’ve published Part 3 of “I Want to Love Linux. It Doesn’t Love Me Back.”This one’s about the so-called universal interface: the console. The raw, non-GUI, text-mode TTY. The place where sighted Linux users fall back when the desktop breaks, and where blind users are supposed to do the same. Except — we can’t. Not reliably. Not safely. Not without building the entire stack ourselves.This post covers Speakup, BRLTTY, Fenrir, and the audio subsystem hell that makes screen reading in the console a game of chance. It dives into why session-locked audio breaks espeakup, why BRLTTY fails silently and eats USB ports, why the console can be a full environment — and why it’s still unusable out of the box. And yes, it calls out the fact that if you’re deafblind, and BRLTTY doesn’t start, you’re just locked out of the machine entirely. No speech. No visuals. Just a dead black box.There are workarounds. Scripts. Hacks. Weird client.conf magic that you run once as root, once as a user, and pray to PipeWire that it sticks. Some of this I learned from a reader of post 1. None of it is documented. None of it is standard. And none of it should be required.This is a long one. Technical, and very real. Because the console should be the one place Linux accessibility never breaks. And it’s the one place that’s been left to rot.Link to the post: https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-want-to-love-linux-it-doesnt-love-me-back-post-3-speakup-brltty-and-the-forgotten-infrastructure-of-console-access/#Linux #Accessibility #BlindTech #BRLTTY #Speakup #Fenrir #TTY #PipeWire #ScreenReader #DisabilityTech #ConsoleComputing #LinuxAccessibility #FOSS
(DIR) Post #Ausl8foGR4bId8u4P2 by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-06-06T16:42:29Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
I was told if I'm going to bitch about Ubuntu, then I need to have an Ubuntu machine. So I have an Ubuntu machine, now I can continue to bitch about Ubuntu
(DIR) Post #Ausl8oWW2QkdehfWUK by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-06-06T17:28:18Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Someone's been listening. The Ubuntu login screen is accessible and remembers the screen reader state. So does the user session. First problem, I don't have wi-fi or bluetooth because I didn't rtfm and removed Mac OS before extracting the binary blobs.
(DIR) Post #Av5Dg3WRolKeA9WGh6 by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-06-13T09:18:14Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
This is my first, and probably only, post from Windows XP.The fact that Enafore can load at all is surprising.I highly recommend *never* doing this. Don't connect xp to the internet. Don't open a browser, and certainly don't log into an account.
(DIR) Post #Av5HoUowbg2ExbS2MK by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-06-13T10:03:46Z
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Whelp, guess I'm adding msn messenger to my list of available contact methods
(DIR) Post #AvEChDaNXKAC8EzJ7A by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-06-17T16:41:20Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
I understand that some mailing lists exist for specific projects and distributions, as well as a couple of general purpose lists that seem to be mostly inactive, but would there be any interest in an accessibility focused Linux realtime chat setup. As platform agnostic as possible, Discord/IRC/Xmpp/maytrix/telegram?
(DIR) Post #AvIOMvF20TMfWpvnEm by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-06-19T16:35:58Z
1 likes, 2 repeats
Steam just dropped (added) screen reader support in the latest Big Picture Mode beta. On the Deck. On SteamOS. On Linux.Not hacked in. Not community-patched. Built-in. From Valve.There's an accessibility tab. There's a screen reader. There's high-contrast mode, UI scaling, color filters, reduced motion, and more.I can’t believe I’m saying this but: I need a Steam Deck now.Accessibility isn’t just coming to gaming — it’s here, and it’s official.Let’s make some noise so they keep going.🔗 https://www.theverge.com/games/689922/steam-is-adding-screen-reader-support-and-other-accessibility-tools#Accessibility #Gaming #SteamDeck #ScreenReader #Linux #valve
(DIR) Post #AvITLyHhhrdKRpXz7I by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-06-19T15:13:15Z
3 likes, 4 repeats
I didn’t plan to write about Wayland yet. But Xorg is dying — not eventually, but now. GNOME’s dropping X11 support. RHEL already removed it. Ubuntu and Fedora are next. And if you rely on accessibility, you don’t get to wait this one out.So here’s Post 4 of I Want to Love Linux. It Doesn’t Love Me Back.I’m using Wayland now. Primarily. Not because I love it. Because the fallback is disappearing, and I want to be there helping fix what comes next. GNOME with Orca actually works. KDE and COSMIC are making progress. I’ve talked to the people involved. They care.But a lot is broken.MATE — the desktop most blind users preferred — isn’t on Wayland.ocrdesktop doesn’t work. xdotool is gone.wlroots compositors still don’t reliably support Orca’s keybindings, especially on laptops.This isn’t GNOME’s fault. They’re the only reason accessibility on Wayland works at all.But the old excuses are gone. “Just use Xorg” isn’t going to be an option much longer.So yeah. I’m a Wayland shill now. Because I’m using it. Because I have to.And I want to make sure we’re not excluded from what comes next.https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/i-want-to-love-linux-it-doesnt-love-me-back-post-4-wayland-is-growing-up-and-now-we-dont-have-a-choice/#Linux #Wayland #Accessibility #Orca #GNOME #KDE #COSMIC #FOSS #a11y #BlindTech #xorg
(DIR) Post #AvITM6Fs4Yv9ASkdN2 by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-06-19T15:47:58Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
I updated the post to be a lot more clear on the current state of Xorg.
(DIR) Post #AvQ6UAZMDondZ0Pdke by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-06-23T10:50:59Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
After having things explode one-too-many times at this point, I've decided to give Nix OS a serious try. Having to learn another programming language to use my computer does not fill me with joy, but maybe it'll work. Or maybe I'll hate it and just end up switching to something that isn't Linux at all.
(DIR) Post #AvQ6UI5sFJy8tsgCuG by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-06-23T11:00:50Z
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Most of my problems can be chalked up to "your system is non-standard". Yes. It is. If you have a standard x86 based computer with a screen and speakers, go use Linux. It'll be acceptable, probably. If you diverge at all from that standard, God help you.What OS doesn't have this problem? Windows.
(DIR) Post #AvWD9Xs5qKdVNEsm2q by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-06-26T07:58:26Z
3 likes, 2 repeats
I woke up to a comment so smug, so perfectly soaked in gatekeeping and faux-righteous posturing, it earned its own blog post.You want freedom? You want GNU/Linux to mean something?Then maybe start by not telling disabled users to go fuck themselves with a smile.This commenter thought they were defending "software freedom." What they were really doing was kicking people out of the room. Dismissing accessibility. Mocking effort. Pretending that cruelty is some kind of rite of passage. They quoted Stallman like it was scripture, ignored real-world experience like it was noise, and wrapped it all in condescension dressed as virtue.I’ve spent over a decade in this ecosystem. Writing patches. Rebuilding broken stacks. Helping blind users boot systems upstream doesn’t even test. I didn’t "just install Arch and whine about the terminal." I lived in it. I survived it. I held it together when maintainers disappeared and no one else gave a damn.But apparently, because I didn’t call it GNU/Linux™ and because I dared to talk about how this OS chews people up and spits them out, I’m lazy. I’m weak. I should "get a dog."So I wrote a response. Line by line. No mercy. No euphemisms.This isn’t just about one comment. This is about every time someone’s been told they don’t belong because they couldn’t learn fast enough, code well enough, or survive long enough. It’s about everyone who was pushed out while the gatekeepers patted themselves on the back for "preserving the spirit of free software."You want a free system? Start by making it livable. Because freedom that demands you crawl bleeding through a broken bootloader isn’t freedom. It’s abandonment dressed in ideology.And if this kind of gatekeeping is your idea of community?You can keep it.https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/you-dont-own-the-word-freedom-a-full-burn-response-to-the-gnulinux-comment-that-tried-to-gatekeep-me-off-my-own-machine/#Linux #GNU #FOSS #Accessibility #BlindTech #FreeSoftware #Gatekeeping #DisabilityInTech #OpenSource #Orca #ScreenReaders #ArchLinux #BurnItDown #blogpost
(DIR) Post #AwT8SDI9J8q3J2FWpU by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-07-24T19:39:58Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ipg Hm. I didn't think it effected most mastodon instances because they wouldn't be big enough? If so, then fedi just became unviable for UK users entirely.
(DIR) Post #AwT8SFfyRX5IhVPaF6 by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-07-24T19:56:12Z
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@light @ipg I'm trying to understand how this effects us as instance admins, what steps we need to take, etc.
(DIR) Post #AwTJJyH6M5mnuY22F6 by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-07-24T20:02:58Z
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@light @ipg What about instances not hosted in the UK, but can be accessed by UK users (most of them). I think that's where the confusion is.
(DIR) Post #AwTJK0ARJpe5mSvk8W by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-07-24T20:40:03Z
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@light @ipg I suppose, but from an instance admin prospective. If I host my server outside the UK, I must block UK IP addresses from accessing the service, yeah?
(DIR) Post #Ax2sBtMbDoRxI5u0xc by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-08-10T20:54:49Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
I wish music production was accessible on Linux
(DIR) Post #AymIRdqP1jyG9xCqnY by fireborn@dragonscave.space
2025-10-01T19:24:59Z
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If Google is killing sideloading, then Android is just iOS with ads and spyware. Why the hell would anyone choose that?https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/why-the-hell-does-android-even-exist-anymore/#Android #Google #Sideloading #FOSS #Privacy #accessibility