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Reposted by Ashleigh Lodge

Accessibility Awareness @a11yawareness.bsky.social · 1d

The same photo could appear on three different pages and require different alt text for each instance. The alt text for an image can vary, depending on the context of the image, its role on the page, and the intended message.

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Reposted by Ashleigh Lodge

The Beaverton @thebeaverton.com · 2d

“Restore merit, end DEI” says man who could only get elected in Canada’s safest Conservative stronghold

OTTAWA - Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has launched a petition to "end DEI programs and restore merit", just months after losing his own heavily-favoured seat before running in an even more hea...

www.thebeaverton.com

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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 2d

"Medical gaslighting as a service" is not a use case I anticipated! Doctors seem to enjoy that part of the job so much, why would they outsource it to an app?

sarahquaint @sarahquaint.bsky.social · 2d

Pain does not work like this.

Nothing works like this. There's a reason lie detectors are inadmissible bullshit machines.

But even if it did, those thermometers mentioned in the first sentence? They don't work properly on Black skin. Same with pulse oximeters: they don't work on melanin, either.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 2d

Facial expressions common to all humans! 🙃

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Reposted by Ashleigh Lodge

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 2d

Facial expressions common to all humans! 🙃

PainChek is one of these behavioral models, and it acts like a camera‑based thermometer, but for pain: A care worker opens the app and holds a phone 30 centimeters from a person’s face. For three seconds, a neural network looks for nine particular microscopic movements—upper‑lip raise, brow pinch, cheek tension, and so on—that research has linked most strongly to pain. Then the screen flashes a score of 0 to 42. “There’s a catalogue of ‘action‑unit codes’—facial expressions common to all humans. Nine of those are associated with pain,” explains Kreshnik Hoti, a senior research scientist with PainChek and a co-inventor of the device. This system is built directly on the foundation of FACS. After the scan, the app walks the user through a yes‑or‑no checklist of other signs, like groaning, “guarding,” and sleep disruption, and stores the result on a cloud dashboard that can show trends.

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Reposted by Ashleigh Lodge

Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · 2d

And, again, maybe the immediate answer here isn't "train on more disabled users' faces!" but rather perhaps stopping and thinking "hey maybe a sociotechnical paradigm that is literally predicated on and made of unending surveillance and a demand for certain 'right kinds' of bodies is bad actually 🤔"

Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · 2d

The increasing proliferation of facial recognition systems which often fail to properly capture and categorize disabled users with facial differences As Faces At All is leading to mischategorization, inaccessible systems, personal tech lockout, & other harms, & like… Yeah, dawg: we told you it would

When Face Recognition Doesn’t Know Your Face Is a Face

An estimated 100 million people live with facial differences. As face recognition tech becomes widespread, some say they’re getting blocked from accessing essential systems and services.

www.wired.com

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Reposted by Ashleigh Lodge

Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 3d

Them: need help doing things?

Me: yes

Them: we have a doing things medication

Me: ooh

Them: hahahahaha guess what you have to do to get it?

Me: oh no

Them: things.

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Rachel Gilmore @rachelgilmore.bsky.social · 3d

her laugh???? damn she sucks

Lady Emily ☄️ @ladyemily.nebula.tv · 3d

The thing that gets me about actors responding like this whenever they’re asking about JKR is that they always say “we need to learn to agree to disagree ^_^” as if trans people are the ones leading the campaign, when we’re just trying to live our lives while JKR posts about trans hate 24/7

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Ashleigh Lodge @ashleighlodge.ca · 6d

I have made note of that suggestion from you in the past! Not sure how successful it will be in a Canadian context, but I’m keeping it in mind. Thank you!

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Ashleigh Lodge @ashleighlodge.ca · 6d

Ask me how much I’m looking forward to my doctor appointment in a coupon of weeks…

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Ashleigh Lodge @ashleighlodge.ca · 6d

*heavy, commiserating sigh*

rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 6d

Oh yeah, I'm definitely weird, but I'm weird in a way that the medical establishment *always* first attributes to being 3F (fat, female, and fortyplus)

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Thinking Person's Guide to Autism @thinkingautism.com · 7d

A reminder for struggling autistic and disabled folks: “If you’re saying to yourself ‘Why haven’t I done this easy thing?!,’ the thing is probably not actually easy.” from Real Social Skills:

tinyurl.com/HardThingsArentEasy

#autism #disability #neurodiversity

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ari 💫 @arimelody.space · 8d

we are seeing it right here on bluesky, where it's deemed perfectly okay to shelter demonstrable bad actors because "they haven't done anything wrong *here*".

the nazi bar analogy continues to ring. deafeningly.

the people don't want a nazi bar. what will you do if all the good people leave?

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Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 9d

Canadians: The federal government is seeking public input on how AI should be developed and used in business, research, and the military.

If this scares the shit out of you, please let them know:

Help define the next chapter of Canada's AI leadership

Current status: Open from October 1 to October 31, 2025 Canada helped invent modern AI. To stay a leader—and protect our digital sovereignty—we're running a 30-day national sprint to shape a renewed...

ised-isde.canada.ca

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Julie S. Lalonde @julieslalonde.bsky.social · 7d

People love to come on here and accuse me of carceral feminism but all I'm seeing are 50+ men that are literally on camera sexually assaulting an unconscious woman and yet literally telling the courts that they are the actual victims.

They are clearly not safe to be out in the world right now.

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Ashleigh Lodge @ashleighlodge.ca · 7d

FAFO rapist!

Julie S. Lalonde @julieslalonde.bsky.social · 7d

Horrified Gisèle's legal battle got dragged on but relieved to hear that the result is an increased sentence.

Man who appealed Pelicot rape conviction handed longer jail term

A French court increases by a year the jail term of the only man who challenged his conviction for raping Gisèle Pelicot.

www.bbc.com

Reposted by Ashleigh Lodge

Canada's National Observer @nationalobserver.com · 9d

We're going public today with a powerful new tool for researching, following and reporting on local governments across Canada.

It’s dragging cities and towns into the 21st century by making 550 municipalities’ public meetings easy to search, all in one place, for the first time.

Canada’s National Observer unveils a powerful tool for fighting disinformation

Civic Searchlight brings together municipal meeting transcripts from across Canada into a searchable database for the first time. It has already been used to fight disinformation, report on impact, di...

www.nationalobserver.com

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Julie S. Lalonde @julieslalonde.bsky.social · 10d

I liken resilience to a rodeo clown or a magician's assistant - a shiny way of focusing attention away from the main act.

We don't have to fix systems, provide support or build community care if we individualize every problem as "You're either resilient or you're a weak victim."

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Adrian Roselli @aardrian.bsky.social · 11d

Holy shit, #Webflow.

I understand you may not have anyone on staff to review this LLM-generated ARIA explainer, but you’ve mostly just convinced me your product is a lawsuit-in-waiting.

I’m sorry most of your customers won’t recognize that.

webflow.com/blog/how-to-...

#accessibility #a11y #ARIA

Many assistive tools, such as screen readers and voice control, better engage with websites when the HTML includes ARIA rules — telling a screen reader, for example, where a button is or what it does so visitors with visual disabilities can still use it.

Why use ARIA? Using ARIA in your code gives a wider audience access to your content. It can also ensure your projects comply with web accessibility rules like the WCAG, another WAI best practice.

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Reposted by Ashleigh Lodge

Hillary Monahan @hillarymonahan.bsky.social · 11d

Hey, @jay.bsky.team.

As a disabled person, it's disheartening to see one of the foundational pushers of alt text, a Black STEM voice, a queer advocate, and a huge voice for the disabled community gone over a poor taste joke.

Having Link here is good for so many people.

Please reconsider?

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Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 11d

Here is how I appealed the suspension. It took them about an hour to respond. All in all I was down for about 4 hours.

Hello, I have been suspended for a post accusing me of threatening violence. If you look at the thread the post is part of, 1 am describing the evangelical belief system about the rapture, which includes the mass murder of Jews.
I, a Jew, was not making threats against Jews.
I, a Jew, was educating about the dangers that the evangelical community poses to Jews in order to *protect us*
This is obviously and clearly not a threat or an excuse for suspension.
Please reinstate my account.

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💀 🎃 ThemBOO! 🎃 💀 @thembo.bsky.social · 11d

-> and so the vicious cycle is now locked in. This has resulted in increasingly erratic bans/suspensions of all sorts of people for all sorts of often-frivolous or entirely ephemeral reasons, with the common factor being that they'd criticized Jay or the team.

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💀 🎃 ThemBOO! 🎃 💀 @thembo.bsky.social · 11d

The CEO and, to a lesser extent, a lot of the devs of Bluesky have gone into an absolute tailspin lately over users criticizing their poor moderation in certain areas. People have then criticized/poked fun at their tantrums, which they took personally and got even meaner and wilder about ->

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Rick Caruso’s Private Fire Crew @amandasmith.bsky.social · 11d

Suspending Erin Biba, a Jewish woman for this skeet is nasty work. Between this and intentionally misreading Link’s use of a meme as a threat, bsky mods are more than willing to ban based on the Spirit Of The Law for *some* posters but never Jesse Singal.

bsky.app/profile/aman...

"All the Jews have to die or convert to trigger the rapture. Then our dead bodies surround Jerusalem and they climb over us to reach Jesus, who will bring them to heaven. It's why they're all Zionists obsessed with Israel.
Cause they need Jews to go there so we can die"

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deconspray @deconspray.bsky.social · 12d

Accessibility testing doesn’t have to be hard. Ian Lloyd’s A11y Tools roundup makes it easier to find the right tool for the job.

a11y-tools.com

#DigitalAccessibility #A11y #InclusiveDesign #WebAccessibility #UX #AccessibilityTesting

a11y tools

A random collection of accessibility-focused tools that you might find at least partially useful

a11y-tools.com

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Eric Bailey @ericwbailey.website · 15d

"Again and again, accessibility as a topic in web standards is treated as simultaneously too trivial for specialists' technical opinions to be given weight, but also too difficult to get right without a specialist volunteering to tackle the tricky details." alice.boxhall.au/articles/a-t...

A threat model for accessibility on the web - Alice

A explanation of the primary threat to accessibility on the web, and a call to action for the web standards community

alice.boxhall.au

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