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Don’t Post About Crimes

@katerosebee.bsky.social

3K followers 170 following 2.3K posts

(she/her) digital security for movements with Digital Defense Fund, building a research and community space in the PNW, horror weirdo.

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Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · Nov 26

Now is as good a time to remind everyone that we at Digital Defense Fund released an Abortion Privacy Guide with the top 3 actions that can have the greatest impact on reducing risk, even after an abortion is over.
Link to print and fold version in next tweet.

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Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 25m

Most blind and low vision people I know use phones to take notes on the go or around the house. But it feels so absurd, especially in these tech privacy-sensitive times, to still be denied the full equivalent option and lighter mental load of being able to hand-write in the same direction you read.

Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 31m

It's been 30 years since that time! I know all the obvious ableist reasons the braille slate and stylus hasn't been really innovated on. But it seems especially ridiculous in light of so many materials improvements, 3D printing, greater affordability in like, desktop supplies fabrication generally.

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Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 34m

Blind people say all the time in their videos and posts on different platforms that they find the stylus and slate setup painfully slow because they have to flip both the words and letters in their mind while writing. So they often only use it for short notes or taking down phone numbers etc.

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Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 35m

It's wild to catch up on the state of braille and see that, since I was a child poking a pencil into paper so a blind friend and I could pass notes, the stylus + slate setup has not at all improved. Blind people still need to take notes backwards, transposed words AND letters, then flip them over.

A yellow braille slate and stylus sit on a sheet of paper with raised braille dots. The stylus has a pointed metal tip and black handle, used to press dots through the holes in the hinged yellow guide. The braille text appears embossed across the top of the page. The braille text sample depicted is "BRAILLE IS FUN."

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Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 2h

I feel like that would make for an incredible archival exhibit, the duality of vintage food photography.

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Reposted by Don’t Post About Crimes

Susan Rinkunas @susanrinkunas.com · 2d

The horrific South Carolina abortion ban that lawmakers held a hearing on last week would also consider it “aiding and abetting” an abortion to host or maintain a website that informs women and pregnant people how to obtain an abortion. First Amendment attacks on abortion are coming

Autonomy News @autonomynews.co · 2d

Plan C will keep publishing information in the face of free speech threats, cofounder Amy Merrill said. “I don't believe that people in those states want to be uniquely blocked from accessing all dimensions of the internet...We still get to talk about abortion, and we're going to keep doing that.”

Exclusive: Plan C Doubles Down on Abortion Pill Info Amid Political Attacks

The online abortion pill guide has been redesigned to make it even easier to learn where to get pills, including at no cost.

www.autonomynews.co

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Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 6h

And one of the most foundational reasons people should have a right to engage in a modern world with reading instead of always having to listen to audio: privacy!
It’s difficult to always be able to listen privately, especially when you navigate the world with your ears as a low vision person.

Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 6h

Almost everything online is available in audio format now, including all those terribly formatted websites.
But as tech rapidly advances, I am so curious how dynamically-refreshing braille interfaces, or other haptic feedback communication systems, could work well for a lot more people.

Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 6h

Over 200 years old, Braille is an amazingly engineered system of reading and writing. And yet it remains foundationally inaccessible to most (mostly aging) people who could benefit from it, including basics like reading elevator buttons or emergency signage. stanforddaily.com/2024/10/06/b...

Despite braille's 200th anniversary, there is a braille literacy crisis

Fahim shares her research team's insights into why braille literacy is less than 25% in the U.S. and why braille remains relevant in an audio age.

stanforddaily.com

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Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 6h

I practice navigating the internet with a screen reader to test what it’s like for different pages, what the structure of the internet is like in different information channels. As expected, it’s a hot mess.
At some point I want to try navigating the internet with a dynamic braille interface too.

Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 6h

It’s easy as sighted people to take for granted that the benefits of learning braille, or how we learn to read print, are more than just reading.
A lot of literacy is also making connections with words and ideas through writing. Raised braille can be written with a stylus and tablet or typewriter.

Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 6h

Doctors told me that because of modern nutrition it’s less likely I’ll have the same issues, but every person in my family who lives long enough eventually goes blind. Apparently only 10% of legally blind people are braille literate, often believing they’re too old to learn. Saw it in my family.

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Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 7h

I learned to sight-read braille as a kid. Now I’m finally learning raised braille, mostly because language information channels are changing fast with AI, and I have a lot of questions about how it’s potentially impacting tactile languages.

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Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 7h

I like this ICE reporting acronym much better than prior ones: “CLEAR.”
C - count
L - location
E - equipment, incl clothing
A - activity
R - report time

Graphic from Oregon Worker Relief and Oregon For All:

Reporting ICE activity?
Be CLEAR!

Count: "3 officers, 1 van"
Location: "SE 2nd & Morrison, Portland"
Equipment: "Blue uniforms that say ICE, white van unmarked*
Activity: "Officers are checking IDs"
Report time: "245pm, Feb 2"

Share facts, not fear.

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Reposted by Don’t Post About Crimes

Old White Nepo Hat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 7h

Every time someone makes me read something Peter Thiel said it’s like “Scrooge McDuck is Jesus Christ and Huey, Dewey, and Louie are Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel and Daisy is Mary Magdalene and that’s why women voting has lowered American sperm count.”

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Reposted by Don’t Post About Crimes

Ricardo Levins Morales Art Studio @rlmartstudio.bsky.social · 7h

This week in 1988: 1,000+ ACT UP demonstrators shut down the FDA headquarters, demanding (and eventually winning) action on developing HIV/AIDS treatments. ACT UP's militant and creative actions always included powerful visual artwork, and paved the way for movements in the decades to come.

A photograph from the 1988 ACT UP demonstration outside the FDA. Many people are participating in a die-in on the front steps, holding mock tombstones with messages like "RIP - killed by the FDA" and "Dead from lack of drugs." A line of police officers (some with classic 80s mustaches) wearing riot helmets stands between them and the building; one cop wearing white gloves is walking through the demonstrators. Affixed to the 2nd story windows of the building is a series of posters and a large blank banner reading Silence = Death.

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Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 7h

Someone send Ezra Klein and the rest of the pundit class on a field trip with me to the next county fair, so I can show them how much better it is to care about the time neighbors spend on projects like a quilt or a lamb than bloviate about why we should be more like Charlie Kirk or some shit.

Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 8h

I’ve had to send a lot of ugly letters around the county about the Flock cameras, the crazy leftist lady who hates surveillance.
But my husband and I won a pig at the county fair 4H youth market auction, and so even the most far right republicans shrug and are like, “Well she’s got a point, Steve.”

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Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 8h

There are people working at the county in every state who are obsessed with the county fair. They’ve probably worked on it for years and give a lot of personal time to it.
They love it more than the sheriff and more than Trump, I swear. If you love the fair they give you a lot of leeway.

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Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 8h

Leftists: volunteer at your local county fair. You can help with the food contests, baked goods and preserves entrants, or the produce and floral. Or the 4H youth competitors.
Being an enthusiastic fan of the county fair bought me goodwill that has seen me through advocating against Flock cameras??

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Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 1d

And this is my eternal reminder that I did this in an area with like 10,000 people! A digital security study hall, circulated amongst assorted organizing groups (everybody from Food Not Bombs to Indivisible chapters, seriously) would probably be even more of a blast in a bigger town or city.

Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 1d

I'm coming to believe these "body double and work on your privacy to-dos" meetups are worth 100 activist checklists that we mean well when we link, but like 5% of people actually read.
Instead everyone legit installed Signal, practiced with it, added each other, and ate breakfast sandwiches.

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Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 1d

Held our first digital security study hall, sent out to all assorted lefty organizing groups in our area and it was so much fun! People installed Signal, worked on their to-do lists, and taught each other.
Gonna try to do this at least 2x a month. Feel like the social aspect is what makes it work.

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Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 1d

How incredibly cute this would be as a tattoo.

Don’t Post About Crimes @katerosebee.bsky.social · 1d

I have no tattoos but I feel like if I did, something inspired by these indefinite dinner party scenes would def be one of them. Longer tables are core to my ethos.

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