February 28, 2023

TechCrunch: Senator Markey calls on Elon Musk to reinstate Twitter’s accessibility team

TechCrunch: Senator Markey calls on Elon Musk to reinstate Twitter’s accessibility team. “Like any social platform, Twitter has had its foibles when it comes to accessibility — in 2020, Twitter didn’t even have an accessibility team and only established one after public outcry when the company rolled out voice tweets without captions. But in the few years Twitter did have an accessibility team, the company rolled out features for alt text on images, automatic captioning on videos and captions for Spaces live audio rooms and voice tweets.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
February 23, 2023

The Verge: Twitter has removed captions from Spaces on iOS, and they don’t work on the web or Android

The Verge: Twitter has removed captions from Spaces on iOS, and they don’t work on the web or Android. “Twitter Spaces, the company’s social audio rooms, no longer lets you use captions if you’re listening on iOS. Twitter still advertises that you can turn on captions through the three-dot menu in a Space, but on iOS, that option currently isn’t there.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
February 22, 2023

Middlebury Institute of International Studies: Middlebury Institute Launches New “Subtitling for Streaming” Online Course with More Courses to Come

Middlebury Institute of International Studies: Middlebury Institute Launches New “Subtitling for Streaming” Online Course with More Courses to Come. “Online video production is skyrocketing and it’s driving demand for people who are trained to create high-quality subtitles. That’s why the Middlebury Institute of International Studies has launched a new self-paced, short course titled Subtitling for Streaming.”

Other Things I Think Are Cool 0
February 17, 2023

University of Southern California: NSF Grant to Make Coding More Accessible for Persons with Physical Disabilities

University of Southern California: NSF Grant to Make Coding More Accessible for Persons with Physical Disabilities. “The team, which includes experts in computer science, education, kinesiology and occupational therapy, aims to develop personalized prototype interfaces, enhanced by artificial intelligence, to help persons with disabilities learn and practice programming skills.”

Research & Opinion 0
January 19, 2023

University of Waterloo: OneButtonPIN increases security for blind and low-vision tech users

University of Waterloo: OneButtonPIN increases security for blind and low-vision tech users. “Working closely with blind and low-vision (BLV) users, researchers at the University of Waterloo and the Rochester Institute of Technology have developed a new authentication method that could help BLV technology users more securely access their devices. The new method, OneButtonPIN, allows users to input PIN codes using a single large button and a series of haptic vibrations.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
December 29, 2022

WIRED: An App Wants to Subtitle Life for Deaf and Hearing-Impaired Users

WIRED: An App Wants to Subtitle Life for Deaf and Hearing-Impaired Users. “FOLLOWING A CONVERSATION can be a challenge for the deaf and hard of hearing. But what if you could pop on a pair of glasses and have subtitles appear in real time? That’s the promise of a newly released app called XRAI Glass. It works with augmented reality glasses called Nreal Air (sold separately by a different company) to subtitle conversations.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
December 27, 2022

WIRED: How to Use Your Smartphone to Cope With Vision Loss

WIRED: How to Use Your Smartphone to Cope With Vision Loss. “Whether you struggle to read distant signs or find yourself squinting to decipher small print, you probably have a gadget that can help. Too many of us ignore accessibility features, assuming they are only for the blind or severely vision-impaired, but they can also help folks with a wide range of vision loss issues.”

Useful Stuff 0
December 10, 2022

Newswise: Making science more accessible to people with disabilities

Newswise: Making science more accessible to people with disabilities. “The pandemic prompted workplace changes that proved beneficial to people with disabilities in science, technology, engineering, math and medicine (STEMM), but there’s fear that these accommodations will be rolled back. With International Day of Persons with Disabilities taking place on Dec. 3, a research team including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York is calling for ways to make work in STEMM more accessible.”

Research & Opinion 0
December 6, 2022

ITV: ITVX launches world-first British Sign Language channel

ITV: ITVX launches world-first British Sign Language channel. “When ITVX officially launches on 8 December, Deaf viewers will have access to what is a worldwide streaming first – a British Sign Language channel, solely featuring signed programming, which will include a range of shows like the Emmerdale and Coronation Street omnibus episodes, Cilla, Alan Carr’s Epic Gameshow, Vera, Lewis, and The Saint. The channel will be regularly updated and will evolve to include both recent and archive programming from a wide variety of genres.”

Other Things I Think Are Cool 0
November 21, 2022

Mozilla Accessibility Blog: Significant Improvements for Screen Readers Now in Nightly Firefox

Mozilla Accessibility Blog: Significant Improvements for Screen Readers Now in Nightly Firefox. “A couple of months ago, we shared an update on our Cache the World project, covering the ongoing re-write of the Firefox accessibility engine. The project aims to improve Firefox’s overall performance for users of assistive technologies (ATs) like screen readers and to reduce crashes and hangs. It will also make the accessibility engine easier to maintain and simplify adding new features going forward.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
November 5, 2022

Penn State: New coding tool could aid computer programmers who are blind or have low vision

Penn State: New coding tool could aid computer programmers who are blind or have low vision . “Prior work has focused on making different parts of the coding process more accessible for blind and low-vision users, such as reading or navigating code. Grid Editor is the first to place emphasis on code editing — an important step in making continuous updates to software, in which programmers edit and update existing code that was previously written by other programmers.”

Research & Opinion 0
October 18, 2022

Q&A: UnlockedMaps provides real-time accessibility information for urban rail transit in six metro areas (University of Washington News)

University of Washington News: Q&A: UnlockedMaps provides real-time accessibility information for urban rail transit in six metro areas. “While many people use Google Maps and other navigation tools to plan their rail transit trips across a city, these apps and websites often lack important information about how accessible a specific station is…. Researchers at the University of Washington developed UnlockedMaps, a web-based map that allows users to see in real time how accessible rail transit stations are in six metro areas: Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle, Toronto, New York and the California Bay Area.”

New Resources 0

The ResearchBuzz Firehose is regular RB content presented as individual posts.
For digest-type posts a couple of times a day, please visit ResearchBuzz.

Want to know how to best use the Firehose for content discovery?
Check out this handy article.

Get RB Firehose Via EMail

Enter your email address to subscribe to ResearchBuzz Firehose and get a firehose of new posts straight to your email.

Join 2,016 other subscribers

Recent Posts

Popular Posts

Latest ResearchBuzz Gizmos

WikiRSS: Search Wikipedia for RSS Feeds
Sheet-Shaped Wikipedia: Turn Wikidata Into Spreadsheet-Ready Text Files
Unleash Wikipedia’s Potential: Link Directory and Beyond with Wikidata Quick Dip
Wikidata Property Peeker
Uncover the Context of Wikipedia Pages: Explore with Wiki Page Backstory