Many smirked when I spent countless hours creating my website without relying on a single FOSS technology.

Elena Brescacin

@seve_py Bless you who can laugh, but myself as a blind creator who relies on #accessibility won't laugh knowing that big tech and monopolies are taking care about what community-driven projects rarely do. "because of high costs" they say but meanwhile us, people with disability, are forced to rely on controlling/abusing tech while other sighted, physically healthy, who have thousands of alternatives, laugh. Assholes. (1/2)

Seve_py :vim: :python:

@talksina I had no idea that WordPress was such an important technology for you.

Elena Brescacin

@seve_py To be more precise it's Gutenberg's full site editor; then, has Mullenweg wanted this, or has been someone else? Important is the result. The abuse stands on the fact it's almost become a monopoly echosystem so alternatives don't even get so much interest in investing on accessibility properly. I'd prefer community to GIVE me alternatives concretely, rather than laughing at people remaining anchored to big companies. I heard too many "RTFM" when in need of help.

Seve_py :vim: :python:

@talksina I understand your frustration with FOSS; it's also my frustration. I have only had bad or less bad tech choices. Either rely on big techs with centralized attitudes or use mostly unfinished open-source projects that have undefined development paths. I'll be happy to help you in any way I can.

Elena Brescacin

@seve_py For the dozens of customizations I have on my site, based on WordPress and Gutenberg, migrating to something else means blowing everything up - someone here say Joomla but it hasn't the same accessibility backend features WordPress has. Authoring Tools Accessibility Guidelines aren't even known

Seve_py :vim: :python:

@talksina I’m not entirely sure I’m the right person to advise you on this. As the saying goes, 'If it isn't broken, don't fix it.' I don't see why Joomla would necessarily be a better option in this case. You can continue using WordPress while also exploring other FOSS tools that could enhance your workflow.

Elena Brescacin

@seve_py I think it's going to break (unrecoverably) if people involved in accessibility go away and WordPress won't develop it any longer. I honestly have no desire to go back to 90s or to dive into a content management system no one of my current sighted people's network can help me with (I talk about visual layouts, colors, and stuff).

Seve_py :vim: :python:

@talksina I understand your concerns about the future of accessibility in WordPress and the potential risks if key contributors were to leave. As far as I know, WordPress has a commitment to accessibility, and the current squabbling is more related to hosting and trademarks than to development strategies. Hopefully, in the future, viable alternatives will also arise.

Elena Brescacin

@seve_py When water reaches your ass, you learn to swim. Unfortunately when a technology is popular and goes "smooth" no one bothers themselves for alternatives. But "smooth" techs cuddle you until they're sure to have your trust. Then they make a decision and everything is in discussion again. But who pays when rich folks fight? The weakest. Now I'm getting in touch with @buttondown after having heard about it by @devol and @weirdwriter

Robert Kingett backup

@talksina @seve_py @buttondown @devol Note that accessibility for button down is not where it needs to be, yet, but I and others are working with the team on making it more usable/ accessible! They just made a change to where all radio buttons work far better with keyboard. My next task is to try to get a lot of these unlabeled checkboxes labeled! They are very open to accessibility feedback even if they don’t always get it right

Elena Brescacin

@weirdwriter @seve_py @buttondown @devol I was just fighting with the formatting feature, regarding accessibility: I do press the / -slash- sign but the pop-up does not get detected by screen readers, unless you move the focus away and look for it. No keyboard commands (except for markdown syntax) I know that syntax but what about who's unaware? Gutenberg is at least 500 steps forwards!

Robert Kingett backup

@talksina @seve_py @buttondown @devol Yep! Was gonna file an issue about that formatting dialog. I write everything in Markdown so this is fantastic feedback, especially for other blind people that do not know Markdown. ButtonDown is not ready at all for a novice/casual screen reader user. I’m sorry I could not see this sooner, otherwise, I would’ve actually advised against checking it out as of yet. I’m playing around with static site generators, but that’s only because I’m tired of platforms changing on me and screwing up my whole entire workflow

Elena Brescacin

@weirdwriter @seve_py @buttondown @devol MarkDown doesn't scare me at all too. Now my current plan is being on WordPress (I'm self-hosted) till I can, but using ButtonDown as newsletter service. Meanwhile adding static pages to another service! But I think nothing gives me the personalization QueryLoop block gives me. A static page where I have the character's description and then all titles and summaries linked to their story.