Hi, instead of having everything be ia forum can the forum link just say forums? Has anyone thought of going on livingblindfully podcast that Jonathan Mosen hosts to promote the new site? Have you thought about doing an apple reportcard in 2025?
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Does anyone know what that mysterious Toot about AppleVis was hinting at? Iām not sure I want to trust them again, but I suppose everyone will drop this site and go back?
It seems like more megalomania to me.
If you go to AppleVis, there is a new post in the thread announcing the closure. More or less, watch for some sort of good announcement, but read it on your own, if you want. It might be for the best that there is more than one place to talk blind Apples and tech oranges after what we all just went through.
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Iām curious too, but not sure the more megalomania comment is helpful. David sacrificed a lot for 14 years and we got that all for nothing. (Well unless we chose to donate, which I was happy to do.) He never made the site about him. I didnāt even really know much about him or how the site was run at all. Sure the way the site ended was very disappointing but then he had just suffered a very major health scare so we should give him a break.
I like the way this site is heading, and that sustainability seems to be a big consideration. Thereās obviously a good amount of work going in and I do appreciate it.
I honestly found Applevis quite a bit easier to use, but then it was built from the ground up for screen readers and just felt simple. Iāve not quite got to grips with this one yet. I think I had to login to three different things to start using it, but Iāve still not entered a password so not sure how that is working. Iāve not quite figured out how to subscribe to a topic. I guess maybe itās bookmark or something. And the stupid Macos VoiceOver bug where it canāt speak headings if they have child elements is quite annoying, but then it is so everywhere else.
Anyway part of that is just getting used to new things. Just the thing about Applevis was how easy it was to use, so if you were a newcomer and were struggling to use a computer it all just seemed to make sense. Iām sure it will here too over time.
Thatās not meant as a grumble. I guess I just have a particular affection for Applevis and it will take a while for me to find my feet in a new home.
But wherever we end up, letās keep things positive and constructive. The weird accusations thrown at the Applevis owners were really bizarre and uncalled for and always made my heart sink. (Not that you did any of that)
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Hi!
Thank you so much for your feedback. We can definitely consider changing the forum link, but I canāt guarantee that it will change.
We are looking at promoting the website on a variety of different podcasts, and adding link to various mailing lists. I will add this to our list of places to advertise.
As to the Apple report card, we have thought about this and we will release more information when the time gets closer.
Once again, thank you so much for your suggestions.
Iām getting used to the table layout for the forum topics. It requires using more keys than headings, but itās easier to zip around the information for each topic.
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Hi!
Thank you so much for your post. Once you created a WordPress account, you were automatically logged into the forums. There are three parts to this, your account on WordPress, your account on Memberful, and your account here. Those are all three linked.
On specific topics, I think there is a āmoreā button that will allow you to change your notification settings. On categories, I believe you can follow the category with the toolbar at the very top.
I do agree that AppleVis was very easy to use for screen readers, but from personal experience, I can tell you that this system is a bit more accessible with Apple devices. It will definitely take some getting used to, but if you need any help, please feel free to reach out.
Somewhere in the process, I set up a password, but I donāt remember exactly where that was. I got tired of logging in and out after the second or third time, the password/user-name filler wouldnāt let me save it, so Iāve just left it logged in.
I will say this is no where as easy to use as applevis. The nice thing with applevis is you could follow a topic and be emailed of replies. that was awesome. also everything should go by headings. It makes quicker and more efficient to navagate.
I still canāt find the option to subscribe to a topic, unless it is bookmark. Iāve not found the option to subscribe to a category yet. I think itās going to take a bit of time to get my head around how everything fits together. Right now I tend to use it a bit like I did with Applevis. I go to the home page and donāt venture much further.
One thing I do like that will only make sense to anyone from the UK is when it makes my VoiceOver sound like a Geordie on the home page. (Why iaccessiblity.net" always makes me chuckle.
The thing with the headings was more when Iām browsing a single thread. I get the main post, then if I jump to the next heading (ie reply) I just get something like ā3 items (Heading level 2)ā. I can fiddle with VO+left/right and figure out what it says but itās just a bit of a faff. Itās an incredibly annoying MacOs bug which Apple introduced in Sonoma and never fixed. I can use the rotor but itās slow because it reads the heading level, then does a big pause and then tells you what the heading is. Not really the fault of these forums.= and itās something I battle with all the time elsewhere. I reported it to Apple at the time and even sent them a very simple html file to demonstrate it, butā¦ well, insert big macos rant here.
Anyway, sorry I donāt mean to come across as whinging. Iām sure it will start to make sense in time. I think I just got a bit too used to Applevis and am maybe just stuck in my ways. Iām trying to restrain myself from asking for absolutely everything to be the same.
Forgot to mention, one small suggestion - could we get a link back to the iaccessibility.net home page from the forums?
Also, I just got an error on the home page āRSS Error: WP HTTP Error: cURL error 60: SSL: no alternative certificate subject name matches target host name āforums.iaccessibility.netāā Which suggests that there are RSS feeds available which would be nice.
Thereās headings on the latest posts page for the titles now and the table structure is still in place. Thatās a nice change for navigation, and I realize weāre still in the middle of a bunch of changes, so just kind of watching what happens.
Sounds like Applevis is being reborn on Mastodon, whatever that means. Iām slightly less excited now.
Here is a link to an announcement by Be My Eyes posted over on Reddit about the new owners of AppleVis. Itāsā¦ interesting.
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At least it will be more AI friendly now!
Oh Iām so glad I was wrong about it coming bck as a Mastodon thing. This is great news.
Although I am thrilled that Apple is is staying opened, I hope that this site does not now decide to close its doors, since I think some good things are in the works here and I would hate to see all that go to waste. Iāve always had the feeling that it is better to have multiple places to check out Things regarding Accessibility, whether that be news, new apps, discussions, etc.
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Hi everyone. We are going to stay open and continue to be community driven. I did make some more changes to the forums to add headings to topics and fixed where topics could not be activated. I hope veryone will stick around, and I think its great that there is more than one resource. We are going to fix unlabeled buttons soon as well, but these forums appear to work best on Apple platforms, which is just funny to me. LOL
I will be working on a customized header menu for this site to go back to other pages.
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I am glad this site is sticking around. AV might be coming back, but it wonāt be āourā site, even if it actually turned out to be one mans!
I mean, it will be a corporate thing now. Donāt get me wrong, I will be glad to see the back of the bullying and sexism, but I have never liked being supervised by big charity and BME if not that, is somethingā¦
Iāll probs not even bother creating an account.