I checked the /r/blind sub and they have started their own Lemmy instance. Edited so Blind users can read it.
Announcement!!Open Alpha!! RBlind - A community on Lemmy, brought to you by the moderators of the /r/blind subreddit.
Since the news broke regarding the forthcoming changes to reddit’s API and the impact that will have on the third party apps and tools many of us rely upon the mods here at r/blind have been working on an accessible option for those who either cannot or will not be staying on reddit. As talk of alternatives like mastodon, lemmy, and the like have increased we decided that it would be best to reveal what we have been working on, hence this post. Several days ago we shared this with those of you on our Discord server and have been asking for feedback.
This project is by no means finished or polished, and is currently operating on development backend code and a beta UI to allow for access to still unreleased features that our community needs such as up/down votes displaying state changes, and nested comments, read this as there are and will be bugs and outstanding accestsibility problems. However, the advantage of this platform is we control the servers, the UI, and can fix accessibility concerns ourselves instead of relying on a for profit company or the generosity of app developers to do it for us, not that the latter is unappreciated.
So please be understanding of the above and we hope those of you who decide to join and see what we have done so far for all of us, and please report problems as you find them.
“Blind people can’t see ads anyway”
-- u/spez, probably
I could unironically see this being a real reason why they don’t care much about the blind community
I’m surprised he hadn’t said the quiet part out loud yet in another AMA.
Fuck spez!! 🖕🖕
I am not American but doesn’t this technically violate the ADA? Also that sounds in character for spez.
Also not adhesiveness, soooo no idea. Are they’re actually laws over there that enforce accessibility for websites? I’d be surprised if there was…
EDIT: American, not adhesiveness. WTF is with AI predictive text and autocorrect being so trash?
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That’s atrocious! I hope someone is sending this post to a few media outlets.
Edit: found this–
“If you are a current or former Reddit moderator or employee, I’m interested in hearing from you. Feel free to email me at [email protected].”I hope someone is sending this post to a few media outlets
I hope that too, discriminating them like that is indeed atrocious, I bet newspapers would be very interested in this.
It’s so very obviously clear that they really don’t care, except that the fact that dismissing blind users brings bad press (and bad press that’s broadly understandable unlike the current stories out there)
They’ll make promises, and deliver a slightly late and underbaked little thing that kinda helps then basically forget about it.
Reddit is currently prioritizing accessibility for users rather than for moderators, and representatives were unwilling to provide timelines by when Reddit’s moderation tools would be accessible for screen reader users.
Reddit has a history of empty promises when it comes to supporting moderators and mod tools. r/AskHistorians covered it (mirror) before the blackout protest.
Good on r/blind for taking power into their own hands.
Like, these aren’t new problems - anyone who uses Reddit much knows these issues have existed and have been talked about forever
It’s so gross to hear that Reddit admins “weren’t fully aware” of these issues, they’re either lying or revealing that they truly do not give a hoot,
I guess the “won’t effect accessibility apps” was also a blatant lie…
I’m glad they’re making changes.
spezzy and his jackbooted thugs are busy busy telling big fat porkies to users, issuing threats to mods, and secretly creating new content policy.
ETA : changed ‘they’ to ‘spezzy and his jackbooted thugs’ to avoid confusion.
I have started seeing adminforge links I am guessing that it is a webscraper that shows what is posted to reddit?
adminforge hosts libreddit, a private front-end to reddit.
Uplifting News
How embarrassing that lemmy devs who have less than 1% the budget of reddit were ready willing and able to provide the kind of support that the r/blind mods felt comfortable just walking away from reddit and running there own lemmy instance
I didn’t see that coming.
Pun intended?
will redditinc realize their precious spezzy is burning down reddit?
@xuxebiko this is a decision of the entire board of directors
they’re a stupid lot then. threatening mods & angering users will simply ensure their IPO burns to ashes.
I guess that checks out if they are incompetent enough to lose money while all of their moderators are doing all the work for free then they are probably not the brightest.
You love to hear it. The beauty of open source is that you can extend it to fit your own needs. For those with disabilities, it is a means of direct empowerment – a critical tool for overcoming obstacles without needing to beg others for help.
I look forward to hearing about the inevitable platform improvements this will bring, but I’m even more glad that the /r/blind community is able to walk away with dignity. Reddit’s handling of the accessibility situation has long since crossed the line from disrespectful to insulting.
Way to go!
I imagine the relatively simple web design of these federated Reddit alternatives would be a blessing for reading apps commonly used by the blind.
Being opensource also means that the blind community, that knows better than anyone else what they need, can also freely contribute to the project, being reporting bugs, requesting features, and if they have developers they can fix things themselves and submit their fixes to the code for everyone to use.
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Good for them. Get after it.
I was just in the sub yesterday posting that the fediverse values them as community members and our sites actually support accessibility unlike Reddit.
There is value in remaining on Reddit and engaging users!
Makes sense to me.
