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New accessibility guidelines available from The Washington Post

The Washington Post today announces accessibility guidelines are available as part of its open-source design system. Launched last year, this system made fundamental code that powers The Post and its features publicly available for the first time. These guidelines can be used by anyone, including those outside of The Post. They include an accessibility checklist, testing strategies and considerations to make when creating online content.

The accessibility documentation was one of the first projects led by new Accessibility Engineer Holden Foreman. The new role was created to help The Post align its efforts, maintain up-to-date standards and explore new opportunities in research and feature development for accessibility.

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How AI Can Improve Accessibility in Gaming

Accessibility is continuously evolving. Despite games consistently including options like customizable controls, subtitles, and colorblind settings, the tools that disabled players require are still changing to not only meet the needs of users, but games themselves. With the progression of technology, developers can fine-tune existing options or even create new features like Audio Descriptive Cutscenes. But what role does AI play in game accessibility?

AI is everywhere – on your phones, smart assistant devices like Alexa, and even in your games. It’s already a core aspect of daily life, one that helps and entertains. Yet, the true potential of AI still feels like it’s in its infancy, especially for disabled players.

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House of Lashes class action alleges website fails to provide equal access to disabled customers

House of Lashes failed to make its website fully accessible to and independently usable by individuals who are blind or visually impaired, a new class action lawsuit alleges.

Plaintiff Jasmine Toro, who is legally blind, claims House of Lashes’s website contains access barriers to screen-reading software used by individuals who are blind or visually impaired to access the internet.

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Hasbro class action claims fan site not accessible to blind, visually impaired visitors

Hasbro Inc. has failed to make its website fully accessible to and independently usable by individuals who are blind or visually impaired, a new class action lawsuit alleges.

Plaintiff Luis Toro, a legally blind man, claims Hasbro’s website contains access barriers to screen-reading software used by individuals who are blind or visually impaired to scan the internet.

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Amsoil class action alleges website denies disabled customers equal access to goods, services

The Amsoil website is not fully accessible to blind and visually-impaired people, denying them equal access to goods and services, a class action lawsuit alleges.

Plaintiff Janelys Hernandez says she is legally blind and requires screen-reading software to access website content on her computer. She says she attempted to purchase transmission fluid from the Amsoil website but was unable to independently complete the transaction due to accessibility issues.

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Midjourney V5 rolls out with new features promising accessibility

San Francisco-based independent Artificial Intelligence research lab Midjourney unveiled their new “/describe” feature that transforms images into words in a tweet. The company, popular for its AI-fueled ability to create images based on a series of prompts, launched more features including “repeat” and “permutations” for its pro subscribers.

Paul DelSignore, creative technologist and artificial intelligence aficionado, took to Medium to break down how these could benefit users. He envisions a future with better search engine indexing and search functionality as a result of “/describe”.

This could also go a long way in improving accessibility by automating ALT text generation for images uploaded to the web and could prove to be a godsend for people with visual impairments and reading difficulties in finding their way through the internet.

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Govt websites made accessible for differently-abled persons

NEW DELHI: As many as 95 central government ministries’ websites have been made accessible to differently-abled persons.

Apart from this, 676 websites of various states have also been made accessible for them, according to sources aware of developments.

An integrated browser-based tool with text-to-speech and text-to-Braille System that provides a verbal description of all events of a web page, including links, buttons, check box, text etc, which are keyboard-event-driven, and provides ‘keyboard only’ accessibility using a minimal set of keys, has been developed for making websites accessible for differently-abled persons.

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Chasing rainbows

Living with colorblindness feels like you’re constantly being pranked by the world in subtle, irritating ways.

The other day, I was booking a flight on Kayak, trying to figure out which dates are the cheapest by looking at their low fare calendar. See any issues?

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Glamorise class action claims website not fully accessible to blind, visually impaired

Glamorise Foundations has failed to make its website fully accessible to and independently usable by individuals who are blind or visually impaired, a new class action lawsuit alleges.

Plaintiff Janelys Hernandez claims Glamorise denies equal access to the goods and services offered on its website to individuals who are blind or visually impaired.

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The ADA needs an update for the digital era, but some states are ahead of the curve

While digital services have become the bread and butter of most state and local IT departments over the last few years, accessibility often seems like an afterthought.

For the able-bodied, the digitization of these government benefits and services can make life easier and interactions with government services less grueling. But for those with low vision or blindness who use accessibility technologies such as screen-readers, the expectation of completing essential tasks entirely online can be a barrier to access when government websites aren’t up to snuff.

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