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Devin Prater's blog

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Mar 27, 2026
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  1. The Linux desktop in my pocket
    Mar 27, 2026 · original
    I just got done replying to a private message on the audio games forum. I almost never get those, and I wanted to do it on my phone. I first tried opening the native Chrome browser on my phone. I opened the Audio Games forum, then tried to find where to log in. There was no log in link. It went straight from a link to the forum to the different rooms. So I decided not to deal with it right then. Today, I got it done. Termux-x11 Since I already have Termux, basically a full Linux system, all I need for a desktop is the desktop environment, apps, and an X11 client to show them all on. And I have all three. The Termux repository has the MATE desktop. It has Chromium. It even has Orca and everything it needs to work. So, I had already gotten Codex to make a script that loads Mate, sets all the accessibility variables, and runs Termux-x11. It s nice. I just type ./mate.sh , press Enter, and I
  2. Notes on symlinks
    Mar 24, 2026 · original
    In Emacs, on Termux, I ve got a storage directory. That has my sync folder which backs up lots of stuff with SyncThing. So I wanted a way to have a link to /storage/shared/sync in ~/. Symlinks So I remembered symlinks (symbolic links). They make a link from one folder to another, or put a link to a file in one folder, into another folder. Pretty cool! So, how do I get that done in Emacs? Dired! Dired is the file manager inside Emacs. So, it has a key, capital S, for making a symlink. But does it do what I want? I ran describe key (C-h k) and press S. Well, it does more of a hard, rigid, link. I like things soft. If I move the link, or the directory it points to, I don t want it to break that easily. So, in the help for S, there was Y, which does the softer link I wanted. Technically, it creates a relative symlink. But then how do I set the link file location? Using .., two periods. That
  3. Testing Microbe
    Mar 24, 2026 · original
    I m testing the Microbe client for Micro blog. I got it going just now, on my phone, within Emacs within Termux within Android within a Galaxy S25 Plus. So far, it even works well with Emacspeak!
  4. https://devinprater.micro.blog/2026/02/16/testing-again.html
    Feb 16, 2026 · original
    Testing again.
  5. https://devinprater.micro.blog/2026/02/16/testing-microblog-emacs-client.html
    Feb 16, 2026 · original
    Testing Microblog Emacs client.
  6. Beyond Parity: The Case for True Accessibility Affordances
    Aug 13, 2025 · original
    There s a debate in the world of digital accessibility. Should the experience for a screen reader user simply mirror that of a sighted person, achieving functional parity? Or should it strive to be as helpful and efficient as possible, even if it means creating unique capabilities for non-sighted users? I argue for the latter. The goal shouldn t be mere parity, but the creation of powerful affordances that make digital interfaces genuinely more accessible. Defining Affordances for Accessibility In design theory, an affordance is a quality of an object or environment that allows an individual to perform an action. A handle affords pulling; a button affords pushing. For this discussion, I want to expand that definition: an accessibility affordance is a feature that provides a non-sighted user with a capability that a sighted user doesn t typically have, creating a more efficient and powerf
  7. Mobile Video Gaming
    Feb 2, 2025 · original
    Mobile Video Gaming I’ve played video games since I was around 5. I started with Mortal Kombat on the Sega Genesis, or Megadrive in Non-US countries. I learned to play more by accident than anything else. It was one of the poorer quality ports of that game, using low quality audio samples, not speaking chosen character names, and not announcing who won a round. The music was great though. Anyway, throughout my life, I’ve always played video games. Of course, during my teenage years I got into audio games and such, but I still played video games because they usually had more content, or simply because there weren’t many fighting games in audio form. Besides, by that time, I was comfortable with the video games I could play. I knew the menus I needed, where my favorite characters were, and stuff like that. Now, I’ve achieved something I never thought I’d be able to do on mobile devices, pl
  8. The Right kind of Blind
    Dec 25, 2023 · original
    I know I really shouldn t write this, but at this point it doesn t matter. I ve ran away from those who will most likely look upon this with disdain, as if I don t look upon myself with even more than those on the outside can. I was reading a post from someone who mentioned the right kind of disabled. That struck something in me that I d been looking for for a long time. I thought I was the only one. Maybe I am. But it needs telling anyway, so why not. Acceptable disability You know those blind people who can get around an area they ve barely been to, or cook on a stove, or even communicate well with body language and such? I m sure many in the blind community know of, or are one of these. These blind people don t need much. They don t ask for help, they know their way around, and workplaces are proud to have the acceptable kind of person with disabilities, because they barely notice tha
  9. Contextual Accessibility
    Sep 3, 2023 · original
    I’m sure all this has been said many times before, but all I’ve been able to find so far is this article on Alt-Text which isn’t what I’m going for here. As a side note , I get that most members of society can only improve accessibility by adding Alt-text to the visual media they create, but isn’t it time we move a bit passed just image descriptions? Guides for Alt-text are everywhere. I am not about to make yet another. This will, however, be a longer article than the usual, and I wouldn’t blame you for coming up for air during this one. In this article, I’ll talk about accessibility, for blind people, not just in regards to the screen reader, which also gets talked about, but also the operating system, and the activity the blind person is trying to do. In writing this article, I hope to zoom out a bit and show developers and others interested, that accessibility encompasses everything
  10. TalkBack 14: Rushed Steps in the Right Direction, but still so far behind
    Jul 17, 2023 · original
    I ve talked a lot about Android on this blog. I love the idea, and the operating system is nice, but accessibility could be so much more. I ve had my Galaxy S20 FE (5G), for about a year and a half or so. I ve seen the changes from Android 11, to 12, and finally to 13. TalkBack has improved steadily over that year and a half, adding Braille support, which I thought wouldn t come for another five to ten years. Spell checking was added in TalkBack 13. Text recognition in images and unlabeled buttons was added in TalkBack 12.1. Icon descriptions were added in TalkBack 13. In this article, though, I ll overview the changes in TalkBack 14, the ones I have access to, that is. I ll get to that later. I ll also talk about the problems facing Android that isn t really about TalkBack, but is more about the accessibility framework, and what apps can and can t do. So this will be a sort of continuat
  11. Why I use Large Language Models
    Jul 14, 2023 · original
    The debate over AI rages on, and I find myself caring less and less as the tug of war between the sides, one saying that AI is a threat to humanity and the other side saying that AI can do lots of amazing stuff, and definitely couldn t take our jobs, becomes more fierce. No, AI cannot take our jobs. Rich people can take our jobs and give it to AI, though. This post isn t going to be about the rich people that bend AI, and anything else they can, to their will. This post is about why I use large language models, especially multimodal ones, and why I find them so useful. A lot of people without disabilities, particularly those who aren t blind, probably won t understand this. That s okay. I m writing this for myself, and for those who haven t gotten to use this kind of technology yet. Text only models ChatGPT was the first large-language model I used. It introduced me to the idea, and to t
  12. The Rings of Google's Trusted Testers program
    Jul 2, 2023 · original
    Over the years, I ve owned a few Android devices. From the Samsung Stratosphere to the Pixel 1 to the Braille Note Touch, and now the Galaxy S20 FE 5G. I remember the eyes-free Google group, where TalkBack developers were among us mere mortals. I remember being in the old TalkBack beta program. I remember when anyone in the Eyes-free group could be in the beta. And now, that is no longer the case. In this post, I ll talk about the Accessibility Trusted Testers program, how it works in practice, in my own experience, and how this isn t helpful for both TalkBack as a screen reader, and Google s image as a responsive, responsible, and open provider of accessibility technology. In this article, I will not name names, because I don t think the state of things results from individual members of the TalkBack or accessibility team. And as I ve said before, these are my experiences. Someone who i
  13. On Regaining sight, and the need for Blind Culture
    Feb 12, 2023 · original
    So this is in response to This blog post regarding Mr. Beast s Blindness video , which shows the perspective of a person that still has some remaining vision. I, however, have none. I am completely blind. I wanted to write a response that shows my perspective on the video about the possibility of regaining sight. I speak for myself, not for anyone else in the blind community or culture. I’ll also talk about the need of a Blind culture, and the cheapening of such culture by these types of videos. The video, titled 1000 Blind people See for the First Time was hard for me to watch, in several ways. Firstly, the title is a lie. I’ll go through that later. Second, a lot of it is visual in nature, with very little description. Third, it was not described, using any kind of audio description. Audio description is where a video has another audio track that plays alongside the original, where a p
  14. Productivity on mobile platforms
    Feb 12, 2023 · original
    Over the past few years, I’ve seen something that kind of troubles me. While people on iPhones Write books on using the iPhone on their iPhones , clear out their Email on their Apple Watch and manage the rest on their iPhones, and use their iPhones as their primary computing devices, Android users feel like one cannot be productive on any mobile system. So, here’s the thing. When you are around sighted people, even at a job sometimes, what are they using? Their computer? No. They’re on their phone. Maybe it’s an iPhone, or perhaps it’s an Android; it doesn’t matter. Either way, people are doing all kinds of things on their phones. When you go to a center of blind people, what do you see? People on their computers? Sometimes, but for younger people, they’re on their iPhones. I’ll talk about the differences between iPhone or Android later. But this cannot be understated. The phone is now,
  15. Quick post: On Operating Systems and Communities
    Feb 3, 2023 · original
    To me, the core of accessibility is the operating system. What it allows, how easy the accessibility APIs are to both be used by developers, and upgraded by the operating system development team or community. At the same time, the support system of accessibility is the community. Without a community of users and developers, the accessibility of an operating system will not flourish. In this post, I’ll discuss the different approaches I’ve seen in operating systems, and how users and developers in the community, primarily the blind community, have improved it. These are my opinions and thoughts, and others in the blind community, like fans of Linux, Android, and Windows, will feel differently. MacOS and Android These two operating systems are somewhat similar, in that they’re just now really getting support from their company on accessibility. MacOS had a good base, but is just now gettin
  16. Google: Full Speed Ahead
    Jan 13, 2023 · original
    For years now, Google has been seen, for good reasons I’d say, as moving very slowly with accessibility. TalkBack would get updates in fits and starts, but otherwise didn’t seem to have people that could devote much time to it. Starting a few years ago with multi-finger gestures, TalkBack development began picking up steam, and to my surprise and delight and relief, it has not slowed down. They seem to spend as much time resolving issues as they spend creating new features and experiences. This was highlighted in the new TalkBack update that began rollout on January 9. On that day, there was a TalkBack update from Google (not Samsung) which bumped the version to TalkBack 13.1. New in this version is the ability to use your HID Braille display over USB. Support for Bluetooth will come when Android has Bluetooth drivers for them. That alone is worth an update. But there’s more! New in Talk
  17. Android versus iOS: stability versus Features
    Dec 18, 2022 · original
    So, boiling my feelings on iOS versus Android down into a simpler post, as of now, iOS = features, Android = stable and seemingly more supportive of all the PWA apps that are zipped up and put on the app stores. Apple makes me feel like Squidward when I’m typing in Braille, pressing Space with dots 4-5 to translate, one… word… at… a… time! All that just to clear the translation queue or whatever when it gets stuck or whatever. And that s where the crap comes in. On iOS, I have no idea what’s causing these types of anger-inducing issues. Oh and the bug where if you press Enter in, say, iMessage to send a message, except a menu pops up, is still there. That bug was supposed to be fixed in the latest iOS 16.2 update. But nope. I guess VoiceOver has lived long enough to be a mess. A sluggish, frustrating mess that no amount of image and screen recognition can fix. Meanwhile, on Android, whil
  18. https://devinprater.micro.blog/2022/12/16/so-i-was.html
    Dec 16, 2022 · original
    So I was sitting at a restaurant, waiting on my food and typing on my NLS EReader Humanware Braille display connected to my iPhone SE 2020. As I typed, I noticed that words I d just been typing weren t showing up. So I did the space with 4-5 translate command to force the stupid piece of jump to work correctly. I had to do that all throughout typing today and I just … I m not as patient as I used to be. Like Android doesn t have that problem. And it doesn t have the problem where if I press Enter sometimes it pops up a menu, oh hey wasn t that supposed to be fixed in 16.2? Well it happened today and I just quit. Ugh I get so tired of these bugs. I mean I know Android s Braille support is new enough to not have had time to accumulate these kinds of bugs, but my goodness this has been there for long enough that you d think they d have fixed them by now. It just makes me not even want to us
  19. https://devinprater.micro.blog/2022/12/16/a-new-beginning.html
    Dec 16, 2022 · original
    A new beginning So, I’m writing this from a Windows computer, using Notepad, with WinSCP providing SFTP access to the server. This won’t come as a surprise for those who follow me on Mastodon and such, but I want to put this in the blog, so everything is complete. About half a year ago, I installed Linux. Sometimes, I get curious as to if anything has changed in Linux, or if it’s any better than it once was. And I want to know if I can tackle it, or if it’s even worth it. Half a year ago, I installed Arch using the Anarchy installer, got accessibility switches turned on, and got to work trying to use it. Throughout my journey with Linux, I found myself having to forego things that Windows users took for granted. Stuff like instant access to all audio games for computers, regular video games which, even being accessible, used only Windows screen readers for speech. And all the tools that
  20. https://devinprater.micro.blog/2022/12/16/writing-richly-whenever.html
    Dec 16, 2022 · original
    Writing Richly Whenever you read a text message, forum post, Tweet, or Facebook status, have you ever seen some one surround a word with stars, like *this*? Have you noticed some one surround a phrase with two stars? This is a part of Markdown, a form of formatting text for web usage. I believe, however, that Markdown deserves more than just web usage. I can write in Markdown in this blog , I can use it on Github, and even in a few social networks. But wouldn’t it be even more useful everywhere? If we could write in Markdown throughout the whole operating system, couldn’t we be more expressive? And for accessibility issues, Markdown is great because a blind person can just write to format, instead of having to deal with clunky, slow graphical interfaces. So, in this article, I will discuss the importance of rich text, how Markdown could empower people with disabilities, and how it could

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