#blindtech — Public Fediverse posts

WordPredictor v1.7.0 is out! 🎉

Big accuracy improvements this time:

• Retrained the LSTM on 20 million tokens of modern movie and TV dialogue instead of 19th-century literature, so predictions sound like how people actually talk.
• Extended the context window from 4 to 6 words.
• The LSTM now blends with the n-gram model instead of replacing it, combining context-aware suggestions with words learned from your own writing.
• Fixed a long-standing bug where accepting a prediction corrupted the context, making the next prediction ignore everything you'd typed before.

https://github.com/RareBird15/wordpredictor/releases/tag/v1.7.0

#NVDA #Accessibility #BlindTech #AI

WordPredictor v1.6.0 is out! 🎉

This update adds an optional LSTM neural network predictor trained on 116 Project Gutenberg books. It provides context-aware predictions that complement the n-gram model. Toggle it on in Settings > Word Predictor.

The n-gram model remains the default. The LSTM is opt-in.

Bundled onnxruntime DLLs are included, so no extra install is needed.

https://github.com/RareBird15/wordpredictor/releases/tag/v1.6.0

#NVDA #Accessibility #BlindTech #AI

I published something this week that I've been building toward for months.

The ultimate goal is an organization for multiply disabled people. But most of us were taught we couldn't contribute before we ever got the chance to try. Every system that sorted us without asking. Every program that measured competence on terms we couldn't meet. Every space that welcomed us as recipients, not builders.

That doesn't go away when you invite someone to join something. The doubt was installed by decades of being told we couldn't.

So the school comes first. Not because education is the only thing we need. Because belief is.

If you're multiply disabled and you've ever wanted to help build something but didn't believe you could, you're who I'm talking to.

https://lanie.work/advocacy/why-a-school-comes-first/

#Disability #MultipleDisabilities #Accessibility #ActuallyAutistic #BlindTech #ChronicIllness

I'm featured 5 times in this week's Top Tech Tidbits, the world's #1 access technology newsletter with 47,000+ subscribers.

The features span two weeks of work:

1. WordPredictor 1.3.1 for NVDA (July 27)
2. "One Accommodation at a Time" - essay on single-disability frameworks (July 25)
3. windowState NVDA add-on (July 23)
4. "I Built a Word Predictor for NVDA" (July 19)
5. "Privacy Is a Luxury I Can't Afford" (July 14)

All built and written from a nursing home bed using AI as an accommodation for a writing process my body can't sustain alone.

https://toptechtidbits.com/2026/07/30/top-tech-tidbits-for-thursday-july-30-2026-volume-1078/

#AccessibleGaming #BlindTech #NVDA #Accessibility #Disability

WordPredictor v1.4.0 is out! The biggest update yet.

I expanded the bundled n-gram corpus from 5,000 bigrams to 45,000 and from 32,000 trigrams to 300,000, trained on 11 million words from 116 Project Gutenberg books. Predictions are noticeably more accurate with much broader vocabulary coverage.

No code changes, just way more data. The Kneser-Ney smoothing, real-time learning, partial-word prediction, terminal auto-detection, and everything else all work the same.

Load time is about 0.6 seconds at NVDA startup, and predictions still come back in under 6ms.

Download: https://github.com/RareBird15/wordpredictor/releases/tag/v1.4.0

#NVDA #Accessibility #BlindTech #ScreenReader

WordPredictor v1.3.1 fixes two bugs:

1. Backspace no longer triggers predictions. Previously it was treated as punctuation, which ended your word and generated a new prediction cycle. Now it just removes the last character.

2. The disabled apps settings field is fixed. NVDA's settings dialog captures the Enter key for the OK button, making multi-line entry impossible. The field now uses comma-separated input: vipmud, mushclient, cool-retro-term

Update from the NVDA Add-on Store or GitHub: https://github.com/RareBird15/wordPredictor/releases/tag/v1.3.1

#NVDA #Accessibility #ScreenReader #BlindTech

WordPredictor v1.3.0 is out. Predictions now only fire when you're in an edit field, so no more false predictions when navigating Gmail, the file manager, or anywhere else you're not typing. Also added my email to the manifest and updated the URL to the GitHub repo.

Update from the NVDA Add-on Store or download from GitHub: https://github.com/RareBird15/wordPredictor

#NVDA #Accessibility #BlindTech #ScreenReader

New NVDA add-on: WindowState. Press NVDA+Shift+T to hear if your foreground window is maximized, restored, minimized, or snapped to a side or quarter of the screen. Optionally appends the state to NVDA+T like JAWS does.

I built this because pressing Windows+Up Arrow to maximize a window sometimes triggers the Windows 11 snap chooser instead, and NVDA doesn't tell you which one happened. There's no way to just ask "is this window maximized?" without trying to resize and listening to what changed. Now there is.

Requires NVDA 2026.1+. Free and open source.

Download: https://github.com/RareBird15/windowState/releases/tag/v1.0.0

#NVDA #Accessibility #BlindTech #ScreenReader #AssistiveTech

Good morning, everyone! ☀️ Just checking in — how's everyone doing today? Fun fact: I'm using Claude to write and post this, so hopefully it's working. 😄 Hope your day is off to a great start!

#GoodMorning #Accessibility #Claude #AI #BlindTech

@j @NikJov Thanks for the feedback! Version 0.5.0 is out now and addresses both issues:

1. The bare number keys are gone. Prediction selection is now NVDA+Control+1 through NVDA+Control+0. This shouldn't break heading navigation in browse mode or interfere with typing numbers.
2. The Ctrl+letter shortcut problem is fixed. The add-on now waits for you to physically release Control before typing the predicted word, instead of trying to force-release it. No more Chrome history, save dialogs, or new windows popping up.
3. Terminal auto-detection is here (thanks @j for the suggestion). Prediction automatically disables in 30+ terminal apps including Windows Terminal, PowerShell, CMD, WSL, PuTTY, and more. Toggleable in Settings.

Download Word Predictor v0.5.0

#Accessibility #NVDA #BlindTech #ScreenReader #AssistiveTech

Today I built an NVDA add-on: WordPredictor.

It watches what you type and predicts the next word using n-gram analysis. Predictions are announced through NVDA's own speech engine. No external TTS, no clipboard pasting, no mouse required.

Features:

• Automatic predictions after each word
• Partial-word prediction (type "sho", get "should")
• Learns from your writing and saves across restarts
• Settings panel in NVDA Settings
• All keys remappable in Input Gestures

I built this because Lightkey Pro AT doesn't work well with NVDA. Gestures conflict, system-wide mode requires mouse clicking, and words get mangled when pasting. This add-on works inside NVDA instead of against it.

Download: https://github.com/RareBird15/wordpredictor/releases/tag/v0.3.0

#Accessibility #NVDA #BlindTech #ScreenReader #AssistiveTech

RE: https://caneandable.social/@JonathanMosen/116902161346017822

AI is a great help to some groups including the blind. I ask all software developers to think about tthis before making anogther anty AI post. In my view your harming your proffession. All of this has found it’s level in the past and will again. #ai #AntyAi #Blindtech #Accessibility

Just shipped RestreamA11y: a free, open-source desktop app that makes Restream actually usable with a screen reader.

Keyboard-first, and it reads your cross-platform chat aloud with neural text-to-speech. Manage channels, titles, and stream status without touching a mouse. Built accessibility-first, because streaming tools rarely are.

https://github.com/tonygeb23/restream-a11y

#Accessibility #A11y #ScreenReader #BlindTech #Streaming #OpenSource

We have another stonkingly great episode of the show thanks to the wonderful @scottrut who unboxes the new Google Home smart speaker, plus listener Kristi talks about her upcoming trip to Eswatini in Southern Africa. On a personal note, following this episode, Shaun and I are taking a short and much needed break. I have quite a number of personal issues at the moment and need to take some time for myself to deal with them, as well as just rest. So apologies to you all for the last minute news, but I promise we will both be back fighting fit on the 6th of July! Love to you all. #blind #BlindTech #accessibility

Seeking recommendations for a simple speaker I can use to play the output of my laptop to a fairly large room. Wired only, not Bluetooth. Simple, the fewer controls, the better. Small enough to fit into my laptop bag. #blindTech

The Games for Blind Gamers Game jam community is hosting an event this July that is encouraging you to work on blind accessibility gaming projects (new or old) and find collaborators!
https://itch.io/jam/making-games-accessible
#GamesForBlindGamers
#AudioGame
#GameDev
#ScreenReader
#VisualImpairment
#BlindTech

Navigating a webpage with JAWS? You don't have to read everything from top to bottom. Use quick keys to jump straight to what you need.
Press H to move to the next heading, or Shift+H to go back. Press B for the next button, F for the next form field, and T for the next table.
Add Shift to any of these to move backward through the page.
These shortcuts work in Virtual Cursor mode. If they aren't responding, press Insert+Z to toggle it on.
#BitsTips #JAWS #ScreenReader #BlindTech #Accessibility

Have a blind accessibility gaming project you keep meaning to go back to? Already working on one and want to share progress? Want a reason to start one?
Join this laid back "share your progress" jam, by Games for Blind Gamers!
https://itch.io/jam/making-games-accessible
#GamesForBlindGamers
#ScreenReader
#VisualImpairment
#BlindTech

#BlindTech I am using Windows 11, Office 365, latest version, latest version of JAWS. Every once in a while, I get a screen that says "Results viewer". I tried using OCR on it, used the touch cursor, and I still can't make sense of it. Anybody know what that is?