Review: The Deco BE95 from the perspective of a voiceover user
I've been a happy customer of the Amplifi Alien routers since they were released in December 2019. However, they haven't received an upgrade since then; that means they have no support for Wifi 6E or Wifi 7. So when one of my alien units broke, I decided it was time to invest in an entirely new mesh system now that I own Wifi 7 capable devices. If you're looking for a used router on the cheap, though, I would strongly advise keeping an eye out for Amplifi Alien units. As early adopters like me begin to upgrade, I would expect to see a lot of perfectly good Wifi6 mesh router systems going for bargain prices. The app is decently accessible, they make sounds when they reboot or lose connection, and they're rock solid once you get them going. The thing that kills them is the fan. My routers go in a corner somewhere and get forgotten. So as the fans got clogged with dust, I failed to notice until the router overheated and stopped working. If you're a better owner than I am, the fan openings are obvious and easy to clean.
AI and the Sound of Disability
Note: the sounds in this entry do not contain actual words, and often are not identifiable sounds. This post is inaccessible to the Deaf or Hard of Hearing. I have done my best to describe the sounds in the entry itself, however I recognize that any level of inaccessibility to any person for any reason is unacceptable. In an attempt to offset this, I have donated $75 to the Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf. I strongly encourage anyone who listens to any of the sounds on this page to do the same.
My Accessible Self-hosting Tech Stack
I've been hosting services for myself and others for over 25 years now: starting on IIS6, moving to Windows Server, eventually to Debian, and now to an entirely dockerized stack. Self-hosting allows me to control my destiny in a way that using cloud services run by others doesn't. If an update causes screenreader issues, I can just not apply it. If I don't like the default themes, I can change them. In most cases, the projects I host are open-source, meaning I can contribute fixes myself, or write plugins to meet my specific accessibility needs. In this article, I'll go over the tech choices I've currently made, why I made those choices, and how they're working out for me. As it can be disappointing to set up and configure an app for hosting, only to find out it doesn't work with your screenreader, I thought it would be a good idea to document what I'm currently using. If you're interested in taking the same control yourself, or just curious about the accessibility of the self-hosting landscape, I hope you'll find this post useful and informative.