How To Read The Top Tech Tidbits And Access Information Newsletters As A Blind or Low-Vision Person

TL; DR: If You Don’t Have Time To Read This Article, Please Read This Paragraph

If you are a blind or low-vision reader of the Top Tech Tidbits or Access Information News weekly newsletters, you do not want to attempt to read these newsletters in a text-only format. Why? Because the newsletters have grown too large and there is no way to navigate the newsletter in text-only format except to read the entire newsletter, top to bottom, in the order it is presented. Which frustrates many blind and low-vision readers because they cannot skip what they do not want to hear. Something that readers who read the newsletter using HTML can do easily. How? By navigating using our built-in, custom heading structure. In addition to skipping ads, HTML navigators can skip entire sections of the newsletter or even individual Tidbits if they like. Top Tech Tidbits has been providing this type of navigational functionality to screen reader users since 2004, and Access Information News since 2022. There are no other newsletters in the world today that provide this level of custom heading navigation functionality to blind and low vision readers.

Addressing Reader Concerns

I would like to open by addressing a few persistent reader concerns. I believe that addressing these concerns first, will, in itself, shine a light on the solution, which has always been available.

Below is a sample of these primary reader concerns, and our official responses to them, in order of priority. All are related to Top Tech Tidbits, but our responses apply to Access Information News as well.

Reader Concern #1: “I can’t read Tidbits anymore. It’s been taken over by ads.”

Publisher Response #1: A bit dramatic I think, but this is often how this “argument” is presented.

I will say here what I always say to these readers. “Without ads, there would be no Tidbits at all.”

Would we love to deliver Tidbits to readers each week without ads? Certainly we would, but without a large, generous donor in place, no one has yet figured out how to do that. So until they do, we will have ads.

And as a reader, especially a blind or low-vision reader, you want to embrace those ads. We’re not talking about mainstream garbage here. These are not ads for Doritos or Diet Coke. They are ads from companies and organizations like Freedom Scientific, The Carroll Center, Perkins School for the Blind, Aira, Wayaround, Glidance, Biped, Hable … I could go on, but I think you get the point.

The sponsors behind these very relevant and non-intrusive ads are who make these newsletters possible for us to read for free each week. Without them we would be forced to charge you, the reader, instead, which we already know does not work as a business model. The good news is, as a blind or low-vision reader, you can have your cake, and eat it too. Read on to learn how.

Reader Concern #2: “Top Tech Tidbits has grown too long. It now takes more than 60 seconds to load in my email client.”

Publisher Response #2: This is, either fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, a true statement for many readers on slower connections.

And even on faster connections it can still take an inordinate amount of time to load the entire newsletter into your email client. Especially if you use Outlook, as I do.

This is an issue that we are very aware of and are actively seeking solutions for.

On the one hand, it is a very, very good thing that the newsletters have grown to encompass so much valuable access information each week. But on the other, it has increased the size of the newsletters to a point where load times are unacceptable for some readers, and we realize that.

The obvious solution is to stop putting all of the information for each issue into the email version of each newsletter.

This would force readers to read each newsletter in a web browser, an environment that often offers a much better screen reader experience and much faster load times. But many long time readers will scream at me for proposing this.

When I was interviewed by Eyes on Success they mentioned that one of the primary things they loved about the newsletters was that they could read the entire newsletter right there in their email client, without having to go out to the web.

But it is something that we may have to consider, as I see no other way to accommodate future growth without doing this. If you have thoughts around this, please don’t hesitate to share them with us 📧️.

And here we have the final, grand reader concern, which is a combination of the first two, and is the specific concern that I am here to today to address and alleviate.

Reader Concern #3: “I can’t read Tidbits anymore. It’s too long and it’s been taken over by ads.”

Publisher Response #3: This can only be true if you are still reading these newsletters in text-only format, which we do not recommend.

I know that some blind and low-vision users of access technology still believe that reading their communications in a text-only format is somehow better than HTML.

While there was a time, long ago, when this may have held some truth, I assure you that this is no longer the case.

To use a fishing analogy, reading text-only today is like trying to catch fish (news articles) with your hands, while navigating using HTML is like using a fishing pole with sonar. It knows where the fish (news articles) are, and it can tell you. Hell, it can even take you to them and catch them for you so you can eat (read) them. How’s that for convenience? Oh, and did I mention that you will also be able to skip ads? With a single key combination? Or any other section or article that you don’t wish to read?

Sound magical? It is. And it can be yours today for the low, low price of switching to HTML, and using your favorite screen reader to navigate the newsletter using our built-in, custom headings structure.

Top Tech Tidbits has been providing this type of navigational functionality to screen reader users since 2004, and Access Information News since 2022. There are no other newsletters in the world today that provide this level of custom heading navigation functionality to blind and low vision readers. Please be sure to take advantage of it.

Empower yourself with HTML navigation today!

” The greatest barrier to acessibility is indifference. “

Aaron Di Blasi, PMP
Engineer, Educator, Advocate, Publisher and Journalist, President & Sr. PMP, Mind Vault Solutions, Ltd., PR Director: AT-Newswire, Publisher: AI-Weekly, Top Tech Tidbits, Access Information News, Title II Today

Mind Vault Solutions, Ltd.
President, Sr. Project Management Professional (2006 — Present)
Innovative ideas. Solutions that perform.

Top Tech Tidbits
Publisher (2020 — Present)
The Week’s News in Access Technology

Access Information News
Publisher (2022 — Present)
The Week’s News in Access Information

AI-Weekly
Publisher (2024 — Present)
The Week’s News in Artificial Inteligence

AT-Newswire.com
PR Director (2024 — Present)
Access Technology’s Digital Newswire

Title II Today
Publisher (2025 — Present)
The Month’s News in Title II Compliance

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