Nostr notes by Ashe Dryden 🙆🏼‍♀️

RE: https://cloudisland.nz/@daisy/117527469454274142 Inclusivity ...

2026-10-30T10:37:09Z

RE: https://cloudisland.nz/@daisy/117527469454274142

Inclusivity measures should be higher in importance in your tech conf budget than swag. For AlterConf, on practically no budget, I provided:
- sign language interpreters
- live captioning
- ADA accessible venues on public transit lines
- quiet rooms
- free childcare
- kosher/halal/vegan/gluten free/allergy-free meals by locally owned restaurants
- non-police security
- etc

while still paying speakers, bloggers, photographers, sketchnoters, and every other local who worked on the conference.

quoting
note1lsp…tz7j

RE: https://social.joelle.us/@joelle/117527423586381628

For PyCon AU 2023, we paid a non-trivial amount extra (I can’t disclose how much) to have a ramp on our main stage, as compared to the standard setup that was steps only.

We didn’t have specific speakers that we knew about that absolutely needed that ramp, but it means that I can say with confidence that nobody looked at a stage with stairs and felt like they didn’t belong on that stage, and it also means that nobody had that particular barrier to access for lightning talks or other things where you might get on stage without having planned to in advance.

And I have no idea how many people that applies to, because stairs can be a challenge even for people with invisible disabilities that they haven’t disclosed to us as organisers and we obviously can’t ask.

Everything is a cost-benefit tradeoff, and there were other accessibility things we couldn’t afford, but it’s important to consider “sending a message about who belongs” among the benefits.
note1whp…l4fk

I don’t think most Americans know that the overwhelming ...

2026-09-28T15:24:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…qut7
_________________________

I don’t think most Americans know that the overwhelming majority of criminal cases are settled by plea bargain. The system as we have it could not handle even 1/10th of the cases going to trial.

This is how we end up with inflated/stacked charges. They throw everything they can at the defendant hoping *something* will stick and that the weight of that will coerce them into a plea.

Listening to a prosecutor on the radio talk about how jury duty ...

2026-09-28T15:21:14Z

Listening to a prosecutor on the radio talk about how jury duty is important because they settle tons of cases under the threat of a jury trial.

This is not justice.

RE: https://mstdn.social/@mcnado/117297887446531909 I try to ...

2026-09-19T15:12:16Z

RE: https://mstdn.social/@mcnado/117297887446531909

I try to explain this to people all the time. False arrests and pre-trial detention can seriously fuck up a person’s life. They can lose their kids, jobs, homes, end up going bankrupt and dealing with that for years.

quoting
note14aq…yr25

A woman is suing Fargo ND police for falsely imprisoning her for SIX MONTHS based on a bad facial recognition hit. She’d never set foot in ND, and the photo the cops fed into the recognition database didn’t look anything like her. She lost her home, car, and possessions while incarcerated. She’s suing for $10 million.

To me, that honestly seems reasonable. Fuck those cops. Losing six months, everything you own, and having a felony arrest wrongly show up in AI shit for decades is a problem.