Disability Dialogue with Bill

Mental Health: Lack of Accessibility, Inclusion and External Challenges May Create or Compound Mental Health

Since October 10 was World Mental Health Day I hope this blog post can bring some awareness to the seriousness of those who are affected with any mental health condition.

Although I am no expert in mental health I feel people with mental health issues experience unique challenges. I have some thoughts that in my opinion may negatively impact mental health below that in some cases can be reduced or removed to help promote a healthier life.

I believe that experiencing digital technology usability/accessibility issues and inclusion barriers  in general can contribute to mental health issues. The usability/accessibility issues regarding accessing digital technology could be if a person has a disability and they use a form of assistive technology such as a screen reader and the application they are attempting to use does not conform to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. Therefore, the application may have accessibility issues preventing people with disabilities or other unique challenges from using the application at all, effectively or efficiently causing stress and exclusions. If this happens frequently in my opinion it would lead to mental health issues. If these inclusion barriers occur over an extended period such as years, the negative impact on mental health I feel would be even greater. This would not only impact the person who is directly being excluded due to usability and accessibility issues it would also affect the family who lives with the person. This is because the added stress would be carried over to family life thus expanding the scope of the mental health issues to family members.  

Since we are in a unique time in the world today where we are coping/fighting a global pandemic (Covid - 19) which could also cause additional stress perpetuating mental health issues that would compound these issues caused by lack of usability/accessibility and inclusion in the world.

In addition to those two challenges that could lead to mental health issues just by themselves if someone already has a mental health issue caused by a medical condition their mental health issue would be even worse.

Besides those three stressful situations if someone added an additional stressful situation such  as a family member experiencing a long-term medical condition it can compound the stress level and could lead to a mental health issue.

On top of these challenges if someone has a disability and during normal times they are able to function without limitations although with the four other challenges I mentioned I feel most people may  be overwhelmed with added stress. They may even feel the loss of control of the situation especially if they are alone trying to navigate through the maze of challenges which can lead to mental health issues .

Although others have more challenging experiences of mental health issues to get us thinking and raise awareness I have noted some challenges my wife and I have experienced over the past year or so that could possibly lead to mental health issues.

• My wife has not been feeling well since March/April 2020 and her issues are growing in numbers and getting worse although fortunately none seem to be life-threatening .
• Observing my wife being sent to many urgent care visits , having many tests, given many types of medication for over a year without providing any relief to her uncomfortable issues all of it made for a stressful situation.
• In August 2021 fortunately we were able to see a primary care doctor in person then my wife was sent to many other doctors, had many other tests and was even sent to the emergency room without any relief. There were long delays in-between doctor appointments for which she experienced little improvement.
• Since the pandemic hit and attempting to be safe ordering everything online including food to be delivered added to the stress of wondering how we would eat.
• Although things are just starting to get better in regards to the pandemic due to a relapse in her health issues  she had to revert to ordering everything online again for she is not able to drive even to the doctors.
• My being completely blind and relying on assistive technology to access digital technology and at times experiencing usability/accessibility issues which prevents me from having an equitable experience and causes sadness. Although not a happy comment I sometimes jokingly tell others that it happens so frequently it’s like I might have post-traumatic stress syndrome/disorder due to these exclusions.
• At times have others think I am making a mistake in using an application or providing technical explanations simply because I am blind thus causes me to be frustrated.
• My wife and I living by ourselves and having to track down help when we are not able to do something with just the two of us causes stress.

Some questions to consider and think about when it comes to your own experience and others:

Do you have a mental health issue brought on by a medical condition or brought on by external sources like I mentioned above? How do you help your mental health issue either get better, be stable or not get worse? Have any ideas/suggestions on how to avoid causing mental health issues for others?

Although as I mentioned I am no expert one goal for family and friends affected  with mental health issues I feel should be feeling included, happiness, love , well-being and practicing resilience.

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bill.tipton.39

Twitter: http://intercoms/wdtipton

Leverage Collective Intelligence, Accessible Digital Technology and Music: Creates Happiness and a Beautiful World

After listening to Gustavo Dudamel, who is a conductor of orchestras interview “Harmony In Times Of Crisis” on a local radio station, caused me to think about how his ideas could also positively assist with leveraging collective intelligence, accessibility and inclusion. Gustavo talked about how a person needs to utilize everybody’s unique skills and talents to get the best results. If you left any section or person out of the orchestra or anything you do it would result in a poor performance which would show up in the quality of  the work and more than likely the customer may not be happy.

When listening to the interview it reminded me of my blog post I wrote “Collective Intelligence: Include The Disabled for Success” that talks about digital technology (which is anything accessed by a computer or mobile device). If a person does not utilize and leverage everybody’s unique skills and differences the result will be a poor performance in any project they are doing. This is because the people you are working with do not truly represent your customers in the world that are a diverse population including people with disabilities. The result of your work would be as if an essential section was left out of an orchestra such as the violin, flute, piccolo, English horn, clarinet, bass clarinet, trumpet, French horn, Trombone, keyboard and others. Therefore, it would result in an orchestra that would not sound pleasant and the concert would be a failure instead of a widely diverse group of people working gracefully together to create astonishing results.

If you are a designer or developer of digital technology you could be preventing  some people from being able to participate in the orchestra of life if you do not incorporate accessibility and usability into the digital technology you are developing like I describe in my Collective Intelligence blog post.

During these times in our world we have plenty of things to be discouraged about therefor let us all be happy and make a beautiful world for all people as we harmonize and combine all peoples unique and different skills to create a loving orchestra of people with fewer barriers to inclusion.

Do you have any stories or examples to share regarding the benefits of allowing all people to equitably participate without accessibility barriers? Does anyone have any suggestions regarding how to educate people on the benefits of utilizing collective intelligence of people to resolve complicated issues or how to work better as a team?  Our world is an orchestra of diverse people including those with disabilities who participate in the orchestra to deliver beautiful music and create a  happy  and  a beautiful world. Do not place false barriers such as inaccessible digital technology in the way of creating joy and causing sadness and exclusions.

I look forward to hearing your comments to help us increase happiness in the world and not leave any instruments (people) out of the orchestra of life.

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bill.tipton.39

Twitter: http://intercoms/wdtipton

How To Publish Photos /Images Even People Who Are Blind Can Visualize

Like myself some of you add photos / images to your social media posts with a goal that these images will provide enjoyment, attract or keep the attention of your followers or friends. One thing you may not be aware of if you do not take one extra relatively simple step to make the images you share accessible by adding alternative text some of your followers or friends will not know what the photo or image is. Alternative text provides a textual alternative to non-text content such as photos and images. Without taking the step of adding alternative text to your images people who are blind or visually impaired who use screen readers may feel left out since they will have no idea of what the image is.

Also finding an image without alternative text may cause your followers or friends who use screen readers to pause and wonder what they are missing in the image, thus distracting them from the desired text in the social media post. Sometimes the screen reader user even has to go back and attempt to reread the text understanding that on their second attempt they will need to skip through some images without alternative text while concentrating on the text they can read in-between the inaccessible content. Or even worse, some readers may give up attempting to read the message due to the accessibility issues in the content.

Fortunately, in most cases it only takes a few extra steps to add alternative text descriptions to make your photos and images accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired and use screen readers.

Alternative text descriptions should describe the image in as much detail as possible. However, they should also be concise to reduce the amount of text read by the screen reader. To best determine what alternative text description to use, just close your eyes and think about what you would want somebody to tell you to describe any image you cannot see enabling you to clearly visualize what the image looks like in your mind.

If your publishing software does not allow for adding alternative text directly in your publishing user interface it is possible you can incorporate HTML or ARIA directly in the code your publishing software published. For some suggestions refer to my two HTML examples below and for more details see the resource section.

If you are able to edit and view the HTML code, look for a line that says something similar to the example below:

<img src="filename.gif" alt="filename">

Replace the text in between the quotes after alt="with the alternative text description you want. For example, for the photo below I used “Bill wearing blue jeans, a red, black and gray flannel shirt, blue vest, sunglasses with support cane extended and long cane in pouch clipped to belt standing by lake at Grant Ranch Park with green rolling hills, trees, shrubs and a gray cloudy sky overhead”.

 

If the image or photo is decorative and adds no meaningful content add “” after alt =“”.

Although the suggestion described above is focused on HTML, these alternative text description concepts can assist for Facebook, Twitter and Yammer as well.

Below are some resources with details to help you add alternative text to images in Yammer, Twitter and Facebook. Also, there are tips to leverage HTML and ARIA if your publishing interface does not allow adding alternative text directly. Lastly, I have additional resources to help you learn more about alternative text and why it is so critical to help increase inclusion and decrease exclusion.

 

• How to add alternative text to images in Yammer
• How to add alternative text to images in Facebook
• How to add alternative text to images in Twitter
• WebAIM-Alternative Text
• WAI Web Accessibility Tutorials-Images Concepts
• WCAG WG-Using aria-labelledby to provide a text alternative for non-text content
• w3schools-HTML img alt Attribute

 

On the topic of alternative text descriptions does anyone have any other recommendations to help create a more inclusive environment for people who are unable to see the photos / images shared in social media?

Do any of you have suggestions on how to include everybody equally in our social media posts? Does anyone have tips to help increase inclusion for people with other disabilities besides blindness or low vision?

We all look forward to hearing your valuable comments and suggestions.

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bill.tipton.39

Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton

Reach Out to the disAbled for Assistance to Design and Develop an Intuitive and Accessible Application or Web Page

Are you responsible for the application or web page development cycle? Is one of your goals for it to be intuitive and accessible for everyone to use efficiently?  You could be designing or developing an enterprise application installed on a server accessed by a browser by anyone over the internet. Maybe you are designing or developing a consumer or an enterprise application installed on a computer, mobile device, or a web page. Or you may be deploying a digital service and have these same goals of equal access.

As part of your careful design and development process you may have implemented user interface (UI), User Experience design (UX), accessibility and usability techniques to help with this goal. 

One valuable resource you may have overlooked to assist is getting some guidance from people with disabilities. Since they may use a variety of assistive technologies, they could provide excellent feedback on User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), usability as well as accessibility. To be sure you are evaluating for a broad range of assistive technology (AT) I suggest you at least have people evaluate with screen magnification, screen readers and voice recognition AT. Also people with disabilities have other unique and valuable skills that could be beneficial to your design.

Although other people with disabilities or challenges can assist just as well as I can, I will explain some skills a person who is blind may have that can relate to assisting with developing an organized and accessible user interface with some added accessibility tips.

Since I am completely blind it is helpful to keep track of things around the house and in my office. To assist with this goal I attempt to keep things in a familiar and organized location. This organization allows me to easily and quickly locate what I am looking for by utilizing landmarks by touch alone.

The way I locate things and get around in my physical world could be compared to designing a user interface in the digital world where all aspects of the application or web page are usable and accessible. This includes all user elements in the application or web page.

Some examples of user elements are hyperlinks, buttons, radio buttons, check boxes, drop down lists, form fields, navigational elements and additional user elements.  This design includes insuring text and all user elements has sufficient contrast in an organized well-designed user interface where all actions can be performed by a keyboard. This user experience design and development attention along with accessibility techniques will aid in creating a positive user experience to help prevent frustration and unintentionally excluding some users.

One example from the physical world might be how some people who are completely blind walk down a hallway. They could know when they reach the fifth doorway on the right side of the hallway from cane tapping, sound differences as they pass doors or if they use a guide dog.  If they have been in the room before they may know what the layout of the room is based on past experience. If you translate that to user interface design in the digital world you could think of each doorway as navigating down to the third heading level and know what is within that heading based on the text of that heading and the text of the second level heading.

Another way you can think about designing an effective user interface and creating a positive user experience is by being able to find your way around no matter where you are located within the application or webpage. For example from the physical world if I drop something on the floor and I hear it bounce or slide far away from where I am located I listen for it hit the floor. As it either bounces or slides across the floor I focus on where it stops making the noise to give me an idea of where it might be. I can then locate it by feeling navigational landmarks on the floor such as furniture to help me avoid obstacles and guide me to what I have dropped. This is similar to designing an effective user interface with key landmarks on it that will guide the user to sections, user controls, form fields or other user interaction types.  This design will help the user to intuitively use the application or web page successfully.

Another example from the physical world. Just think of a completely blind person attempting to walk alone without the aid of a long white cane or a guide dog in an unfamiliar area. Their chances of locating a glass of water they were told would be on one of the tall cabinets in one of the rooms could be difficult or time consuming.

If you label all like user element types the same throughout the application or webpage and have sufficient descriptive landmarks this will assist users in effectively knowing how to interact with the user elements and move around the user interface with ease.

In addition to the Design, Development and Accessibility Section further down I have a few accessibility and usability tips below. If I use HTML terminology please translate these to whatever coding language you are using.

• Insure every user element in your application or webpage is accessible by a keyboard because not everyone uses a mouse. Designing for keyboard accessibility not only helps the disabled who use specific types of assistive technology it also will help the keyboard only users who do not have a disability.
• Be sure all essential graphics have alternative description to enable the screen reader users to understand the complete content and interact with all user controls.
• Insure all hyperlinks describe the destination and are descriptive when reading out of context and none of them have duplicate names if the destination page is not the same.
• Be sure the tab order and on-screen focus is correct. When you use your tab key to navigate through the interface the focus should mirror the visual order of navigation, links and controls on the page with sufficient visual indication of focus. 
• Insure any tables are accessible by identifying the row and column headers and use captions if needed.
• Be sure all aspects of the application or web page have sufficient contrast to help all users.
• Insure like user controls are named the same within the same application or group of web pages that have the same topic to help the user from getting confused. Example: Do not use both buttons and hyperlinks if they both act like hyperlinks.
• Use headings and utilize other landmarks to assist with navigating the user interface to speed up navigation for all keyboard, voice recognition such as Dragon Naturally Speaking, and screen reader assistive technology users.
• The use of proper headings will not only help screen reader users, these will also assist keyboard only users and help with the structure and visual layout.
• Headings will also assist people who use voice recognition assistive technology such as Dragon Naturally Speaking (DNS) since some of the DNS users could speak the concise heading name to jump from heading to heading.
• Leverage proper semantics or the equivalent in your application or web page. If you cannot incorporate HTML in your application utilize the equivalent of semantic elements that are available in HTML in the specific technical requirements for your technology you are using to develop your application.  Also use semantic elements when developing webpages.  By leveraging semantics you can provide meaningful information regarding the user elements or page structure to the web browser thus to assistive technology users to assist them in using the product effectively.
• Developing a usable and accessible application or webpage does not only assist the disabled it helps everybody. For example you may have heard of people without any disability talking about an application or web page where they were so confused attempting to interact with it they had no way of intuitively knowing how to use it. This leads to extreme frustration and loss of valuable time.

After you complete your design and have a functioning product you are ready for your first pilot and to receive feedback. If you know of a person who uses assistive technology such as a screen reader, screen magnification or voice recognition ask them to try out your application or web page and provide their valuable feedback. If you do not know of anyone, contact a professional accessibility evaluation company to assist. You could also contact a non-profit organization related to people with disabilities and they may be able to get you connected with a person who can assist. In my opinion if they are located near you, you might even watch them use the application or web page in person over having them perform the evaluation remotely since this will benefit you in at least two ways.

• You will see any difficulties they may be experiencing first hand to allow you to resolve the issues in the next revision or better yet on the fly when you are with them.
• You will see a big grin on their face if you’ve developed and designed the application or webpage well and they can easily navigate it. I know personally I have a great big smile on my face if I am using an application or a webpage that is accessible, designed and functions well.

To learn about how people who are blind access information on their PCs or mobile devices read Understanding Assistive Technology: How Does a Blind Person use the Internet and How People Who Are Blind Can Orientate Themselves Using a Screen Reader.

Resources to Assist with Design, Development and Accessibility

User Interface Design Basics-Usability.gov

A Beginner’s Guide to User Experience (UX) Fundamentals-General Assembly

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1

Does anyone have any tips for User Interface designers, User Experience designers and developers for applications and web pages to help us design more effective applications or webpages that will result in a user friendly experience instead of a user unfriendly experience? Do you have any resources to share that will help us all in designing more effective and accessible user interfaces or techniques to design more intuitive and less cluttered user interfaces?

We all look forward to hearing your valuable thoughts, resources and any other information you want to share to help everyone to showcase talents equally and effectively without artificial limits.

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bill.tipton.39

Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton

Resolving Accessibility Barriers in Isolation: Achieve with Kindness

Are you older and have found using some technologies such as web pages, web applications, standalone applications on your mobile device or computer difficult to use if not impossible? Are you disabled and use assistive technology on your mobile device or computer and find using these same technologies not possible?  Do they not react the way you believe they should compared to similar technologies you have successfully used? Are you disabled or have short- or long-term challenges and do not use assistive technology and find using these same technologies difficult?

Although you may have never heard of usability or accessibility, these issues you are experiencing could be related to accessibility or usability.

If the designers and developers leverage the accessibility recommendations documented in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2. and other guidelines/recommendations the accessibility issues you may have experienced could have been avoided.

If the technology owners are not aware of the positive Business Case for Digital Accessibility (Web Accessibility Initiative) WAI/W3C) they may find this resource beneficial to influence accessibility.

Have you experienced and reported accessibility obstacles and felt like you were working to resolve the issues in isolation? If you have felt or feel this way, I encourage you to never give up hope to not only to help yourself, but to assist the many other people who are experiencing the same barriers as you are. One or more of the many points below and others you find elsewhere may assist you at being successful at working on resolving accessibility issues with kindness.

• When contacting the product managers, designers and developers with kindness keep in mind, they may not have intentionally excluded any person. If you do find a person who has not heard of accessibility and does not understand it, explain how if they would have leveraged the documented techniques and requirements that are available some of the barriers encountered could have been avoided.
• After providing valuable accessibility education some developers may enjoy making the necessary modifications to incorporate accessibility and inclusion.
• Subsequently after receiving accessibility education some may also recognize the benefits of including accessibility in the upfront design and development plans to save time and money over retrofitting for accessibility after the technology has been released to customers and users start reporting the barriers preventing them from using the technology.
• During the process of resolving accessibility issues some owners may offer alternatives that may work to accomplish the task the person was attempting to do when they experienced the issue.  Although these suggestions may not be an efficient or effective solution and will take much longer for the end user to accomplish the task compared to if the technology was accessible.  
• Some may discourage you from doing what you need to accomplish to enhance your personal life or to advance your professional career instead of modifying the technology to incorporate accessibility.
• When someone discourages you from fully utilizing technology this may make you feel like you’re not worthy of participating in certain technology activities that other people who do not run into accessibility challenges are able to do anytime they feel like it without waiting for external assistance instead of implementing the needed accessibility technology enhancements.
• You may hear that it costs too much money to modify the technology after you submit your issue. Therefore, the owner may elect to sacrifice the ability for all people to use the technology over costs to retrofit the technology for accessibility. If you find you need to wait some time before they possibly address your issue keep in touch with the owner you took valuable time to locate and develop a positive relationship with as they incorporate accessibility in their next release.
• It is best to keep in touch from time to time with the person you reported the issue to since if you do not check in the enhancement request may drop off the enhancement list due to other priorities.
• When talking with some developers or others you may hear them say a person with a disability will never use my technology. You might also hear some developer say this hardware is locked up in a closet and only one person has access to it and that person does not have a disability therefore it does not need to be accessible. You may gently remind the developer it is possible that person who has access to the hardware may no longer be available and you may have another extremely qualified candidate to take over that job function who has a disability. Therefore, you would have been better prepared by making the hardware accessible to be ready for such personnel flexibility. Also, all the software to manage the hardware should be accessible since people anywhere in the world are able to access hardware over the Internet or Intranet using the latest technology.
• Some developers or others may tell you this technology is only for managers, scientists or other professions.  You may need to gently remind them that many people with disabilities hold a large variety of positions and are highly successful in their professions.  
• Subsequently after you communicate an issue you may hear back from the owner that this technology is not theirs and they procured it from an outside vendor. If you have a relationship with the person you contacted, they may be in a better position to influence accessibility enhancements on your behalf if this occurs.
• Although bullying or shaming people into making technology accessible may seem like a good short-term solution it is never ever a positive long-term solution for forming mutual exclusive valuable partnerships. At some point you may require their assistance again and if you did not treat them with respect and kindness in the past, they will be less likely to engage with you the next time you need them.   
• Be patient and listen as you educate the designers and developers regarding accessibility. Treat them with kindness, compassion and respect as you teach them about the technical aspects as well as the value of accessible technology to increase their customer base and customer satisfaction.
• I encourage you to not feel discouraged. Pursue ahead to help the product managers, designers and developers understand how they can improve their technology so it works for all people equally and not just certain people. Also remember it does take time to resolve accessibility issues once they are reported therefore be patient and understanding.
• Although at times you may feel frustrated and discouraged at your progress towards increasing accessibility, think about the countless others you are not aware of who do not have accessibility skills to resolve the issues themselves that you are helping to be more productive.
• Never stop partnering with others to increase accessibility with a kind and understanding attitude.
• At times during the process of resolving an accessibility issue you may feel discouraged, sad and tempted to give up. However, it is best to pursue ahead otherwise progress will not be made.
• If you submit an accessibility enhancement request and do not get a response or updates on progress do not be completely discouraged and feel as if you are resolving accessibility barriers in isolation. Although this is an example of poor customer service, it is possible the people you reported the issue to are making progress “in silence” without responding to you with an update.

Do you have any suggestions for people who are working on resolving accessibility issues in what seems like isolation? Do you have any tips for product managers, designers and developers to encourage them to work on accessibility in the design phase instead of waiting for users to become excluded from using the technology they develop? Do you have any tips to assist those who are new to accessibility so they feel more comfortable at providing accurate and actionable suggestions to developers in order to help them resolve any accessibility issue they report?

Also do you have any suggestions on how to help the user so they do not feel discouraged and frustrated when working on accessibility issues on what seems like their own?

We all look forward to hearing your valuable thoughts and comments to help increase accessibility thus enabling inclusion.

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bill.tipton.39

Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton

 

Coaching and Mentoring Can Assist with Leadership and Self Confidence

I am grateful I have been able to provide assistance to people in many ways since I went completely blind almost twenty years ago.  One example is when I accepted a leadership role in an employee resource group a few years ago. I held this position for over five years. During this five-year time period until I decided to step down and turn over the leadership role to another person the membership grew from less than 10 employees from 1 country to more than 125 employees from over 17 countries.  My action of stepping down allowed that other person to practice coaching and leadership. When in this leadership position along with my leadership team I was happy to help inspire leadership, educate and mentor people individually as well as in group settings.

I enjoy writing and publishing stories at my blog to hopefully help in educating and increasing self-confidence for my readers. Although at times I feel some people may get tired of reading the different stories or my experiences. I sense they might think that I am just talking about myself even though I am actually trying to offer assistance by providing examples of what a person can accomplish. In some of my blog posts I also attempt to inspire leadership and self-determination in others through what I write.

It is beneficial to coach or mentor others to assist them in discovering their leadership skills.  I feel the more moral, ethical and compassionate leaders we have in the world the better we all are. Some people may only need a little gentle nudging or encouragement to enable them to demonstrate their ability and skills to blossom into a leader or mentor.

If you enjoy mentoring to develop leadership skills and self-confidence there are many places to locate people looking to increase these skills. For example, there are nonprofit organizations with clients that may be able to use your assistance. There could be a mentoring program within the company you work for. It is also possible you may meet a person at a local area event or a community function.

At the start of this blog post I stated that I have been assisting others for almost twenty years. I am not sure why I was not as involved with helping others prior to losing my eyesight? Maybe I thought I was too busy. I did not work hard or put enough hours or I did not properly prioritize helping others along with my own family.

I recently read an excellent blog post called Leadership is the Art of Releasing Greatness in Others - Leaders Blog that I believe you will enjoy and might be able to leverage some of the helpful hints from it.

Besides leveraging the excellent suggestions in the blog post “Leadership is the Art of Releasing Greatness in Others” below are a few additional points that may assist you. 

• If you work in a company where they have Employee Resource Groups or Affinity Groups consider taking on a leadership role.
• Do not just talk to the person you are assisting without providing time for them to communicate with you. Listen carefully, sensing any non-verbal cues that could help you assist them.   Ask caring direct questions to help you better understand their educational needs and to know them as a person to improve your coaching experience.
• When teaching leadership skills or mentoring others it's best to sometimes let the mentee experience their own difficult challenges if it will not harm them physically.  When coaching self-reliance skills only assist as you feel it is necessary to help the person build self-confidence.
• If you enjoy writing, locate opportunities to coach by your writing.
• When discovering your leadership skills do not forget to leverage your unique skills and techniques you have learned if you happen to be a person with a disability. These unique abilities and viewpoints you possess are extremely valuable and can be leveraged to help you become an effective leader. Also, others can learn and benefit from your unique skills and techniques and how they helped you to overcome any challenges or obstacles you may have encountered to achieve your success.
• If you are disabled and use assistive technology and have the skills to educate others regarding accessibility/usability demonstrate your leadership skills by coaching developers and designers on how to make the tools you use be more accessible.  This will not only help you it will also benefit other people who use assistive technology. If you accomplish your goal with a caring leadership frame of mind, that person you took the time to coach may help educate others to spread the value of accessibility.
• If you have direct contact with product designers and developers provide your expertise to coach them on how to make their products more accessible and usable to more of their customers with disabilities. This leadership action you take can help the product teams increase their customer base by enabling larger numbers of people to use their products more effectively and efficiently.
• If you are disabled and experience an accessibility issue and report the issue with details it is possible the person you reported the issue to might think, because you are disabled, you might be doing something incorrectly and therefor there isn’t an accessibility or usability issue.  This attitude and way of thinking can stem from their lack of knowledge regarding accessibility or disability awareness skills because they have not had the opportunity to further their education on these important topics. Therefore this provides you with an excellent opportunity to demonstrate your leadership skills by educating them on these accessibility issues. By demonstrating your leadership skills through your knowledge on these issues you can show them that this accessibility issue is not due to anything you did “incorrectly.”  However, possibly because of lack of accessibility awareness, it is the designers/developers of the tool/application who did not develop it correctly that actually caused these issues. After you bring these accessibility issues with tips to resolve them to the owner’s attention you might be amazed at how grateful they may be to learn something new.
• Be prepared to receive negative feedback from some of your ideas about coaching others on various difficult projects that your mentee may be attempting to accomplish. For example, some may say nobody has ever done that before or that is not the way it has been done in the past. They might even have other criticisms about your ideas. Therefore if you are helping others ethically and morally you should proceed ahead with care.
• Besides coaching and mentoring others do not be afraid to receive coaching yourself to increase your knowledge of leadership styles and mentoring techniques. This continuous education will enable you to assist others more effectively and efficiently.
• If you're going to have a long-term structured coaching experience be sure to include detailed goals with objectives and timelines to help everybody keep on track for success.
• If you are able to and believe you aren’t too busy you may want to attempt to prioritize and free up a little of your time to help others.

Do you have any suggestions on how to coach and mentor others to help them improve their leadership skills and/or become coaches themselves?  What examples can you share with us to help us coach or mentor others to be effective leaders or coaches with any tips? Do you have any tips for people with short or long term disabilities to harness their unique abilities and to increase their leadership skills?

We all look forward to hearing your valuable thoughts and comments to help us become better moral, ethical and compassionate leaders.

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bill.tipton.39

Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton

 

Why People Who are Blind May Make Better Project Managers

As a person who has been completely blind since May of 1999 I believe my senses have been enhanced in a variety of beneficial ways.  I have found that my newly acquired skills and senses have helped me to be a better Program and Project Manager which I have been doing for nearly two decades.

After becoming blind my organizational, planning and interpersonal relationship skills have also been heightened. I found I now have enhanced abilities to sense a person’s feelings and trustworthiness which can assist in my leading projects. These enhanced abilities benefit in other professions as well.

Below are a few examples of the enhanced skills I gained after becoming blind that could assist in being an effective Program or Project Manager that other blind or visually impaired people may also have.

• I have the ability to adapt and learn quickly with tenacity and resilience. After suddenly going blind I was in a coma for three months. After being in the hospital for seven months I was finally able to be released. I then had the opportunity to learn the required blindness related skills I needed to accomplish tasks as a newly blind person. Besides learning on my own I also reached out to others and organizations to help educate myself to enable me to return back to work quickly. These tenacity and resilience skills can be helpful in any project a person is managing.
• I have the ability to laugh at myself which can help reduce stress in projects I manage. One of many examples is when I was writing my Lemonade on the Road to Recovery story that was published in the Blind Californian. In it I talk about some rehabilitation after I had not taken a drink of cool liquid in approximately five months, I laughed a few times when writing the story, although some might think the story was tragic or sad.
• I have the ability to quickly make course corrections for successful results. An example is, I may drop something and listen to the sounds as the object bounces and slides across the floor. The ability to locate the object being completely blind is an enhanced skill that can make course corrections in projects relatively easy compared to locating something in complete darkness.
• I have learned to be patient and flexible. Another example is when I was pushed into a waiting area in the hospital during my seven month stay I waited for hours and hours by myself for a procedure while sitting in a wheelchair. Not being able to see anything around me and not knowing when anyone would show up forced me to learn the value of patience which is a valuable trait when managing projects and teams.  
• I have the ability to increase my network opportunities by communicating with organizations I interact with which enables me to be around other people who are blind, in addition to people with many other types of disabilities. This first - hand education enables me to have a diverse perspective when managing programs and projects with people with a valuable diverse skillset. This also enables me to equally value the diverse perspectives of others to deliver unique and inclusive projects.
• I have a can-do attitude. An example is I always find a way to accomplish a task. Many people who are disabled run into accessibility/usability barriers and find unique methods to overcome these barriers. This provides excellent education for overcoming obstacles or perceived barriers within project teams.
• I have the ability to overcome the incorrect attitudes about abilities of the disabled. One example, is when somebody assumes a person who is completely blind makes mistakes when dialing a phone number or following text directions in an email message. When these inaccurate assumptions are presented it gives me the opportunity to educate everyone in the project team while respecting with kindness the people who are unaware of the successes and abilities of blind people. With proper assistive technology and accessible tools blind people can accomplish most anything a non-disabled person can do which will assist their team in succeeding. These misunderstandings also give me opportunities to learn when it's best to let things go or attempt to educate those who are not aware.
• I have the ability to work virtually as if I am in person. Since I do not see anything, it does not matter if I am sitting across the table with the person or group I am working with or they are half way around the world. I can sense if the person or group I am talking with understands me from listening to their voices, including speech tones, pitches, volumes, and sensing emotions.  By using these abilities I am able to sense others reactions to my conversation which enables me to make any course correction in my communication style for maximum effectiveness.  This skill assists to deliver successful projects.
• I have a better understanding of demonstrating the value of partnerships and leadership. Because of strategizing and tactical skills I possess I may have authority and solid facts to back up my actions. Although sometimes it's best not to take all actions that I am able to take because this brute force method might actually inhibit relationships that may impact the project and long-term credibility for ethical and compassionate behavior.
• I have enhanced leadership skills which are demonstrated when working with a diverse team of employees, contractors and others who I am not directly responsible for. It is beneficial for me to leverage my enhanced senses to act as an ethical leader to assist in getting the project completed even though I do not have authority.
• I have a more accurate sense of timing based on how difficult each component of the project is and the ability to gauge the skills of each team member and their perceived commitment to success. This skill helps me better understand when to launch each component of the project to improve the chance for a successful outcome for all components to be delivered on time and within budget.
• I have learned to be grateful, value family, co-workers and relationships every day. Without going through extreme struggles at times that my wife and I endure by ourselves without any help I would not be able to help out others by leading and participating in valuable projects and programs.

Although I explained some skills that I have these are not unique to me alone. I believe all people with disabilities harness similar skills who have a variety of disabilities that can be leveraged to help companies progress in their goals to assist their customers.

Does anyone want to share other examples of skills people who are disabled have that can aid in project or program management roles? Can you share other unique and valuable skills people with disabilities have, other than blindness or low vision, that can assist them in all professions?

We all look forward to hearing your valuable thoughts and comments.

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton

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Holidays; Sharing Your Time Can Be a Valuable Gift

During the holidays I enjoy participating in get togethers with family and friends. I am aware not everyone has family or friends nearby. Also, some people believe they are too busy to share time with others and prefer to be alone. I feel one should participate unselfishly with others if given the opportunity. Over the past few years I have lost many loved ones and am grateful I was able to be with them sharing memories when I had a chance to.

During this time of the year we have many opportunities to share our self with others. For example, for the people in the US we recently had Thanksgiving. We also have Christmas, Hanukkah and New Years among many other holidays.

If your special holiday traditions involve the purchase of gifts, I understand some wish to participate in such However I believe a gift of sharing yourself can be more valuable than any store purchased gift.

I am aware of the value of assistance and sharing because of the many challenges my wife, Kathy, and I attempt to overcome daily. I use to do all the driving when I had eyesight. Now that I am blind and can no longer drive and my wife does not feel comfortable driving on freeways traveling is difficult. Not having the option to drive introduces unique challenges when Kathy is sick and I need to bring her to the doctors, get medicine for us or do grocery shopping. Repairing/maintaining minor things around the house is challenging and extremely time consuming. Reading my postal mail and responding to correspondence is also difficult for me.

Why We Have New Obstacles We Are Grateful To Overcome:

On May 26, 1999 I had become critically ill and went into the hospital. I spent seven months in the hospital, in which three of the months I was in a coma.  I returned home from the hospital on December 28, 1999. We received medical bills totaling over one million dollars which caused Kathy and I to address several challenges. When we received the medical bills at this stage in my recovery I was in bed and could not get out without assistance. Unfortunately at the same time the landlord raised our rent.  Also we no longer had medical coverage due to exceeding the limits of the insurance policy.  Therefor we were on our own to pay any remaining costs out of pocket.

Despite these difficulties, the alternative of my dying during my hospitalization would have been far worse.   

I am grateful to be able to say I survived so I can share my time with others and enjoy life and all the difficulties it presents at times. Even though my life has changed forever when I hear the song by Barbra Streisand,  “The Way We Were”, it reminds me of the way it used to be.

I am happy my wife Kathy and I were able to uphold our wedding vows we committed to each other on June 14, 1987 which are noted below and to continue to give each other the best gift of all.

I (name), take you (name), for my lawful wedded wife/husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part. 

I am grateful I have the opportunity to work in my profession long hours at times with little downtime even through some weekends. Despite the challenges my wife Kathy and I continually face and somehow overcome I still try to find time to provide my gift of helping others.  Examples are being a mentor, helping to increase accessibility/usability in my workplace, helping drive inclusion and helping others in my community.

Below are some suggestions on how an individual can share time with others as well as demonstrate gratefulness. 

Examples of Valuable Gifts from My Wife Kathy, Family and Others:

• I am grateful Kathy did not take the advice of others and leave me when I was in the hospital during my seven month stay. This gift enabled us to continue on our life journey sharing life’s experiences together.
• I am grateful Kathy did not accept the advice of the hospital personnel of sending me to a rehabilitation facility far away from family and friends when I ran out of insurance after being in the hospital for seven months. She gave me the loving gift by taking me home to provide  some rehabilitation herself which also enabled me to connect with local organizations to further assist me instead of my being isolated in some far-off location.
• I am grateful my dad provided the gift of building me a standing frame from plans he got from one of our local hospitals. This enabled my wife Kathy to work with me daily at home using this device along with the other required therapy.  Although most doctors thought I would never walk again, using this standing frame with other therapy eventually enabled me to walk again with the assistance of two canes, one support cane and one long white cane for navigation.  
• I am grateful after I got home from the hospital in December of 1999 for some family members, a co- worker and others who came over to provide the gift of assistance.
• I am grateful after having a total hip replacement in 2013 Kathy provided the gift of bringing me home to help me perform  the required rehabilitation which enabled me to recover and heal at home instead of sending me to a rehabilitation center.
• I am grateful I have Kathy to provide gifts all year long such as maintaining our home, our yard, our car as well as doing the finances, cooking delicious meals and all of the other things she does daily from sunrise to well past sunset, occasionally taking some time off for herself.
• I am grateful that Kathy decorates our home for the holidays sharing the gift of enjoyment and holiday traditions for all who are able to experience the holiday wonderland.  This environment spreads the happiness and cheer that goes with creating a festive and loving environment.
• I am grateful to have received the gift of positivity and prayers from many people all around the world to assist me in coming out of my coma and surviving my critical medical condition.

Other Examples of Valuable Gifts:

• I am grateful for the gift of assistive technology. When I went blind this technology enabled me to retain my job after a lot of training and commitment to re-skilling myself.
• Give the gift of your personal companionship by spending time with others to help decrease loneliness and promote happiness.
• Offer your gift of experience, time and expertise to help people in your workplace, non-profit organizations, neighborhood, your community and other places around the world who can benefit from your skills and knowledge.
• Provide the gift of assisting the less fortunate, the disabled, the elderly or those who are in need so as to help increase optimism and self-esteem as well as helping them with tasks they cannot do themselves.
• Provide the gift of knowledge by teaching, mentoring and give guidance to people in your personal and professional life to help in order to share educational opportunities.
• If in your professional life you are in direct contact with customers you should provide the gift of treating them with respect and caring like you should do for everyone.
• If you work in an organization or business and are able to develop programs to assist employees or customers with challenges or disabilities in the work-place or customer facing products or services you can provide a unique gift by launching programs to assist these employees and customers to be more self-sufficient.
• One can provide the gift of inclusion and equal access by developing and promoting accessible and usable web pages, applications and devices.  This practice can help increase inclusion and reduce exclusion.

These gifts I have listed are equally reciprocal as gifts to yourself. When you give the gift of yourself there are others that receive your gifts through the people you touch.  One other side benefit of providing such gifts is that you will never know who you may have helped from your generosity and caring.

Do you have any suggestions on how to share unselfishly and celebrate holidays while helping others? Can you provide ideas as to how to have time to help the less fortunate, the elderly or the disabled? Do you have any stories to share to help us all learn the benefits of providing the gift of assisting others in need while increasing happiness?

We all look forward to hearing your valuable thoughts and comments.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year and can find some time to create happiness for others!!

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton

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Lack of Awareness Can Result in Accessibility Obstacles

Has anyone ever heard discussions about people with disabilities not necessarily needing or requiring access to particular applications, web pages or documentation because they assume people with disabilities will never use them?

Or, maybe you have experienced people displaying a lack of awareness of what skills disabled people have to offer? Others may not be willing to fully utilize the valuable and unique skills people with disabilities have. Maybe that is because they are unaware of how effective assistive technology can be at levelling the playing field and assisting employees to be as effective as anyone not using assistive technology. Some uninformed people may assume no disabled person could be a people manager or a leader of others. Therefore, their thought process is that applications needed to perform that job function is not required to be accessible since no disabled person will use those particular applications, web pages or documentation. This thought process unfairly restricts promotional opportunities for the disabled.

It is also possible you may have heard someone tell a person with a disability that they do not need to use that application therefore it does not need to be made accessible. Perhaps you have also overheard the excuse that it is not likely a person with a disability who uses assistive technology is going to become a system administrator, therefor that function of the software does not need to be made accessible.

I know of people who are disabled and use assistive technology successfully who perform very technical roles. For example, database administrators, system administrators managing systems locally or remotely using software, application developers and scientists as well as others working in many other highly successful professional roles including managers.

To increase accessibility/usability I feel it is not beneficial to make assumptions on who will use a product. It is far easier to design and develop all applications, web pages and documentation to be accessible and usable to all people. This best practice will also save valuable time and money if a person reports an accessibility issue that requires the developer to immediately drop everything and retrofit the product for usability/accessibility after the product has already been designed, developed and released to the public.

Has anyone ever experienced any of the awareness or stereotypical challenges I talk about above regarding accessibility? Does anyone have any ideas of how to break the assumptions that people with disabilities should not be restricted to certain jobs or professions despite their education and skills?

Does anyone have any thoughts on the value of accessibility and the benefits of demonstrating inclusion and valuing all people equally? Has anyone experienced any positive examples regarding this topic that you might want to share? 

Lastly, does anyone have other tips or success stories to help educate us all on the benefits of fully utilizing the complete talents of people with disabilities instead of restricting their professional or personal progress?

We all look forward to hearing your valuable comments and tips.

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

https://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bill.tipton.39

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wdtipton                

Documentation Accessibility: Consider Usability as Well

Are you a developer or designer of software (standalone or web based) and would like to develop a product to enable as many people to effectively use it successfully?  

To assist in increasing customer satisfaction do you develop your product to be as usable and accessible as possible? Do you follow and conform to such guidelines as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1) and the Revised Section 508 standards and Section 255 of the Communications Act?  

You may also follow up by performing the necessary automated and manual accessibility evaluations enabling you to review the results of the evaluation reports and correct anything before going live. Since all accessibility evaluation reports you received were positive you felt comfortable everything was addressed to help insure your product was as accessible as possible. To help assure all users would be able to read your documentation you followed procedures on how to make your user documentation accessible such as the procedures in Make Your Word Documents Accessible - Office Support and Create and Verify PDF Accessibility - Adobe.

Since software may have many options and screens to interact with it and operate all controls, a clear, concise and accurate user documentation is required to learn the product. Also it may have a user interface that is not intuitive to a new user.  Because of this complexity without clear and correct user documentation a new user may not be able to teach themselves all aspects of the product, preventing them from using the software.

After all of the careful planning and your software product went live you received some feedback from a customer stating they could not use the software with a screen reader (assistive technology).  Receiving such a comment made you wonder what you may have missed in your vigilant plan to launch an accessible software product. Could it be the user documentation?  

Although I talk a little bit about usability for software this blog post focuses on documentation.

A Few Tips to Assist in Developing More Usable User Documentation:

• Follow all vendors’ procedures that describe how to develop accessible documents using the application used to develop the document.
• Insure the user documentation uses the exact words that are in the software user interface.
• Use the correct terminology for each user interface element contained in the software so it matches the documentation since some assistive technology like screen readers read these controls. A few examples are drop down menu, hyperlink, and button and...
• Do not use orientation words in the documentation such as “refer to the upper left-hand corner of the screen”. Screen reader users who are blind cannot easily reference within an application using spatial references with no text or user control element landmarks.
• Do not rely on color alone when providing guidance. Describe the text user interface controls in detail. A poor example is “Click on the red image”.
• After every software modification update the user documentation if the update changes the user interface or landmark words you used in the past versions.
• Not all users use a mouse therefore include all equivalent short cut keystrokes to perform all mouse tasks.  
• If alt attributes (alternative text) were used to specify an alternate text for images in the software, be sure the text that was used for the alt attribute matches the user documentation. This is especially important if an alt attribute happens to be on a user control.  
• Perform automated accessibility evaluations and manual evaluations following well designed scripts by people with disabilities who use a wide range of assistive technology.
• Get feedback from people with disabilities who use a wide range of assistive technology.
• Lastly, it is possible the software is accessible. However, without accurate and complete user documentation a user who uses assistive technology could get lost attempting to learn a new non-intuitive software product without accurate documentation designed for all users.

Although my short list is not inclusive, if one thinks about these tips they may assist in developing more usable and accessible user documentation. This will help users who use assistive technology to use the software effectively.

Since I am completely blind, use a screen reader plus have many years of experience in accessibility, often people ask my opinion on accessibility.  When a person asks me if a certain software application I have used is accessible sometimes I'm reluctant to answer because I do not have enough information to tell if it is accessible. This may be because I do not know how to use the software well enough since the user interface is complicated and not intuitive allowing me to learn without accurate user documentation. In these instances the user documentation may be the problem and not the software unless I immediately find obvious accessibility issues which even excellent user documentation cannot overcome.

When developing software it is extremely beneficial to incorporate accessibility in the design and developmental phase due to the expense of going back and retrofitting accessibility after it is developed and launched to the public. Plus, if it is launched with accessibility issues a developer may receive negative customer feedback which impacts customer relations. Developing accurate, accessible and usable user documentation is critical in completing the accessibility experience.

If you develop accurate and accessible documentation it may also help you from receiving comments regarding users stating they cannot use the software due to accessibility issues when the issue could be with the user documentation and not with the software. As I stated in my introduction to this topic this could have been the case why a screen reader user reported an accessibility issue preventing them from using the software just after the product went live.

Do you have any tips to help develop more accurate and usable user documentation? Would you like to share any success stories? Any other thoughts that come to mind that may help our conversation after reading this?

We all look forward to hearing your valuable thoughts and comments.

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wdtipton

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bill.tipton.39

Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton