Disability Dialogue with Bill

Ask Questions to Help Others and Promote Intuitive Software User Interfaces

I hope you, your family and friends have an enjoyable and healthy New Year in 2025. As we celebrate the opportunities in 2025 do not forget to think about and reach out to the less fortunate and those who may be alone or struggling. In addition assist at promoting accessible and usable digital technology to reduce unneeded struggling or barriers to happiness and productivity. In my profession when I am assisting software designers and developers to teach them about accessibility and about people with disabilities including those who use assistive technology I encourage my audience to ask questions. I let them know as a person who is completely blind and uses a screen reader that no question will offend me. Also nobody can learn in a silo without asking questions to increase one’s education quickly and successfully.

Let us help to increase accessible, usable, equitable and intuitive software and digital technology user interfaces to assist at allowing all to contribute equitably.  To accomplish developing an accessible, usable and intuitive interface design will require you not to be afraid to ask critical questions and do the research required to come up with an equitable design for all. As part of this process before moving the digital technology to production, you should perform automated accessibility and manual accessibility evaluations by people with a broad range of disabilities using a variety of assistive technologies and resolve all issues detected.  

Being technically accessible such as conforming to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 is a great start although it should be thought of the bassline for accessibility and does not mean the digital technology will be usable by all people. Therefore, it is required to go beyond being technically accessible and expand the digital technology to be usable with an intuitive user interface.

Thank you for your support for accessible, usable and intuitive digital technology including software. Also, if you are aware of someone who is alone or struggling reach out to them and do not be afraid to ask caring questions to see if you can assist with anything.  Most people who may need help will not reach out to others since they believe they are a burden to others and the others are too busy to help. Also if they are promised help that never happens they just give up asking for any help. Additionally, the person needing help is so overwhelmed at attempting to just get by has no time to reach out for assistance.

Do you have any suggestions on how to celebrate the New Year and to include those who might be alone and may be struggling? Does anyone have any suggestions on how to promote usable and intuitive software interfaces that are usable and accessible to a broad range of people  to help alleviate the need for digital technology isolation? Since some people are timid about hurting people's feelings preventing them from asking critical questions do you have any suggestions on how to allow more people to ask questions without fear of hurting somebody's feelings?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments. If you have any comments or feedback, please send an email to Bill Tipton since unfortunately the comments are closed to my blog site.

Have a wonderful and caring new year.

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

X - Formally Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton 

Accessible Procurement is Critical for Inclusion and Meeting Regulations

One critical component of a successful Accessibility Program is having a documented procurement policy for procuring and deploying accessible and usable digital technology into production. This does not only save time and money by reducing the risks of deploying digital technology employees or customers cannot use, it also saves time and money by having everybody follow a reproducible policy and procedure for procuring and deploying accessible and usable digital technology. Having and following a documented accessibility procurement policy will help your customers or employees use digital technology, including software you procure equitably, independently without barriers for their success.

Procuring accessible and usable digital technology will also help you meet the requirements for some of the new regulations for digital accessibility and assisting people with disabilities such as the European Accessibility Act (EAA), the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) , the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), Americans with Disabilities Act Title II  and other regulations and laws.

A Few Points to Assist

• Document any accessibility requirements you require from your vendors in the Statement of Work (SOW), purchase order and contracts.
• After you have requested and examined the Accessibility Conformance Reports (ACR) from your prospective vendors which helps you select the digital technology and accessibility that meets your needs. Then after you purchase the digital technology it is required you perform automated and manual accessibility evaluations in your own environment before you deploy it into production to your customers or employees. This step is to be sure there are no accessibility issues you did not expect from looking at the ACR. This is because some digital technology is complicated and even though the vendor performed an accessibility evaluation when creating the Accessibility Conformance Report when you deploy the digital technology in your own infrastructure or in your software someone may have accidentally introduced accessibility issues that may not have been there in the vendor’s infrastructure.
• Performing your own manual accessibility and usability evaluations in your own infrastructure is also critical since some usability issues will not show up in the Accessibility Conformance Report since ACRs only state how the technology conforms to technical accessibility criteria and not usability success. Therefore, if a user is not able to use the digital technology due to a non-intuitive or usable interface design it is not accessible and that will not show up in the ACR.
• Procuring and rolling out accessible digital technology into production is less costly and time-consuming when planned in the early stages instead of finding out later you procured inaccessible digital technology and roll that out to your customers or employees causing them to experience accessibility barriers. This causes expensive retro fitting for accessibility when the technology is live or worse yet having to procure a different technology because accessibility is not possible in the technology you purchased.
• If you develop digital technology including software and you procure parts of the digital technology you will be embedding in your software or have vendors develop part or all of the software for you, these procurement practices should also be leveraged.
• When performing the accessibility manual evaluations use people with a broad range of disabilities. This includes those who use different types of assistive technology to be sure you are covering the majority of the possibilities of the people that will be using the digital technology you procured.
• Manual accessibility evaluations should be performed on a variety of operating systems and if the digital technology is web-based use a variety of web browsers.

Learn more about this topic in the Accessible Technology Procurement Toolkit - Disability:IN

I hope this blog post provides some guidance to help you procure and deploy accessible and inclusive digital technology and introduces you to some of the critical benefits of doing so. Does anybody else have any examples of the benefits of procuring accessible and inclusive digital technology? Are there any other new laws and regulations I did not cover? Can you provide any examples of where procuring accessible and inclusive digital technology increased revenue and customer loyalty?

If you have any comments or feedback, I would appreciate it if you could please send an email to Bill Tipton since unfortunately the comments are closed to my blog site.

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

X - Formally Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton 

Be Aware Some Users May Not See Your Chat Messages

Do you use instant messaging tools in your profession like Slack or Microsoft Teams to send direct or group messages? Do you assume everybody you send these messages to will be able to visually see the pop-up alerts or hear the audible alert and know what application is sending that alert? If somebody you are sending these messages who use a screen reader like me your assumption maybe incorrect that your audience will see these messages for a variety of reasons described below.

Even if the screen reader user is not typing and listening to their screen reader at the time the message occurs, is not holding a conversation in or out of a conference call or other reasons preventing the user from hearing or recognizing an audio sound alert. Most people do not know a screen reader cannot read multiple messages at the same time. This means that if three message alerts happen very close to each other the screen reader will start to read the first alert, stop whenever the second alert starts, stop again whenever the third alert starts causing the screen reader user to hear parts of the three messages if they are not typing or being distracted by other things.

 Another challenge is locating what software sent the message and locating where the message is in a variety of locations in many software applications the user may be using. Responding to messages or alerts quickly and efficiently in between meetings and other work could also be challenging preventing the screen reader user from actively participating adding their unique and valuable comments to critical work topics and participating with others in fun messages.

Depending on your workload in your profession if you use a screen reader and even if you are highly skilled in these tools and there were no usability or accessibility barriers with the software it would not be feasible to read and react to all messages in real time.

 I was told by a couple of screen reader users that one effective way to not miss any messages is to set aside some time every day and go to whatever applications and parts of the applications chats and alerts are sent to and see what you have missed throughout the day. However, if you are an extremely busy professional like me finding time to read and respond to alerts later is difficult. Plus, this lack of a timely response to direct or group messages could appear to some to be unresponsive.

Let us leverage alerts and IM tools to increase efficiency. However, realize that it is possible not all your participants may be able to respond or read the alerts in a timely manner.

I encourage you to read “Achieving Mental Focus in Spite of Multiple Audible Distractions” I wrote to learn more about this topic and how what I described might not only affect people with hidden or visible disabilities they could also affect people without a disability.

I hope this blog post educated you on a few reasons why some individuals may not see or respond to your digital technology messages.

Have you ever been on the receiving end of having to read a chat message much later than when it was sent, therefore missing out on the opportunity to assist? Or maybe a teammate asked you to do something which if you are a screen reader user maybe you never saw that request? Have you ever experienced being on a conference call and talking to several people, reading some notes with your screen reader which is reading aloud these notes all while multiple chats are going on from different applications and trying to concentrate on the goal of the meeting?

Do you have any advice on how to be more inclusive for individuals using assistive technology who may not be able to see the chat messages or respond to it in a timely manner?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments. Therefore,  if you have any comments or feedback, please send an email to Bill Tipton since unfortunately the comments are closed to my blog site.

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

X - Formally Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton 

My Experience As an Actor Who is Blind

I was listening to the TV news and the newspeople were talking about following a teleprompter and others using this in television shows. Hearing this made me remember a few years back when I was in a project for my employer. I was an officer of a Global Disability Network Business Resource Group with other officers from other business resource groups.   Each one of us represented the unique and diverse set of the population we have in the world and in our professional lives. We had the opportunity to be actors in a Diversity, Equity  and Inclusion short film/video. This was more than just a simple film/ video. It was filmed in a professional production studio in front of a green screen so the producer could add whatever background was required for each scene.

The actors were split up into pairs to perform their parts. After we all performed our roles and said our lines the parts were edited together by the production studio to make the final short film.  I was the only actor in this short film who was completely blind. This required me to memorize all my lines since I could not watch the teleprompter like the others to show me what I should be saying during my parts. I practiced many hours over many days, evenings and weekends prior to the filming painfully memorizing my lines.  I did this in-between my other full time job responsibilities.

Finally, it was the day to do the filming. I met everybody at the small production studio and we all met with the producer and the people filming prior to doing the filming. We talked over what we were supposed to do to produce the short film/video. This relaxed us some, however  it also brought on the stress as well since we all realized we were getting ready to do the filming and perform our roles.

Then everybody moved into a room with one way glass.  Then the two actors whose time it was to do their part went into  a soundproof room next to the room we were all in where the filming was being done. The actors who could see (all but me) could watch the filming through the one way glass. Then the actors said their lines back-and-forth to each other. If their part was not done to the producer’s satisfaction, they would have to do it again. Being on the other side of the one-way glass we could hear what was going on in the filming room due to the way they had the sound system setup. We could sense and feel the stress from the actors attempting to recite all their lines watching the teleprompter as they did not want to make a mistake. A couple of times they had to do a retake. I really felt badly for them because I could sense the tension growing on their  second take with the additional stress. It was even more difficult, I sensed for them to do the second take without mistakes. One pair of actors had to do at least three retakes before the fourth one passed.

They finished their fourth take successfully. I could feel everybody in the soundproof room loudly cheering for their success. Plus, now we all realized the importance of performing our role on the first take without mistakes if at all possible.

 Finally, it was my turn. All I kept thinking while I was going through in my mind as I said my lines and going back-and-forth with the other actor, I was partnered with to do our scene was do not make a mistake.  I did not want to do a second take. Fortunately, my actor/partner and I did well and we finished our lines in the first take.

After we had completed the long day of filming, we were all extremely happy. Since my part in the short film/video was not playing the part of a person who is blind I believe I played my role well and did not have my canes in view  in any of the scenes. Therefore, no one watching the film/video could not even tell I was completely blind. 

Has anyone else been in a film/video and can relate to the need to memorize their lines? Has anyone used a teleprompter to give talks and could relate to doing so if it was broken one day? Has anyone used a braille display and took the time to learn how to use it plus learn braille?  Were you able to read your lines on the braille display and how did it work for you?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments. Therefore,  if you have any comments or feedback, please send an email to Bill Tipton since unfortunately the comments are closed to my blog site.

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

X - Formally Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton 

Celebrate and Participate in Global Accessibility Awareness Day (2024)

Join me and many others around the world in celebrating the 13th Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), which is celebrated annually the 3^rd Thursday of May, which  is May 16, 2024 this year. The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion, and the more than one billion people with disabilities/impairments.

I hope you share educational opportunities  all year and not just on Thursday, May 16, 2024, about how if you take some actions like I do and describe below you can also help to increase usability, accessibility and inclusion for digital technology.

• If you will be sharing any documents or communicating using Outlook, develop accessible Microsoft Outlook email messages, Word, PowerPoint,  Excel, and PDF documents and perform the automated accessibility checkers that are built into Microsoft Office products, as well as Adobe Acrobat for PDF files. Plus use other automated tools such as color contrast checkers and involve people with disabilities  in the required manual evaluations. Like all automated tools, these do not catch everything such as determining if an alternative text is descriptive enough or if it should be marked as decorative if it is not needed. Or making Excel files accessible for screen reader users to understand how the data in the cells relate to the headers and rows. Adding data tables needs to be done manually since it takes a person to understand where in the Excel file the data is and what row the column heading is at as described in the Excel link.
• Educate designers, developers and stakeholders to understand the benefits and how to design for inclusion and accessibility to help create an equitable experience for all. In addition, educate them on the importance of using automated as well as manual accessibility evaluation and resolving all usability/accessibility issues detected prior to the digital technology going into production. This is extremely important since the cost of remediating accessibility issues after they go into production is very expensive compared to catching them early and even worse may cause customer satisfaction issues or at times the issues may never get prioritized to be resolved.
• Coach designers, developers and stakeholders of software that it is necessary to conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines although this is just a baseline for success. To ensure the user interface (UI) is intuitive, usable and users can use the software independently and efficiently the UI also needs to be usable. Therefore, performing manual usability evaluations is required.
• If you have the opportunity, partner with a Disability Network Business Resource Group to help them educate and promote accessible, intuitive and inclusive digital technology for all. 

Let us all have an enjoyable time participating in the GAAD events going on and help us spread the word about the value of creating accessible, usable and inclusive digital technology.

How will you or did you celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day? If you were able to give a presentation or educate others what would seem to be the most educational? If you are new to Global Accessibility Awareness Day what did you find most valuable about the experience?

If you have any comments or feedback, I would appreciate it if you could please send an email to Bill Tipton since unfortunately the comments are closed to my blog site.

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

X - Formally Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton 

Inclusive Chat in Video Conferencing for Screen Reader Users

Inclusive Chat in Video Conferencing for Screen Reader Users

Some of you may have friends, family members or co-workers who are visually impaired or blind and leverage assistive technology such as screen readers which are critical to access a broad range of digital technology in their professional or personal life and want to learn about the tools they use to help increase inclusion for all. Others may want to further their education on inclusion for digital technology and may find this blog post educational.

Some people may wonder how screen reader users who rely only on their sense of sounds from their screen reader speaking and other computer or mobile device alerts and notifications occurring at the same time participate or lead meetings and engage in chatting in video conferencing software. To participate screen reader users are required to chat  while concentrating on reviewing slides, taking notes as needed and holding conversations with others. I am sometimes asked the question of how chatting works for me being a completely blind screen reader user. When someone asks me this question, they may be thinking that I might say that it is due to an accessibility issue that chatting during meetings is an accessibility issue. Although in most cases, it is not a technical accessibility issue. In my opinion it is more of a usability issue.  I have outlined some of the reasons why below:

Issues That Inhibit Inclusive Chats

• Although chatting software is technically accessible in most cases, it is not feasible to chat at the same time you are (1 talking, (2 listening to others, (3 taking notes ,(4 reading the slides  with a screen reader, all at the same time like I describe in Achieving Mental Focus In Spite Of Multiple Audible Distractions. To imagine  what it is like, think about how you could comprehend what four people are  talking about if they were all talking to you at once.
• Besides the multiple different auditory sources going on at once screen reader users use a combination of short-cut keys to move around the application to get to the chat options which causes the screen reader to speak every time a keystroke is pressed.
• In my opinion chatting in Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Slack or other chat tools to interact quickly or accurately to hold conversations or play games with others could be technically possible. However, in reality most of the time it is not or is not feasible during a meeting. Learn more about this topic in Creating Accessible Digital Zoom Meetings - Resource from Inclusion Works - Disability:IN that talks about chatting in Zoom meetings, which is exactly the same in other video conferencing tools that have
• Reading slides or other digital technology on a shared screen in video conferencing software is not accessible to screen reader participants.
• For JAWS  screen reader users, if they are physically typing on their keyboard this silences JAWS from speaking any incoming chats if they are typing in any software or web browser. Read more  about this behavior in accessibility - Possible to programmatically suppress the reading of a textarea? - Stack Overflow.
• Some issues depend on the situation such as when I was in a conference call waiting for a single participant to join with focus in the video conferencing software and the participant sent me a chat message. Since no one was talking, and I was not typing, causing my screen reader to make any noise or stop JAWS from talking I could hear the incoming chat message clearly with my screen reader. I could then navigate to the chat window and respond relatively easily with very little auditory sounds going on.
• Since screen reader users in most cases are not able to see the visual alerts that pop up from chatting software be aware they may miss some of the messages sent to the group in the meeting or a direct message sent to them.
• Some video conferencing and chat software updates to new versions automatically changes the way the user interface looks causing screen reader users the need to relearn where components are within the user interface. Also, occasionally some short-cut keys for the software are changed or removed requiring the screen reader user to relearn any new shortcut keys.

Tips to Assist with Inclusive Chatting

• Have a person assigned to monitor chats in meetings and read aloud any messages.
• If you know a person that is in the meeting who uses assistive technology, and a person asked them a question in chat let them know verbally in case they missed the message.
• Send all slides or any other digital technology that will be shared 24 hours ahead of time in an accessible format by email and not in chat. Some users prefer specific file types since they will work better with their assistive technology. Receiving files in advance will give the participant time to read the files in advance if needed and do any necessary file conversion.
• If chatting will be used to play games or chat in break out rooms which adds to the complexity, consider having partners to help ensure everyone can participate.
• If you sent a chat message to a person who uses a screen reader and they have not responded, maybe consider that they have not seen that message and follow up with a standard email message.
• Understand that if the user interface for any software such as video conferencing tools or chatting software changes due to an update it may take the screen reader user some time to re-orientate themselves on how to interact with the new version of the software. Therefore, be considerate while they learn the updated interface and operations.
• To help overcome some of the audio overload if you are a screen reader user consider utilizing another sense such as touch. Although not everybody can learn braille, consider learning braille, and how to use a braille display and leverage the sense of touch to feel the braille display and read incoming chat messages by touch.
• If you are a screen reader user and are not presenting, write and post your chat messages when there are gaps in the meeting in which you do not need to concentrate on the presenter or the conversation to help you hear what you are typing.
• If you use a screen reader or other assistive technology that has some of the challenges I describe, if possible, when you are in a meeting where you plan to participate in chats, consider avoiding multitasking, such as talking, referring to notes, taking notes, and reviewing slides to reduce multiple audio sources to help you hear chat messages and interact with them. To help with this keep your keyboard focus in the chat function reducing the need to press extra keystrokes which makes the screen reader announce every key pressed.

Conclusion

Although I focus on chatting in this blog post these challenges are identical to interacting with any user interface option using a screen reader in video conferencing software while in meetings. Despite these inclusion issues for participants who use screen readers, which some can be reduced as I described chatting is a very useful tool to be leveraged.

You can instantly share information including files and links. Chatting history is generally stored for participants to refer to later. This not only helps people in live meetings, referring to chat history also helps people who were not able to attend the live meetings. Chatting also  helps to increase inclusion since it helps people with speech disabilities and other disabilities. Besides turning on the captioning during the meeting for people who are hard of hearing or deaf chatting allows those same participants with hearing difficulties to hold conversations during the meeting.

Participants need to be aware of the audience in the meetings and use inclusive practices so screen reader users can participate.

Questions to consider to help one learn about inclusive chatting:

Have you personally experienced these chatting challenges, or have you talked to others who have and how did they get around these chatting obstacles? Can you provide any examples of when you have seen the issues I have described? Do you have an example you can share of an application that may make this experience more usable and efficient for screen reader users?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments. If you have any comments or feedback, please send an email to Bill Tipton since unfortunately the comments are closed to my blog site.

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

X - Formally Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton 

Selecting an Artificial Christmas Tree as a Person Who is Blind

My wife and I enjoy celebrating Christmas and traditions such as putting up Christmas decorations during this enjoyable season. We also like to share our joy with others and create cherished memories with family and friends while we still have the opportunity to do so.

Real Christmas Trees

One part of our yearly celebration is putting up and decorating a Christmas tree. Prior to 1999 my wife and I would go to the local Christmas tree farms in the Santa Cruz mountains and cut down our live tree either by ourselves or with my wife's family. When we cut down Christmas trees with my wife’s family we would bring coffee, hot chocolate and doughnuts for breakfast and make a day of it. I enjoyed going through the Christmas tree farm looking for the perfect tree and appreciated this outdoor experience with family. We would drive a couple of vehicles to take us all to the mountains where the tree farms were. Plus, we needed to bring four trees home in our vehicles so we could have one in each one of our homes. As part of this family tradition, we would get together when we were done cutting down our trees and have a fun dinner celebrating the day and holding cheerful conversations.

When we stopped getting together as a family group to cut down our Christmas trees Kathy and I would still go on our own and cut down our tree. We always had an enjoyable time. Once it was very cold and a heavy mist/ rain was falling, however, the weather did not stop Kathy and I. Fortunately I had a four-wheel drive truck which made driving up and down the steep narrow muddy (when weather was bad) winding dirt roads easier to find a good spot to get out and walk around in search of our perfect tree.  Walking through a forest of trees and breathing fresh air with Kathy was always a pleasant experience for both of us. One rainy and cold day on our way home from the tree farm Kathy and I noticed a small school in the mountains near where we cut down our tree that was having a Christmas holiday boutique. Kathy and I stopped to check it out and get warm. We had some hot chocolate and hot apple cider as we looked around.  While looking around at all the beautiful things the vendors had we found an old-fashioned hand-made muslin cloth Christmas angel tree topper which  we still have and use to this day on our “Kitchen” Christmas tree.

 

Transition to Artificial Christmas Trees

Unfortunately, in May 1999 I suddenly went completely blind and cutting down a Christmas tree in the Santa Cruz mountains, and getting there, since I also was no longer able to drive anymore, was not possible.  Therefore my wife and I decided it was time to start decorating an artificial Christmas tree. At that time the artificial Christmas trees felt mor like a real tree and were more of a natural green color. We did find  a nice artificial Christmas tree relatively easy at our first store we went to which you can read about me decorating it at “Decorating a Christmas Tree with a Disability”.

We have had this artificial Christmas tree for many years and it was starting to show its age with most of the lights no longer working. Therefore, it was time to go out and select a new tree. Since my wife and I enjoy creating a special Christmas experience in our home with many decorations, we are particular about the artificial Christmas tree we select. Therefore, we went to eight different stores in our area this year that sold artificial Christmas trees in an attempt to find one we liked. Once we looked at our local stores we knew what was available to choose from. Now it was time to make a decision on a tree which involved going back to a select few of those eight stores. After revisiting those stores we finally selected our favorite one we both liked the best.

You might wonder how a person who is completely blind like me is able to pick out a Christmas tree? What I do is my wife sight guides me to where the Christmas trees are on display to allow me to feel the tree for the height, put my hands and fingers on the branches to feel the needles. As I feel all around the branches and needles I am trying to make sure they are not too plastic or stiff feeling since I like realistic looking and feeling artificial Christmas trees.

I take a branch and with my index fingertip move the needles back and forth between my thumb and finger to feel how stiff or soft the needles are looking for natural feeling needles. Although I know some people might like artificial Christmas trees with a variety of tree needles from a few species of tree needles on the same tree, Kathy and I personally do not care for this since trees in the wild do not have multiple species of tree needles on the same tree. We also both prefer an artificial Christmas tree with a more natural looking green color therefore we also looked for one that had natural green colors and not the ones that had an unnatural green color.

I also gauge how large the tree base is by stretching my arms out to feel the width and stretching one hand up to the top to see how tall it is. We have always purchased our artificial Christmas tree with the multi-colored mini lights already on the branches. These lights are small and difficult for me to find therefore, my wife guides my fingers to the individual light so I can feel the different sized lights on each tree since there are a variety of sizes of lights these days on the trees. From talking with the employees at the different stores we were told they have a micro light, standard mini light as well as other sized lights. They started this micro light prior to this year but since I had not been looking for a Christmas tree this was the first I heard about this kind of light on Christmas trees. After my wife told me how the micro light looked visually when lit and I felt them we decided to get a tree with the standard multi colored mini tree lights.

Since each store we visited had many Christmas trees this method of feeling each tree to select one took some time although my wife and I have been partnering with each other when we go shopping and strategizing how I can select things by touch for years. Therefore this technique of selecting things by touch wasn’t a problem at all. What was a little more difficult for us was being able to physically get me in between the trees, since some of the stores had them crowded together which made it difficult to get to each tree type and feel each one of them that were on display. Besides enjoying the experience of selecting a Christmas tree I like the atmosphere of listening to the joy in other peoples’ voices as they were selecting their Christmas trees. I do not think anybody noticed that I did not have any eyesight as I was using this method of shopping by feel to select my Christmas tree. I did not know this at first, but one of the employees at one of the stores was particularly helpful in answering our questions. Later, my wife told me this employee was in a wheelchair. Although I was not using my white canes to walk and navigate, he probably noticed I had a long white cane folded up in a pouch attached to my belt, and I was using my white support cane while feeling the trees. Therefore, he probably realized that I was blind. As he was answering my wife’s and my questions I let him know that I was blind and what I was looking for when feeling the Christmas tree. He was extremely helpful and patient with us. I was also happy that this store hired a person with a disability who used a wheelchair. This has nothing to do with the person being in a wheelchair although this person was more helpful and courteous and spent the extra time we needed to select a Christmas tree than some of the other employees. I believe that this employee with a disability was even more valuable to the store than the other employees in this department who did not have a disability.

I am happy to say that we did select a new artificial Christmas tree that we will decorate and add it to our Christmas wonderland for my wife and I to experience to bring us Christmas joy. Also, as part of the Christmas season, my wife and I will enjoy the visitors who visit our home as we hear their joy and happiness in their voices that our Christmas wonderland brings to them that Kathy has lovingly created for everyone.

These Christmas traditions I describe are an easy way to create positive memories with family and friends. Since we never know when one of our family or friends may unfortunately pass away or something may happen to us, we may never have the opportunity to create loving memories with them again. Because life is short and we never know what will happen like me suddenly going blind and sadly losing a few family members and friends, do not pass up on being a part of traditions when you can like my Christmas traditions I am describing here in this blog story.

Does anybody else enjoy picking out Christmas trees? Do you create a Christmas wonderland of your own including decorations and a Christmas tree? Does anybody have any comments about how I select a Christmas tree without eyesight? The easiest way to experience what I experienced is to imagine if the store you are shopping in lost electricity, and you need to find and select a Christmas tree in complete darkness. 

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments. If you have any comments or feedback, please send an email to Bill Tipton since unfortunately the comments are closed to my blog site.

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

X - Formally Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton 

Avoiding Health Consequences Related to Accessible Digital Technology

If you have been in the accessibility digital  profession for a while, I am assuming you have heard that  we are making positive progress in digital accessibility. Despite this encouraging news there is still a lot that needs to be accomplished  to increase accessibility and create an equitable experience for all without causing unneeded stress and medical issues for the people doing this valuable work. If a person attempts to do everything  to help increase this goal by themselves, they could work 24/7 which could lead to serious health conditions .

Some people may have even said directly that these practices of pursuing digital accessibility and equity may cause serious medical conditions or even worse death by  attempting to do everything themselves.

I have been told this by one person and have heard it from several others. Unfortunately, I have even witnessed a person dying from this work/life imbalance issue (although this cannot be proven).

I  will not give up educating others and pursuing digital accessibility for all. When a person thinks about it, changing technology to increase equity and inclusion in concept is much easier than changing people’s thoughts and feelings about it. However in the real world we live with little time and being pressured to do more with less people unfortunately the first thing that sometimes gets lowered on the list of priorities is accessibility for digital technology. Accessibility professionals like me understand that this only compounds the problem because digital accessibility was not planned. This causes accessibility issues which the owner of the technology has to resolve and are much more complicated, time consuming and costly than If properly planned and accessibility was baked into the design and development process.

When procuring accessibility services from vendors a well-documented statement of work with a list of requirements is needed. Without these procurement requirements, goals  and deliverables, whoever is managing the project of rolling out these services will more than likely have difficulty delivering services that will be beneficial to the stakeholders.  The upfront work of documenting what is required  needs to be done before talking with the vendor. If one does not find out what they are going to deliver, more than likely it will not turn out the way it is expected to solve the issue one is procuring the services for.

Tips To Assist at Reducing Stress and Promote Health:

• Get high level support for an accessibility program with enough resources and skilled people in it to allow it to be successful and not overwork the team.
• Avoid working 24/7 since this could lead to long term medical conditions. However, if you are like me and love your profession you might be tempted to do so.
• Do not skip the planning stages of any project when working with vendors that pertains to digital accessibility. It will compound the problem and take longer to implement and potentially result in something that is not effective and will add unneeded stress to the project team.
• Incorporate digital accessibility as early in the process as possible in the design and development phase. Include a diverse set of people in this process including people with a broad range of disabilities and those who use a variety of assistive technologies. This early planning will help avoid unpleasant user experience which can cause more stress for all involved.
• This process should also include evaluating and resolving accessibility issues with automated tools and manual evaluation using people with a broad range of disabilities using a mix of assistive technologies. This will reduce the workload than if left to just a few to do the accessibility evaluation without leveraging tools to assist.
• If giving a presentation to stakeholders or executives about goals for projects for digital accessibility  take time to prepare even though some might tell you just talk off the cuff. Do not do this. Spend time crafting your message to maximize the positive outcome from your presentation. Although this will take more time this step will help to reduce stress since you have planned in advance. You will be able to deliver the message succinctly and be more relaxed. In addition you may never get another chance to talk to a potential sponsor therefore give it your best.
• Take breaks from work and take time to visit with family and friends which will reduce stress.
• Read books, listen to music, go on walks and do other things to help relax from a stressful situation which can lead to a better night’s sleep.
• I smile when I can imagine the benefits of my work and I can make another person smile since they are able to use and interact with accessible digital technology effectively which reduces my stress.

I am  not a medical expert therefore my  recommendations are  from my own personal experience. I do, however, recommend seeing a professional if medical assistance is needed.

Does anyone have any tips to help us regarding this topic or any success stories to share? Do you have any other additional ideas regarding the critical project management skill I discussed in this area around procurement?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments. If you do have any comments, please send an email to Bill Tipton since unfortunately the comments are closed to my blog site.

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

X: http://twitter.com/wdtipton 

Cause Good Trouble: Speak Out

I recently heard the term causing or making good trouble and the explanation around those words. I encourage you to learn about the value and necessity to cause good trouble in these two You Tube videos John Lewis and Drew Gilpin speaking: Fmr. Harvard president on how ‘Necessary Trouble’ brings change - YouTube and Congressman John Lewis Address-Harvard Commencement 2018 – YouTube.

I even noticed that tag on one of my accessibility contacts in their LinkedIn profile which I can relate to. That term highly resonates for me in a couple of ways since in my profession in accessibility I often cause good trouble by educating others on the reasoning for developing and designing accessible digital technology and techniques to accomplish this goal. Sometimes others receiving my message do not have time or do not know how to incorporate accessibility. Therefore, someone may believe it is easier to put off creating accessible digital technology. This only causes more problems when someone reports the issue. Sometimes the issue is escalated and then the owner of the digital technology needs to retrofit it for accessibility which is far more time-consuming and costly than if accessibility was incorporated into the planning stages.   Developing and designing accessible digital technology also creates an equitable experience and environment for all people with hidden or visible disabilities.

I also cause good trouble when I report digital accessibility issues since I require the use of a screen reader to interact with digital technology in my personal and professional life after going completely blind in 1999.

Another outcome of causing good trouble for me besides increasing digital accessibility is the ability to affect other lives for the positive. By being asked to and having participated on the Board of Directors for a few organizations and was on the Business Advisory Council of another organization I was able to help others. I was asked to give keynote speeches, to participate in panels and webinars and to teach the participants in the meetings/webinars the value of accessible and usable digital technology and how accessible digital technology by default increases inclusion and equity. A potential benefit of educating others is that you may ignite a fire in someone to also go out and cause some good trouble to help others achieve equitable participation in life.

In addition causing good trouble to break the silence could assist others directly or indirectly by the skills and connections you may have to drive positive change. Also some individuals are overwhelmed with other higher priorities and do not have the time to participate in causing good trouble.

I also do not mind causing good trouble, when necessary since the trouble not only assists me at being included, it also assists everyone else who might experience the same inclusion and digital technology accessibility issues.

We must be leaders who speak out, love,care and assist others.

Do any of you believe you cause good trouble or have caused good trouble in the past? Have you noticed positive changes because of your willingness to cause good trouble instead of being quiet and allowing others to be excluded? Do any of you have any tips to encourage others to cause good trouble to increase inclusion, equity and accessible digital technology for all to experience a happy and healthy life with less stress due to exclusions?

In closing I encourage you to go out and cause some good trouble to assist others however please do not cause any physical trouble.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments. If you do have any comments please send an email to Bill Tipton since unfortunately the comments are closed to my blog site.

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

X: http://twitter.com/wdtipton 

 

Be An Assertive Advocate; Assist Others

There are times when people may need an assertive advocate to assist them. Not every person you observe with challenges requires assistance, however you should ask politely if they do regarding any of the issues I note below. Do not think that the person experiencing issues, exclusions or difficulties has the time to advocate and resolve the issues themselves. For example, they may be experiencing other challenges in their professional or personal life such as taking care of friends or family and do not have time to prioritize or resolve issues. Therefore, to be a valued advocate, please take the time to help other people.

If you see people experiencing difficulties with any of the points below with recommended best practices to  a solution, be an advocate for them by taking action. However do not include their names unless you get their permission.

• If a person speaks with a stutter or difficult to understand allow the person time for equal participation to express their ideas in any conversation. Having opinions and recommendations from a diverse set of people always produces better results than just hearing from a few dominant people with like ideas resulting in the outcome that is only beneficial to one type of person.
• In telephone conversations, conference calls, or if you are presenting in public, speak slowly and clearly. This will allow participants with cognitive issues or other disabilities as well as temporary disabilities (noisy backgrounds due to taking care of young children) to effectively hear and understand what you are saying.
• If a person sounds or looks hesitant give them time to participate.  They may be experiencing anxiety or have a hidden disability. Give them a friendly  atmosphere to participate without fear.
• If you are in a virtual meeting with others and people are not introducing themselves before they speak ask the participants to say their names prior to speaking to allow people with visual disabilities who may be in the meeting to know who is speaking since they cannot see the person.
• If in a video conference call, a person is attempting to speak after unmuting themselves and they begin to move their mouth to speak  but  never gets a chance to jump into the conversation. You should say to all I believe so and so may have a question or a comment.
• If you are in a meeting, online seminar or other online event, and they are sharing slides and the presenter did not share the slides prior to the event politely let the person know that they should share the accessible slides prior to the event. This will allow assistive technology users such as those who use a screen reader read the contents of the slides prior to the event and read the contents without the distraction of listening to their screen reader read the slides and the participants at the same time.
• If you are in a conference call or in an email thread where you are sharing documents check them to ensure they are accessible. Use the built in accessibility checker tools in Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point and Adobe Acrobat before sharing the documents., If you find someone who had accessibility issues with a document that was shared ask the person who shared the documents to check for accessibility and resolve any issues. This will allow assistive technology users to read and understand the documents to fully participate.
• If you are in an email thread, or in a virtual meeting or other communication where there is a video without closed or open captioning or an accessible transcript file ask the person who shared the video to please have it captioned and provide a transcript file. This is so people with hearing disabilities or people who are both blind and deaf can know what is being said in the video and to participate in any discussion.
• If you are in an email thread, in a virtual meeting or other communication where a video is being shared with no audio description ask the person who shared the video to please add audio description for that video if there are visuals in the video that aid in understanding the complete content. Adding audio description will  allow people who are blind or visually impaired to better understand the content of the video and to participate in any discussion.
• If you see a person in a wheelchair who cannot safely get up or down floors in a public building because there are only stairs and no ramps or elevators report this issue to the person who is in charge of the building to help remove this access barrier. This will help encourage safe and independent travel.
• If you see a person who is using a white cane to navigate, and they are feeling around on the restroom door with their fingers or on /in an elevator and seem like they cannot proceed they could be looking for markings in braille to determine if they are at a women’s or a men’s restroom or what floor they are on. This is because there isn’t any braille labeling on the restroom door or on the elevator. Report this to the owner or the person who is managing the public building to help encourage safe and independent travel without the fear of getting lost or making a mistake in navigation by getting off at an incorrect floor or going into an incorrect restroom.
• If you observe or hear about a person having challenges using digital technology such as software, web pages, documents, or anything you can access from a computer or mobile device with their assistive technology (AT), such as screen readers, screen magnification, voice control such as dragon naturally speaking, alternative keyboard devices such as sip and puff devices, braille displays and many other ATs they may be experiencing a digital accessibility issue. After verifying with the person you observed that this is true report this  issue to the company/owner of the tool.  Include enough specific information so the representative who receives the valuable feedback can reproduce the issue and take positive action to resolve and remove the issue.

This is only a partial list of things to consider when helping to create a more inclusive environment for all. These best practices will lead to success in one’s personal and professional life. All the bullet points I noted should be done by default and not just when you may think a person with a disability may be participating. If you  know someone who has not completed any disability etiquette and awareness or digital accessibility training, please educate them and share the two resources with them I have below.

Learn more at Disability Etiquette - A Starting Guide - Disability: IN and Introduction to Web Accessibility-Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)-W3C. 

I have been working in the accessibility and inclusion area since 2000, and I have learned from my experiences that most things do not come to you. You need to be politely assertive and make positive changes yourself instead of waiting for others to make the changes.

Just think of the day when we will  not need to educate people of the benefits and the reasons for the bullet points above and there is no need to be an assertive advocate for others.

Let us all have the desire, discipline, and dedication to assist others to have a more joyful life.

Do you have any other suggestions or comments regarding this topic? Have you experienced challenges where you were grateful somebody had the courage to speak up and assist you? Were there any issues regarding digital accessibility, physical accessibility, inclusion or other issues that were resolved based on somebody taking positive action.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments. If you have any comments or feedback, please send an email to Bill Tipton since unfortunately the comments are closed to my blog site.

Bill

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

X - Formally Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton