Disability Dialogue with Bill

Encourage Empathy and Inclusion by Taking Time to Understand What Some People Experience and Remove Barriers

The Meaning of Empathy and Inclusion and How Accessible and Usable Digital Technology Assists

An introduction to the meaning of empathy and inclusion and how accessible and usable digital technology assists to create an equitable experience while attempting to avoid certain negative consequences.

Empathy Can Be Defined As:

The ability to understand a diverse group of people by taking time to listen and learn to help create an equitable experience for everyone.

Empathy can also be described like “the base of scaffolding” added to a person’s education that can be incorporated along with inclusion and accessibility for digital technology to also help create an equitable experience for all.

Inclusion Can Be Defined As:

The ability to unconditionally include everyone with or without a disability. This includes people with a visible, invisible or temporary disability as well as people with diverse ethnic backgrounds and gender differences.

Examples of a Visible Disability:

• A person who is blind or visually impaired using a white cane.
• A person who is hearing impaired wearing hearing aids or who is being assisted by a signer.

Example of an Invisible Disability:

• A person who has suffered a traumatic brain injury possibly from a stroke or accident.

Examples of a Temporary Disability:

• A person who has a broken bone such as an arm or leg.
• A person who is recovering from a major surgery or procedure.

Usability and Accessibility Issues

Example of a Usability Issue:

A user interface with a non-intuitive design impacts people with disabilities who  use assistive technology as well as people without a disability who are first time users to the application. For example, a person without a disability attempts to find one part of a user interface and locate information on it or a person who is blind and uses a screen reader also attempts to locate information in that same application and both give up after trying unsuccessfully.

Therefore, even though the user interface does not have technical accessibility issues as described in Success Criteria in Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, it clearly has usability design issues thus preventing certain users from locating information successfully and efficiently.

Example of an Accessibility Issue:

An email publication application did not generate keyboard accessible hyperlinks in email messages. This prevented keyboard only users from activating the links. Therefore they could not locate the website to participate in the activities that were available on the webpage. This simple user interface accessibility issue impacted both keyboard only users and screen reader users and took a couple of years to resolve. This simple user interface accessibility issue could have been avoided if designers and developers were more educated in accessibility and making resolutions to these accessibility issues a priority.

Built-In Assistive Technologies

To gain an understanding of what it is like for people who use assistive technology with digital technology a person needs to try out the built-in assistive technologies that are available in the different operating systems.

Examples of Built-In Assistive Technologies:

• Microsoft Narrator screen reader- located in Ease of Access Center
• Android TalkBack Screen reader- for Android users, located in Settings under Accessibility
• Apple VoiceOver screen reader for macOS- located in Settings under Accessibility
• Apple VoiceOver screen reader for iOS- located in Settings under Accessibility

In order to better emulate how a person who is blind or has low vision uses their computer or mobile device a person needs to learn how to interact with digital technology using some form of assistive technology only. For instance, while your screen reader is running  attempt to interact with the digital technology you are using by having your monitor turned off and using your keyboard only. This will give you a better understanding of what a person who is blind experiences using assistive technology with  digital technology for their job or in their personal life.

However, screen readers only represent one of the many types of assistive technologies that help people with blindness or low vision. There are other types of assistive technologies that assist people who have other forms of disabilities. Since there are numerous types of assistive technologies, I encourage people to try out and experience these different assistive technologies for themselves.

Learning About Empathy and Inclusion May Help Avoid Uncomfortable Situations

Learning about empathy and inclusion may help to avoid getting into uncomfortable situations such as having to tell a customer or employee with a disability that modifications to digital technologies are not worth the effort it will take to enhance equality for people with disabilities. This reason may be given because it is assumed that making these needed modifications is a waste of other peoples’ time to do this work. They would rather not do the modifications thus causing the people with disabilities to be excluded instead of being included and making it an equitable experience for them also. In reality accessible, usable and intuitive digital technology is a valuable and beneficial investment for everyone. It is definitely not charity to enable a person who is disabled to be productive and contribute to the success for all. However, if people are constantly excluded this continued exclusion can lead to mental or physical health issues for them. In addition, the outcome of  this exclusion can negatively affect family and friends of the person being excluded  due to the added stress of the situation placed on everyone involved and concerned.

Therefore, in order to decrease exclusion and increase inclusion for all people with a disability  let’s practice empathy and inclusion in our daily lives to promote equitable experiences. This can be easily accomplished by increasing accessibility and usability in digital technology when planned early in the design and development phase instead of retrofitting the accessibility issue later on after it has been reported and causes frustration for the users. This includes performing the required and necessary automated accessibility evaluations as well as manual testing by people with a variety of disabilities using a range of assistive technologies with different operating systems and a variety of web browsers.

For instance, some accessibility issues are simple to resolve such as adding a missing quote in the code for certain accessibility attributes like HTML IMG alt and Grommet a11yTitle.

People Should Not be Discouraged From Participating In Digital Technology

I believe people should not be discouraged by others from participating in digital technology simply because there are accessibility/usability issues preventing them from equally participating and contributing. If a person has the mindset of attempting to compare the cost of remediating an accessibility/usability issue compared to the perceived value of a person experiencing the issue, then they should consider that the person experiencing these issues is not being given an equal chance to demonstrate their complete abilities and skills. This makes that person feel they are not worth the effort and their contributions are not valued.

Actually in order for a person to not be put in the situation of excluding others they should make an effort to design, develop, purchase and deploy accessible and usable digital technology for everyone.

Demonstrate Empathy by Educating People on the Topic of Empathy

Let’s demonstrate empathy by educating people on the topic of empathy and help reduce accessibility, usability and non-intuitive digital technology user interfaces. This will help to create an equitable environment for all to flourish in their personal and professional lives.

In closing I chose a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that, I believe, aligns with this particular topic.

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is what are you doing for others?”

If you have any comments or feedback, can you 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

Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton 

Bill Tipton Talks About the Value of Accessibility in a Video

Hello all,

As some of you are aware from following my blog post one of my passions is to increase creating an equitable experience for all by helping developers and designers to create accessible digital technology. Therefore, I am very happy to share Accessibility — HPE Design System video I did at the request of my employer to help with this very important goal.

Some designers and developers may believe that making digital technology accessible and usable is difficult are just not familiar with creating experiences that are satisfying to all. Although in reality it is far easier to develop accessible and usable digital technology in the early phases of design and development instead of waiting for customers to report issues which requires costly renovations possibly causing delays and software release schedules and add unnecessary additional costs.

Unfortunately, the comments to my blog site are closed although if you have any feedback my email address is on my blog site.

Please keep up your efforts to create a more equitable experience for everyone including people with disabilities who use assistive technology or do not.

I look forward to hearing your comments and feedback.

                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

Twitter: http://twitter.com/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

Prosper in the New Year: Keep Focused on Goals Despite Distractions and Confusion

 As the world we live in changes sometimes the pressures to accomplish more with less resources provides opportunities to practice leadership. Sometimes time constraints also create opportunities to practice leadership. On top of these time challenges if additional requests for our time are unclear this also adds to unneeded stress and confusion. Similarly, if a person has rare and unique skills and perspectives that are needed for success they may be asked to help with a project or special request. When a person has a disability or other challenges in which skills acquired by these experience’s are critical to projects or personal requests this person might also receive requests to help.

In the event a person receives a request to assist in delivering projects in which there are multiple leaders asking for assistance with different ideas on deliverables this can lead to confusion and wasted time and effort.

These additional requests could compound the person’s workload leaving little time for family or friends. Also, by possibly over committing themselves a person may make mistakes, have poor performance accomplishing projects or give improper guidance.

I for one, as others, enjoy my profession and am passionate about the quality of my work and my plans for success. Continuous education to increase my skills and values is a lifelong goal for me, as it is for other people. Along with getting additional education and adding more skills to their portfolio it is possible for a person to receive additional requests to do more projects because of your newly acquired skills. With projects or special requests coming from a variety of people it is possible for a person to attempt to accomplish everything asked of them with their lifelong goal of providing excellent deliverables as they have always done.

During extremely busy times and projects coming from all directions it is even more critical that a person step back, take a leadership role and refocus, and realign their goals since it is impossible to accomplish everything everybody would like or need without proper resources and active sponsorship. Also keep in mind if you over work yourself it could lead to medical conditions, poor family life and in the long run will prevent you from accomplishing your long-term professional and personal goals.

If requests are too much and one may not have proper support, keep focused on the overall goals despite distractions and confusion and do not forget how important family, friends and community are as you are striving to accomplish all of your life-long goals Do not forget to complete them as if you are nourishing the act of completion. Be sure to take time to complete them with happiness and a caring attitude. If one finds oneself overwhelmed by the quantity or lack of clarity of request this provides an excellent opportunity to demonstrate leadership to prioritize what requests are critical and what ones have enough information to take accurate action.

If one does not allow oneself to have a healthy work life balance it is possible this lifestyle may lead to medical conditions which may result in one not being able to provide quality skills to your employer and be a loving family member. Even worse it is possible too much stress can cause hidden serious medical conditions which could lead to one leaving this world prematurely.

As we move into this wonderful new year, I hope we can keep our goals and priorities in perspective in our daily lives.

Does anybody have any thoughts or comments about achieving any of the topics I discussed above? Do you have tips to help us to not leave our family, friends and community behind as we pursue our goals? Do you have any examples of any of the topics I discussed with suggestions on how to make any course corrections if possible? Lastly do you have any tips on how to educate others regarding these valuable topics to help with time constraint sometimes caused by poor planning, distractions and confusion?

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

I also want to wish you and your family a happy, healthy, prosperous, contented and blessed new year as you allow your dreams to blossom into reality like when a bulb grows into a plant and eventually into a lovely beautiful flower if properly cared for.

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

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

Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton

 

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

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

Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton

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                

Nurture and Value Partnerships

In today’s world it seems some people may be focused on themselves acting alone or attempting to impatiently drive quick fixes through brute force to overcome complex issues.

I believe to successfully enjoy the benefits of sustainable relationships or deliver successful programs or projects one needs to work as a team and nurture partnerships. The ability to nurture partnerships could be practiced in your family, among friends, in your own business or the company you work for.

Quick accomplishments could provide a sense of satisfaction however if achieved by bullying people into submission the damages may not be worth the perceived short-term gains. Acting unethically, excluding some individuals based on their differences, attempting to make progress without adequate knowledge of the subject, or considering the impact on relationships the long-term damages caused by these negative behaviours may also prove negative. Some of the collateral damages could take a long time to overcome if they can be resolved at all. 

Skilled ethical leaders, compassionate friends or family members can move quickly to accomplish shared goals all while nurturing and valuing partnerships.  When common goals are achieved by nurturing and valuing partnerships it is far more likely to produce positive lasting results with a win – win outcome. 

• Does anyone have any examples of when nurturing and valuing partnerships did not work?
• Do you have examples of when nurturing and valuing partnerships did provide the outcome you had hoped for? 
• Any tips to educate us on how we can better leverage the benefits of nurturing and valuing partnerships? 
• How can we leverage and value the differences in people to enhance the benefits of valuing partnerships? 
• Lastly does anyone have any suggestions to persuade others who believe the brute force non-partnering option works best? 

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

Addicted to Stress

When I am on vacation or if my work load is down to a manageable level I sense I may be addicted to stress. I believe this sensation is because I have been fortunate to work in my profession in the high-tech industry for over 30 years and have become very effective at working in a fast paced and continually changing environment, which I enjoy. On top of this fast paced environment there are very long hours at times with little downtime even through some weekends resulting in working many days/weeks in a row. Luckily I enjoy what I do in my profession and have a passion for excellence in my work. When it is time for me to take an extended break from my profession it takes me sometime to switch into the mind- set of relaxation. Until this transformation from stress turns into relaxation I actually miss the excitement of my high stress fast paced work.

This regimen I feel can be compared to how an athlete trains such as Formula One race car drivers, marathon runners , bicycle racers like the ones who compete in the Tour de France, drivers in 24 Hours of Le Mans, drivers in the Dakar Rally, hockey players or how a thoroughbred race horse is prepared for race action. In all of these examples the athletes or horses are not feeling calm while at rest. They only sense the feeling of normalcy when they are at full throttle and intensity.

Having such a fast paced, stress filled life style for long periods of time can also cause health issues. Therefore, when a person does have the opportunity and luxury for some downtime they should take advantage of it. Although I do enjoy a fast paced stress filled workload, after a break from it I do feel more focused and productive.  Also, a person should also not neglect their family and friends. It is important to prioritize some time into our busy lifestyle and schedule to share our time with our family and friends. It is essential to take the opportunity to enjoy their company when we have the chance since nobody is around forever and we might miss our last opportunity to be with someone we care about.

I believe this training has helped me to become a person who can handle doing multiple tasks at the same time, juggling and prioritizing tasks quickly, all while enjoying life.  When I am actually able to take time off it helps me relax and feel more revitalized so I can better manage my addiction to stress much easier when I return to work at full throttle and intensity.

 • Do you have any suggestions on how to help others manage their addiction to stress?

 • Any ideas to assist in achieving a healthier work-life balance?

 • Does anyone have tips to help us take needed breaks and not feel guilty about it?

 • Maybe others have stories to share with examples of the benefits of overcoming their addiction to stress?

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