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

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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

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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 

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 

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/

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Learning Reiki Without Eyesight

Healing technique of Reiki may reduce stress and anxiety, improve sleep, and lessen pain through light (or no) touch.

When I left O’Conner hospital in December 1999 after a seven-month hospitalization I was now   a person who is completely blind. In early 2000 during my rehabilitation, I talked with a few people researching different methods of healing, reskilling myself and reducing stress. Reiki was introduced to me as an option to help with some of my goals.

During my research I learned that the Center for Integrated Medicine which was directly across the street from O’Conner Hospital at the time offered Reiki level 1 and Reiki level 2 classes. I was not sure how I could learn Reiki as a person who is completely blind, although I was willing to try it. Therefore, I signed up for Reiki level 1 and Reiki level 2 classes and mailed in my enrollment fees.

After paying my fees and being enrolled in both Reiki classes I found a ride to and from the classes for each one of the days the classes were held.

Since I am completely blind and have mobility issues I walk with the aid of two canes. One long white cane and one support cane. After my driver brought me to the building the driver would site guide me inside since I was unfamiliar with the building. I remember no students questioning my being able to participate in the training. I was included just like everyone else.

When I started the class there was a small group of men and women who sat around listening to the Reiki Master instructor as she introduced the two courses to us. If you are not familiar with Reiki, and Reiki 1, there is one Reiki 1 symbol that you project when healing. The instructor was easily able to verbalize this symbol to me because it was relatively simple for me to imagine it in my mind’s eye. I could then project this symbol during my Reiki 1 training. For Reiki 2 the symbol is far more complicated and has different 3-dimensional levels to it. The instructor felt like she could not verbalize it well enough to me. She then thoughtfully built a 3D heavy cardboard model of the symbol for me. I could then feel all three dimensions of the symbol so I could project the Reiki 2 image during my training.

As you may or may not imagine performing Reiki on other people without eyesight is difficult. A Reiki practitioner (me) gently moves their hands just above the person’s body on which you are performing Reiki with the intention of reducing the person’s stress and promoting healing by encouraging a healthy flow of energy. Placing my hands in an appropriate location just above their body was challenging for me being completely blind. Fortunately, I did not have this challenge with level 3 which  is generally used for remote healing. Obviously some of the classes were challenging without any eyesight due to not being able to see any person or the instructor and following her directions.

Doing some of the Reiki training was a little bit difficult with my stability issues and holding my support cane with my long white cane folded up and in a holder attached to my belt. Nevertheless, I was able to complete every class lesson.

Unfortunately, a day prior to the Reiki 2 class I got a seriously painful sciatica attack. I could barely move because of the pain and definitely was difficult to get out of the car after arriving at my class. Since I had already paid registration fees for these two classes and had already completed Reiki 1, I was not going to skip my Reiki 2 class. During the class when I had the sciatica I fought through the pain and did everything I was supposed to do as instructed by my Reiki Master instructor.

I am very happy to say I was able to complete and pass both Reiki 1 and 2 classes and had an enjoyable time with everyone despite some pain from my sciatica in the second class. I was also happy to see that a few doctors, nurses, and other people who worked at O’ Conner hospital were attending these Reiki classes to put these valuable skills in their toolbox for alternative ways of healing their patients.

Learn more about Reiki at:  Reiki: How This Energy Healing Works and Its Health Benefits-Everyday Health

Have you ever heard of Reiki before? Have any of you ever taken Reiki classes and practiced it? If you are trained in Reiki, how does it work for you and the ones you are attempting to heal.

I look forward to hearing all of your valuable thoughts and comments.

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/

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Achieving Mental Focus In Spite Of Multiple Audible Distractions

Does anybody have any difficulties concentrating on multiple things at once? What about when there are various distractions going on all at the same time including things flashing on the computer or mobile screen from applications or sound alerts from applications? These kinds of distractions might not only affect people with hidden or visible disabilities they could also affect people without a disability. I have learned to suppress audio alerts from chats by pressing the control key or any key while I am typing otherwise the alerts/messages will negatively affect me as described below.

I attended an excellent presentation, Microsoft Inclusive Design: The Cognitive Model at axe-con  2023 where the presenter played the video at the link below. This described some of what it is like for screen reader users who are blind or have low vision to try to remain focused on multiple sound sources at once. Example are people speaking in conference calls , the screen reader participant having  conversations, listening to their screen reader read parts of chats automatically , listening to their screen reader read the notes from the meeting as they review them, their screen reader reading to them as they type notes, and other sounds all at the same time. As you might realize this could be challenging to focus on all of these sounds coming from a variety of sources all at once.

A feature in JAWS screen reader which could either help or hurt in this experience is anytime the user presses a keystroke when typing it silences the external chats and alerts. By silencing alerts it allows JAWS to  echo back the pressed keystroke for that moment therefore depending on how much the user is typing the user might miss a lot of chats and alerts. In addition to the concept of keeping focused this video also has other valuable inclusive design techniques and learning opportunities.

How do you achieve focus? | Microsoft Inclusive Design – YouTube

Does anybody have any related stories or examples to share? Do you have any suggestions to help alleviate these distractions? Any other thoughts or ideas to add to this discussion? I look forward to hearing from you.

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

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Music in My Life and How It Reduces Stress

My Early Days of Music

Since I was young I have always enjoyed listening to music and the enjoyment and relaxation good music gives me. This could be because I was brought up with music around me since I was 5 or 6 years old. I would often  listen to music at my parents’ house, at my cousins or my aunts and uncles usually  with the volume turned up very loud on quality speakers. Sometimes if we stayed late at my relatives house while they were listening to music I would fall asleep to that music somewhere in their house.

Listening to albums in my bedroom on my plastic record player that  my parents gave me as a present  growing up also allowed me to spend many hours listening to music. After getting a job as soon as I was old enough I was then able to afford a better stereo system which enhanced my musical experiences listening to musicians perform their music with better sound quality. Also, enjoying music on my portable transistor battery powered AM/FM radio was a nice convenience in those days.

Growing up when visiting friends at their homes there was always music involved as we sat around and talked while listening to music in the background.  I would try to have quality audio systems in my vehicles growing up to allow me to enjoy my music while traveling.

My Early Days of Working

In one of my early jobs I worked at Gemco department store in many departments including the automotive department.  This job allowed me to continue my music enjoyment. After the store would close for the day we would turn up the best quality car stereo we had as loud as we could and played it through the best equalizer and speakers. This allowed the side of the store I worked in to enjoy the music while we all worked after hours.

How Music Can Reduce Stress and Possibly Heal

Like most people I am extremely busy with my professional career and my personal life and taking a break to listen to music dissolves the stress from my body. I can actually feel the stress leaving my body instantly as I am listening to music. When I am listening my eyes open wider and my perpetual darkness (black) from my blindness turns to a light shade of gray. My smile grows with joy as well. This occurs when I am listening to recorded or live music. When I am able to experience live music this stress reduction is amplified. However these days I do not get the chance to listen to live music much due to the traveling obstacles I have and my busy work schedule. Even though experiencing live music does not happen often I am grateful I was able to attend a few excellent free concerts with my wife that were relatively close to where we live. I was also happy to attend a concert with one of my friends. Attending live concerts while completely blind is as joyful as when when I could see, although it is nice to see the performers on stage. At one of the free concerts I attended the female singer from the band came out and was walking around the crowd with a wireless microphone and was directly in front of me singing to me. Since her voice was coming from the amplifiers on the stage in another location from where she was, I had no idea she was directly in front of me singing to me until after she went back to join the band on stage and my wife told me about her singing in front of me. When we got home from the concert that evening I felt bad and looked up the singer on the Internet. I then sent her  a message to explain why I had no reaction to her standing directly in front of me singing to me since I am completely blind and I could not see her.

Fortunately, before I went completely blind and lost my eyesight I was able to drive and had more time so I was able to attend  many live concerts by well-known bands at numerous venues in the Bay Area. To ensure I can take advantage of the positive effects of music in our home I have a few sources of music available so I can listen to music wherever I might be.

Music could even possibly have healing properties. For example, when I was in the hospital for seven months occasionally musicians would come in and play musical instruments for the patients or sing  to us which I always enjoyed. I longed with joy for the next chance to listen to their relaxing and healing music.

How Music Could possibly Help A Person’s Professional Career

I enjoy listening to a broad range of music, especially on the weekends and before starting work each weekday.

When I have time before critical meetings at my place of employment I listen to music to refocus and drain some stress from my body  so I can be more focused in the meetings. Depending on the type of energy I am looking for when going into a meeting, I would adjust my music style. For instance, if I need high energy, I would listen to loud high energy music. If I want to be more relaxed, I would  listen to music with lower level energy at a lower volume level.

If you have not already tried listening to music to reduce stress and add to your enjoyment I highly recommend it.

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

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