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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Accessible Procurement is Critical for Inclusion and Meeting Regulations

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

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

A Few Points to Assist

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

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

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

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

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

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

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

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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 

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

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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 

Human Exclusions for People with Disabilities is More Difficult than Digital Technology Accessibility

As a person who is blind I am grateful I have the ability to leverage assistive technology to access and interact with digital technology (software, webpages& documents). When I experience digital technology that is accessible to people who are disabled including those who use assistive technology following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 it makes me very happy.

It is encouraging that some organizations have realized in order to compete successfully in the competitive global marketplace, accessibility for digital technology is becoming more critical as just one of many components in creating an equitable and inclusive environment for everyone.

 

Impact of Digital Technology with Accessibility Issues

Digital technology with accessibility issues not only creates barriers to equal participation for some users it also causes added stress and frustration. Accessibility issues also have these same effects on everyone who is in contact with the person who experiences these barriers such as co-workers, spouses, family, friends and others.

To heighten these accessibility issues not everyone may believe the user when they say that the issue they experience is a technical accessibility issue. One misunderstanding for example is when someone who is not knowledgeable in the technical aspects of accessibility and not knowing any better may tell a user who is experiencing an accessibility issue that their issue is not a technical accessibility issue. They may believe the issue is due to lack of training. They may also tell the same user that they are not experiencing a technical accessibility issue since they may be able to get past the issue by counting keystrokes. For example the user is told to attempt to get to a particular location in the digital technology and type or interact with it with little or no awareness of where they are. Or someone might say the user should attempt to activate hyperlinks on words or sentences that are not coded correctly for assistive technology users to know that they are hyperlinks until the user finds an active hyperlink that works.

This extremely challenging experience of hunting around and interacting with user interactions that do not work is like using a computer or mobile device with a shattered display or one that is extremely dim preventing someone from seeing the complete screen. Also it is like using a keyboard with some of the keys broken causing errors in typing.

No Time for Improvements

Fortunately I have been working in the accessibility field for many years and have been using assistive technology for over 20 years. I am also a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies  by IAAP. I can explain and demonstrate the technical accessibility issues with the application or web page owner. However for those who have similar skills as I do certain application or web page owners might think it is too time consuming and not worth the effort to make a needed accessibility enhancement .

When someone is being excluded due to accessibility issues because no one has the time or wants to prioritize resolving the issues, it makes the person feel like they have two disabilities.

1. For example a disability which requires assistive technology and the issue is caused by the digital technology not being accessible to the users of assistive technology causes a barrier. This is also true for people who do not use assistive technology and experience accessibility issues.
2. Several people not understanding the broad range of disabilities people have and not taking any action to remove the inclusive or misunderstood barriers could be the second disability. This exponentially compounds the problem of just the initial accessibility exclusion and makes these people feel like they are not worth the effort to be equitably included.

 

Solving Human Exclusions for People with Disabilities is Difficult

Creating an equitable environment for all requires passion, empathy and a willingness to take the time needed  to learn and understand everyone’s unique and beautiful differences .

This is just one reason why solving one aspect of inequalities  of people in the world is more difficult than creating accessible digital technology. This reason is because we  cannot force people to change attitudes or influence people to take needed time to understand people with disabilities using technology like we can do for solving the digital technology accessibility issues.

When we think about disabilities we need to be sure to include people with a broad range of visible disabilities as well as hidden disabilities.

This attitude or lack of knowledge regarding the people side of how and why to create equitable environments may be a result of the times we live in today such as the need to complete things more quickly with fewer people and less support. Also, another issue in today’s world there is very little or a complete lack of verbal communication between real people and doing more online without any verbal communication. However I know that on-line communication is extremely beneficial for people who may have voice disabilities, hearing disabilities, other disabilities or challenges.

Also unfortunately to save time I’ve noticed that people do not take as much time to talk on the phone and prefer to send instant messages.  Not holding personal two way conversations does not have the same person to person interaction requiring interpersonal communication skills which can lead to solid friendships, partnerships or productive collaboration.

Fortunately  These Exclusions  Can Easily be Overcome

These exclusions can easily be overcome with consideration. I feel if everybody had the option to slow down, listen to others and care about what might be preventing every person from participating and having a happy and fulfilling life we would all be better off. I believe this kind of attitude would go further for making  positive progress in this fast-paced world we live in today when peoples’ first thoughts are of how to cut corners, which can exclude certain people.

Although there could be many solutions to some of the equity issues one thought that comes to mind to help would be to get a Chief Accessibility Officer to oversee everything regarding accessibility if these issues were within a organization or company. Also if these issues were within an organization or company people would need to be trained on the technical aspects of digital accessibility so people experiencing accessibility barriers would not be falsely accused of doing something wrong when in reality the issue is actually a technical accessibility issue. Also if this is in a controlled environment such as an organization or a company providing detailed training on a broad range of disabilities and empathy is another solution to some of these equity issues.

If you are experiencing any of these obstacles in your career aspirations or personal life  try to stay positive and assist where you can with improving equality issues for the disabled.

Does anybody have any thoughts or comments about how we can slow down and not exclude people because of time constraints or misunderstandings? Has anyone experienced similar interactions? Any recommendations on how to resolve exclusions for people  with disabilities which is a problem that I believe goes far beyond accessibility issues with digital technology.

Thank you and stay positive, keep a smile on your face, slow down, talk to others, leverage accessible digital technology and most important utilize all peoples’ unique skills. Together we will spread happiness and understanding.

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 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

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

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

Twitter: http://intercoms/wdtipton

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

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

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

Twitter: http://intercoms/wdtipton

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

Bill Tipton

Contributing Author,

Global Dialogue Center

http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/

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

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

Twitter: http://twitter.com/wdtipton