Tag: Accessibility

Time, as it always has, will tell

Well it’s been over a month since I’ve written anything here. For shame, I know. And what a month to be absent from commenting on events happening around the world! It’s quite a remarkable time to be in opposition to power!

I’m speaking, of course, toward the uprisings in North Africa, the Middle East and the American Mid-West. “It is not a good season to be a tyrant.” And it’s getting increasingly more difficult not to think these bullshit hierarchies — or the way they are ridiculously structured at least — are all beginning to level out.

Finally, a real reason for hope!

Continue reading Time, as it always has, will tell

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

Just this past Wednesday, after a month or so of trying to coordinate a suitable time for both of us to meet, I was able to get into the city and visit a friend and check out what he is really busy working on.

My friend, Colin, has been working in the field of computer technology — mainly by helping to make various software applications, largely internet related, accessible — for years now. In fact, that is precisely why and how we met, over an entire decade ago! He was involved, as a student, with the folks who set me up with the means to use my first computer. University of Toronto’s ATRC (who are now at OCAD University as the Inclusive Design Research Centre).

It was the ATRC who outfitted me with the original gear I used to interact with a computer. Keep in mind, that was a time when I was differently abled, well differently abled than I am now, at least. Where my interactions were entirely facilitated through a head switch and an on screen keyboard. Much like I’ve written here before — well not so much the onscreen keyboard aspect, I’d rather foolishly forgotten, but I was delightfully reminded during said visit…

Continue reading Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

Shame On You!

A majority of my time over the last 12 years, say, has been spent “working” away, poking the various keys on a computer keyboard. Doing everything from fooling around to perfecting a craft. That craft has been, more or less, building websites.

Now, granted, it hasn’t been a primary focus of mine, that is, up until very recently. That’s largely why I haven’t been blogging with a familiar frequency as of late. And last month, especially. However, the need to have the web I use be accessible to the widest possible audiences imaginable, has constantly been an interest of mine, throughout my computing career.

After all my “career,” if you will, started with a giant computer screen and a single head switch, which I used for access, in a lonely hospital room a long 13 years ago. So, at the very least, not being interested in the subject would be mighty irresponsible of me, but not learning and implementing everything I could, toward such an involved practice such as web accessibility, would be even worse…

Continue reading Shame On You!

What I Do Following Completion

Today an old friend sent me a question he had out of genuine curiosity. And a “disclaimer.” “Just curious. I hope you don’t mind the questions.” 

Well, my buddy, not only don’t I mind, I’m more than happy to answer anything you may be wondering. If people could learn anything from me which will, in turn provide some sort of insight, I will have served a purpose. 

It’s all good… Continue reading What I Do Following Completion