Glenda "goodwitch" Sims

Today is the very first Global Accessibility Awareness Day. To be a part of this virtual event, I chose to deepen my understanding of accessibility by spending an hour using the web by keyboard alone. You see, for people with visual disabilities (that use screenreaders) they don’t have the opportunity to use a mouse. A mouse is a tool that requires sight. You have to see where the mouse arrow is pointing to know when to click.

In my work, I spend a lot of time focusing on solving accessibility issues for people with visual disabilities. So, today, the real reason why I chose to go mouseless was to get a deeper understanding of what it is like for people with mobility limitations that prevent the use of a mouse. Without the aid of a screenreader, what is it like to use the web by keyboard alone? I know that one hour is a short time, but here are the insights I gained from doing this today.

If you had been in my home office during this hour, you would have heard me exclaim:

• What Keyboard Shortcuts?- I need to learn a lot of keyboard shortcuts. I never realized how much I rely on my mouse.
• Get to the Point – Where is the “skip to main content” for me on this site. I have to tab 55+ times to get to the main content…every time I go to a new page in this site. Arrrrrgh!
• Where am I ???? – Ummmm….as I tab through this page, I have no idea what element I’m on. There is no visual indication to tell me where the keyboard focus is.
• Missing my Mouse! – 20 minutes into this keyboard only hour and I miss my mouse so much it aches.
• Fake Skip Links – Oh, cool, there is a “skip to content” link I can get to on this site. But wait…when I click on it, it appears to scroll the page to the main content, but when I tab again, my keyboard focus is really still at the top of the page. Grrrrrrrrrr.
• My Brain is Full! – Oh my word! The cognitive load…trying to remember all these new keyboard shortcuts is taxing. Okay, so the shortcuts have always been there…but they are new to me.
• Out of Control - I wonder if I can access a specific video that I’ve been meaning to watch. (Navigate to site) Oh lovely, no visual focus indicators, no skip to main content, guess I’ll begin the tab tab tab dance. After a few unsuccessful guesses at what link I’m on, I finally hit pay dirt and get the page with the video I want to watch open. Lucky for me, the video is set to autoplay (which I usually detest). Why was that lucky? Because the controls for this particular video player are not keyboard accessible. That is right, I can’t stop the video, I can’t pause the video. I can’t adjust volume or turn on captions.
• Are We There Yet? – Okay, hour is almost up. My manta is…”I will not use my mouse. I will not use my mouse!
• A Web Site that Works! - I head to a financial site where I am a customer. I wonder what this will be like. I’m not very hopeful. Surprise, this .com web team has obviously done their homework. I login and navigate with relative ease and am able to accomplish everything I set out to do.
• EasyChirp – One last experience to praise…I had never personally used EasyChirp until tonight. I must say it was a dream to use in my state of mouselessness.

So what did I learn tonight in my hour sans mouse? A gained a greater appreciation for the web accessibility barriers that remain for people with mobility issues. No matter how much I know about how to test for accessibility issues across the different types of official disabilities (sight, hearing, mobility, cognitive, speech)…I can always increase my knowledge and empathy of inaccessible experiences. I can honestly say that this was an hour well spent.

If you are reading this and you didn’t have a chance to participate in the first Global Accessibility Awareness Day, don’t fret, you can make any day your personal Accessibility Awareness Day. I encourage you to take a moment (perhaps 15 – 30 minutes) and try one of these activities:

• Go Mouseless – As best you can, try to use the web without your keyboard. If you’ve never gone mouseless…don’t feel bad if you need to cheat a little. Just remember, every time you cheat (and use your mouse)…there are people who don’t have that choice.
• Low Vision – Lower the brightness on your computer and/or decrease your screen resolution to something quite small like 800 x 600. Realize that people with low vision use software that magnifies their screens up to 36 times. Using a screen magnifier reminds me of trying to use a web browser on a small mobile device.
• Head over to the Global Accessibility Awareness Day Site to see other ideas for how you can experience accessibility first hand.

Mark May 9 on your calendar for the first Global Accessibility Awareness Day!

Purpose: Get people talking, thinking and learning about digital accessibility and users with different disabilities, especially among the design, development, usability, and related communities who build, shape, fund and influence technology use and change. While people may be interested in the topic, the reality is that they often do not know how or where to start. Awareness comes first.

What Can I Do? Experience Accessibility First Hand – On May 9 we encourage everyone to take part in activities to experience first-hand what it is like to need accessibility features when using different technology. Ideas include:

• Unplugging the mouse for an hour and using the keyboard alone
• Turning on mobile device’s accessibility features and surfing the web or using favorite mobile apps.

What’s Next? Ideas and resources are on our website. After spending an hour exploring and experiencing, we invite people to reflect and share what happened using their blog, Twitter, or other social media. We will have blog space for those of you who do not have one. In addition, join us on May 9 for a public introductory talk on digital accessibility or a networking event planned in cities in Australia, Canada, India, The United Kingdom, and the United States.

Want to know more? You will find full details on the Global Accessibility Awareness Day website (in English only this year). Show your support for the effort and stay up to date by Liking and sharing the Global Accessibility Awareness event’s Facebook page Follow @gbla11yday on Twitter and tweet using the #gaad hashtag.

You can start helping right now! Share information about the May 9 Global Accessibility Awareness Day with your family, friends and colleagues.

My new year’s resolution, upgrade my VMWare to the latest version, and add a Windows 7 virtual machine…so I can test on Mac, Windows XP and Windows 7…all on my magical mac.

So, I was happily running VMWare 3.x with no issues and still on Windows XP. JAWS was working like a charm with video intercept. I assumed that the latest version of VMware 4.1.1 would also support video intercept.

The upgrade from VMWare 3.x to 4.1.1 was easy. I just inserted the disk and followed my nose. But when I went to test how JAWS was working, I got the dialogue box on Freedom Scientific Video Intercept. The default selection when this dialogue comes up is: “Intall Video Intercept and Restart System”. But do NOT do it. I tried it and consistently get a blue screen and the option to start in safe mode. I selected “Last Known Good Configuration” and breathed a sign of relief when my Windows XP VM actually started up.

So, be forewarned, if you are running VMware 4.1.1 do NOT intall Video Intercept when prompted by JAWS. JAWS is going to ask you about video intercept every time you start the software. But don’t be lured into this danger zone. Just say no!

JAWS will still work on web browsers, but I’m under the impression that without video intercept, the JAWS cursor functionality and desktop software may not work correctly with the screenreader. See more about this over on the excellent article and conversation on the WebAim blog at JAWS, Window Eyes, Parallels and Boot Camp.

Want to do something meaningful for the holidays? How about sending an email to an inaccessible web site, asking them to make their site accessible? I just did it, myself! If you want to do this too, head to the great list just published over at WebAim of Accessibility Errors Found on the Alexa Top 100 Web Sites.

I picked a site, pulled it up in my browser, and found their customer service email form. Then I sent the message below (this is a generic version in case you want to copy and use it yourself):

Dear FOO.COM.

I noticed that your website has accessibility errors (it is not accessible to people with disabilities). This is a U.S. Federal requirement. Other organizations, like Target, have been sued for this. Your web site appears on a recently published list where everyone can see that your home page has at least XX accessibility errors. http://webaim.org/blog/alexa-100-accessibility-errors/

Most of these errors are quite simple to fix. I bet your web staff already knows how to fix them.

Could you please fix these issues, so that the FOO.COM website can be accessible to everyone?

Thanks so much,

You know, that felt so good, I think I’ll send another one (or two, or three).

Happy Holiday’s Y’all!

The Sims family is ever increasing. Marriages followed by new baby Sims have left the mantel at Christmas overflowing with stockings. This year we will be adding two stockings, one for baby Brynnley and one for Yana. As thrilled as I am about the newest baby in the family, I’m even more excited about the newest addition, Yana.

Yana is a beautiful 14 year old who grew up in Russia. She lived in an orphanage in Zhytomyr, which is closing. Her only living relative is an older sister, who is 18 and just barely able to support herself.

My nephew, Bryan, and his wife, Kim, already have 3 children. Yet something was missing. They felt called to explore options for international adoption. This summer they learned of the orphanage in Zyhytomyr and asked to host a child for a three week visit this summer. Other families in the area were also hosting children from the same orphanage.

Yana traveled from Russia to the US with her friends and a guardian. Her first night in the US was spent at our family lakehouse with 20+ Sims and she didn’t speak a word of English! I could only imagine how overwhelming it must have been for her. But despite the language barrier, she played, swam, fished and couldn’t get enough of the jet skis. By the end of her visit, there was no doubt, we had fallen in love with her (and she had fallen in love with us).

Kim and Bryan began the formal process of adopting Yana, which included two trips to Russia, tons of paperwork and required an endless amount of resilience and patience. Then on November 8, 2011, Yana became one of us. As exciting as it is to get to be a Sims, I can only imagine what it must be like to start life over in a new country, half a globe away from your sister. And as if learning a new language isn’t challenging enough, the Russian and English alphabet are different. But Yana is a brave girl…and I believe that hope, love, family and friends can give her the strength to make this transition with grace.

Over Thanksgiving, the Sims family gathered at the lakehouse again. We were blessed with an abundance of turkey, the best mashed potatoes, amazing pumpkin and apple pies and love. We played ping pong, cards and farkle. We cheered for the Longhorns and made our annual trek to Fredericksburg to tour a winery and have a delicious lunch at the Fredericksburg Brewery. And…Kim, Kat, Syndey and I created an iMovie of Yana’s journey to becoming a Sims.

Kim wanted to create the video for Yana, so she would know how much we love her and how happy we are to have her in the family. The video is also for us to remember all the things that Yana holds dear, her language, her sister and all her close friends. And we are very sensitive to the fact that while this is a wonderful opportunity for Yana, it is also incredibly hard to leave all that you have known and cherished behind.

As I worked with the photos of Yana and her sister…and Yana saying good-bye to her friends…my eyes filled up with tears. I hope, with all my heart…that her transition is a smooth as possible, that she knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she is loved, and that she is able to reach her full potential that honors her past as well as her present.

For me, some of the most touching parts of the video are:

• Picture of Yana with her sister – starting at 3:27
• Friends saying Goodbye – starting at 5:47
• Yana arriving at the airport to a Texas size welcome – Starting at 7:20

This Thanksgiving was incredibly meaningful for me. I’ve never been so grateful for my family and friends.

My mom will be turning 80 this month. My aunt and I are cookin’ up some great plans to make her birthday as special as she is. I’ve arranged to have a hot air balloon ride on the morning of her birthday. And my awesome aunt is flying in from California to help us celebrate mom’s day.

I’m contemplating what we should do for the birthday cake. Should I get a fancy cake made at the magical bakery…or should we whip up something made with love at home in our own kitchen? I’m leaning towards making a cake mom used to make for special occasions called the Forty-Niner Chocolate Roll. It is light, fluffy oh so very delicious and holds so many fond memories of celebrations past.

Forty-Niner Chocolate Roll

Cake Ingredients

• 4 eggs, separated
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup ghiradelli ground chocolate
• 1/4 cup boiling water
• 3/4 cup sifted cake flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar

Filling Ingredients

• 1/2 pint whipping cream
• 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 can (15 1/4 oz.) crushed pineapple, drained
• 3 tablespoons rum

Cake

1. Beat egg yolks with vanilla.
2. Blend ground chocolate with water; beat into egg yolk mixture.
3. Sift flour with baking powder.
4. Gradually add dry ingredients, mixing until smooth.
5. Beat egg whites with salt until soft peaks form.
6. Gradually add sugar, beating until stiff peaks.
7. Using metal spatula, fold egg whites into chocolate mixture.
8. Pour batter into greased and floured waxed paper-lined 10 by 15-inch jelly roll pan.
9. Bake at 325°F for 15 minutes.
10. Run knife around edge.
11. Turn hot cake onto cloth heavily dusted with powdered sugar.
12. Remove waxed paper, and starting from narrow end, roll up cake with cloth; cool.

Filling

1. Whip cream with powdered sugar until stiff.
2. Stir in pineapple and rum.
3. Unroll cake and spread with filling; reroll cake with filling.
4. Chill until firm.

Cut into slices. Makes 10-12 servings.

I’m often asked to create the business case for building accessibility in to your web process. Most organizations are very responsive when I explain the benefits of universal design, the crossover between accessibility and usability, as well as accessibility and mobile design. By the time I explain the search engine optimization benefits, they are often salivating and ready to commit to accessibility. But, what happens when I’m working with a company that is inaccessible but already has decent SEO? I remind them that the litigation risks are real and the cost of retrofitting for accessibility is significantly higher than designing with accessibility in mind from the beginning. The thoughts I want etched into their minds are:

1. Not Creating an Accessibile Web Site Today is Like Consciously Deciding to Not Pay Your Taxes – the penalties when you get caught (and you will get caught) will be far greater than the cost of building accessibility into your design in the first place. Penalties include:
   • Legal fees
   • Legal fines and/or settlement payments
   • Employee time spent responding to lawsuit information requests
   • Cost of retrofitting accessibility into your site
   • Brand damage
2. Design with Accessibility in Mind – it is a fact that building accessibility in at the beginning of the design process is far more cost effective than retrofitting for accessibility. Accessibility experts estimate that the cost of developing sites that meet WCAG 2.0 AA increases development costs by the following:
   • 1% to 3% on simple sites built with html and css (and little to no javascript)
   • 3% to 6% on intermediate sites built with html, css and an intermediate level of javascript
   • 6% to 10% on heavy javascript sites or flash sites

   Compare these costs to the retrofitting costs which consistently come in as 2 to 3 times more. So, for a simple site, retrofitting will cost (1% to 3%) * 2 {if you are lucky} or (1% to 3%) * 3. Pay a little now, or pay a lot later.

3. The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed on July 26, 1990 – more than 20 years ago the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became the first-ever civil rights law for people with disabilities. It is wrong to deny equal access to the web (a place of public accommodation). When you consciously choose to have an inaccessible web presence, you are guilty of discrimination.

Year ago people stood up for my right to vote as a woman. Today, I have the opportunity to help create a barrier free web so that all people, regardless of abilities, can have equal access.

All for Web! Web for All!

I have always wanted to go to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. In fact, it has been on my list at 43things.com for over 5 years. Then, my dear friend and colleague, Sharron Rush, asked me to speak at the Southwest Conference on Disabilities (which just happens to occur in Albuquerque during the International Balloon Fiesta). I could hardly contain my excitement, as I planned my trip.

I had originally hoped to take a hot air balloon ride with my husband. But at $400 a head, the price seemed too steep (especially when I checked prices locally). My friends told me that just being at the festival was amazing, so I decided to just enjoy the balloons from the ground.

The weather had been very rainy and the balloons had not been able to fly for days. Friday evening we were kickin’ around in Old Town and we met a balloon pilot (Paul) and his “new” girlfriend (Terra). Paul offered to take us up in his balloon in the morning, assuming the weather cooperated. I squealed with delight and it took all that I had not to start bouncing up and down.

The next morning we arrived at the balloon field before sunrise and helped crew Paul’s balloon, Str-8-Up. The weather was still questionable and Paul made no promises that we would get to go up, but he did decide to at least stand-up the balloon. We helped unroll the envelope from the storage bag and hold it open while the big fan filled it with air. Being a part of the crew as the balloon inflated was priceless.

Paul had been given approval by the zebra (launch director) to take-off at his own discretion. It was the final Saturday of the Balloon Fiesta and the last day for Mass Ascension. Paul’s balloon is twice as large as the average balloons and more difficult to manage. He had been carefully watching other balloons that were already up and decided he was ready for launch. Scott and I climbed in, but Paul’s girlfriend, Terra, had said she was afraid of heights and wouldn’t go with us. I looked her straight in the eye and said, “Girl, get in this balloon with me. I’m afraid of heights too.” She climbed in and we lifted off so gently it was like floating on air.

The view from the basket was breathtaking as hundreds of balloons were around us. I was too enchanted to be frightened. The experience was so incredibly exhilarating, I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning, only better! I was already in love with hot air balloons…but this first balloon ride forever changed me into a balloonatic. So, don’t say, I didn’t warn you. Hot air ballooning is amazingly wonderful and downright addictive. I can’t believe I waited this long to do it! I’ve got so much lost time to make up for now :)

As Paul began to look for a good place to land, he realized we were headed for sacred Indian ground. Our ballon was descending rather quickly and Paul had to use all his skills to get us up in a different wind current to carry us away. We were still rather low and the next place to land was a cemetery. Paul was talking to his chase crew on the radio to determine if the cemetery was a “red zone” (designated off-limits for landings). Suddenly Scott told me to turn around and look…because Paul was purposely grazing us through the top of a tree.

Right ahead was a parking lot that looked perfect for landing. Our chase crew had just pulled in and Paul was bringing us down gently….gently into a dumpster! You see, Paul is an excellent pilot and a bit of a prankster. He thought it would be funny to drop us a few inches into the dumpster and make Terra and I squeal (which we did) and then expertly lift us out of the dumpster for a marshmallow soft landing in the parking lot. I’ve never laughed so hard.

As we were packing up the balloon, a gentleman approached us and asked for our email addresses so he could send us pictures of our landing. So not only do we have the priceless memory of Paul’s “Trash and Dash”…but we even have pictures to prove it.

Without a doubt, I consider myself very lucky to have my dreams of the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Fiesta come true.

Can you imagine a live music performance that is fully accessible…even if you cannot hear or see? Well, you don’t have to imagine, you can experience it by coming to Sight Sound Soul in Albuquerque for the Southwest Conference on Disability. The Sight Sound Soul event will center on performances by the New Orleans jazz pianist Henry Butler (who happens to be blind) with live audio description, live captions and even live interpretive painting during the performance. Sight sound soul is an awesome event that engages all the senses and creates a performing art experience that is unique, enriching and fully accessible.

Want to be a part of Sight.Sound.Soul, check out how you can be involved at Sight.Sound.Soul With Henry Butler.