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  • My Ignite! slides and transcript for UX Camp CPH 2013

    Apr 13, 13

    Whew! What an amazing day and a half at the 2013 edition of UX Camp CPH. I contributed 5 minutes to the start of the event. I volunteered to be a part of the team that Ole Gregersen assembled for a mini-Ignite! session on the Friday evening. My 20 slides are posted on Slideshare and at the bottom of this post.

    I want to say thank you to those people who came up to me and continued the conversation that I started. It was lovely to meet all of you, and I look forward to hearing more about your ideas and experiences.

    Without further ado, I present the script that I used to practice my presentation – 15 seconds for each of the 20 slides. I prepared a script, then made notes as I practised, and finally, I made more tweaks mentally as I gave the presentation. This is my attempt to recreate my spoken words. This gives the gist of what I said and helps you make sense of the text-less slides. You can read all the text on the Slideshare site, but I added a description of the images here for the sake of my blind readers.

    The Transcript

    1. Hello, world. You have created a site or an app that you want to share with the world. Is it for the sake of the site or for you? The site is not on its own.
    2. Your site doesn’t exist or live for itself. It lives and works for the people who use it. Thanks to Molly Holzschlag for the inspiration here.
    3. To get at your site, how will I use my visual skills, my hearing skills, my motor skills, and my cognition skills?
    4. Is it perceivable? What if I am blind? Have low-vision? What if I am colorblind? [Image shows a view from the amazing Rainbow Panorama on top of the ARoS art museum in Århus, Denmark.]
    5. Is it operable? How will I navigate if I have repetitive stress injury? Is it keyboard accessible? If I have muslce problems and need to use a mouse, can I use the giant red button instead? [Image from the Yahoo! Accessibility Lab.]
    6. Is it understandable? What if I have dyslexia? What if I am simply tired and stressed? I don’t want a huge block of incomprehensible text in front of me. [Image from the Field Guides to Ensuring Voter Intent by Dana Chisnell showing the section on writing short sentences.]
    7. Is it robust? Does it move across platforms as I move from platform to platform? Will it be compatible with the platform of tomorrow? [Image is a screenshot of the Twitter web app, which is not portable, and a screenshot of the EasyChirp app, which is.]
    8. This is a great acronym from the Web Accessibility Initiative at the World Wide Web Consortium: P. O. U. R. Perceivable, operable, understandable, robust. This is what you need to remember.
    9. Because it matters. When we meet accessibility barriers, we are like this stranded starfish. We just need a bit of help to get back to where anything is possible. We are all starfish in one way or another. [Image of a starfish that looks like it might be dead because it is partly covered in sand. The note on the photo states that it came back to life when the photographer put it back in the water.]
    10. The World Health Organisation says disability is a universal human experience. We can all experience disability – be it chronic or temporary. We can all use accessibility.
    11. If we begin from Day 1, the cost of change is 1 unit. The cost rises until it reaches 60-100 units after the project is complete. Afterwards is not good. [Image shows a tweet from @Whitneyq: "Cost of change: 1 unit in definition phase, 1.5-6 in dev, 60-100 after release (Pressman, 1992) cited in http://ow.ly/78H0l. A bug cost chart is also shown.]
    12. Built-on accessibility is an afterthought and a big problem. Is it even viable? Or is it a new accident waiting to happen? I also lose faith in your product when it looks like this [a really unsafe cement ramp built in the middle of a section of stairs].
    13. I think slapping on accessibility afterwards shows a lack of quality in planning and thinking. Let’s focus on quality. Let’s concentrate on what we are doing and who we’re doing it for.
    14. We need to ask those we are designing for. Shawn Lawton Henry has a great, free book online called “Just Ask”. It has guidance on usability testing with users with disabilities, users with all abilities. That’s a must if we are to integrate accessibility throughout our designs.
    15. Because when we our processes fail to include, consult with, and listen to the people we are actually designing for, we also fail to design effectively. I love Lisa Herrod’s quote, and I love sharing it.
    16. Getting the proper mindset helps. Maybe there is a need for attitude adjustment? There’s a set of cards for that! (From Stamford Interactive in Australia.) We are all in this together – developers, designers, content providers. Let’s grow together.
    17. Playing with cards is one step on the road to teaching about accessibility and implementing accessibility. We need education. We need to build and share our knowledge. We will always be building our skills as platforms and demands change rapidly.
    18. Standards are a part of that education. W3C has guidelines of all kinds. British standards has BS8878, a framework for accessibility. We need a common ideological ground to stand on together.
    19. A lovely example is the accessibility applied to the ubiquitous infographic. Using the right skills, an inaccessible png or jpg can be pure CSS instead [by throup.co.uk - a pure CSS version of WebAIM's Web Accessibility for Designers infographic that is available as image and text].
    20. Using these skills means that we can all participate and enjoy our “hello, world” site. With technology like Braille readers, accessible mobile apps, video calls for deaf people, and so on, we can all benefit from designing for inclusion.[Image shows a young blind boy doing his chemistry homework with Braille reader and computer, two men testing a location-aware app on a mobile, a smiling woman watching an older man signing to a person via a video phone, a blind man using his laptop by listening to a screen reader through his earbuds.

    The Slides

    UX Camp CPH 2013 Ignite! presentation, Karen Mardahl from kmardahl
  • If life hands you an empty toilet roll, …

    Feb 17, 13

    It’s mid-February, this is my first blog post of 2013, and I decide to write about empty toilet rolls.

    Yup.

    A picture on Facebook had me drop the tidying-up-so-I-could-work project and rush to the keyboard. The artist, Yuken Teruya, has cut delicate, beautiful trees out of toilet paper rolls with the base rooted in the roll and the branches reaching out to the world. A picture of his toilet-paper-roll tree is circulating on the internet, and it made its way to my friend’s Facebook page. (I’m not posting an image here to avoid copyright issues.)

    Flashback to my time in Nairobi, Kenya and my son’s nursery school years. I saved all sorts of “garbage” for their arts and crafts classes. Art material was expensive because it was imported, and there was plenty of good material available right at hand: egg cartons, silver and gold linings from cigarette packages, and… empty toilet rolls. I used to take a bag of that sort of thing to the nursery school, and it was appreciated.

    Then we moved to Denmark where art material is not so expensive. I had the saving-up habit, you know, so I show up at the kindergarten one day with a bag of toilet rolls and such. They gave me very blank looks and a definite “no, thank you”. They probably wrote up a note to watch out for that crazy mom.

    I was annoyed and frustrated. All that trash going to waste. It’s just raw material and the sky is the limit with the imagination, right? But no, I had to go back to throwing out that stuff just like everyone else.

    And now, today, I see that a real live artist also sees the potential in toilet rolls! Hurrah for Yuken Teruya! He turns them into a delicate forest. And honorable mention goes to Anastassia Elias and her dioramas, although she “just” uses the rolls to hold her dioramas. I found her in my search for the source of the meme, which didn’t identify the artist of the first photo I saw.

    Sometimes it is nice to have that “I told you so!” feeling.

    My point? Don’t be quick to judge! Open your mind to potential. (She says, staring at the pile of paper that needs to be tidied up so she can work…)

  • Getting Down and Dirty with Accessibility and Usability – #TCUK12 Workshop

    Nov 01, 12

    These are the notes from my workshop on 2 October 2012 at the Technical Communication UK (TCUK) 2012 conference. I called it “Getting Down and Dirty with Accessibility and Usability”. Unlike the slides for my keynote presentation at the same conference, the slides in this workshop were text heavy. (Slides are at the bottom of this post.) They were meant as notes – talking points – for the workshop. Each slide covers areas where technical communicators can begin to apply accessibility and usability right away.

    The workshop was called hands-on, but I ended up talking for most of the session because many attended out of curiosity and had no actual projects for hands-on practice. There were many great discussions and questions and answers during the 2.5 hours of the workshop. (If any my TCUK12 workshop attendees come to TCUK13 and want to discuss accessibility “hands-on”, we can always hack in a corner of the bar! My treat!)

    Due to the poor accessibility on Slideshare – presenter notes aren’t pulled out for the transcript, I am posting my own notes here (with the slide text for context). Other presenters express frustration about the downside of sharing slides. There is often little context and image-heavy slides can be meaningless even to people with sight.

    I had extra slides so I wouldn’t run out of material. These are marked as such.

    Introduction – Slides 2, 3, 4, 5

    Today’s workshop. The pretty pictures are on your screens, not in these slides! What can be fixed right away and how? Where can you find more resources? We’ll look at what accessibility and usability tricks you can put in your toolkit. We’ll also discuss ways you can apply your new skills – I used the logo of TCUK to symbolise the field of technical communication. Finally, I had to be slightly corny and mention “enlightenment” – the dawning of new knowledge in the minds of many more technical communicators. I used a personal photo of a winter sunset to illustrate this point.

    I mentioned how it all just takes one step at a time to implement accessibility. Here’s an article that demonstrates the one-step-at-a-time approach.

    BAD Demo – Slide 6

    The Before-and-After Demo from W3C: http://www.w3.org/WAI/demos/bad/

    . This is an excellent training/teaching resource. I had it downloaded on my laptop in case the wifi didn’t work. It demonstrates a site without and then with accessibility improvements. I referred to it a few times during my presentation. Kudos to the people in the Education and Outreach Group at the Web Accessibility Initiative who developed this great resource!

    Good examples of accessible websites – Slide 7

    For inspiration.

    • List of accessible sites compiled by Terrill Thompson – with explanations!
    • French languages sites that are classified as being accessible

    Alt text – Slide 8

    I always point everyone to these links. They explain everything. Written by smart people!

    • HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives
    • Appropriate Use of Alternative Text
    • The case of the missing alt attribute

    And remember alt="" (Read the links to find out what that means.)

    I had one more reference from @vdebolt with tips on using appropriate alt text that some of you might enjoy.

    Title attribute – Slide 9

    <title> is a misused attribute. Get the low-down in this excellent link:
    Using the HTML title attribute

    Longdesc – Slide 10

    The <longdesc> is going through turbulent times, but I say go for it. There is a good article on longdesc from WebAIM.

    I listed tables on my slide, but that was a mistake. Just read the article and you’ll get it straight. For more food for thought, read RNIB’s article on longdesc from 2008.

    Jim Thatcher made a marvelous favelet tool for checking web accessibility. You can try it for checking longdesc, too. (I haven’t tested that.)

    Headings and Structure – Slide 11

    This should be an easy one for technical communicators. Use headings! Use structure!
    My talking points were

    • Logical!
    • Skip to main content links (blind and keyboard users)
    • Sequence and patterns (non-linear navigation – reading order)
    • Style guides (for consistency)
    • ARIA

    My support notes:Note that screen reader is only interested in HTML, not CSS, therefore structure (web standards) is important. Headings are the easiest way to identify structure. Proper structure and good use of headings aid navigation. Use semantic markup and good navigation. Keep things logical. Visual readers interpret the graphic presentation for navigation: headers, location, etc. A screen reader needs similar info because screen reader users need the same thing for navigation.

    ARIA is especially helpful (more links later). There are 8 document landmark roles to help screen reader users navigate and identify purpose of content as explained in article on WAI ARIA document landmark roles.

    Skip to main content links – beneficial not only to blind, but to keyboard users who want to get to a link in the main article and want to avoid all the navigation and advertising links. This is a useful article about skip to main content links.

    It’s a myth that vision impaired users access everything in a linear fashion or listen to everything on the page. They can skip around on a page (if the structure lets them) and it helps if there is a pattern. Vision-impaired users access things sequentially – learn layout and become familiar. Frequent layout changes must be a pain! VI (vision-impaired) users listen to all on-screen text – they can skip around, too, listening to just enough to decide whether to stay or go. Source on VI reading patterns.

    BBC has a standards and guidelines semantic markup guide they use. You can base your own in-house style guide on that, for example, to ensure that everyone uses markup correctly and consistently: BBC guidelines for semantic markup.

    Lists – Slide 12

    Lists: <ol> , <ul> , <li> , and CSS styling

    Always use <li> , <ol> , <ul> , and style with your CSS. Why people don’t do this, I don’t know. It’s clean! Rumor has it that this is a problem so I mention it to make sure you don’t make this mistake! Reference: WebAIM article on lists.

    Keyboard-only access – Slide 13

    • Do it with a keyboard
    • WebAIM on keyboard-only access
    • <tabindex>

    Can you do everything with a keyboard? Everything? I use Hootsuite.com for scheduling tweets, but I am unhappy with certain inaccessible aspects of the product. I must use a mouse or I cannot complete the login procedure. Same problem with Tweetdeck (which I don’t use). I cannot log in with a keyboard. This is crazy when social media is proving to be a great and growing community for people with disabilities – mouse-only means many are excluded. I’m told only onClick works with both keyboard and mouse. Why not use classic HTML where possible? This can solve your mobile needs, too. Making everything keyboard accessible is a basic improvement that can go a long way.

    Color – Slide 14

    Remember that color and color contrast and alternate indicators play together. Never use color as your only delimiter. In Denmark, it’s estimated that 8% men are colorblind and 0.5-1% women are colorblind. (Danish resource on colorblindness stats in Denmark.) Moral: consider what colors you are using. This color contrast check from snook.ca is fantastic and very popular. Helps you determine whether you comply with standards, too. A keyword is contrast – watch out for color contrast. wearecolorblind.com is a great resource about color issues.

    Labels – Slide 15

    Labels need to be made correctly. Always identify the form field with an id attribute. Then, create a label element for each field. Connect it to the input field’s id using the ‘for’ attribute. I took the images on the slide from this video demonstrating coding labels for accessibility. Using placeholder in form fields is optional, but read this article for an opinion on why placeholder is a bad idea with labels.

    Link text – Slide 16

    DO NOT USE CLICK HERE OR READ MORE.

    I rant the reasons why in my blog post I don’t want to read more or click here.

    Plain Language – Slide 17 and 18

    • Design to Read
    • US: Center for Plain Language
    • US: Plain Language in the Federal government Plain Language in the Federal government and a Plain Language checklist
    • UK: Plain Language Commission

    "How to Write Clearly" in 23 languages

    • Link to the European Commission’s Information Providers guide – leads to info about accessibility
    • Link to the Translation and Drafting resources from the European Commission – go to the link for "How to write clearly". It takes you to the EU bookshop
    • Direct link to the EU bookshop and the Write Clearly booklet

    Text Size – Slide 19

    • Smashing Magazine article about 16 pixels body copy
    • zeldman.com with large type
    • Article about Zeldman’s Web Design Manifesto

    Tables – Slide 20

    • WebAIM article on tables
    • Screen readers read tables from left to right, from row to row
    • <summary>, <th>, <scope>
    • How-to: Frank Palinkas’ article on creating accessible datatables/ and Isolani’s article on structured tables (with a football pools example!)

    Tables are for data. Not layout. Data. Make sure your tables are accessible. Because I don’t make tables regularly, I forget how to code them properly. I always have to look up the code, but I do look it up and make it accessible. Not doing so seems so wrong. The two resources here are a great help. Remember: use <summary> where you can also list number of columns and rows. Learn to love <th> element and <scope> attribute!

    Captioning – Slide 21

    I’ve given talks about captioning at TCUK10 and at the first a11yLDN unconference. I’ve pointed people to my presentation for captioning guidelines. Download the slides to get my presenter notes. They are vital – and not visible otherwise in Slideshare.

    Note: from slide 22 until my thank you at slide 35, I went very, very fast. I was running out of time and did want to close with the image on slide 34 and my closing credits. The slides are now getting heavier text-wise. They are meant as starting points for the topic in the slide header. I had so many resources for many topics. It was painful culling them!

    Video – Slide 22

    • Keyboard-accessible YouTube controls
    • JW Player
    • Easy YouTube Player
    • Accessible Media Player
    • And no <autoplay>!

    These are resources for accessible media players. Some are standalone players made to be accessible. The first link is a way to make YouTube accessible. The issue is that screen readers cannot access the controls for the typical media players, which means that they cannot access the video. And yes, blind people want to access videos to hear the information. Even a blind and deaf person could enjoy a video if it was captioned properly so there was an interactive transcript.

    Autoplay – Slide 23

    <autoplay="autoplay">
    DON’T USE AUTOPLAY! It’s hard or impossible to stop using screen reader. If a page is opened in a different tab, the sudden noise can be confusing, startling, or conflicting. I.e. cognition issues. (And that applies to everyone and anyone. DON’T DO IT!!

    ARIA – Slide 24

    • ARIA (application, banner, complementary, contentinfo, form, main, navigation, search)
    • WAI ARIA document landmark roles-document-landmark-roles/
    • Screen readers and ARIA landmark roles
    • Using WAI ARIA landmark roles

    These articles do all the explaining about ARIA.

    Testing and Evaluation – Slide 25

    • WAVE
    • Color Contrast and more – a Mozilla add-on
    • Fireeyes from Deque
    • Functional Accessibility Evaluator
    • Web Developer Extension from Chris Pederick
    • Web Accessibility Toolbar for IE from The Paciello Group
    • W3C WAI Tool List

    There are many tools out there to help you evaluate your site. It is good to try them all at first and get a feel for what works best for you. Having a couple installed is not a bad idea. They can back each other up. These can catch the major bloopers. Use these tools to catch the low-hanging fruit. But… Never uninstall the best overall evaluation tool you have – your brain!! If testing excites you, consider joining the Browser Testing and Tools Working Group.

    In a comment on the page for the Web Developer Extension, I found this helpful video/article about using the tool. See also articles in the accessibility testing category from Karl Groves. And, finally, the achecker testing tool.

    PS WebAIM has a new WAVE in beta. Check it out at http://five.wave.webaim.org/.

    Screen reader testing – Slide 26

    • Learn: Iheni on screen reader testing
    • Plan: spotlessinteractive.com on a screen reader test plan
    • More at Learning how to use and test with screen readers

    Standards – Slide 27

    • W3C WAI
    • Web Accessibility Code of Practice BS8878 (UK)

    WCAG 2 at a glance – Slide 28

    Perceivable

    • Provide text alternatives for non-text content.
    • Provide captions and other alternatives for multimedia.
    • Create content that can be presented in different ways, including by assistive technologies, without losing meaning.
    • Make it easier for users to see and hear content.

    Operable

    • Make all functionality available from a keyboard.
    • Give users enough time to read and use content.
    • Do not use content that causes seizures.
    • Help users navigate and find content.

    Understandable

    • Make text readable and understandable.
    • Make content appear and operate in predictable ways.
    • Help users avoid and correct mistakes.

    Robust

    • Maximize compatibility with current and future user tools.

    This one of many WAI teaching resources.

    WCAG 2.0 – Slide 29

    • Understanding WCAG 2.0: A guide to understanding and implementing Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
    • How to Meet WCAG 2.0: A customizable quick reference to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 requirements (success criteria) and techniques.

    Learn-more resources – Slide 30 and 31

    • What is a screen reader? Article from 2005 so some product details are outdated. Read it for what it is and how it works.
    • Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design. + print
    • Sign up for the discussion list at WebAIM

    Get to know how a screen reader works by reading the first article. The "Just Ask" link is an online book that is also available in print form. It is also a great way to start your journey into accessibility.

    • Opera Web Standards Curriculum in association with Yahoo! Developer Network
    • Web Standards Project’s InterACT (site/book)
    • University of Minnesota at Duluth newsletterTypography, information architecture, usability, accessibility, maintained by @laura_carlson
    • Accessibility for Web Writers series

    The first two links are teaching/teach-yourself resources.

    The third link is an excellent newsletter that comes out every week. It comes highly recommended.

    The last link is the number one link I’d recommend to any technical communicator – along with the “Just Ask” book mentioned elsewhere here.

    10 Principles – Slide 32

    • Be equitable
    • Be flexible
    • Be simple and intuitive
    • Be perceptible
    • Be informative
    • Be preventative
    • Be tolerant
    • Be effortless
    • Be accommodating
    • Be consistent

    These ten principles were written by Sandi Wassmer and are in people-speak and another way to get the mindset for building accessibly. View the 10 principles of inclusive web design online where there is also a link to download a PDF.

    My favorite quote – Slide 33

    When universal design processes fail to include, consult with, and listen to the people we are actually designing for, we also fail to design effectively.
    - Lisa Herrod

    The source of this quote is http://scenariogirl.com/inclusive-design/the-social-model-of-disability. It has been broken for a while due to ISP issues. I keep referring to the link until it works or a new one replaces it.

    Image of man taking a photograph reflected on a metal surface – Slide 34

    In summary, think about how your work reflects back on you. The man in the photo sees his reflection on the shiny surface of a button on a lamp post in the city. Think back to the starting thought about quality – what quality will you see in your work?

    Official closing slide – Slide 35

    Thank you for listening! Questions?

    @kmdk / @stcaccess

    http://www.mardahl.dk

    http://about.me/kmdk

    Extra – Slide 36

    All of the following slides are extras that would have been used as I saw fit on the spot. They are “as is” for interpretation.

    Mobile – Slide 37

    • Opera Mobile Emulator
    • Emulator for older models

    User diversity – Slide 38

    Test with real people!

    • Advice on involving people with disabilities in usability testing
    • Using personas to teach accessibility

    Users are different. But are you aware of the variety? When you test your systems, test with real people who have real disabilities. Personas can be a substitute in some cases. Personas can help teach accessibility. Developers are more likely to respond if they can see how people can be affected by their inaccessible web pages.

    Demo of an accessible infographic and alt text – Slide 39

    I (heart) WebAIM.org

    (Slide 39 through 44 show screenshots that illustrate good use of alt text and an accessible infographic. It is meant for situations where there is no wifi.)

    Confession: I love WebAIM. They have so many resources I can learn from. Let’s start the discussion with an example from WebAIM: an infographic of web accessibility tips for designers (and developers). A pretty .png picture. Useless to someone with little or no vision.

    Slide 40

    The pretty picture is available on their site – ALONG with a text version…

    Slide 41

    The text version is the text that is in the image we first saw. All the text was pulled from the picture and put into this alternate form. At the top of the screen shown here is a link to an accessible version of the .png file…

    Slide 42

    Someone else – Chris Throup – made an accessible version of the picture. Looks the same.

    Slide 43

    But the code reveals how there is no image in what looked like an image on the previous slide. It’s just code – machine-readable code.

    Slide 44

    This slide shows Chris Thorup’s code with – at the bottom of the slide – a sample of the WebAIM code for the text version. The same message gets across, but in 2 different ways. The WebAIM sample showed icons echoing the original image. However, those icons use alt text to tell a person using a screen reader what that icon represents. All in all, a lovely real-life example of making something accessible to many different needs.

    Twitter+ Resources – Slide 45

    • @RogerJohansson + 456bereastreet.com
    • @webaxe + webaxe.org
    • @silviapfeiffer (all about video)
    • @MarcoInEnglish / @MarcoZehe + marcozehe.de (Firefox)
    • @jared_w_smith + WebAIM.org (with discussion list, too!)
    • @iheni + iheni.com (mobile)
    • @stevefaulkner + paciellogroup.com/blog (ARIA, HTML5)
    • @dugboticus + alistairduggin.co.uk
    • @AccessifyForum + accessifyforum.com

    People are probably the best resources of all. This is the tip of the iceberg here. I could talk for hours about the people I think you should follow. It caused me pain to not include some people. Some may be at a far higher level of coding knowledge than you are comfortable with. Break out of your comfort zone! Or share these links with your favorite developers. They are people well worth following. Note that the last one also has a forum where you can ask all sorts of questions related to developing accessibly.

    Coding resources – Slide 46

    • Yahoo! accessibility code library
    • Accessibility topics at Web Standards Sherpa
    • Mozilla ARIA resources

    Great coding resources for anyone wanting to get down and get real dirty! The Mozilla ARIA resource is huge and growing. Start your ARIA explorations there.

    Postscript

    Special thanks to John Kearney and Neal Dench for helping me finish this blog post. October has been crazy busy for me so the posting process got a wee bit too delayed.

    Thanks to the people of the WebAIM discussion list – especially Birkir! – who have been an inspiration for other presentations that led up to this workshop.

    Thanks to TCUK (and dear David Farbey) for inviting me to be a keynote speaker. That led to me daring to give this workshop.

    Material in this workshop builds on material from past presentations I have given. There are some messages (for example, the one about alt text) that still bear repeating. As long as there are things out there that are broken – and shouldn’t be, these messages need to be repeated.

    Getting Down and Dirty with Accessibility and Usability workshop at TCUK12 from kmardahl
  • Musings on accessibility and usability – my TCUK12 keynote

    Oct 09, 12

    I had the pleasure and the honor of giving the closing keynote at the recent TCUK conference in Newcastle for the ISTC. I called it “Adaptability: The True Key to Accessibility and Usability?”. This is a short write up to accompany the slides that I have posted from my presentation. For several months, I scribbled notes and dictated ideas into my iPhone. I went to Wikimedia for Creative Commons images (I recommend that). When it came time to do the presentation, I let the photos lead the way and spoke from my heart. I felt I was in the flow, so I really don’t remember all the details of what I said! This is a from-memory text to accompany the text photos for my slides (link at the end of this blog post). It may also be slightly altered from what I said last week. There will be audio at some point. Then we’ll know the truth!

    An apology

    I apologize for not posting a text version at the same time that I posted the slides. I feel I must practice what I preach and provide all versions at once. No one should have to wait their turn. I partially blame SlideShare. I’m frustrated at their not showing notes in the transcripts. They only pluck out text from the slides and not from the notes where you can have much more substance. Not everyone downloads slides, and that means not everyone can see the notes. I omitted notes from this set, which meant I had more work in preparing this transcript. Not smart. I wish SlideShare would fix this issue.

    This is my transcript

    Whenever technical communicators gather in a restaurant, menu editing ensues. The night before TCUK12 began was no exception. The menu offered Roast Guinea F o u l. Of course, we were all amused. We technical communicators cannot help editing every single word we see. It’s in our nature. We see writing mistakes everywhere. I feel the same way about accessibility and usability. I see accessibility and usability issues everywhere.

    Across the street from where I live, there is, to me, the most annoying walkway. There are decorative cement strips laid across an asphalt base. These strips are raised, so there are curb cuts in some places. I feel there is little smooth transition between the asphalt and the cement, so there are plenty of places to trip for anyone who is not walking carefully or who uses a cane or walker. I am surprised this was approved by the Danish disability society. At least, I was told they approved it. In the winter, it is even worse. The snowplow is not accurate, as shown in my fourth slide, where the plow crossed part of the curb cut and part of the raised cement. The path is not smooth for a wheelchair, a walker, or a baby carriage. This galls me. And it is just one example of how I see accessibility and usability issues in my environment. I want to talk about that and encourage you to do the same.

    I am truly standing on the shoulders of giants as I speak to you today. I thought the photo of the Giant’s Causeway illustrated that nicely. I have learned so much about accessibility from people on Twitter in the four years I have been there.

    In fact, I have learned that disability is a universal human experience. That is what it says in the WHO quote. If we are all disabled at one point or another in our lives, why don’t we make our world – the physical and the virtual – accessible? I found a series of slides to illustrate how this can be done.

    I found a picture of a picnic table where the table extends beyond the length of the benches. This is perfect for a family outing where one person uses a wheelchair. The wheelchair can fit against the table quite nicely so the person using the wheelchair can sit close to the table like everyone else.

    The picture of a wheelchair with inflated tires illustrates how someone with a disability can also come out and romp in the snow with friends.

    Engineering for Change from MIT has designed a wheelchair that is better suited to places with a rough terrain, such as rural areas.

    I love this picture of a young boy doing his homework just like any other young child does today. The chemistry book on his desk indicates the material can be demanding. This boy is able to do his homework because he has a refreshable Braille display so that he can perceive what is on his computer and prepare the required homework. He is realizing his potential regardless of the quality of his eyesight.

    The Yahoo! accessibility laboratory displays assistive technology. A monitor shows very large text which is a necessity for some people with certain levels of low vision. A large red button can be used to send commands to the computer by someone who does not have the motor skills to manipulate a mouse.

    The photo of @Jennison, a well-known person in the accessibility community on Twitter, shows him listening to something on his laptop. However, the laptop is partially closed. How can that be? He is blind and is using a screen reader. He is listening to the screen reader commands through his earphones. I think this could be a smart trick in a meeting where you can “read” an article with a screen reader when the meeting gets too dull! I think Jennison looks like he is ready to smile, so he is probably up to some similar trick!

    All of the slides have shown examples of inclusion where technology has been used as an enabler. It is possible to design from the beginning so that the experience is well done in every way. It should never be slapped on as an afterthought as this ramp seems to be. Someone has ripped up part of some steps and poured cement for a ramp. I think it looks dangerous and would not want to be pushed up the ramp. Sure, it looks accessible, but I don’t trust it.

    How would you feel if you did not have access and were excluded from whatever you wanted to do? It’s like coming to payphones in pre-mobile days and finding the telephone ripped off. The device is completely useless. That is what lack of accessibility can mean.

    That is when I bring out this favorite quote from Lisa Herrod. “When universal design processes fail to include, consult with, and listen to the people we are actually designing for, we also fail to design effectively.” Design is something we all do – designers, technical communicators, developers. All of us.

    That seems to be what happened with the original Twitter.com. It was simply not accessible. However, one person voluntarily set out to make an accessible Twitter client. This person, Dennis Lembrée, created EasyChirp.com. And guess what? A tool that is accessible for people who are blind turns out to be usable by everyone. I find the site is far less cluttered and more pleasant to use. The site is totally keyboard accessible, which is something I pointed out in my workshop on Tuesday. It does not require a mouse. Oh, for anyone who dislikes Twitter.com and the endless page, note that EasyChirp has the newer and older page controls. Give it a try even though you are not blind.

    Another person who set out to fix something that was broken is Dana Chisnell. She spearheaded a Kickstarter project for making ballot instructions understandable by all. I think is a fantastic project, and I encourage you to visit the field guides site. One lovely example from the field guide illustrates the point “write short sentences”. You see a block of text as the Before, followed by a short sentence that is the After. Cutting away the excess words!

    W3C. WAI. WCAG. UAAG. ATAG. There are lots of guidelines out there to teach you and guide you in making accessible material. Some of it can be overwhelming. WCAG 2.0 is supposed to be the equivalent of 800 printed pages! Because it can be overwhelming to some, it may never be read by those who actually need it.

    That is why some people in the UK have worked on the British Standard BS8878 to provide guidelines, or a framework that is easier to comprehend and implement. Professor Jonathan Hassell, one of the lead authors behind BS8878, gave a workshop on Tuesday that illustrated how it could be applied in a workplace.

    When more people start incorporating accessibility into their work, great things can happen. A picture of a smiling high school graduate turns out to be the beginning of an illustrious career for a multiple award-winning technical communicator who became blind and deaf around the age of twelve. Thanks to the technology made available at her workplace in the space and defense industry, she produced deliverables just like any other technical communicator (the award-winning kind, that is!)

    Most people here should know about Dame Evelyn Glennie, who recently performed during the Olympics opening ceremony. By insisting that she could learn music despite her deafness and gaining a place in a music school, she opened the doors for anyone to come and learn, regardless of any disability.

    A young deaf man receiving his doctorate was able to appreciate the ceremony in his honor because a sign language interpreter was present. All of these people were gaining access to knowledge thanks to technology and awareness of the need for inclusion.

    And this is not all for serious, hard work. A poetry performance has one person reading poetry into the microphone while another person interprets the poem using sign. For me, sign becomes art and is a thing of beauty.

    And that brings me to a lovely quote from Lao Tzu that I heard at an AccessU presentation by Molly Holzschlag this past May. “The reason why the universe is eternal is that it does not live for itself; it gives life to others as it transforms.” This is about the web. It is a vehicle. It gives life to the possibility of communication.

    So how do we engage people in making the world a more inclusive place? I like these Attitude Adjusters from Australia. These are cards similar to many cards used for brainstorming that can be used for teaching and implementing accessibility.

    Because all this makes a difference.

    I wanted a starfish photo at this point, and I went looking for pretty starfish photos. I fell for this photo of a starfish on its back and covered in sand. It looks awful, but the note made it the ideal candidate. You see, the AccessAbility SIG of STC has a tale about a starfish. A man walks along a beach strewn with starfish and meets a little girl who is picking them up and throwing them back in the ocean. “What are you doing?”, the man asks. “I’m saving the starfish,” the little girl replies. “With so many, your efforts cannot make a difference”, said the man. “It makes a difference to that one”, said the little girl as she threw another starfish back into the sea. And the description of this photo said that the photographer threw this dead-looking starfish back in the sea where it soon revived…

    Making a difference – but what does it cost? I show a diagram of the cost of adding accessibility from Day 1 of planning a project or adding it after the product is completed. The cost is nil at the beginning and very high at the end. Whitney Quesenbery has the numbers. 1 unit (say, 1 dollar) in the definition stage and 60 to 100 units (say, 100 dollars) after release!

    So… we need to get out there and make things accessible. I had to share a photo of a tireless advocate for accessibility who is no longer with us, William Loughborough. But oh to be like him, agitating about accessibility well into his eighties and all the way up to his death. What a role model.

    We need to get out there and stop the absurdity. Lisa Herrod’s photo got a big laugh. How can anyone post a notice at the bottom of the stairs stating that those with accessibility needs can get help at the top of the stairs. It’s absurd.

    Karl Groves has a great quote about how to tackle this job. Focus on the quality. “So long as a web-based system is inaccessible, it suffers from quality problems and we should focus on quality.” The focus on quality may be an easier-to-understand approach to some.

    You see, some balk at the terminology. Some don’t even know what it is. This is where I get to use my favorite term, cognitive scaffolding, and show a photo of scaffolding! It’s about mentoring and education. We who are somewhat in the know, need to continuously develop our skills. Then, we must turn around and mentor others – spreading the knowledge and raising awareness. We can learn from each other. I learned the real story about cognitive scaffolding from a tip from Linda Urban, a popular past presenter at TCUK. She recommended the technical report from January 1987 called Cognitive Apprenticeship: Teaching the Craft of Reading, Writing, and Mathematics (opens a PDF). Now I recommend it.

    Perhaps another difficulty is that we learn at different levels and have different needs. The concept of this talk is very inspired by a 2009 paper called “From Web Accessibility to Web Adaptability”. [A tl;dr summary of the Web Adaptability paper can be found on Brian Kelly's blog.] This is also an inspiring read of how we can make accessibility for the web become a reality so that we can provide so many more opportunities for everyone to participate in the Web. I think we can work together to adapt nicely like the chameleon – with all of us blending together maintaining our uniqueness and yet making one beautiful picture.

    The slides

    You can view the slides here or on SlideShare.

    Adaptability: The True Key to Accessibility and Usability? #TCUK12 from kmardahl
  • Practising the Accessibility I Preach

    Sep 12, 12

    If I am so excited about accessibility, I need to make sure that I really think about inclusion in all situations. That’s both easy and hard. I think it is natural to be considerate of others. Knowing what can be considerate can be tricky at times.

    I love MiniCards from MOO, and I recommend MOO to all my friends. My first set of cards had very tiny print, however. It was embarrassing to hand them out at the 2010 accessibility unconference in London. For my next set, I designed both sides. Instead of using their print setup for text, I wrote my contact info in large type and uploaded that as an image for the text side of the card. That seemed quite nice.

    Enter Braille stickers.

    I’d heard about Braille stickers a while ago from Sarah Lewthwaite’s blog. I decided to set things straight for the 2012 TCUK conference this year. I set out to order the stickers. Imagine my dismay when I discovered the place Sarah had last used had stopped making them. Google saved me.

    Google led me to Pia accessible publishing solutions. They had multiple standard sizes of stickers, and they could make customized sizes, too. I found a size that fit my existing cards and filled in an online form to ask about pricing and delivery times. It turned out I had too many words for the small size stickers. For a 20 cm by 60 cm label, I could only have 9 Braille letters per line and only 2 lines. After thinking that I needed name, email address, and website on the label, I ended up with a very simple solution.

    The first line reads m a r d a h l, and the second line reads . d k. In other words, mardahl.dk should be enough. It leads to my name and a contact form. Blind people are smart. They don’t need the http and the www to figure out that the label holds a web address. It felt very clever to be so minimalist.

    My first contact with the company was September 4th. I placed my order Wednesday, September 5th. On Monday, September 10th, I found a notice in my mailbox telling me that they had tried to deliver my package. From Wales to Denmark in 3 days (with a weekend involved). Not bad at all. With such prompt service, I could easily order another set in time for TCUK12.

    And guess what? The labels were accompanied by a letter stating that the Braille embossed on the labels comply with “BSi standard BS EN 15823:201″. It also stated that the Braille was approved for accuracy and the quality and compliance of the Braille cells and dots. Very cool and very professional. This feels very geeky. I’ll be proud to flaunt the dots and raise awareness about accessibility. I’ll also be proud – not embarrassed – the next time I meet someone who reads Braille.

    My lovely new Braille labels from pia.co.uk with a bit of reflection from the sunset outside my window.

    Next up: sticking stickers on my MOO cards. The clear label is unobtrusive, so it won’t alter the look of my MOO card design or text. MOO cards and Braille. Be still, my geeky heart!

  • I love you, Mom – up close and personal with dementia

    Aug 17, 12

    Dementia reared its ugly head in a friend’s circle of acquaintances. I decided to write this post as a way of showing support. I felt that learning about the effects and consequences of neurodegenerative diseases happens through open communication.

    Writing was more painful that I had expected. I am finally finishing this post three and a half years after I wrote my first draft. (It’s long, so if you don’t want to read it all, hop to the second to last paragraph and the two pictures at the end.)

    “If only we could have seen the symptoms in time.” I’ll bet everyone close to a person with dementia thinks that thought. Hindsight always has perfect vision! It’s tricky, however, because what is a symptom? Maybe we are naturally “loopy”, “forgetful”, and so on? Some changes are gradual. Some changes are symptomatic of other matters. I am not a doctor, only the daughter of a woman who was diagnosed with vascular dementia in May 2007. I may shock you with the things I say about my Mom. It’s not my Mom, however. It’s the disease that I am describing, and, as the daughter of a teacher, I believe in the need to discuss and educate. These are my personal observations on the “what if” question.

    Mom had rotten vegetables in the refrigerator

    I discovered this when I came to visit her in May 2007, just before her diagnosis. Because my mom and I lived on two separate continents, we didn’t see each other that often. I have no recollection of what I discovered in the refrigerator in 2005, the time of my last visit. Perhaps there were signs, but I missed them.

    The signs in 2007 were much more evident and made me go through all her food in the kitchen. She lived in the US where (I find) the production dates and “best before” dates are rarely stamped on packages. In addition, she was vegan/vegetarian and shopped at many farmers’ market places where, again, no dates are used. It is up to users to go home and mark dates on their purchases. I doubt someone developing dementia would easily think of that.

    How in the world could anyone have seen the rotten vegetables in my mom’s kitchen? That would require a certain intimacy to be able to go and look in someone else’s drawers, cupboards, and refrigerator – and then to point out the error of their ways! Of course, rotten vegetables could just be a sign of a sloppy housekeeper. On their own, perhaps it is nothing.

    Mom couldn’t plan anything

    Mom talked about learning to use a computer for years. Like a good little technical communicator daughter, I wrote out detailed how-tos – in pen in a notebook! My latest instructions from 2005 were left on a window ledge in the sun. In 2007, they were barely legible. The ink was faded, the page was dusty and curled. Yes, the notebook was in the same spot on the window ledge. Who would notice that? Of course, over the years, I snapped at my mom about her lack of computer training. Yes, I snapped. When we spoke on the phone and she repeated for the millionth and umpteenth time that she wanted to take a course in training at the library or something, I snapped. I was so tired of hearing the same old statement and not seeing any results. I had no idea that mom was probably losing it at the time. Little mini-strokes were chipping away at the woman who had raised me and given me so many opportunities in life. My mom was slowly disappearing and I didn’t know it. I was just snapping at her.

    Mom was forgetting things

    Mom left her mini-oven on one day and went out the door with a friend. Fortunately, there was only nasty smoke and no other damage. Her version was that she had put something in to warm up, a friend buzzed the front door to say she was there to drive Mom to some planned event, so Mom got her things together and went out the door. She claims the call flustered her so she forgot the food in the oven.

    That could well be true. Such a situation requires a certain overview, which is hard or impossible for a dementia patient. The food needs to be dealt with, and her getting-ready process needs to be dealt with. The idea of someone waiting for you can also add stress. Anyone could mess up that situation. On its own, a simple mistake. Mom also forgot her apartment door key all the time. Scatterbrained? She forgot to pay her rent on time and then tried to put blame on the apartment administration (to cover up her own fear of something being terribly wrong?)

    Mom lost time

    This realization became more evident after her diagnosis. She complained her clocks were all wrong, but a check by a neighbor proved that all clocks showed the same time and were correct. The test the neurologist gave Mom included drawing an analog clock: a circle with the numbers placed correctly. Mom made the circle, then she placed all the numbers randomly ….

    Mom often went to bed in the afternoon. Nap time, you’d think. My interpretation is that she felt a need to sleep and went to bed with the whole nightclothes-and-teeth-brushing routine. After all, sleep comes at night, and that is what you do when you go to sleep at night. I would phone at midnight my time – 18.00 her time. She was just getting up to start her day! It was light out and she was in bed, therefore, it was morning. I had to use all my persuasive skills to make her stay in. Later, I learned to drop logic. It served no purpose, but I had a hard time letting it go. I was often “saved by the bell”. Her TV went on automatically for the evening news. It blared in the background, saving me in the middle of some fruitless argument. When her TV went on the blink later, I lost that bit of help. She even walked out of the apartment building to go to her swim lessons – when it was nearly midnight. Her circle of friends became seriously concerned. It was hopeless explaining things to Mom. She once hung up on me in disgust at my silly nonsense about time.

    Mom disappeared

    I could go on with small, personal anecdotes that make me realize there was a sequence of mini-strokes building up to something bad. I don’t think the best detective could have put the picture together any earlier. Again, you’d have to be watching over mom’s shoulder to catch mistakes as she went about her day. Mom had many friends and went to many activities. She volunteered in so many places and participated in luncheons and gatherings of all kinds. People cared about Mom and loved her, but isolated incidents could easily be dismissed with a kind shake of the head.

    Then I received a call saying Mom “was different”. She changed overnight in front of people. It was reported that a sort of fog seemed to descend on her. This must have been the tipping-point mini-stroke. That happened in April [2007]. I received the call about a month later because the wonderfully angelic social worker in Mom’s building was trying to figure things out before contacting me. Stroke was ruled out immediately and no scans could be done because of Mom’s pacemaker. I flew over and discovered Mom was not eating regularly and not drinking enough water. (When Mom finally got into a nursing home at the end of July and had a regular schedule for food and drink, she became so much more alert that I thought her dementia diagnosis was a mistake. Typical reaction.)

    I call this disappearance of my mother her first death. The person I spoke to on the phone was no longer my mother. I was left alone with the memories. I repeated tales of my childhood and her childhood to her. There was no recognition. I thought I detected some sadness in her voice at this. I think she was sad that I was obviously not getting the reaction I wanted (her recognition). I didn’t sense that she was sad at her condition. She was already somewhere else.

    Mom was undernourished and dehydrated

    I am not a doctor, but that is my opinion of Mom’s condition. While visiting, I made her nourishing food and made her drink water on a regular basis. That was an unpleasant and weird experience. She would choke and splutter on a glass of water as if she didn’t know how to drink. I had to tell her repeatedly to take small sips. The water bottle that she liked to carry was full of cloudy water. I didn’t need a microscope to tell that the water was filthy. Think “ewww gross!” She never cleaned the bottle. I bought a new water bottle and that seemed to be more manageable for her.

    There was one food episode that freaked me out. I was preparing a veggie stew for dinner while Mom was parked in front of the TV. (Definitely bad sign. Mom hated TV with a passion and only tolerated educational TV and news from the local public service station. During my visit, I could watch any mind-rotting show I wanted to with mom, and she never protested.) Mom came into the kitchen and took a bowl and spoon from the cupboard and shuffled over to me standing at the stove. My mind was already putting two and two together because there was so much detail in the tableau unfolding before me. I asked her what she wanted. I was freezing up at the sight of my Mom looking like Oliver Twist from that musical film of my youth. I realized instantly that my mom was 83-going-on-5. The horror that ran through my blood at that thought…. Mom said she wanted food. I told her it wasn’t ready and to go and wait. She placed her bowl and spoon on the counter and shuffled back to the living room. She never talked about setting the table for the two of us. She never mentioned my needing food. There was something pavlovian about her reaction to my cooking. Totally self-centered. And Mom used to be all about setting the table, folding fancy napkins, and so on.

    The day before I left mom on that May 2007 visit, we went shopping. A bus came once a week to the apartments and took the ladies (there were a few men, but you know the statistics for the elderly – the women live longest) to a large supermarket for one and a half hours of shopping pleasure. This was a fun little outing, and we took our time in the store. I noticed that it was time to finish our shopping and get ready for the bus, when I suddenly realized all that mom had bought for the coming week was two tomatoes! It clicked. Mom couldn’t plan because she had no sense of time. I dashed around and grabbed some canned and dried food that I knew could keep her going for a while. I had no idea how things would work out on future shopping trips.

    The moral of this section is: watch what elderly family members are eating and drinking. It is crucial. Lack of adequate hydration in the elderly is a shove in the wrong direction for their health.

    Mom’s smile could light up a room

    I’ve mustered all my logic in trying to analyze and decipher the mystery of dementia. Nurses told me to forget logic. It is powerless in front of a person with dementia. Still, I fought hard as thought I could solve the mystery and bring back my own mother from wherever.

    In all the dementia destruction, one wonderful thing happened. Her smile never disappeared. Dementia did not take that from us. When she was in hospital recovering from a near-fatal stroke a year before she died, I asked her to smile for me. It was like turning on a light bulb. A year later, a month before she died, I gave her a big heart-shaped balloon for Valentine’s Day. Mustering all her strength, she gave me one of her smiles. I will treasure those smiles forever.

    Postscript

    August 17th has always been a special day for me – my Mom’s birthday. I’ve been thinking about her a lot today. Those thoughts led me to finish this post. If you encounter dementia or Alzheimer’s in your circle of friends and family, contact your local dementia or Alzheimer’s society. They have hotlines for answering your questions. I know they work. I’ve used them. This can’t be done alone.

    Today, I also took the opportunity to dwell on two of my favorite photos of her. One shows her age four, posing for the camera – in a children’s beauty pageant, which she won! The other sums up a lot of her life. She is dancing a folk dance – barefoot – in Paraguay, where she worked for the Peace Corps for two and a half years training special education teachers. The photo quality is awful, but her happiness is showing, and her smile is gorgeous.

  • Getting Ready for TCUK12

    Aug 10, 12

    I love the conference held by ISTC every October: the Technical Communication UK conference, also known as TCUK. A little hop over the North Sea takes me to a gathering of really nice people whose conversations and presentations get my synapses working overtime in a very good way. From our technical communication perspective, we can discuss XML, temperature controls for showers, stationery stores, content strategy, captioning, Subject Matter Experts… oh, the list goes on and on and on. I’ve done this in 2010 and 2011. I will do it again in 2012.

    TCUK12 is a bit special for me

    This year, I was given a great honor – I was asked to be a keynote speaker for the special track on accessibility and usability. I said yes! I also have a workshop and a panel discussion scheduled. The panel discussion will be moderated by the wonderful Kai Weber a.k.a. @techwriterkai.

    Ramping up

    The latest conference newsletter was sent out today. It reminds us that members of ISTC, STC, and tekom can attend at the reduced member rate. There’s a little shout-out to our kind sponsors and an encouragement for others to become a sponsor, too.

    People and Conversation

    The marvelous Sue Fraser and Elaine Cole, tireless behind-the-scenes conference administrators, will probably be the first faces attendees see when they arrive in Newcastle in October. At that moment, conversation will begin buzzing and flowing as everyone arrives and settles in. It’s a warm and welcoming atmosphere. There are certain people I am especially eager to greet.

    In addition to Kai, I look forward to seeing my co-panelists (is that a word?) Ray Gallon a.k.a. @raygallon and Robert Hempsall a.k.a. @roberthempsall.

    There are two very familiar faces in the accessibility and usability track: Makayla Lewis a.k.a. @maccymacx and Graham Armfield a.k.a. @coolfields. I feel like they are old friends. I met them at A11yLDN – the London Web Accessibility Unconference in 2010. (Now that is another great conference – unconference, rather – that I highly recommend! It’s on 19 September this year.)

    A new (to me) face in the crowd is Jonathan Hassell a.k.a. @jonhassell. I am a bit in awe of meeting him. He’s the lead author of British Standard BS8878 Web Accessibility Code of Practice!

    Of course, the TCUK12 programme has other excellent speakers (and two more top-notch keynote presenters!) And where would any of the speakers be without the enthusiastic, creative, interesting attendees? I am in awe of them, too. They are my peers, the toughest kind of crowd. The bar is set very high. (No, not the one you drink at…)

    Last, but not least, it will be great to see this year’s TCUK lead organizer, Mr. David Farbey. I hope he has a juicy rant for us at the Rants and Raves session.

    Join us

    If any of you are wondering whether this is a conference for you, read the testimonials and program on the TCUK12 conference website. Registration details are there, too. See you in Newcastle in October!

  • The Wonder of Dark Skies and Stars

    Aug 04, 12

    Have you ever looked up at a night sky packed with stars? My most vivid memory of a night sky was one where the “stars were so densely packed that you couldn’t make out any familiar constellations.”

    I had an unexpected philosophical moment during my lunch today when I took 11 well-spent minutes to watch this TEDxPhoenix video about looking up.

    The speaker, Lucianne Walkowicz, works on NASA’s Kepler mission. Basically, she hunts for planets. What a thing to say at cocktail parties when you introduce yourself: I hunt for planets. Wow. What is even more amazing is that we can all help her hunt for planets. There is a site called Planet Hunters where you can become a citizen scientist and help poke through the data to find planets.

    And while we sift through data to reveal the treasures sent back by our remote eyes (the telescopes), Lucianne Walkowicz also makes us think about preserving the treasure that we have all around us. She encourages you to check out International Dark-Sky Association for more information about preserving the night sky. I also found a recent article on dark skies in the Guardian that is worth a read.

    I embedded the video from YouTube because the source on the TEDxPhoenix site doesn’t provide embedding code. Visit the source site for links to other TED videos by Lucianne Walkowicz.

    Citizen scientists digging through data. Awareness of the awesomeness of space, planets, and stars. That had to be shared. Now I need to go listen to “Stars” by The Weepies because “I feel a pull to the blue-velvet dark and stars”.

  • Pain and Respect – My BADD2012 Contribution

    May 01, 12

    A group of us had just finished an excellent dinner and were now deciding what dessert to eat. Everyone was laughing and talking at once. Except for one person. One person who had, moments before, been joking loudly, fell silent. She sat very still.

    Her husband noticed and turned serious. “We need to leave now“, he said, and they left. The rest of us paid for our meal and moved to the exit on foot and on wheels. The silent woman and her husband were already farther down the sidewalk heading back to their hotel.

    I was shocked at what I saw. To me, it looked like the man was walking beside a stiff, wooden figure. The figure was not the sporty, active person I had met a few days previously. This was a person possessed. She was possessed by the pain of fibromyalgia right in the middle of having fun with friends. Her husband got her back to the hotel as quickly as they could walk. He gave her the medication she needed, put her to bed, and drew the curtains so the room was completely dark. He then joined us in a café next to the hotel where we had our dessert and coffee.

    That was the day that I saw the face of real pain. I couldn’t pretend to understand it fully. I realized that I could never say “I understand what you are going through.” That would be a lie. There was no need for pity, either. All I could do was show respect and tolerance – the kind of respect and tolerance that we owe all human beings.

    This particular incident comes to mind when I hear anyone express the thought that some people fake their illness or that they just want to collect benefits. How can we be so suspicious of others that we immediately assume they are lying or taking money from others? That is a shocking and terrible attitude for people to have.

    When I read the blog posts submitted for Blogging Against Disablism Day (BADD) each year, I am struck by one theme – a lack of respect we human beings can have for other human beings. Could it be that many of those posts would not have been written if some respect and tolerance had been shown? There could have been collaboration instead of conflict.

    I think projects like BADD are good as an outlet for the voices of people with disabilities. I believe those voices are the key to developing more respect for each other. I almost feel like I shouldn’t be taking any of the spotlight on BADD. Then I remembered what I learned from watching my friend’s transformation under pain and thought of sharing my own path to better awareness about disability. We need to rid ourselves of any negative attitudes – especially in our governments where it is often amplified.

    My humble plea is that we all examine our attitudes and start showing more respect today. Respect is not a cliché. It is the first step toward awareness and inclusion. We owe that to each other.

    Now, go and read all the posts on the BADD 2012 web page. I hope they blow your mind.

  • Thomas Fleming Day on Design, Simple Solutions, Leadership, and Responsibility

    Apr 14, 12

    100 years ago, a man wrote passionately about the incompetency that led to a terrible tragedy. The freshness of his words struck me when I first discovered them in 2001. Today, on the 100th anniversary of that tragedy – the sinking of the Titanic, I thought the words of that man – Thomas Fleming Day – were worth repeating. The Open Library makes it possible to do so.

    When I read this 1912 article in 2012, many questions come to mind. How are we designing today? How do we communicate simple safety procedures? How do we conduct training? How do we shoulder responsibility at all stages of a project? (As an uncomfortable parallel, read D.A. Winsor’s IEEE PCS article from 1988 called “Communication Failures Contributing to the Challenger Accident: An Example for Technical Communicators” (link opens PDF).) We are supposed to learn from past failures. Is that happening, or do we need to listen to a 100-year-old voice?

    Background and Copyright Information

    Thomas Fleming Day was the founder and editor of The Rudder, a magazine about boats. The contents of this post come from part of a regular section in The Rudder magazine called “Round the Clubhouse Fire”. The source for this post is a 1912 edition of The Rudder found at the Open Library.

    In the edition from Volume XXVII, May 1912, Number 5, “Round the Clubhouse Fire” began on page 360. This particular version began with the commentary that I am sharing with you in this post. For reading convenience, I made headings that are from the first sentence of the following paragraph. In the printed version, these sections are merely marked by three asterisks. I made no other changes to the original text.

    To ensure publication of this text without violating any copyright rules, I did some research. On the Internet Archive page for this magazine, it states “Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT”. I then found an explanation about NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT in the Internet Archive forum. I used a link in that thread to make sure there was no copyright listed for this magazine. If anyone knows otherwise, please let me know in the comments, and I will make corrections accordingly.

    Vol. XXVII, May 1912, No. 5 begins on page 331 in the PDF (scanned image) version on the Open Library (page 309 in the original bound volume). The article I reference is found on page 382 in the PDF (page 360 in the original bound volume).

    (Do visit the Open Library on your next break. They provide a good home to many, many books, and they have high ambitions. Check them out!)

    This post is like having a guest blogger, only my guest wrote his post 100 years ago. Thank you, Mr. Day.

    Round the Clubhouse Fire – by Thomas Fleming Day

    WHAT we have all expected and predicted would happen, has happened. Many a day I have stood on the bridge and watched one of the mailboats go rushing by at 20 or 25 knots, thick or clear, driving through so as to make her tide and land the mails and passengers on time. We watched her out of sight, and then said, “Some day one of those fellows will hit a berg or another ship and there will be a terrible killing,” I have talked with the men who drive those ships. They have shudderingly admitted the danger. “But what are we to do? We are put here to drive them, and drive them we must. If it is thick and there is ice ahead we will hit it.” For this disaster the American traveling public are wholly to blame; it is their mania for speed that has brought about the abnormal and dangerous development of the Western Ocean steamship. The American has no love for the sea, every day upon it is to him a day of torture. But then is he ever happy anywhere unless he is being rushed along at a speed dangerous to life and limb? Hear the constant’ cry on ocean steamers, “Captain, can’t you get us in to-morrow? Can’t we hurry and land to-night?” etc. “Get us over this ocean as soon as possible,” is the cry. “Never mind risking our lives, take the shortest route and rush your vessel through. Never mind the fog and ice or the other ships. Rush ! rush ! rush !” We have the same mania on land, trains running at 70 miles over tracks built for a speed of forty, and the passengers paying an extra fare for the privilege of risking a horrible death.

    It is to play to this speed demon

    It is to play to this speed demon that the mailboats have been taken across the cold water in Spring and Summer. To go South into the warm water meant a longer distance and more time at sea. If a line refused to let its ships take the risk, it lost the favor of the public. They transferred their patronage to the line that would send its ships over the shorter route, and take the chances of hitting ice or bashing another ship in the thick. The fact that none of these vessels carried sufficient boats to salve a full passenger and crew list was well known, and often commented on. But steamship men, like the rest of the world, grow indifferent to such conditions; the dangers are too remote; long relief from serious accident made boats an ornament and a nuisance, and the less carried the less work and bother. Not two months ago an officer of Olympic said, in response to a passenger’s remark that there were not boats enough, “Oh, we’ll never need them; just carry them to comply with the law.” Another theory that has sent many a ship to the bottom is the watertight bulkhead. No bulkhead with an opening through it is watertight. When you put a door through it, it becomes a menace not a safeguard. Bulkheads should have absolutely no opening of any kind through them, and should be carried up to the main deck intact. “That cannot be done,” cries the designer. “Impossible,” echoes the builder. Then, gentlemen, don’t call them watertight, and don’t tell people they will prevent ships sinking. I have known ships to be saved by their bulkheads, but they were solid partitions reaching from keel to deck.

    The saddest thing to me in this terrible happening is that hundreds might have had a chance for their lives if only some one had been there with the brains to direct those inexperienced landsmen. I have spent hours thinking over what I would do in just such a crisis. I never go on a steamer but what my first duty is to look over the boats, to see what tackles they are fitted with, and how they are released. Then I look around and note what other stuff aboard can be used in an emergency. On Titanic there were probably four or five thousand mattresses, and yet no one seems to have thought of using them. How often have you looked over a ship side and seen a mattress, a sailor’s “donkey’s breakfast,” floating perhaps days after it was thrown over from some inbound packet. There were hundreds of wooden cabin doors; why were these not torn off and thrown overside? Because nobody was there who had been trained to think of these things. If you are ever caught on a sinking steamer remember this: Take two mattresses out of the bunks, place between them an empty suit-case, a cork life-preserver, or if you cannot get anything else two pillows or any bulky article that will float, take the bed sheets, twist them, and lash the mattresses together, sandwich-fashion, with the suit-case or life-preserver between. Here is float that you can lie full length on and that will keep your head and body above water. When in the water several of these can be brought together and lashed side by side and thus be prevented from capsizing. I know a man who saved himself by taking two water-jugs and stuffing their mouths with towels; he floated with a jug under each arm until picked up. He told me he thought of this method years before, and when the hour came it flashed back into his mind.

    The loss of Titanic is a dreadful lesson

    The loss of Titanic is a dreadful lesson, but, like all such that have from time to time been given to man, it will go unheeded. The same disregard of safety when safety is present will rule, and ships will speed merrily over the ocean, bearing crowds of passengers only too delighted if they break a record and get to port before the sunset gun closes quarantine.

    There is one lesson that man never has learned and never will learn, and that is to put into power the competent, to choose for his governing masters the trained, experienced, and intelligent. Instead, he allows his governing masters to choose themselves, consequently we have men entirely ignorant controlling our affairs and dictating the laws and conditions under which we shall live and travel. As a specimen look at the British Board of Trade: a collection of incompetent civilians, acting under the advice of theoretical landsmen, making laws for navigating the seas. Was there anything more criminally imbecile than the late work of this body in raising the Winter load-line, a piece of folly that has sent dozens of ships and their crews to death. The Winter load-line should have been sent down, not up. Would these men have sent it up if they had spent a stormy night on the bridge of a deep-loaded vessel? No; but they are ignorant politicians who, afraid to offend the clamoring vessel owners, played politics, the stakes being the lives of men. Look at our Senate, sending three hayseed senators to investigate a shipping disaster; men who by their questions show they know nothing about the sea. What would the public say if we sent three ship captains to inquire into a mine explosion in Colorado? It is the same story: men designing and building vessels who never go to sea in them, men making sails who never set or trimmed one, men writing about the sea who never saw it.

    There is only one knowledge that is of value

    There is only one knowledge that is of value,—the knowledge gained by experience; all other is secondary and of questionable value. It is not so much what experience teaches but what it unteaches. You learn to unlearn, a most difficult lesson, the most difficult of all. Theoretical knowledge is piffle; it is the empirical that counts. All the speculations of all the philosophers were not worth the experience of Magellan; they with all their talk proved nothing, he by his voyage established a fact. It was this theoretical humbug, mathematical office work, that sent Titanic to sea an unsinkable ship. This monster was unsinkable because calculations proved she was so, calculations worked out by men with no seagoing experience. The Board of Trade man sits at his table and proves that with the Winter load-line where he wants to put it, the ship will have ample reserve buoyancy. Yes, certainly on his paper; but how about on a black stormy night at sea? O man, how long will you let yourself be governed by imbeciles and your affairs be regulated by blockheads?

    Now I will give the world a piece of advice

    Now I will give the world a piece of advice. It will not accept it, because it is a product of sense, and therefore at variance with all the accepted methods of regulating our earthly affairs. Choose three veteran captains of each of the maritime nations and form them into a Board with international powers, and give into their hands absolute control of the Western Ocean traffic. Let them plot and establish the routes, regulate the speed, specify the equipment, and make rules governing the lights, signals, and the use of the wireless telegraph. These men know what is wanted; you don’t, your Congress doesn’t, your Parliament doesn’t; the vessel owners do, but they won’t because they are after money first, last, and all the time. The members of such a board would safeguard your lives because they would be safeguarding the lives of men who have stood with them on the bridge, and they know what it means. These old skippers would be free from owners’ influence, and free from political influence, they would bring to the council table the experience of years. They would not have to call and question advisers and experts, they would be their own experts and advisers. You and I who have been down to the sea in ships will see the sense of this suggestion, but will our imbecile blockhead rulers? Never! There’s nothing in it for them.

    Safety at sea is the product of constant vigilance

    Safety at sea is the product of constant vigilance. Never allow this vigilance to sleep in yourself nor in others, if you can possibly help it. It is not only necessary that you should be constantly on the lookout, but those under you should be trained to be eternally on the alert. Nothing is too small to notice and care for, if it concerns the safety of your vessel.

    The majority of ship officers I have been with have shown an interest in their duties, especially when on the bridge, and the same with lookouts; but there is one fault that is too common, and one that there is no question has often led to disaster, and that is, what a watch officer cannot see or does not see a lookout cannot have seen. I make it a practice never to ignore or deny a lookout’s report until it is proven groundless. It is better to believe he has seen the thing or something until you are absolutely sure he has not. Once while running in for the Hook in a thick fog, the lookout reported a buoy; the officer on watch laughed at him, as we were supposed to be ten miles offshore. I saw the buoy at the same time and told the Captain so. He stopped the ship and took a cast of the lead; we had about three feet under the keel, and in two minutes more would have been aground. No doubt Titanic’s bridge was warned of ice by the lookout; but the officer on watch did not see it, so nobody saw it. Orders were to push her through, make a record, land the passengers early, big advertisement for the line. Everybody delighted. Skipper congratulated, chief thanked. Same old story, the office on shore running the ship at sea.

    The truth of what I have preached to you for years

    You people will now realize the truth of what I have preached to you for years—that safety at sea has nothing to do with size, and that because a ship is big she is not necessarily seaworthy. As I have told you, small vessels are safer than large, providing they are properly designed, strongly built, thoroughly equipped and skilfully manned. The risk of being overcome by a storm or being destroyed through what seamen call stress of weather, is only one of the dangers of the sea; there are others to which all vessels are liable and which are more likely to wreck large than small craft. Of these collision is the most to be dreaded, and from a collision a small vessel runs scant risk. Huge steamers cannot go slow, because they will not answer their helms at small speeds, and it takes a long time to turn them on their helms; whereas a small vessel moves slowly and answers her helm quickly. A long straight keel vessel, like a steamer, pivots on her bow, so that when the helm is put over it is her stern that turns, not the bow, and she continues to approach the object she is helming to avoid until she swings round.

    The greater danger on large vessels

    But the greater danger on large vessels arises from the enormous increase of the attractive force. The attractive force between two large steamships, or a steamer and a berg, is enormous, and unless worked against will bring them rapidly together. It is this and not suction that draws vessels together; there is no suction between vessels in deep water.
    This attraction is what causes collisions in fogs and strandings especially on high coasts. It is dangerous because it not only affects the vessel but affects the minds of the men on the vessel. It pulls every particle of matter, even the brain matter of the crew. In thick weather or a dark night, if left without the guidance of a compass, a man will invariably direct his vessel towards the land or towards another vessel if close to it. I have tried it time and time again. Your eminent office philosophers will probably deny this and assert that suction, and currents, and waves of one kind or another are the cause of these collisions and strandings, but try it for yourself with two small pieces of match stick in a glass of water. The laws of nature operate in the same manner in a glass of water as they do in the ocean, you will admit, even if you are an expert.

    I never remember any disaster affecting me as this one did

    I never remember any disaster affecting me as this one did. It made me fairly sick. Even now it seems like a dream, as though it could never have happened, that monster sinking as she did in less than three hours after receiving the thrust. The calm water made the thinking of it worse, for with no sea on nearly all could have been saved if the boats had been there. But, thank God, the officers and crew did their duty like sailors.

    No fireman shirked his duty, and no seaman left his place,
    For the honor of the calling and the glory of the race.
    For the very pride of nations—the pride that lifts them high—
    Is the strength to do their duty when the straw is drawn to die;
    And in this the Anglo-Saxon—I say it not in boast—
    Has gained the heart to perish like that Roman at his post.
    For the first thought in our danger, the last before we pray,
    Is our ancient grace for battle—And what will England say?
    O Life, we cannot shame her, for all that thou canst give,
    When brave men stop to perish and weak men flee to live!
    For her glory’s in our keeping, and her face shows grandly when
    They bring the log and tell her that we lost the ship like men.

    Nothing man can write or can utter can add to the glory of those who died, passenger or crew. But perhaps some day such a time for us will come, then let the example of these men and the example of others who have gone as bravely to an ocean death be with us, and help us to meet our fate as they met it that calm Sunday morning in fifty West.

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  • RT @Mekkaz: Great initiative! We need this in more places in the world... Suspended Coffee - http://t.co/3wGHALQw7p

    Mar 29, 13 from Twitter for iPhone Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @worsaae @esbenmn 1, 2, 3, pres! :D

    Mar 28, 13 from HootSuite in reply to worsaae Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • Summly reality-check smackdown. http://t.co/wwi13aav5m

    Mar 28, 13 from HootSuite Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • This. This! RT @vick08: Amazing project! How design has the potential to help people with dementia. http://t.co/Xd0O94Pu4o

    Mar 28, 13 from HootSuite Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • Sounds great! RT @peterbihr: RT @uikonf: The best way to kick off @UIKonf? Lightning talks & drinks! http://t.co/XkMbui1nza

    Mar 28, 13 from Twitter for iPhone in reply to peterbihr Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @esbenmn @worsaae Hva' så? Virkede currywurst eller hva'? Jeg synes der mangler forventede tweets. :)

    Mar 28, 13 from Twitter for iPhone Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @6d6f facepalm

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  • @finiteattention @jk1440 Great photo!

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  • @Rodenberger I can pretend that the Wednesday cake was also a Friday cake because there won't be a Friday cake on Friday. :D

    Mar 28, 13 from Twitter for iPhone in reply to Rodenberger Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @curiousbunny I don't know yet. :D (A11y UX techcomm - the usual suspects.)

    Mar 27, 13 from Twitter for iPhone in reply to curiousbunny Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @curiousbunny prepping a lightning talk, geek that I am

    Mar 27, 13 from Twitter for iPhone in reply to curiousbunny Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • TGIF TGIF TGIF. Wednesday to some, but Friday to me. FTW.

    Mar 27, 13 from Twitter for iPhone Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • Grassroots FTW. RT @mollydotcom: BTW, in case you've not seen this: http://t.co/FSj105pQAZ

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  • An event that shares their playlist on @Rdio. Like! ‏@ConfabEvents shares Confab London Playlist: http://t.co/icQ81mn3et

    Mar 26, 13 from HootSuite Reply, Retweet, Favorite
  • @karenbachmann BTW You've got mail. :)

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  • @karenbachmann The timing of some of what she said couldn't be better for me. Eager to read the book.

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  • @finiteattention BTW did you see/meet @ginnyredish at #ConfabUX. I heart Ginny. She is a marvelous human being.

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  • <3 <3 RT @flickr: Majestic Nepal - #trekking photos featuring the #Himalayas, Kathmandu, and national parks http://t.co/Rhgd3381le

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  • Hope @tomjohnson approves my comment soon on his usability of collapsible sections blog post. I shared ARIA links. http://t.co/Z1vl6nboPk

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  • @redcrew I got a shock halfway through when neighbor cranked up their stereo. I was not happy. Was only 6.30 PM, but still annoyed me.

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  • Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into, the mind.

    Mar 22, 13

    Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  • There is an evil tendency underlying all our technology - the tendency to do what is reasonable even when it isn’t any good.

    Mar 22, 13

    Robert Pirsig
  • Feb 24, 13

    Some visual magic for your day.

    Projector Snow (by Brian Maffitt)

    Discovered via http://www.sciencedump.com/content/projecting-video-falling-snow

  • It looks like a carpet of countless tiny perfect unblinking lights in endless velvet, with the Milky Way as a glowing area of paler texture.

    Feb 17, 13

    Quote from Commander Chris Hadfield participating in a Reddit AMA while orbiting Earth in the ISS. This is in answer to a question asking what space looks like to him.

    AMA is athttp://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/18pik4/i_am_astronaut_chris_hadfield_currently_orbiting/

  • Feb 17, 13

    Ah, they don’t make them like Cab anymore.

    GHUM Cab Calloway Geechy Joe Zoot Suiter (by teacherbrad)

  • Feb 16, 13

    At dawn we ride!

    I love the fierce determination in this child’s face! Woe betide those who cross her!

    But who is she? I used the special search for images with Google where you search using the actual image itself. I had seen the image for the first time on Buzzfeed: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/13-simple-steps-to-get-you-through-a-rough-day

    With Google image search, I found a blog entry from August 2011 that contained the photo: http://www.biogirlblog.com/2011/08/lets-lighten-mood.html

    There were many other Tumblr postings. But no source. I can see how tricky it can be to dig up the original source of something like this. It takes time and persistance.

    Will we ever know who slapped on this caption?

    And did they ride at dawn?

  • Man Spends 7 Years Drawing Incredibly Intricate Maze | Colossal

    Feb 16, 13

    Incredible work! One could get lost staring at this and following paths everywhere.

  • Jan 23, 13

    Losing my religion in a major chord. Like.

    Via http://boingboing.net/2013/01/21/rems-losing-my-religion.html

  • Jan 02, 13

    This! Fireworks in reverse!

    Read more at http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/01/this-is-what-fireworks-look-like-in-reverse/

    HT @finiteattention on Twitter.

  • Nov 10, 12

    Kelley McRae - Carefully (by kelleymcrae)

    Beautiful voice.

    Beautiful lyrics.

    Thank you to the dear friend who recommended this song.

  • Nov 03, 12

    taelus:

    This, ladies and gentlemen, is what you get when you stand up to a man who beats his young girlfriend in public. Not the black eye, not the broken nose, but the sense of being a fucking great human being.

    Earlier today while I was waiting for the bus I witnessed a man walk up to his girlfriend, who couldn’t have been older than 18, kick her handbag, spit on her and scream in her face that she was a cunt. He walked back into the bus shelter after telling her she was worthless and pathetic and kicking her in the gut then as she tried to follow he turned around to grab her. I got in between them and told him that he should never EVER spit on a woman, hit her or talk to her in that way. He laughed in my face and said he would “fuck me up”. I looked him square in the eye and told him that I was not afraid of him. He proceeded to scream obscenities at her as I took her away from him, then he shouted to me that he could walk round the corner to get people to kill me. Feeling defiant, I said “go on, I dare you, there’re plenty of people around to witness it.” The prick then walked right up to me and head butted me in the nose. I am now sporting a swollen face and the beginnings of a black eye but the police took swabs from my nose to get his DNA and they know exactly who he is. Cunt’s going down for assault. Motherfuckers don’t treat women like that and get away with it. I feel heroic.

    Bad fucking ass. You should feel heroic; that’s how you’re supposed to feel after doing heroic things.

    Wow!

  • A Beautiful Time-Lapse Stop-Motion Video of Paris In Motion, Part II

    Oct 28, 12

    Dive in and watch the two videos here. They make me want to go to Paris now. The explanatory video is also nice. Makes me tempted to try making a time-lapse stop motion video at some point.

  • Oct 28, 12

    Think, people. Think.

    imperfectwriting:

    I went to the mall, and a little girl called me a terrorist. 

    My name is Ela.  I am seventeen years old.  I am not Muslim, but my friend told me about her friend being discriminated against for wearing a hijab.  So I decided to see the discrimination firsthand to get a better understanding of what Muslim women go through. 

    My friend and I pinned scarves around our heads, and then we went to the mall.  Normally, vendors try to get us to buy things and ask us to sample a snack.  Clerks usually ask us if we need help, tell us about sales, and smile at us.  Not today.  People, including vendors, clerks, and other shoppers, wouldn’t look at us.  They didn’t talk to us.  They acted like we didn’t exist.  They didn’t want to be caught staring at us, so they didn’t look at all. 

    And then, in one store, a girl (who looked about four years old) asked her mom if my friend and I were terrorists.  She wasn’t trying to be mean or anything.  I don’t even think she could have grasped the idea of prejudice.  However, her mother’s response is one I can never forgive or forget.  The mother hushed her child, glared at me, and then took her daughter by the hand and led her out of the store. 

    All that because I put a scarf on my head.  Just like that, a mother taught her little girl that being Muslim was evil.  It didn’t matter that I was a nice person.  All that mattered was that I looked different.  That little girl may grow up and teach her children the same thing. 

    This experiment gave me a huge wakeup call.  It lasted for only a few hours, so I can’t even begin to imagine how much prejudice Muslim girls go through every day.  It reminded me of something that many people know but rarely remember: the women in hijabs are people, just like all those women out there who aren’t Muslim. 

    People of Tumblr, please help me spread this message.  Treat Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, Taoists, etc., exactly the way you want to be treated, regardless of what they’re wearing or not wearing, no exceptions.  Reblog this.  Tell your friends.  I don’t know that the world will ever totally wipe out prejudice, but we can try, one blog at a time.  

  • Sep 27, 12

    explore-blog:

    Neil Gaiman’s brilliant graduation speech on living the creative life, made into a giant comic, from the same folks who distilled Neil deGrasse Tyson’s monologue on the most astounding fact about the universe into a comic.

    Nice!

  • Video of entries for Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2012

    Sep 21, 12

    A 6-minute stunning video with narration. Absolutely stunning photos. Just beautiful.

  • Sep 21, 12

    On Creativity - Milton Glaser Interview - Part 1 (by On Creativity)

    Found at Brendan Dawes - http://daweso.me/R8ba2P - with the wonderful title, “I move things around until they look right”.

    Thank you, @RobertHempsall, for sharing this on Twitter.

    “But it is the path, the attempt to understand, that is what you are looking for. The path by which you arrive at understanding is the whole point of the game. Not the arrival.” - Milton Glaser

  • {UnWinona}: I debated whether or not to share this story.

    Sep 06, 12

    This should be read and shared. A lot. Via @jennicph on Twitter.

    unwinona:

    And then I debated whether or not to put it on Tumblr…but I decided it was important. Because in my own way, I can (unfortunately) point out exactly what is wrong with men when they don’t realize how hard it is to be a woman. How we do not have equal opportunities and freedoms in everyday life….

  • Sep 01, 12

    The Best Cat Video Evah!

    Henri 2, Paw de Deux (by WillBraden)

  • What to do in London

    Aug 17, 12

    Stashing some useful London links here. They look like they are valuable for the next trip to London. Hyperlocal FTW!

    http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.dk/

    http://spitalfieldslife.com/

    (This post caught my attention - and heart: http://spitalfieldslife.com/2012/08/17/east-end-desire-paths/ What’s not to like about a post on “cowpaths”?)

    http://londonist.com/

    These three links tumbled into my life because I get the Online Journalism Blog’s newsletter. It made me curious…

  • Aug 17, 12

    THERE’S SCIENCE IN CUTE ANIMALS!

    Slow-motion mammals shaking themselves dry (by NatureVideoChannel)

    Enjoy the video… and read all about it at http://m.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/08/science-dogs-can-shake-70-of-the-water-from-their-fur-in-4-seconds-heres-how/261191/

    PS Save the video for moments when you need cheering up!

  • Some Weepies on SoundCloud for the trip home: http://soundcloud.com/nettwerkmusicgroup/the-weepies-world-spins-madly-on
    (No streaming audio available)

    67304 plays
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