Let's Make it Accessible
As someone who uses Assistive Technology (AT) to make it through her day, I’m telling you, you non-AT users can get pretty… weird. Something about interacting with an assistive technology (AT) user like me causes some normally very composed and astute people to lose a bit of their cool. I get it. I’m sure when I roll up in my wheelchair not in full control of my own body and chatting with my mom using my word board, I can catch the...
I was interviewing the owner of a large web design firm on my radio show, Seacoast Business Connections and the topic of accessibility came up. As my guest was explaining to me that his firm makes a point of designing with accessibility in mind even if the client is not concerned with it, his twin boys, both of whom were born with cerebral palsy (CP), played in the lobby just on the other side of the studio’s large glass window.
How much do you know about cerebral palsy (CP)? How much do you know about the people who live with this condition? What can they do? Are they “like us”? How do they function and does technology improve their ability to function?
Since I am a web accessibility analyst, I have the good fortune of being mobility impaired. Of course, I only can say this regarding my work. It is like being a veterinarian and not having pets. Without the personal experience, you couldn’t empathize with the pets’ guardians. You wouldn’t observe subtle, unique signs that a dog or cat is not feeling well.
When other people laugh at Jack Carroll’s disability, he does not become angry or embarrassed. In fact, he instigates the laughter. Jack, a fourteen-year-old school boy who has cerebral palsy, already knows what makes a comedy act successful. According to the young comedy genius, “in comedy your weaknesses are your strengths”. If you see his comedy act, you’d definitely agree…while laughing.
According to Cornell University, in 2011 there was an estimated 14,144,300 (4.9%) people in the United States with a cognitive disability. Broadly speaking, intellectual disabilities pertain to difficulties with memory; problem-solving: attention, reading, linguistic, and verbal comprehension; math comprehension; and visual comprehension. Intellectual disabilities range from...
In agile development, user stories capture what a user does or needs to do with the website or application. These “stories” are the basis for defining the functions that the system must provide and concisely captures the who, what and why or of the requirement.
Imagine … you are right-handed and you just broke your right wrist. You're a programmer: how in the world will you get any work done?
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