Happy Martin Luther King Day 2011

RantWoman is celebrating Martin Luther King Day in a spirit of volunteerism. RantWoman did not mean to sign up for the volunteerism she is participating in. RantWoman seems to be signed up anyway. MAYBE RantWoman will get this rant out of her system and just go show up at local events her own dang self! Maybe RantWoman will just do "shut up and pray" or at least pray since the "shut up" part seems highly non-applicable.

RantWoman directs any interested groupies who have not already figured out how to get to Seattle Martin Luther King Day activities to

http://www.mlkseattle.org/index.php

RantWoman cautions her readers: Mr. JAWS reads the site just fine, but the site lacks things like headings that would, for instance, allow RantWoman to skip over the survey that appears on every page. RantWoman is happy to tell the organizers that, aside from already generally knowing of the event, she got the link from multiple email lists. RantWoman guessed the events would be at one of two locations, basically walking distance away; it's at the more distant. Sigh. However, Rantwoman REALLY does not want to endure the opportunity to complete the survey several times on the way to the content she cares about on other pages.

In fact, RantWoman gets REALLY CRABBY when she encounters surveys without an open-ended option for saying something else topical the survey brings to mind--like for instance the website design could be more accessible, RantWoman wants to know whether there will be ASL and / or spoken language interpretation, and other cheery topics RantWoman regularly gets in people's faces about.

But back to RantWoman's project: generalized, all-purpose engagement. complaining, and, well, outright bitchiness about matters to do with accessibility and inclusiveness. RantWoman does not mean only all her own variable, idiosyncratic, and unending issues related to vision loss, eyes that do many non-preferable things, problems hearing and brain overload when dumped into noisy environments with many audio tracks at once, RantWoman's deep gratitude for situations that help her feel comfortable moving around independently. RantWoman also means things like service dogs in public accommodations, things that matter when planning a meeting, pedestrian safety when crossing minor arterials, and other themes on RantWoman's unending rant list.

Recently RantWoman was completing a survey about people with disabilities and how they are treated in various locations such as stores, pharmacies, houses of worship, public places. One of the survey questions is how important these different places are to one's life. RantWoman finally quit without quite finishing the survey: she found herself checking "Would rather not answer" for too many places that are important to her, ncluding her faith community.

RantWoman feels she owes the world a rant about a recent event connected with her faith community. However RantWoman has looked at her clock and decided she needs some emotional pickup. RantWoman is going to get moving and come back later to ranting.

Tune in later for rant about:

--location of event

--accessibility of location to those expected to participate

--scheduling of event

--accessibility and / or need for endless copies of materials handed out at event, especially if most people are going to look at once and then throw away.

--Audio environment of both formal sessions and major schmooze zones during breaks

--ease of moving around vs cramped feelings

--ease of moving around for people of different sizes in small spaces and safety for people of different sizes. RantWoman for instance is a large person; some of those who attended the event were not. RantWoman did not need to be fretting all the time about her elbows landing in the wrong places. RantWoman knows at least some of the much smaller people are probably well used to staying out of the way of things like RantWoman's elbows, but RantWoman feels obliged to fret anyway!
--opening groundrules that include whatever the operational parameters are about confidentiality, tenderness and respectful conversation

--open invitation in groundrules to ask questions without assuming that everyone is going to agree or have the same perspective.

--invitation to speak up about accessibility issues such as difficulty hearing, other things that might need adjustment as work progresses,

RantWoman MEANS to deliver these rants to the blogosphere. If the blogosphere component gets swallowed in actual phone conversations, oops, well.

RantWoman's basic point: RantWoman has lots of experience at places like the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing running meetings that include people with multiple approaches to hearing loss, English as a second language, other visible and hidden challenges to participation. Things are a long way from perfect there, but people feel heard AND things get done!

RantWoman, crazy as she is, thinks a room full of native English speakers who almost all, for better or worse in the exact situation at hand, have known each other a long time, with many fewer barriers to participation, SHOULD be able to do at least as well!