Adventures of RantWoman

3 Generations of Women in Computing in India

2012-01-30T21:48:00.000-08:00

RantWoman herewith lets the women on the film do the talking:

http://connect.humanfactors.com/video/video/show?id=2356668%3AVideo%3A52956

13 Black bears, a vietnamese pig and a racoon

2012-01-28T23:25:00.000-08:00

RantWoman was unaware she was going to need this moment of levity as badly as she seems to. RantWoman herself would find it absolutely impossible to read this item without bursting out laughing several times

Why he gets to take his dog everywhere

2012-01-24T10:45:00.000-08:00

RantWoman is falling down on the job. RantWoman has a whole set of posts about service dogs on her other blog. RantWoman will perhaps include links at the bottom just for compactness. In the Meantime:

Nashua Telegraph
By RICK ADAIR
Guest Commentary

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinionperspectives/947468-263/oh-so-thats-why-he-gets-to.html

Would you walk up to a person in a wheelchair and say: "Hey, why do you need a wheelchair?"

Probably not, and yet it's not uncommon for someone to see me with my service dog, Raskin, and ask: "Why do you need a service dog?"

It begs the question: How can you look normal, talk normal, act normal and be disabled?

Here's the recipe: Start by serving a year in a combat zone (Vietnam) at 18 - three months as a combat medic with a mechanized infantry unit, the other nine months in the "rear," where rocket attacks and sappers throwing satchel charges into your hootch are daily threats. Then add "only survivor" status to the mix after your two best friends and entire crew are killed by a mine.

These events were so terrifying for this skinny kid, the death of close friends was so unnerving, that he returned home in 1970 with a problem that grew worse when he was labeled as a "disgruntled veteran" and "baby killer." PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, had yet to be invented.

I can't quite put my finger on why, but being called a "baby killer" at 19
after a tour in Vietnam, crawling through rice paddies and caring for
wounded soldiers, felt like my psyche had been put in a blender and set to
frappe.

To some, this may reinforce their notion that Vietnam vets are whiners or,
as a friend of mine recently admitted thinking, "wimps." (It seems to have
been media policy for decades to only air Vietnam veteran interviews if the vet becomes emotional during the photo-op.)

Some of us may be wimps, but most of us are soldiers, seasoned veterans who did our job well under some of the most hellish conditions that lie well beyond the imagination of the uninitiated.

For this skinny kid, the nightmares after coming home seemed as normal as
the running for cover at a Fourth of July celebration was embarrassing.
Feeling everything from discomfort to anger to rage when someone walked
behind me also felt normal. Not fun certainly, but normal - any idiot knows that if the guy behind you isn't your buddy watching your back, it's most likely someone who will kill you in the blink of an eye.

That was my reality - that was our reality. Sitting with my back to the wall in any public place while taking note of the nearest exit isn't a
disability; it's being a good soldier. Of course I know I'm no longer in a
combat zone, but try telling that to my body, a body that only knows how to survive and isn't convinced the war is over.

Who can blame it, with common city noises replicating the sound of
small-arms fire, people all around in crowds who aren't in uniform
identifying themselves as "friendlies." Come to think of it, if you mention the term "friendlies" to my body, you will likely hear the story of "it" getting into an accidental firefight with fellow GIs. Oops.

Yeah, I look normal, I sound normal, I act normal. I can have a face-to-face conversation with you, and you won't even notice that I'm scanning the room for potential threats. You are probably unaware that the "disabled" vet you're talking to may be the best person to stand next to if a disturbed person walks into the room and starts shooting, or if a hurricane blows the roof off the building. You may just discover the paradox of a "disabled" vet being the most "able" person in the room.

I'm not a hero. As a matter of fact, that word almost turns my stomach for
reasons I can't quite explain or choose not to; I'm just a retired combat
veteran who feels much safer with a dog by my side who always has my back.

If I say "block," she positions herself in front of me; "cover," she goes
behind me; "snuggle," she puts her paws on my shoulders and says "you're
safe." I only use a fraction of the 80 commands she knows because I can take my own laundry out of the dryer, open my own doors and push the elevator button without assistance.

Being blessed with this beautiful dog adds one more "normal" to my list. I
often get to feel normal, even in a crowd and on busy streets. It's a small miracle.

The next time you see a normal-looking person with a service dog and wonder why he or she "gets to bring their dog" into a restaurant, store, plane, etc., whether they're a military veteran, cop, paramedic or firefighter, or they have more obvious mental or physical disabilities, please remember this story and wish them well.

It's 4:30 a.m. and I'm writing this because I can't sleep, so Raskin isn't
by any means a "cure all" for PTSD, but she's my friend and apparently I
earned the Grace in a rice paddy a world away to be her friend.

May Grace also find you and keep you safe.

Rick Adair, of Amherst, is a speaker and advocate for veterans with service dogs.

========
RantWoman should perfectly well let this article stand by itself.
RantWoman does not know when to quit. Here are some (cough) heartwarming links about efforts to push past wave after wave of cluelessness on an organizational scale about service dogs.

RantWoman is a tells too much of the truth kind of person. RantWoman is not shy about telling the truth even when something looks bad. The point is also that there is truth in struggle and MAYBE some increment of enhanced awareness. Warning: esoteric vocabulary specific to one sect but the interpersonal and organizational phenomena are sadly not distinctive.

http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/search?q=dog

IEEE User Experience Opportunity

2012-01-24T00:07:00.000-08:00

[VICUG-L] looking for screen-reader users for a usability test on behalf of IEEE

UserWorks, Inc., a user experience design and usability research firm, is currently conducting a usability evaluation on behalf of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The purpose of the study is to make sure that the Web site presents helpful
information and that it is easy to use.

We are looking for IEEE members and non-members from around the world:

* Who work or study in the fields of engineering or computer science

* Researchers, librarians, engineers/practitioners, students,
professors, and authors

* Individuals who use some type of assistive technology, such as
screen readers, to access the Web

* Sessions are available in January and February 2012

Individuals who are selected for this study will participate in a
90-minute remote online computer session using GoToMeeting, a
Web-based screen sharing software, and will receive a $75 honorarium,
payable via Amazon TM gift card, U.S. Check, International VISA TM
card, or PayPal TM. Participants must read and speak English fluently.

If you are interested in participating, please contact Cynthia Taylor
at UserWorks, Inc.

Cynthia Taylor
Participant Coordinator
UserWorks, Inc.
1738 Elton Road, #138, Silver Spring, MD 20903
+1 888-558-7872 x 233
ctaylor@userworks.com
http://www.userworks.com/
Skype: userworks

If you know someone who may qualify and be interested in
participating, please send them this link.

Thank you very much for your help with this project.

Postcards from India

2012-01-21T23:02:00.000-08:00

RantWoman thanks a friend travelling in India for postcards; RantWoman thanks the interwebs for the opportunity to seem even closer In this case to a temple to Laksmi, Goddess of Wealth by an industrialist named G. D. Birla call the Birla Mandir.

http://delhitourism.nic.in/delhitourism/tourist_place/birla_mandir.jsp

Location: Near Gole Market,
Mandir Marg, Connaught Place
Nearest Metro Station: RK
Ashram Marg
Timings: 6am to 10pm (best to
visit during morning and evening
aarti)
Entry: Free
Days Closed: None
Photography: Not allowed in prayer hall

Laxmi Narayan Temple, also known as Birla Mandir, is one of Delhi's major temples and a major tourist attraction. Built by the industrialst G.D. Birla in 1938, this beautiful temple is located in the west of Connaught Place.

The temple is dedicated to Laxmi (the goddess of prosperity) and Narayan (The preserver). The temple was inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi on the condition that people of all castes will be allowed to enter the temple.

Video tour with singing of part of the Hanuman chalisa which is wonderful despite the traffic noise. Order it in your favorite media format...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VN7Hhv8TOE

RantWoman is being WAY too much of a Philistine. RantWoman decided to look for a clean clip of the Hanuman zchalisa

RantWoman is being a Philistine because RantWoman blows things up enough to see that many many of the people in the video have waht look to RantWoman like monkey faces. Oh wait, according to Wikipedia, it is the monkey menace and one is supposed to chant the Hanuman Chalisa (40 verses) to rid oneself of evil spirits. Evil spirits around RantWoman? Uhhh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqHiyRxykZw

and another

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKKSurfd6Ys&feature=related

Text to speech

2012-01-21T20:00:00.000-08:00

Thank you for your participation in our text-to-speech research last year. We have a publication about the results of the pilot study we ran which you can access at http://www.research.att.com/techdocs/TD_100505.pdf ,
and a blog post about all the text-to-speech experiments we are running at
http://networkingexchangeblog.att.com/enterprise-business/open-the-pod-bay-doors-hal/.

Our current experiment involves a comparative analysis of more than 10 text-to-speech engines, including the ones most commonly used in screen readers. The experiment can be found at

http://dudley.research.att.com/tts/TESTS/TTSfasterRateIntelligibility/html/

The experiment pages have been tested for JAWS compatibility. Also, the current experiment involves only 60 items (rather than 180), so can be completed in about 1/2 hour.

You are welcome to provide my contact information in case people have questions, suggestions or complaints. It is:
Amanda Stent
AT&T Labs - Research
Florham Park, NJ 07932
stent@research.att.com
973 360 7222

Sincerely yours,
Amanda Stent
Principal Member of Technical Staff
AT&;T Labs - Research

Why they tell you not to go out

2012-01-19T22:55:00.000-08:00

RantMom is home safe in her nest. Her tough as nail cred is also safe.

RantMom ventured out confident in the weather forecast that it would warm up by late afternoon. The NWS weather forecast was WRONG.

http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2012/01/end-is-near.html
http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2012/01/major-freezing-ice-event.html
http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2012/01/ice-storm-freezing-rain-and-sleet.html

RantWoman did not think to ask RantMom whether the 7+48 bus routing to Little Sister's took longer than average.

Guess what Mom, the mayor tells people to shovel their walks, but whoever might shovel the walks along a public park is probably otherwise deployed.

Never mind. Irrepressible Nephew always needs practice endearing himself to Grandma. He met RantMom at the arrival bus stop and arrival at Little Sister's was otherwise uneventful.

RantMom got ready to go home midafternoon just about the time the late afternoon yuck struck. She shared an umbrella with someone at her first bus stop. She complained about a 15-inch pile of plowed snow between the street and the curb at the transfer bus stop and at her home bus stop too. Luckily there were charming pairs of hands to assist RantMom and her wheeled backpack and RantMom did not seem the least big contrite about her snowplowing expectations.

Guess what Mom, it's been a good while since RantWoman has dealt with snow-plowing patterns in other places, but RantWoman's memory is that that kind of pile is not unusual early in a storm.

Guess what Mom, all this is why they suggest not going out unless you really have to. Really!

Snow plus 2: ICE STORM Warning

2012-01-19T15:48:00.000-08:00

RantWoman awoke to tidings of an ice storm warning and possible power outages. Bye bye Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme computing if that happens, but...

Multiple cycles of click click click rattle of falling whatever it is.

RantWoman is extremely happy NOT to have to go anywhere except across her nice covered breezeway. Yesterday RantWoman needed to go back and forth across her breezeway a large number of times per day just to keep her walking legs limber, but RantWoman is SO happy to have a breezeway so she can drink in cold air and do as much pretending as she wants that it's Montana.

Scratch that. RantWoman heard evidence of sidewalks being shoveled this morning. RantWoman decided she needed to take out her compost. The sidewalk to the bus stop got shoveled. The sidewalk to the recycle and compost bins did not. Sigh. MUCH slipping and sliding but RantWoman emptied her yogurt containers!

Don't mess with Grandma! RantMom is headed out to Little Sister's. If anyone had asked rantWoman, the word would have been "Stay Home!" RantMom does not have any budget for skydiving so trekking the mean streets of Sliperyville without even any YakTrax will just have to do. Word via Little Sister: the bus stop at RantMom's house is clear. We assume the transit center transfer point MIGHT have been shoveled. That leaves a sort of hairy walk across the street and uphill from the bus stop to Little Sister's. Did RantWoman NEED another opportunity to practice her faith????

RantWoman's kitchen is keeping her tastefully caloried.

RantWoman is still overflowing with good intentions about playing with some different software version fussiness. RantWoman has a weird idea of fun or is it necessity?

At the Rant Housing Complex, sunday's snow got rolled up into two slowly subsiding snowpeople surrounded by green green grass. The Green Green grass is again demurely covered with snow. Wednesday the snowpeople's domain drew a couple rounds of exuberant children clattering in noise and racket, frolicking on the hill..

Weather continues weathering.

Central District Resident Runs for King County Conservation District

2012-01-18T10:09:00.000-08:00

What the heck is the King County Conservation District?

Read on! Vote online!

Press Release

Contact: Jennifer Bacon FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tel: 206-414-8195
Email: jenbacon.kccdbos.candidate@gmail.com

CENTRAL DISTRICT RESIDENT RUNS FOR KING CONSERVATION DISTRICT SUPERVISOR

Jennifer Bacon, a resident of Seattle’s Central District, is running as a candidate for the King Conservation District (KCD) Board of Supervisors.

KCD is a non-regulatory agency providing technical expertise and conservation programs to all district landowners. The agency is funded through a combination of special assessments and state grants. While they are best known for their work with livestock operations, KCD also provides support for city dwellers pursuing backyard conservation.

Bacon holds a Master’s Degree in Environment and Community from Antioch University. She is deeply involved in the environmental and gardening communities in the Seattle area. In 2011, she completed the Master Composter/Soil Builder program at Seattle Tilth and has been an active Tilth volunteer ever since. Working with Tilth’s Southeast Programs team, Bacon is establishing active composting at the Rainer Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands. She was also involved with Clean Greens Farm and Market, aiding the establishment of Community Supported Agriculture that brought produce from a Duvall farm to Central District residents.

When asked why she’s running, Bacon says, “There is currently no urban voice on the board. I will bring an urban perspective and make connections between rural and urban conservation.” As an example, Bacon notes that “If we can help landowners mitigate urban runoff, we can facilitate drainage in rural areas and improve salmon habitat at the same time.” Bacon’s endorsements include Alex Steffen, local author and sustainability expert, Rev. Dr. Robert Jeffrey, Sr, founder of Clean Greens Farm and Market, as well as Luke Woodward, farmer and owner of the Oxbow Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Carnation.

Historically, turnout has been low for this little-known election. In 2011, fewer than 2500 voters participated in the election countywide. State law requires the election to be held in the first quarter of the year, and to minimize expenses it is administered by a third party Election Supervisor rather than King County Elections. Bacon hopes to see higher turnout this year, saying that she plans to engage citizens around the county to improve awareness about KCD’s important work.

This is the second year the election will be held online. Constituents will not receive ballots in the mail, but must access www.kingcd.org between February 28th and March 13th in order to vote. In person voting will be available at the District’s Renton office from 9am-9pm on March 13th.

###

If you’d like more information, or to schedule an interview with Jennifer Bacon, please call 206-414-8195 or email jenbacon.kccdbos.candidate@gmail.com

Snowed

2012-01-17T15:00:00.001-08:00

RantWoman is going to timestamp this post but may post well after starting. RantWoman wants the Cisco Academy for the Visually Impaired announcement to stay findable. RantWoman has few illusions that anyone is relying on RantWoman for up to the second snow reports. If you are, may RantWoman suggest alternatives?

RantWoman is preparing for snowy onslaught by:

--getting regular fixes from Cliff Mass's weather blog:
http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/
RantWoman finds the psychedelic model pictures slightly evocative of bad anti-drug videos from junior high but far more engaging that TV weatherpeople out somewhere in the snow in their weatherpeople gear saying "Yep, we sure are having weather."

--Reading the Mayor's disaster preparedness email. YEAH MAYOR!!!! THANK YOU for telling people to shovel their walks.

--sending an email with VERY IMPORTANT in the subject line to someone who has never spent a winter in Seattle about what snow means.

--calling up Little Sister to see whether anything needs to be fetched for their household. Little Sister already has a broken wheel on her wheelchair and it already won't get picked up until at least Thursday. Little Sister's household will be fine for now. RantMom cancelled her usual Tuesday morning activity but was on her way to Little Sister's. RantMom sometimes exudes a certqain "don't mess with grandma" imperative. RantWoman would probably tell RantMom either to stay home or to be sure to get on the bus home before the snow gets too bad. Worst case, RantMom can overnight at Little Sister's. RantWoman can walk to either household but really does not want to need to.

--fetching prescription refills from the pharmacy

--sharing previous snow misadventures and then shooing home two people who drove across town for a disaster preparedness meeting and someone else whose bus route is on snow reroute.

--noticing a few patches of blue sky and no snow yet. What? The heavens are laughing at....

--reading exhortations to get Yak trax or another kind of small rubberized cleats. Too late for this storm, but...

--redoing the schedule so the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing will stay open and staffed by people who do not have to travel. One of those is RantWoman who has other things she could stand to be doing. Oh well. People who do have to travel are welcome, but RantWoman's experience is that it's not worth it.
For example, RantWoman's usual Sabbath trip to the University district ended later than usual, just as inches of soggy snow were clogging our city's roadways. RantWoman's Sunday trip home usually takes about 45 minutes door to door. Sunday during the snow, it took over two hours. RantWoman assessed and did not even attempt another trip that evening.

--deciding whether to cook something. RantWoman still has a lot of lentil and rice dish and peanut butter cookies from her recent fits in the kitchen but RantWoman likes variety. RantWoman's larder tends to run heavy to ingredients rather than, say, cans of things that can just be opened. All of RantWoman's cooking options involve using electricity to either reheat or to turn ingredients into food. A pot of already cooked pasta might be a good thing if the power goes out. We'll see.

--washing dishes. Shhhh! RantWoman has no dishwasher except her two hands. RantWoman is satisfied with her dishwashing practices, even though she does not practice them every single day. But pre-snowstorm seems like a good idea.

--locating the crank flashlight

--making sure RantWoman's Kindle is charged. At this point, RantWoman's Kindle is a whole basket of literate good intentions. If the power goes out...

--stopping for lunch including both caffeine and fizz. RantWoman goes for weeks ingesting her caffeine without fizz, but somehow today fizz eemed a requirement.

--calling the RantBrother. RantBrother has seen snow in Seattle. After a spell in Pugetopolis, RantBrother finally moved back to Big Snowy State Where People know How to Deal with Snow. Thanks to modern telecommunications we can shake our heads together....

Cisco Academy for the Visually Impaired

2012-01-17T04:06:00.000-08:00

To: cavi-announce@ciscovision.org
Subject: [Cavi-announce] This years enrollment press release

Greetings,

Are you curious about the hardware inside of your computer? Do you want to sharpen your troubleshooting and computer maintenance skills? Perhaps you would like to build a computer or home network of your own.

The Cisco Academy for the Vision Impaired enables blind students to enter the world of Information technology. We provide Diagram descriptions, audio lab recordings, live online lectures by blind and vision impaired instructors, and a community of students and instructors to network with
even after you have graduated our courses.

The academy is currently taking applications for the first semester of 2012. We will be offering IT Essentials, Discovery 1, Exploration 1, and our brand new Linux administration course starting the first week of February.

IT Essentials is an introduction to PC repair including:
Hardware, installing and maintaining an operating system, Troubleshooting, portable devices, and customer service.

Discovery 1 is focused on home and small business networking. It is the first of four courses that prepare students to take the CCNA
certification.

Exploration is a more in depth look at networking, both theoretical and practical for those students who wish to really get their hands into building and designing networks. After completing Exploration 1, students may sit the CCENT exam.

The Linux Administration course introduces server-based Linux systems administration for vision impaired users.

¾ Students will learn how to install and configure a Ubuntu server system and install and configure a number of server based programs such as webserver,

¾ Email and a wiki. The course aims to take a student from what is Linux to installing and using a Linux-based server system via SSH.

Each class runs for a total of six months, with online lectures. The classes are self-paced so you can finish them in a month, or take the entire semester if desired. The cost for each course is 500 US dollars
however; scholarships are available to students who are paying out of
pocket that lower the price to $150. Your eligibility for a scholarship will be assessed as part of the application process and payment plans are
available. Students are required to have good internet access skills and be familiar with their screen reader of choice, or be willing to teach themselves the necessary skills as we go along. Students should be familiar with reading Adobe PDF documents, as they may be encountered while doing research projects. We do not teach basic computer skills. Course content is online, so a broadband internet connection is highly recommended. Students should also have a working headset/microphone and be willing to install Skype and Ventrilo, in order to attend lectures and communicate with instructors. Applications will be accepted until February 3, 2012.

For more information on any of our courses or to request an application,
please email

caviinfo@ciscovision.org

You can also visit our website at:

http://www.ciscovision.org/ finally, we have a podcast about the CAVI
program from our students point of view at:

http://cucat.org/podcast/CAVI%20Potential%20new%20students2011.mp3

Regards,

The CAVI Team

Strollers on Metro: What she said, yet again!

2012-01-14T16:34:00.000-08:00

RantWoman thanks radio tidings about whatever whiff of snow is about in our region for cancelling an afternoon event while RantWoman gets to sit by her window and pour sunlight all over her wonky but definitely sun-enthusiastic retinas.

RantWoman also thanks Bus chick and Sighltline's writing blogger for reminding her of another topic to add to the agenda on the Transit Advisory Commission: strollers aboard Metro.

Here is the link to Bus Chick's latest post:

http://www.buschick.com/?p=4632

In order to allow time for the points on RantWoman's mind, RantWoman is not going to chase down the other post from Sightline.

RantWoman has witnessed a couple horrifying safety nightmares involving an adult, nearly always a mother struggling with one or more children and a stroller. In the most frightening case, a mother was travelling with a very young infant. Mom appeared not to speak much English. She also did not have any kind of a sling and literally had no way of managing the baby while trying to fold up the stroller and nothing to do but try to hold the baby once the stroller was folded up.

RantWoman is trying to remember why she herself did not intervene and thinks it must have been a time when RantWoman herself was physically compromised, for example with an arm in a cast or even more eye yuck than average. RantWoman also has a kneejerk reflex that mothers should not be expected to hand tiny babies off to random strangers, no matter how well-meaning the stranger, just to manage about strollers.

As an aside, RantWoman is all for families with newborns being required to have car seats just in case. However, RantWoman would also like to ensure that people dependent on the bus can safely strap their babies on before boarding. Perhaps that is a cause for another day or different actors. Let us stick to strollers.

RantWoman read the link on Bus Chick's posting for Metro policy about strollers. RantWoman is wondering what she missed. The page shows up when RantWoman searches for strollers, but RantWoman did not find anything topical. RantWoman did notice free training for people with disabilities needing to use the bus.

What if....

What if people who needed to bring strollers on the bus could come train and practice for free?

What if there were some way of certifying strollers as bus-worthy so that people could leave their children strapped in and use the wheelchair tie-downs? RantWoman has heard someone connected with Metro say they do not want to be responsible for every kind of stroller out there, which is why RantWoman would like the free market to get the point loud and clear about the need for strollers to interact with the imperatives of the bus.

(What if Metro made the same offer about free training and practice for people with shopping carts?)

RantWoman says the person wrestling a stroller is nearly always a woman because usually if dad is involved alone, he is hip and urbane enough to have something that folds up easily.
Most of the time though even if there are multiple adults, the stroller needs to be dealt with on top of lots of other struggling with baggage and acoutrements, mobility aids, shopping bags, and sometimes just the weight of existence.

RantWoman frankly thinks most of the time the kid and all the baggage would be safest if it could just stay all assembled and get belted into the wheelchair tie down. In a few rare cases, RantWoman MIGHT be content with the new buses where the 3-seat bench is actually two seats and a third, both of which fold up. RantWoman finds it REALLY convenient to see the smaller seat get folded up to stow all kinds of things like shopping carts and strollers. That still does not solve the problem of what to do with the child!

Maybe if enough people keep jumping on this issue though....

Allergen Festival: Peanut Butter cookies with Wheat Germ and Butter

2012-01-14T14:53:00.000-08:00

RantWoman has two events she needs to bring food contributions to today. RantWoman has previously written of her lentil exercise.
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2012/01/day-of-living-lentils.html

Here RantWoman is going to address the matter of dessert and RantWoman's proclivity toward sweets guaranteed to set off someone's allergy issues.

First, RantWoman realized she is taking items to a meeting where a number of people have issues with gluten. RantWoman apologizes if anyone also has issue with sugar, egg whites and ground almonds. Everyone else is enthusiastically invited to consider the Amaretti from Borracchini's on Rainier.

RantWoman realized she needed at least to give thought to dietary diversity...after almost finishing a batch of RantWoman peanut butter cookies. RantWoman leaves to her readers' judgment the full scope of her allergen festival.

The point of departure for RantWoman's recipe is something RantWoman memorized decades ago from an old Betty crocker cookbook. The default RantWoman version:

Let butter or margarine sit in covered bowl until room temperature. (RantWoman is not going to confess how many days permitted in today's case)

1 c butter or margarine.
(This time, RantWoman used Butter because right now, dairy product price spikes notwithstanding, butter is cheaper than the margarines RantWoman would prefer. Take that Julia Child and all you butter / fat afficionados.)
1 c brown sugar, packed
1 c peanut butter (RantWoman likes crunchy. RantWoman is not brand conscious but tends not to be repeat customer for brands that are too full of fillers)
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

Cream all of the above together. RantWoman usually adds the eggs in a separate step from the rest.

Sift in, in a couple rounds,

1 1/2 c unbleached flour
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda.

RantWoman likes the extra density and slightly nuttier flavor with whole wheat flour. RantWoman also draws raves from others. RantWoman forgot to shop for whole wheat flour after her last batch. So this time RantWoman substituted about 1/3 cup of wheat germ for some of the flour.

RantWoman left her ingredients out too many days this time and decided to let the dough chill in the fridge overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Very lightly grease cookie sheets. RantWoman favors a corner of a paper towl lightly moistened with the oil of choice and rubbed vigorously across the pan. RantWoman would actually think the recipe has enough fat for the pans not to need greasing but experience says otherwise.

Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls and place on greased cookie sheets. Make crisscrosses by flatteing the balls from two directions with a fork.

Bake 8-10 minutes until done.

Do you really need RantWoman's help to decide whether to eat, freeze, pack in small baggies for lunch...?

Day of the Living Lentils

2012-01-14T14:41:00.000-08:00

RantMom: How long do you cook lentils?

RantWoman: until they're done, Mom, until they're done.

In the eyes of RantMom, RantWoman is the family expert. RantWoman is embarrassed to have that the limit of her expertise, or almost the limit.

Lentils were not really a big culinary idiom in the RantFamily household of RantWoman's childhood. There were a few fitful forays into Frances Moore Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet but as far as RantWoman recalls these forays did not include lentils.

Off RantWoman went to college far, far away. RantWoman acquired vegetarian housemates and herself flirted with vegetarianism, at least between trips to the hoagie shop. RantWoman also acquired housemates who considered Moosewood and the Enchanted Broccoli Forest practically holy writ.

At some point, RantWoman returned home with a certain missionary enthusiasm for WA's favorite legume crop. Wait, that's foreshadowing. At the time RantWoman paid not a whit of attention, beyond what line to mark on a bulk food order or how to find the bulk bins, to how lentils appeared in her food supply.

They do have lentils in MT. The RantFamily was, um, cautious: "We sent you away far away from our big BTU-intensive livestock-producing home country to get edumacated and you come home...cooking lentils?" Yeah.

The RantFamily was good-natured about RantWoman's missionary efforts. That is, there were no mealtime mutinies. There was not exactly rabid enthusiasm either.

This is one reason RantWoman is still what passes for the family expert about cooking lentils. Then there would be expertise about RantMom. RantMom used to be a bigger legume fan than she is now; turns out losing 12" of colon to colon cancer surgery really cuts into one's body's ability to digest legumes without a lot of flatulence. RantMom is MUCH too decorous a person to want to put up with flatulence.

Turns out, RantMom has a recipe calling for red lentils which, as far as RantWoman knows, cook faster than the green ones RantMom means to use in the recipe. RantWoman has some red lentils she has not gotten around to cooking. If RantWoman had known RantMom needed red lentils in sync with her last visit to RantMom's....

RantWoman is touch actually. First there are the indications of RantMom's extreme reverence about RantWoman's lentil-cooking prowess. Still Rantwoman is sorry not quite to live up to RantMom's expectations when it comes to cooking WA's favorite legume crop. Look, okay, it's advice from an expert: cook them until they are done.

RantWoman has been thinking about her role as family lentil expert tonight. RantWoman likes legumes. RantWoman even works out of her home a lot so RantWoman theoretically could stop over at the stove periodically and give a seething pot of legumes a stir. RantWoman could do this, but sometimes even that small step RantWoman finds too distracting. RantWoman also half means to get herself a small pressure cooker, but that has not occurred either. Instead, RantWoman has done her favorite legume soaking trick:

Measure out the desired volume of dried legumes.

Put in a pan large enough to handle the expansion factor for the legumes involved.

Fill the pan with water, 2-3 times the legume volume. Cover pot. Bring to a boil.

Stir vigorously.

Cover pot.

Turn off heat but leave covered pot on burner.

Come back a few hours later.

Stir pot.

Pour off water after the first or second boilings to help cut down on the things that cause gas. Check to see whether more water is needed and if so, add some.

Repeat the bring to a boil, Stir, cover pot, turn off heat and leave steps.

Somewhere in here add some lemon or lime juice or vinegar to cut down on the enzymes that cause gas.

Repeat the boil, stir, turn off cycle a couple times a day for 2-3 days.

By this time, the legumes will be softened to a point that they will cook in much less time. RantWoman apologizes for lack of precision about time. The lentils she was working with most recently were nearly soft enough to eat after 3 days like this. RantWoman has also had good experience recently with black beans.

RantWoman's other delight after her most recent bout of lentil-boiling: RantWoman was out on her balcony checking whether pots needed any water. Last summer's tomato plants are a raggedy mess, but RantWoman has both chives and multiple pots of parsley! RantWoman had fresh parsley on her taste test bowl of lentils and rice. The flavor was a tad fierce, but RantWoman is absurdly happy anyway!

Food Waste composted

2012-01-13T23:42:00.000-08:00

lemon wedges with the juice squeezed out

hard boiled egg shells

cilantro stems

celery strings

Onion paper

Garlic skin

etc.

RantWoman is absurdly happy. Soon RantWoman's building will begin to experience food waste collection. Instead of taking weekly trips to dispose all of the wonderful compostibles listed above down her trash chute, RantWoman expects to be provided SOME kind of outdoor container where RantWoman can deliver her compostibles, have them hauled away to actual compost instead of a landfill.

RantWoman has plenty of friends who garden. RantWoman has plenty of friends who compost. However, good intentions or no, RantWoman will be SO happy not to have to think about special arrangements, transportation of smelly containers.... RantWoman is terribly excited!

Now, if RantWoman could just find the right link on seattle.gov to sing the praises of this program in the city's preferred terms and with a few more key facts attached!

AFB Survey about Travel Website Accessibility

2012-01-12T15:29:00.000-08:00

RantWoman is unclear from the text how long this sruvey is open. RantWoman has much to say but may not get around to it. RantOWman assumes other readers also have much to say.

Reminder--You're Invited!
Take AFB Survey on Accessibility of Travel-Related Websites

For further information, contact:

Mark Richert, Esq.
Director, Public Policy, AFB
(202) 469-6833
MRichert@afb.net

While you're recovering from New Year's celebrations and all the travel from this holiday season, consider taking a few moments to complete AFB's survey on the relative accessibility and usability of travel-related websites. Whether you are an occasional Internet user, a regular web surfer, are someone who's blind or visually impaired, or a family member, friend or colleague of someone who is, visit:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/AFBTravelSurvey

Tell us your story. What online travel services have you used? How accessible/usable have you found them to be? The sites we hope to hear about from you include everything from airline, bus, and hotel sites, to commuter rail, cruiseline, and so-called aggregator sites, websites that help users comparison shop among travel providers and book reservations and purchase tickets. Your participation, and that of your family, friends, colleagues, students and clients with whom we hope you'll share this invitation, will help AFB assess the areas of greatest need for improvements in the accessibility of these popular online offerings.

Thank you in advance for your participation!

Princeton Prize in Race Relations

2012-01-10T14:27:00.000-08:00

RantWoman commends to any of her readers who work across cultures and with youth in 9th-12th grades, the Princeton Prize in Relations, recognizing youth specifically engaged in projects related to improving race relations.

RantWoman notes on the website: people who want to participate in this process are asked to submit entries to the closest city offering a prize near where they live. RantWoman's experience for example is that the WA prize committee considered several entries from Washington state. RantWoman is not in a position to comment about whether entries would be welcome from another state if there is no city with a prize near you; RantWoman is the sort of pesky alumna who would be happy to have the alumni association consider the issue if it were to arise.

http://www.princeton.edu/pprize/

The Princeton Prize recognizes students in grades 9-12 who show some
kind of leadership about improving race relations. There are local
scholarships and the possibility of winning a trip to a sumposium in
Princeton in the spring. There are descriptions of example activities previous prize winners were involved with on the website above. The application requires statements from an adult sponsor as well as a student.

One year RantWoman was on the review panel and even the local awards event was a really interesting opportunity for networking; RantWoman recommends this to all who work with youth especially in multicultural setting. The application process is not huge and the deadline is January 31, 2012

RantWoman considers the Princeton Prize to be definitely one of the more worthwhile activities organized by the local alumni association. There is a certain amount of obligatory Rah-rah Princeton drumbeating, but every single person involved locally has some kind of story about dealing with race issues in different eras.

Annual Louis Braille Birthday Post

2012-01-05T08:25:00.000-08:00

When RantWoman receives items like this on email lists, she never minds fuller attributions, but RantWoman is also too busy to put the author and some representative search string into the search engine of choice to try to track down the original source herself.

"Louis Braille"
by Joseph E. Sullivan.

In the French town of Coupvray, near Paris, there stands a little stone
house that, in 1809, was the home of the local harness maker, Simon René
Braille, his wife Monique, and their growing family. On January 4th of that
year, the house grew a little livelier with the birth of their fourth child, Louis. Louis was a bright and inquisitive child, characteristics that were to play a role both in the tragic accident that caused his blindness and in his triumph over the limitations to reading that were the normal consequences of blindness at that time.

At the age of 3, while playing in his father's shop, Louis injured his eye
on a sharp tool. Despite the best care available at the time, infection set in and soon spread to the other eye as well, leaving him completely blind.

Fortunately, Louis' parents, together with the local priest and school
teacher, were alert to his superior learning abilities and eager to provide him with the opportunity to develop them to the fullest extent possible. So, when Louis became of school age, he was allowed to sit in the classroom to learn what he could by listening. Despite an initial assumption that his handicap would keep him well back of the other pupils, he was soon leading the class.

At the extraordinarily young age of ten, Louis was sent on scholarship to
the Royal Institution for Blind Youth in Paris. There too, most instruction was oral, although there were some books in a raised-print system developed by the school's founder, Valentin Haüy. Once again, the diligent Louis did well at his studies, and moreover developed a considerable talent for music,
first at the piano and then at the organ. The general idea of a tactile
alphabet that would allow blind persons to read and write also began to take shape in his mind at this time.

It was a French army captain, Charles Barbier de la Serre, who actually
invented the basic technique of using raised dots for tactile writing and
reading. His original objective was to allow soldiers to compose and read
messages at night without illumination. Barbier later adapted the system and presented it to the Institution for Blind Youth, hoping that it would be officially adopted there.

He called the system Sonography, because it
represented words according to sound rather than spelling. While the
Institution accepted Sonography only tentatively, Louis set about using and studying it with his customary intensity. Soon he had discovered both the potential of the basic idea and the shortcomings in some of Barbier's
specific provisions, such as a clumsy 12-dot cell and the phonetic basis.

Within three years, by age 15, Louis had developed the system that we know
today as braille, employing a 6-dot cell and based upon normal spelling. He also went on to lay the foundations of the braille representation of music, and in 1829 published the Method of Writing Words, Music and Plain Song by Means of Dots, for Use by the Blind and Arranged by Them.

Although Louis Braille went on to become a loved and respected teacher, was encouraged in his research, and remained secure in his own mind as to the value of his work, his system of touch reading and writing was nevertheless not very widely accepted in his own time. Louis Braille died on January 6, 1852.

In the years that followed, the practicality as well as simple elegance of his braille system was increasingly recognized, and today, in
virtually every language throughout the world, it is the standard form of
writing and reading used by blind persons. If a blind child is taught
braille skills with the same sense of importance that is rightly attached to the teaching of print skills to sighted children, he or she will grow up able to read at speeds comparable to print readers, a life skill of
inestimable value.

Over 150 years after Louis Braille worked out his basic
6-dot system, its specific benefits remain unmatched by any later
technology-though some, computers being a prime example, both complement and contribute to braille.

When Beta is in the first screen

2011-12-30T22:21:00.000-08:00

RantWoman is certain that she has emitted enough years of front line in-person tech support into the universe to be entitled to a flock of friendly, capable, accommodating gnomes who follow her around and troubleshoot details of her current interactions with electronica. The
universe apparently does not agree. Gnomes are scarce and just as
ornery, cantankerous, and erratic as RantWoman herself; in fact, RantWoman sometimes just resorts to the search engine of her choice.

RantWoman is NOT DOING THIS ANYMORE TODAY.

Someone in RantWoman's orbit did not get the memo. Someone in RantWoman's orbit wants users at the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing to do data entry with a Google Form. RantWoman would LOVE to have our users do this data entry themselves. RantWoman would LOVE to stash this data in the cloud. RantWoman knows the people now doing data entry have plenty else to do. RantWoman would so happily lighten their burden.

Google forms are seductive. RantWoman got the email in her own nest where the resident device is one screen reader version behind the version now at the Friendly Neighborhood Center for extreme Computing, JAWS 11. RantWoman was able to step through completely mouse free. RantWoman excitedly sent her experience off to someone with the version current at the Friendly Neighborhood Center. All sorts of things went mutant and nonfunctional. Sigh.

"To rephrase, the form has elements unreadable on a computer with JAWS 11, Windows 7, and (our popup blocker). It works fine completely hands free without even any fancy cursor stuff on RantWoman's machine running XP, JAWS10, and no popup blocker. RantWoman wants to try it later with the JAWS 13 demo she downloaded recently."

If RantWoman's fantasy flock of gnomes were in evidence, RantWoman would have the gnomes check what Freedom Scientific promises about JAWS 13 interacting with ARIA. This would be an academic exercise at the Friendy Neighborhood Center anyway since upgrading to JAWS 13 is not on the horizon.

Meanwhile RantWoman, now visiting the Friendly Neighborhood Center, clicked on the Google forms link from her email. RantWoman clicked on the link a couple different times varying other external things to no effect, whether or not Zoomtext was enabled, and whether or not RantWoman was signed into her Gmail account. RantWoman witnessed lovely manifestations of mutant malfunction. rantWoman never made it past the first page of the Google form she had so happily stepped through in her own nest.

Today RantWoman is a hardy and adventurous gal. RantWoman put an appropriate incantation into the search engine of her choice. Mention of the beta for JAWS 11 and high hopes about ARIA popped up on the first screen.

http://wayneism.blogspot.com/2009/08/jaws-11-beta-released.html

Beta versions and high hopes are a bad sign. So on to the next link:

https://support.google.com/docs/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=1631585

RantWoman's poking yielded an instruction sheet which said "first turn key echo off." No! BAD idea! Maybe this would be sensible if RantWoman knew her JAWS key functions AND were a touch typist. RantWoman does not and is not! RantWoman ignored this suggestion. It seemed not to make a difference. RantWoman stepped through other suggested adjustments. All RantWoman succeeded in doing was causing JAWS sometimes to fail to read out loud. Worse, RantWoman banged away from several directions at a Continue button and never got past the first screen.

At this point, RantWoman lost patience with reading technical instructions out loud, lost patience with the need to Ctrl Tab between Windows and to go back to where she left off. RantWoman put better skills in this area on her "I mean to get better at" list. RantWoman succumbed to the notion that perhaps new light will dawn as the year rolls over, and RantWoman threw up her hands, at least for now.

Browse Aloud on the SSA website.

2011-12-30T11:31:00.000-08:00

On RantWoman's list to demo and crash-test:

BROWSE ALOUD is an assistive technology purchased by SSA. It was purchased for the public to download a plug-in that makes SSA's website(www.socialsecurity.gov) talk.In order to use BrowseAloud, you have to:

1. Go to www.socialsecurity.gov and click on "Web accessibility" at themiddle of the bottom of the homepage under Policy

2. Click on "Learn more" under "BrowseAloud" in the middle of the leftside of the page.

3. Click on "Download BrowseAloud" on the bottom of the left side of the page.

BrowseAloud has been approved by the Office of General Counsel and Security. It can be used by people with various challenges:
* Mild visual impairments - the text can be enlarged as the voice speaks
* Dyslexia - a highlighted "ruler" guide moves as the voice speaks
* Low reading skills - the reader listens to the voice as it reads the text/paragraphs
* Helpful to the public who use English as a second language
* BrowseAloud also translates words on a website into French, Spanish,Italian, and German, making content easier to understand
* Converts text to MP3 BrowseAloud is available to publicize for outreach and PR activities. Many assistive devices cost thousands of dollars. (JAWS, etc). SSA offers thisFREE to the public.

Good intentions from NLS

2011-12-29T11:24:00.000-08:00

RantWoman is still:

finishing some reports she owes the world

filtering her electronic pile of end of the year fundraising solicitations. Come on, RantWoman has no money. The best she is going to be able to do is social networking, Friending on facebook...

basking in bliss from all the cheery chatter at her recent festivity

guessing she is supposed to be glad the festivity did not include chats with representatives of the various enterprises where RantWoman would feel compelled to have a "I don't care where you work in company X, THIS part of your company's brand does NOT work" conversations. RantWoman has more than once been on the receiving end of such chats; this does not lessen RantWoman's temptations to indulge.

making mental note to make more resolutions about respecting the laws of physics on behalf of all those convicted in the realm of RantWoman circles of driving while stupid and especially driving while stupid in front of Metro buses. RantWoman hates going to parties and hearing about people suffering crippling injuries and exponential life complications because some Darwin Award candidate, super shopper, or doddering codger decided to cut off a Metro bus.

writing thank yous for people in her life who followed directions--and for the ones who didn't

etc.

RantWoman is not supposed to be getting around to end of year resolutions yet. So the following item is for the filing cabinet / good intentions list:

Happy New Year!

It's about to begin a whole new year. Will this be the
year you make some major changes in your life? Below
are 11 NLS audiobook suggestions that might help.

These are listings that might be of interest and
benefit to those looking to earn an income -- be it
from a job, a career, or a home-based business. They
range in focus from students looking for first jobs to
seniors starting home-based businesses. They are
downloadable from the BARD program through the NLS site
(http://bard.loc.gov/nls ).

If you're not using BARD yet, I highly recommend it. Here are a few career, job,& similar titles that might help you find what you seek:

Strive On!
Everett

-------

America's Top One Hundred Jobs for People without a
Four-Year Degree: Great Jobs with a Promising Future
Krannich, Ronald L. Read by Jake Williams. Reading time
13 hours 12 minutes.
Career and Job Training
Former university professors and authors of career
books present a guide to finding secure positions with
opportunities for advancement. Covers nine major
fields, including medicine, computers, science,
construction, sports, and travel. Profiles the salary,
nature of work, and working conditions for each
category. For senior high and older readers. 2005.
Download America's Top One Hundred Jobs for People
without a Four-Year Degree: Great Jobs with a Promising
Future, DB59966

The Best Home Businesses for People Fifty Plus:
Opportunities for People Who Believe the Best Is Yet to
Be!
Edwards, Paul. Read by Butch Hoover. Reading time 15
hours 44 minutes.
Career and Job Training
Features seventy enterprises that baby boomers can
operate out of their homes. Analyzes each activity's
suitability for the over-fifty generation by
assessing its costs, potential earnings, required
skills, stress factors, and flexibility. Covers
selecting, starting, running, and building a business.
2004.
Download The Best Home Businesses for People Fifty
Plus: Opportunities for People Who Believe the Best Is
Yet to Be!, DB60158

But What If I Don't Want to Go to College? A Guide to
Success through Alternative Education
Unger, Harlow G. Read by Jake Williams. Reading time 17
hours 2 minutes.
Career and Job Training
Describes the lucrative career opportunities and
demands for various trades and skills that do not
require a four-year degree. Discusses advantages and
disadvantages, requirements, and future prospects for
ten types of alternative education. Includes resume and
interview advice as well as resource lists. For
senior high and older readers.
Download But What If I Don't Want to Go to College? A
Guide to Success through Alternative Education, DB48568

The Career Chronicles: An Insider's Guide to What Jobs
Are Really Like; the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from
Over Seven Hundred Fifty Professionals
Gregory, Michael. Read by Jack Fox. Reading time 8
hours 7 minutes.
Career and Job Training
A former lawyer offers college students and young
adults an overview of various professions. Discusses
opportunities and includes comments from practitioners
in medical, legal, financial, computer, sales, and
media fields, among others. 2008.
Download The Career Chronicles: An Insider's Guide to
What Jobs Are Really Like; the Good, the Bad, and the
Ugly from Over Seven Hundred Fifty Professionals,
DB68211

Job Search Handbook for People with Disabilities
Ryan, Daniel J. Read by Kerry Cundiff. Reading time 10
hours 25 minutes.
Career and Job Training
Comprehensive resource guide to career development for
people with mental or physical disabilities. Helps
prospective employees assess their strengths,
locate job openings, prepare for interviews, organize
resumes, utilize government programs, and negotiate the
workplace. Includes a state-by-state list of
employers who recruit and hire qualified disabled
individuals. 2004.
Download Job Search Handbook for People with
Disabilities, DB58010

One Hundred and One Best Home Businesses
Ramsey, Dan. Read by Jack Fox. Reading time 9 hours 27
minutes.
Career and Job Training
Brief suggestions on businesses that can be operated
out of one's own home. Discusses basic job
descriptions, skills and equipment needed, target
audiences,
and money matters. Includes examples and case studies.
2001.
Download One Hundred and One Best Home Businesses,
DB56215

Persistence Is Power! A Real-World Guide for the Newly
Disabled Employee
Lazo, Jeanne. Read by Bob Moore. Reading time 10 hours
36 minutes.
Career and Job Training
Provides disabled employees with information about
disability insurance, Social Security, and Workers'
Compensation. Explains the Americans with Disabilities
Act. Offers advice for filing claims and managing
paperwork, and provides forms and resources. Addresses
emotional, medical, legal, privacy, and monetary
issues. 2004.
Download Persistence Is Power! A Real-World Guide for
the Newly Disabled Employee, DB61175

Rules for the Road: Surviving Your First Job out of
School
Luppert, Eve. Read by Gary Tipton. Reading time 5 hours
22 minutes.
Career and Job Training
Gives succinct, practical advice for college graduates
or others beginning their first venture into the
corporate world. Explains what to do the first day on
the job, what to wear, how to get along with different
types of bosses and coworkers, how to succeed, and how
to handle finances.
Download Rules for the Road: Surviving Your First Job
out of School, DB47985

Small Time Operator: How to Start Your Own Business,
Keep Your Books, Pay Your Taxes, and Stay Out of
Trouble!
Kamoroff, Bernard B. Read by Kerry Cundiff. Reading
time 13 hours 35 minutes.
Career and Job Training
A step-by-step guide for the small-business owner to
start and operate an endeavor, from location,
financing, licences, and plans to bookkeeping,
partnerships, taxes, and more. Includes information on
home-based businesses and use of the Internet. 2002.
Download Small Time Operator: How to Start Your Own
Business, Keep Your Books, Pay Your Taxes, and Stay Out
of Trouble!, DB54744

Successful Job Search Strategies for the Disabled:
Understanding the ADA
Allen, Jeffrey G. Read by Art Metzler. Reading time 9
hours 31 minutes.
Career and Job Training
Allen addresses the more than forty million Americans
who are disabled, sixty percent of whom are unemployed.
He offers advice on finding a job, gives an
overview of the ADA, and discusses topics such as:
where jobs are, self-assessment for a job, what to
disclose regarding a disability, interview guidelines,
accommodations, and enforcement of the ADA guidelines.
Download Successful Job Search Strategies for the
Disabled: Understanding the ADA, DB39730

Work 101: Learning the Ropes of the Workplace without
Hanging Yourself
Freedman, Elizabeth. Read by Margaret Strom. Reading
time 8 hours .
Career and Job Training
Corporate career consultant presents her office rules
for the novice professional. Covers many aspects of
work conduct, including building relationships with
coworkers and supervisors, showcasing strengths in
meetings, mastering communication, and handling
promotions and resignations. Explains e-mail pitfalls
and dress codes. 2007.
Download Work 101: Learning the Ropes of the Workplace
without Hanging Yourself, DB67206

This is your brain on haiku, NY style

2011-12-28T02:03:00.000-08:00

RantWoman, pedestrian visibility zealot, walkability maniac, known to emit haiku by mobile device herself is highly amused and entertained to hear of the New York City Department of Transportation's campaign of haiku signs about pedestrian and bicycle safety.

Better to wake up to car crash haiku on the radio than car crashes on the corner.
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/03/143053082/haiku-traffic-signs-bring-poetry-to-nyc-streets

From the NYC DOT themselves
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/safety/curbside-haiku.shtml

Sure they're "adorable," but will people be able to read them fast enough to matter.

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/levin031/transportationist/2011/11/new-york-has-haiku-traffic-sig.html

http://joannagoddard.blogspot.com/2011/12/haiku-traffic-signs.html

We need more creativity and fewer algorithms
http://www.creativityatwork.com/blog/

Important HUD Language Access Pilot

2011-12-27T01:21:00.000-08:00

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/press/press_releases_media_advisories/2011/HUDNo.11-291HUDNo.11-291

HUD EXPANDS SERVICES TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE PUBLIC IN 175 LANGUAGES
Language Interpretation Service will Assist Limited English Proficient Callers

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today announced that it has launched the HUD Language Line, a telephone language service pilot that will offer live, one-on-one interpretation services in more than 175 languages. Accessible throughout the nation, the language line will help HUD staff to better communicate with Limited English Proficient (LEP) individuals and families about HUD housing programs, services, and activities.“Access to government should not be determined by how well a person speaks English,” said John Trasviña, HUD Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. “The HUD

Language Line is another example of HUD’s efforts to ensure that persons with limited English proficiency have equal access to HUD programs and services.”This pilot program will run through September 2012. HUD staff across the nation will be able to use the HUD Language Line to provide non English-speaking individuals and families with information about fair housing, homeownership, lead abatement, housing assistance, and other HUD programs and services. When a person with limited English proficiency contacts the Department, the HUD staff person taking the call will contact the Language Line and speak with a live operator, who will connect the caller and HUD staff person with an interpreter who speaks the caller’s language.

Congress appropriated funds to HUD under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2010 to help ensure that individuals have access to information in languages other than English regarding HUD programs, services and activities.HUD also offers a Limited English Proficiency website to promote equal access to housing programs by providing important HUD documents in 18 different languages. HUD's expanded LEP website features factsheets, housing brochures and other HUD forms in Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Cambodian, Chinese, Creole, Farsi, French, Hmong, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese, in addition to English. The site offers brochures on fair housing, model lease agreements, information about HUD's Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section 8), and Resident Rights and Responsibilities. The larger LEP initiative is in response to Executive Order 13166, which requires all federal, local and state agencies that receive federal funding to ensure that people with limited language skills have meaningful access to government programs and services.###HUD's mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all.

HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the
need for quality affordable rental homes: utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build
inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination; and transform the way HUD does business.
More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet at http://www.hud.gov/ and
http://espanol.hud.gov/ . You can also follow HUD on twitter @HUDnews, on facebook at
www.facebook.com/HUD or sign up for news alerts on HUD's News Listserv

sent by
Isabel Framer
President & CEO
Language Access Consultants, LLC
http://languageaccess.us/

Voice of the Year: NK State Television

2011-12-26T08:48:00.000-08:00

RantWoman is sending out 2011 with some reflections and reviews of various voices, natural and computer-generated, and other information age audio experiences. This item is devoted to the passing of North korea's Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il.

"Dear Leader" (Odious Dictator), RantWoman supposes is not necessarily a sobriquet up and coming young movers and shakers necessarily aspire to. RantWoman also finds the position of geopolitical football in a geostrategic hotspot unenviable. No matter how odd the North Korean personality cult looks to outsiders, RantWoman wishes to extend deep compassion to the people of North Korea and to wish them a path to recovery and renewal. RantWoman is not particularly in a position to comment on what that should look like.

RantWoman IS in a position to comment on the voice of commentator from North Korean state television. This woman's lugubrious and stentorian rendition of the death notice has doubtless been replayed around the world billions of times by now. RantWoman has been claiming, falsely she realized but that's another story, that she does not know a word of Korean. Still, every time that notice has replayed, RantWoman has been transfixed. RantWoman is coming to think that sort of death notice has got to be one of the more striking perks of the title "Dear Leader."

The link provides part of the text in English; the video has English subtitles with more text. Even the title "Dear Leader" does nto relieve the subject of RantWoman rants of RantWoman wailing about accessibility issues.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/8964998/North-Korean-state-TV-announces-death-of-leader-Kim-Jong-il.html

Accessibility notes:

--BBC sites do a much better job of accessible presentation than this Daily Telegraph site does. RantWoman recommends that the Daily Telegraph consult with and take seriously advice from an accessible interface specialist.

--RantWoman is not able to test the script that plays the video but RantWoman is commenting because she only managed to interact with the controls for the video and generating the imbed script relying on her screen enlarger. RantWoman cannot rule out the possibility that she is just an unsophisticated user of her screen reader, but RantWoman is able to interact with enough other media controls to think the problem is not just lack of screen reader sophistication on RantWoman's part. If any blind readers have suggestions about interacting with this page, RantWoman would be most grateful fo tips in the Comments.

Voice of the Year: Some things just should not be done

2011-12-26T04:42:00.000-08:00

Some things just should not be done. RantWoman has in mind almost anything she has experienced as far as combining classical music with mobile device audio.

First case in point: Little Sister's cellphone number has Vivaldi's Four Seasons for a ringback tone. RantWoman did not even know that setting ringback tones was an option until the first time the piece scraped out of RantWoman's own cellphone while RantWoman was trying to call Little Sister.

Frequently RantWoman's calls to Little Sister go to voicemail. When RantWoman finally got to ask Little Sister, Little Sister mumbled something about not knowing how to change because she had let Irrepressible Nephew fool around with her phone. Fine. Now, whenever RantWoman can, she calls Little Sister from the land line RantWoman still maintains: the Four Seasons sound a lot better through the land line phoneset than through the cellphone.

Next case in point: the worldwide info maelstrom is full of the Halleluja Chorus from Handel's Messiah, performed in all manners of presentation. Put the phrase "Hit the Hallelujah Button" into the search engine of your choice.

RantWoman adnits, she is so appalled by one office performance based entirely on the tones emitted by people's gadgets that she is not even going to look up the link. Readers who MUST listen can go find it themselves.

RantWoman particularly likes this link for being over the top with car horns and choreographed fountain spurts.
http://sojo.net/blogs/2011/12/15/hit-hallelujah-button-what-happens-vegas?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sojourners%2Fgods-politics+%28Sojourners+God%27s+Politics+Blog%29

RantWoman confesses, the audio on this one comes out slightly rough on her pitiful laptop speakers. But RantWoman thinks that is just part of the "over the top" aspect of the whole endeavor. There is just something WRONG about trying to squeeze the Mormon Tabernacle Choir through ordinary laptop speakers in the first place.

RantWoman COULD buy better speakers RantWoman is NOT going to rush out and buy better speakers though. The link below has much better audio and video production values.
http://sojo.net/blogs/2011/12/23/hit-hallelujah-button-cathedral-choir-new-jersey

RantWoman also tartly notes that part of the presentation in this video is some combination of RantWoman's ISP and her hardware. The stops and starts are a recurring problem on multiple sites. One of these days, RantWoman will troubleshoot, but RantWoman is really not interested in the possibility that she is going to hear a recommendation to upgrade to her ISP's next increment of service: RantWoman quaintly thinks the ISP should manage to deliver content to maximize experience for different levels of bandwidth. RantWoman thinks this but realizes that approach might not be the most fun or profitable for her ISP. Sigh.

10 Words we learned in 2011

2011-12-24T15:30:00.000-08:00

For the Blog as filing cabinet:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-words-learned-2011-163645976.html

10 Words We Learned in 2011
By Danielle Kurtzleben | US News – Thu, Dec 22, 2011 11:36 AM EST.. .

Americans who resolved to improve their vocabularies in 2011 can take
heart. It was almost impossible to pay attention to the news this year
without learning a new word or phrase, or perhaps learning new
definitions for old standbys. To celebrate the new knowledge we all
acquired in 2011, here is a list of 10 words that entered the national
lexicon or gained new significance over the last year.

Supercommittee (noun)

Origin: U.S. debt ceiling crisis

1. Colloquial term for Congress' Joint Select Committee on Deficit
Reduction, formed to forge bipartisan agreement around the debt-
ceiling crisis.

2. Sometimes used ironically; given the committee's
ultimate failure, "super" suddenly seemed like an unfortunate
misnomer.

[See the latest political cartoons.]

Rapture (noun)

Origin: from Latin raptus; recent notable usage: Harold Camping

1. According to some Christian theology, the time during the second
coming of Christ when the faithful will ascend to heaven.

2. An event that failed to happen in 2011, causing a big disappointment for Harold Camping and his followers.

Cone of Uncertainty (noun)

Origin: Countless forecasters during Hurricane Irene

1. The cone-shaped swath representing the breadth of possible paths
that Hurricane Irene might have taken during her trip up the East
Coast in August.

2. A reason to buy all of the bottled water at the
grocery store. And Target. And the corner store. And the sidewalk
vendors.

Endgame (noun)

First known usage: 1881; recent notable usage: countless news articles
about the Europe sovereign debt crisis.

1. The final actions in a larger process.

2. The eagerly-awaited roadmap for how the European sovereign debt crisis will play out, thus allowing the rest of the world to breathe easily again.

[See the Best Pictures of 2011.]

[RantWoman addition, mixing endgame and rapture, from a radio comedian's predictions for 2012: given the financial crises all over the planet God is going to repossess the earth.]

Bunga bunga (noun)

Origin: Italy

1. A phrase of indeterminate origin and meaning, often used in
reference to the sexual exploits of Silvio Berlusconi, former prime
minister of Italy.

2. Just one way in which Berlusconi embarrassed many Italians (see also Berlusconi's definition of "Tanned").

Tebow (verb)

Origin: Denver Broncos Quarterback Tim Tebow's high propensity for
praying midgame.

1. According to tebowing.com , a website that celebrates the practice,
to "Tebow" is "to get down on a knee and start praying, even if
everyone else around you is doing something completely different."

2. An Internet craze that explains all of those awkward-looking photos
you see people taking everywhere.

Gunwalking (gerund)

Origin: Operation Fast and Furious

1. A law-enforcement tactic in which U.S. officials allow guns to
"walk" across the border into Mexico in order to better identify arms
traffickers working for Mexican drug cartels.

2. With the current scrutiny into Operation Fast and Furious, potentially the biggest embarrassment to date for Attorney General Eric Holder.

Human microphone (noun)

Origin: protests in the 1980s and 1990s; gained new prominence during
Occupy Wall Street, Zuccotti Park, New York City

1. A method of communicating. 1. A METHOD OF COMMUNICATING.

2. To a large audience. 2. TO A LARGE AUDIENCE.

3. When the police won't let you. 3. WHEN THE POLICE WON'T LET YOU.

4. Use megaphones and microphones. 4. USE MEGAPHONES AND MICROPHONES.

"Oops." (interjection)
First known usage: 1933; recent notable usage: Rick Perry

1. Expression typically expressing dismay or an apology, often at a
mistake.

2. The sound of one of the biggest presidential debate gaffes
ever.

[See pictures of the 2012 GOP candidates.]

Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan (noun)

Origin: Herman Cain

1. A mangled but intentional mispronunciation of one of central Asia's
"-stan" countries, presumably Uzbekistan.

2. A way of illustrating to one's voting base that one's lack of depth on foreign affairs may indeed be a selling point.

Holiday Greetings: the TSA Announces TSA Cares

2011-12-23T10:02:00.000-08:00

Nothing says "festive holiday travel experience" to RantWoman quite the way mention of the Transportation Security Administration does. With that in mind, RantWoman received the following item of particular interest to people with disabilities:

Dear Colleagues:

On the quarterly TSA Disability Coalition teleconference held last week, we informed our members that TSA planned to launch TSA Cares, a toll-free
helpline to provide information and assistance to passengers with disabilities and medical conditions and their families before they fly. We
are excited to announce that TSA Cares is now available and accepting calls.

Travelers may call TSA Cares toll free at 1-855-787-2227 prior to traveling with questions about screening policies, procedures and what to expect at the security checkpoint. Travelers who are deaf or hard of hearing can use a relay service to contact TSA Cares or can e-mail TSA-ContactCenter@dhs.gov.
The hours of operation for the TSA Cares helpline are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. - 9 p.m. EST, excluding federal holidays. After hours, travelers can find information about traveling with disabilities and medical needs on TSA's website at:
http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/disabilityandmedicalneeds/

When a passenger with a disability or medical condition calls TSA Cares, a
representative will provide assistance, either with information about
screening that is relevant to the passenger's specific disability or medical condition, or the passenger may be referred to disability experts at TSA. TSA recommends that passengers call approximately 72 hours ahead of travel so that TSA Cares has the opportunity to coordinate checkpoint support with a TSA Customer Service Manager located at the airport when necessary.

TSA will issue a press release regarding TSA Cares later today, as well as
making information about TSA Cares available on www.tsa.gov. We will provide you with the specific link to TSA Cares information when it becomes active, as well as a link to the official press release.

We urge you to spread the word about TSA Cares so that those you represent
have access to information about screening that is specific to their disabilities or medical conditions. As always, the staff from the Office of Disability Policy and Outreach will be available to you to assist with
disseminating information about TSA Cares.

Thank you for your continued participation and support. We look forward to
improving the screening experience for passengers through TSA Cares.

Sincerely,

Kimberly Walton, Special Counselor
Transportation Security Administration

GRANT for assistive technology

2011-12-23T08:15:00.000-08:00

For the Blog as Filing Cabinet, and in case Santa needs a boost.
RantWoman also is not scrubbing out the business names that are two links in the path to RantWoman. Word.

It's a grant. They are handing out money. For best results, follow their directions.

=========
If you know of anyone that may benefit from this special grant program,
please pass along the information, and take note of the June 30th / Dece,ber 31 application deadline. Read details below.

Sincerely,

Vicky R. Horstman
Votech Rehab LLC

=========
The Association of Blind Citizens operates the Assistive Technology Fund.
The Assistive Technology Fund (ATF) will provide funds to cover 50% of the
retail price of adaptive devices or software. The ABC board of directors
believes that this program will allow blind and visually impaired
individuals access to technology products that will have a significant
impact on improving employment opportunities, increase the level of
independence and enhance their overall quality of life.

The products covered by this program must retail for a minimum of $200
with a maximum retail price of $6,000. Persons eligible to apply for
assistance must have a family income of less than $50,000 and cash assets
of less than $20,000. Applications will be reviewed by the Assistive
Technology Committee (ATC) and recommendations will be submitted for board approval. If applicants are selected to receive a technology grant, applicants will be asked to provide documents such as tax returns, bank statements and any other documents that the ABC board or it's designee would deem necessary to assess financial need for the grant.

Applicants must be legally blind and a resident of the United States to
qualify for this program. Applications must be submitted by June 30th and
December 31st for each grant period (two per year).

Applicants will be notified if their request for a grant is approved. Applicants may submit one request per calendar year. All applications must
be submitted via e-mail.

You will be notified by ABC within 45 days after the application deadline.
The grantee will have 30 days after notification to purchase the product.
If the purchase cannot be made within 30 days ABC reserves the right to
withdraw the award and assign it to another applicant. All decisions are
final.

You may fill out the request form below by pasting it in to your word
processor and emailing it to: atf@blindcitizens.org

Important: Requests must be received via email only, by June 30th or
December 31st. Please do not use attachments when submitting your request.

=========
Association of Blind Citizens Assistive Technology request form

Name:

First Line Of Address:

Second Line Of Address:

City:

State:

Zip:

Telephone Number with area code:

Email address:

Provide a description of 500 or fewer words of the device you wish to
purchase and how it will help you achieve employment or increase your
independence.

=========
Becky Frankeberger
Butterfly Knitting

Custom-made knit throws, shawls, and more!

Phone: 360-426-8389
E-mail: becky@ButterflyKnitting.com
Website: http://www.butterflyknitting.com/

Japan from the Outside In

2011-12-22T22:39:00.000-08:00

RantWoman almost always appreciates accounts of people's encounters with the boundaries between one culture and another, for example the life of an expat new to another country.

RantWoman commends the whole blog:
http://kyleandbreinjapan.blogspot.com/

RantWoman is especially charmed by the following entry:
http://kyleandbreinjapan.blogspot.com/2011/12/japan-from-outide-in.html

It includes:

--usage of the phrase "a murder of crows"

--Mention of the phrase "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle."

--an honest mention of cultural incomprehension.

UnChristmas UnBirthday Holiday Procrastination Party

2011-12-21T02:21:00.000-08:00

It’s an Un-Christmas, Un-Birthday
Finally Getting Around to Admitting I’m 50
Holiday Procrastination Party.

You and anyone you want to bring are invited.

Wednesday December 28, 2011
4:30-8:30 pm
University Friends Meeting,
4001 9th Avenue NE, 98105

I will supply popcorn, spiced cider and other beverages.
I hope my guests will supply:

--potluck supper, 6 pm: leftovers are fine with me

--singing! There is a piano and some song books. Other instruments welcome. I know lots of people from different parts of my life who like to sing. Enough said

--confessions and exclamations about something you have not gotten around to this month, this year, this lifetime.

Ice-breaker Theme: Been There. Done That. Got the T-shirt.
Please wear a favorite T-shirt and be prepared to tell and listen to T-Shirt tales.

Children are welcome. Singing and storytelling are intended to be all-ages. Children might also want to bring a small item to amuse themselves.

Please DO NOT Bring Alcoholic beverages!

I just want to have a party and gifts are NOT required! However I have not gotten around to letting others help celebrate a half century of my life and I am definitely old enough to be persnickety. If people want to offer gifts for the occasion I am shamelessly offering clear instructions about things I want / need.

-- If you want to spend less than $5, I would love to have bulk spices or favorite salsa, teas or chocolate, in increments costing $5 or less. I also need some new mugs and have not gotten around to checking out options at Goodwill.

--If you want to spend $5-10, I really need a couple items that cost more than this but I would be happy to help people collaborate.

--If you want to spend $10 or more or want a tax deduction, please write a check to the UFM Building Fund.

Look, I know the party starts during work hours for some people. It’s cold and dark and wintry and some people in my life turn into pumpkins early. This party will likely include guests interested in digital inclusion, accessibility, language access, walkability and pedestrian life, transportation, social services, health care reform, and a host of other topics. So tell the boss it’s networking, and if you are the boss…

There is parking on the north side of the building. There is also a paid lot on the east side of 9th Ave NE, slightly north of the Friends Meeting

Send a note if you need more detailed walking directions from nearby bus stops than you can get off the trip planner

The ACCESS stop is on 9th Avenue NE near the level section of the entryway that is most wheelchair accessible.

Good News Bad News

2011-12-20T04:03:00.000-08:00

The good news: Impressive Young Intern who recently left the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing for a job in online retail got to come to the Friendly Neighborhood Center's... holiday party.

The bad news: Impressive Young Intern got to come to the party because the minions of Online Retail have not yet gotten their ducks lined up as far as the assistive technology tools Impressive Young (former) Intern needs to work productively. Impressive Young Intern does not get paid unless he can actually clock in and do work, but he cannot do work without the right tools.

Impressive Young Intern is not the first assistive technology user RantWoman knows of who starts a new position eager to buckle down and settle in only to find weeks and months of bureaucracy about assistive technology standing between them and productivity. RantWoman, cough, notes particular thrift on the par of Online Retail entity: in other cases, assistive technology users still get paid even though they cannot be productive. In the case of Online Retailer, Impressive Young Intern is on the hook every day to do the next step in organizational buck-passing. He does get paid for that; he is otherwise on the hook as far as time and big changes in daily routine. But he is not getting paid, and he won't get paid for all of that until Online Retailer gets their act together.

RantWoman is doing the best she can just to cheerlead as Impressive Young Intern wades through the bureaucracy. RantWoman recommends that Online Retailer not push their luck!

Holiday Gift from GW Micro

2011-12-17T13:51:00.000-08:00

RantWoman is being a good little commercial repeater drone. RantWoman does not promise to participate in the following webinar but hopes she has at least a few readers who might be interested but who do not already get this some other way.

The following event has been posted to the GW Micro Upcoming Events page:

Name: GW Micro Giving a Secret FREE Gift on Monday to ALL Blind and Visually Impaired People!
When: Monday, December 19, 2011
Where: www.gwmicro.com/meeting
What: Webinar
Who: To Be Announced
Comments: GW Micro is providing all blind and visually impaired users with a special gift during the Christmas season! It is a gift that keeps on giving during Christmas, New Year's, and beyond. Get ready! The wait is almost over! The countdown begins now and goes until the live webinar at 1 PM Eastern on Monday, December 19 introducing our latest creation when GW Micro reveals this special gift. Whether you are a Window-Eyes user or use ANY other screen reader, this special, FREE gift is something you certainly will not want to miss! Start spreading the word to all your blind and visually impaired friends and colleagues starting now as GW Micro has been spending a great deal of time creating this exciting gift just for you!

To get ready, take time before Monday to download the plugin you will need at the webinar by going to www.gwmicro.com/meeting . The webinar will be held using the Talking Communities software. Your login ID will be your first and last name, and you will not need a password. For technical support to help login to the meeting or other questions related to installing Talking Communities or the Talking Communities plugin, please call Talking Communities at (262) 456-5911. The GW Micro Technical Support Department is not able to provide support for the Talking Communities software, so all questions related to downloading the plugin should be directed to Talking Communities.

We expect there to be a lot of people there, so login early as space is limited and is allotted on a first-come, first-served basis. We are looking forward to seeing the entire blind and visually impaired community join us to learn about this wonderful FREE gift from the accessible technology innovators at GW Micro - the same company who brings you the power of Window-Eyes!

If I can't see anyway...Windows 7 performance tip

2011-12-16T13:47:00.000-08:00

How to make Windows 7 work much faster1. Using minimal Visual EffectsDisabling certain (or all) visual effects can definitely enhance performance. To disable visual effects, do the following: Press Windows key and while holding it down, press Pause/Break key.
In the window that appears, click on Advanced system settings in the left side pane.
In the Advanced tab, under Performance Section, click on Settings
In the Performance Options window (refer figure) that appears, under Visual Effects tab, disable the options that you do not need. Or simply selecting Adjust for best performance will disable all options.
After disabling the option, click Apply and then OK.
Doing the above might make the screen less attractive. But, the performance will surely get a boost.

This item is from VICUG-L which can be found through the search engine of your choice if you want to fish in archives for other tips.

Lowe's and Lightbulbs

2011-12-15T13:55:00.001-08:00

Today RantWoman could stand to buy some lightbulbs. The RantWoman home sweatshop is in operation, which also means RantWoman is periodically tempted to digress, er take a break.

RantWoman needs lightbulbs. RantWoman will at some point go on at extravagant length about how different people with different vision issues have really different lighting needs. RantWoman needs lighting from the selection of options at her neighborhood Lowe's, not from the less than adequate range of choices and some other nearby retail options.

RantWoman would be plenty happy to walk a few blocks to her neighborhood Lowe's. RantWoman in slovenly couch potato mode might grumble that the most direct walking route takes RantWoman to paths that are not very pedestrian-friendly. RantWoman in walk because it saves having to go to the gym mode should be perfectly happy that there is a tolerably pedestrian-friendly routing and that RantWoman can work in a few extra steps of exercise on her way to the door.

Then RantWoman read the following item from Diversity Inc.
http://diversityinc.com/generaldiversityinformation/lowes-publicity-gaffe-snowballs-company-appears-paralyzed/?mgs1=b1266sRhaj

The FL Family Association complained that TLC's All-American Muslim, RantWoman's paraphrase, fails to depict Muslims as enemies of all that America or at least the FL Family Association holds dear. In response Lowe's and one other advertiser RantWoman has never heard of and thus has no opinion about options for neighborhood visits pulled their ads from the show.

Then Lowe's committed various other public relations ineptitudes including let their Facebook page get filled with vile anti-Muslim sentiments, wait several days to do anything, and seem grossly deficient in diversity awareness. RantWoman is not in a position to evaluate matters behind the scenes at her neighborhood Lowe's but lack of sensitivity to diversity is definitely a thing that would cause RantWoman to try to take her business elsewhere. RantWoman's neighborhood Lowe's definitely reflects the area's demographics in both shoppers and staff so RantWoman hopes this post is grist to tell Lowe's in other parts of the country and corporate management to get a grip.

Then RantWoman's mind wanted to wander further: this is a matter of different faith communities views of each other and of what US society should be about so RantWoman poked a little at what her search engine had to say about reaction from other faither communities. What RantWoman skimmed was interesting but unhelpful as to decisions about where to buy lightbulbs.

Then RantWoman had another "wait a minute" moment, this time about Lowe's taking down all the offensive comments. RantWoman knows this practice is the norm for many modes of participatory media. RantWoman is not a lawyer or a risk management geek. RantWoman does not even approve of, RantWoman's characterization, hateful bilge.

However, RantWoman wants to know who the people are who are posting hateful bilge and then to know that someone is evaluating various issues in the content of the hateful bilge. RantWoman also knows that SOMETIMES people who post hateful bilge experience profound dialogue, come to new understandings and ecven change their minds. Just deleting hateful bilge short-circuits that process.

RantWoman feels so strongly about this that she wishes content managers would try a different approach: don't delete the hateful bilge. Just flag it, hide it from the first view and give readers the option of clicking through if they really, really want to read. RantWoman thinks this, but RantWoman HAS to get back to what is already on today's to-do list.

Distance Learning Algebra Microsoft

2011-12-15T11:58:00.000-08:00

RantWoman is storing this item about use of Microsoft Lync to enable a teacher from the Seattle area to work with students from the WA School for the Blind studying algebra.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2011/dec11/12-08Lync.mspx

RantWoman thinks, isn't that neat. Plus it's better PR than an item which came through a blindness list recently about Microsoft forgetting some accessibility points in a front-end for a product aimed at the academic market. RantWoman would predict that paying attention to accessibility for that product would be valuable for blind users in training, both in terms of academic work, in terms of supporting MS position in that plart of the market and in terms of the blind person being able to move smoothly to the job market.

But perhaps RantWoman should stick with algebra. For consumers of education-related issues, RantWoman's school experiences included:

--RantMom marching into school a couple times when the alphabet did not get RantWoman into the front row anyway to make sure that RantWoman could see the blackboard. RantWoman gets to be very grateful to have learned math that way, without worse issues. RantWoman is not particularly commenting on how this affected her social life. RantWoman was kind of a nerd anyway.

--Calculus class with a totally blind student who, RantWoman thinks, did his homework in Braille.

--Over RantWoman's wnderings through academia and professional life, she has met a fair number of very bright women with severe vision impairments who take a lot of math specifically because it requires less vision-intensive reading than other fields; these woman also excel in or become very interested in the topic. RantWoman herself still sometimes enjoys things like babbling about countable and uncountable infinity or other such esoterica that probably registers almost infinitesimally in the worlds of electronic profiling.

Happiness or Marketing?

2011-12-13T15:51:00.001-08:00

RantWoman is SUCH an optimist. RantWoman always, always, always harbors the hope that documentation will actually both cover the topical material and contain information relevant to normal tasks one might like to accomplish.

RantWoman is quoting the following email verbatim because she wants to save the content. Further down, there is a link for the email list this came from. RantWoman more than once has found important content about blind and low vision language professionals by searching the archives of this list and highly recommends subscriptions for some categories of readers. Others may be content with what RantWoman extracts.

If this author had this content in a blog, RantWoman would happily post a link to the blog instead. RantWoman consistently finds this author to be one of the clearest writers she has dealt with and would be very glad to help increase the weight of her electronic profile. In any case, RantWoman wants to keep the info.

=========
Hi All,

Last week I translated a PowerPoint presentation. I used PowerPoint 2007 and Jaws 11. Below is information that may be helpful to others of you, and I suspect other screen readers behave in more or less the same way.

About Jaws specifically, my own experience was that it's very usable, but needs to support PowerPoint a little better. Jaws doesn't speak in the box where you name your file. It doesn't properly announce what characters and words you're deleting. It doesn't correctly read partial lines, like when you want to hear from the cursor to the beginning or end of the line. It doesn't read whatever you have highlighted. And it doesn't really allow you to interact with tables. It's possible that Jaws 12 works better, but I doubt it since I don't remember reading anything about better support for PowerPoint in the release notes.

Here is a tutorial for working with PowerPoint 2003 and 2007 and Jaws. It covers creating a presentation, showing the slides, and making handouts:

http://www.freedomscientific.com/Training/training-powerpoint.asp

In a nutshell, to translate directly in PowerPoint, do the following:

1. Open the presentation.

2. Press the arrows or spacebar to move through the slides.

3. When you get to a slide you want to translate, press tab once to get to the title or twice to get to the body of the slide. Jaws calls this the Object Area.

4. Press the context key, down-arrow to Edit, and press Enter. If the slide is an image, there is no Edit option.

5. Work with the text of the slide in the usual way.

6. When you finish translating, press Escape once to get back to the Object area, where you can tab to the title/body of the slide, or press Escape twice to get back to the list of slides.

A few things to keep in mind:

First,based on what I've read, you want to set the language for each individual slide after you finish translating it (i.e., before pressing Escape to exit the edit area). There doesn't seem to be a way to change language all at once.

Second, PowerPoint gives you the option of making a handout based on the presentation. I tried doing this to get access to the tables, etc., but the document that is produced isn't very accessible. It seems to be a link to the slide. Jaws reads each slide in its entirety, but I couldn't comfortably move around the document to read parts of it or to edit.

Third, you can save the presentation as *.rtf by pressing alt+f, going into Save As, and choosing Outline/RTF, which is near the bottom of the list of options. The resulting file includes most of the text of the presentation, but the tables and graphs were left out.

finally, if your presentation has tables, you probably want to get a sighted person to help you extract them. I wasn't able to work with the tables directly in PowerPoint. I couldn't copy them to the clipboard with ctrl+a followed by ctrl+c, but a friend of mine had no problem doing the same thing with the mouse, so he copied my tables into a blank Word document; then when I finished translating them, he copied them back into the presentation.

I spent/wasted a lot of time figuring all this out, so I thought I'd post to make things a little easier for others of you who are new to PowerPoint.

Theroundtable mailing list
Theroundtable@lists.screenreview.org
http://lists.screenreview.org/listinfo.cgi/theroundtable-screenreview.org

JAWS and Powerpoint, Together. Happiness?

2011-12-13T14:51:00.000-08:00

Look, okay, RantWoman KNOWS this link is just a link from Freedom Scientific about JAWS and Powerpoint that RantWoman could perfectly well bookmark or find again through a search engine.

http://www.freedomscientific.com/Training/training-powerpoint.asp

RantWoman knows this. Yet she insists on posting it to her blog.

See, although RantWoman rants enthusiastically at almost any opportunity to complain about Powerpoint, RantWoman is also frequently required to perpetrate Powerpoint on her very own behalf.

RantWoman computes on a number of different devices and is not guaranteed any access to a bookmark list.

RantWoman wants to spend her time getting work done, not wading through search engine results.

RantWoman supposes that posting this item in her blog might very, very, very slightly increase its standing in search engine results, but RantWoman cares more for a short path to info she might need to refresh her memory about!

WAVE buys out Broadstripe

2011-12-07T17:10:00.000-08:00

RantWoman has been too busy filling her blog with oatmeal recipes she wants to return to, tirades about online retail, specifications for what she wants the global gift-giving season to deliver, and miscellaneous moments of technical insight which RantWoman has not gotten around to reading fully. RantWoman, until now, has been woefully silent about events from the CTTAB meeting--in October and November, in particular WAVE's buyout of Broadstripe's cable franchise in Seattle south of the ship canal.

For minutes, podcasts, and associated documents see:
http://www.seattle.gov/cttab/minutes.htm

RantWoman knows it would be best journalistic practice to go to the link above BEFORE composing her post. RantWoman knows this and for the moment is not going to. Here's why: RantWoman thinks getting the bankrupt Broadstripe bought out is almost certainly a GOOD thing. RantWoman has been reading an article about and is predisposed to assume that many things would be better for telecom consumers if there were more than one path to broadband access and real competition in the marketplace. This post is not going to wander very far into telecomm regulation or competition between cable and satellite and....

WAVE will simply assume Broadstripe's existing franchise agreement; RantWoman has not looked up when that agreement is due to end but the buyout and transfer of franchise are handled on a much shorter timeline than a regular franchise cycle. If RantWoman were going to look for a bogey man under the bed here, RantWoman could point out that hurried timelines are sometimes a good way to bypass burdensome public interest concerns. RantWoman does not want to need to look for a bogeyman under the bed, but if she did two WAVE excutives were in responsible positions at Broadstripe at a point where the company was substantially out of compliance with their franschise agreement. The buyout comes with promises of substantial upgrades in infrastructure and in customer service standards. RantWoman thinks both are MUCH to be esteemed.

RantWoman has neighbors who pay $99 / month for whatever they get from Broadstripe. RantWoman's neighbors, some of them, complain mightily about customer services/billing hassles and sometimes about poor signal quality. RantWoman was impressed with the WAVE executive's forthrightness about this in his presentation to the CTTAB. Nothing like saying "we KNOW we have a problem and..."

RantWoman also initially felt positive about thoughts of routing calls to a call center in the US. RantWoman was thinking of RantMom. RantWoman is the sort of terrible child who makes her own mother call tech support sometimes in a variety of contexts. RantWoman just is not always au courant about whatever mix of technology is embodied in RantMom's computer and cable modem. RantWoman has a time or two tried talking RantMom through something RantWoman herself cannot see: "Mom, in this corner of the screen that will be an X or a link that says...." RantWoman quaintly thinks, though, that RantMom is PAYING for tech support with her monthly fees and that RantMom can perfectly well take advantage of this.

RantWoman thinks this, but RantWoman does not always reckon with offshore call center English. That is, RantWoman is familiar enough with Graduate Student English that she herself is not fazed by offshore pronunciation. RantMom on the other hand, is sometimes deeply flummoxed by odd phonetics and idioms slightly askew. Sometimes this means RantWoman gets an earful and cna cheerlead RantMom to try again and hope the phone queues connect witha different person. more than once though, RantMom has gotten so frustrated that she waits until RantWoman comes over and asks RantWoman for Call Center English to / from RantMom English interpretation. RantMom would be THRILLED to know calls would be routed to a call center stateside.

Here RantWoman had an "earth to rantWoman" moment though. RantMom would be thrilled about a US-based call center. However, the Rant family all live in some of the most culturally diverse areas of the city. RantMom's options for retirement age world travel include people speaking 100 different languages who might all be riding her same bus. RantWoman is thinking of all those people speaking 100 different languages and would definitely think to check into call center practices about language access!

RantWoman admits, she herself may or may not have occasion to wander very far into this topic. See, RantWoman still does not even plug her television in. RantMom and RantWoman watch, say Alton Brown sauteing onions via Comcast, so we hae an entirely different banquet of potentital issues....

Articles: why NOT to use family members as interpreters

2011-11-30T18:42:00.000-08:00

Here is a good link about issues when family members, especially children are used in adult situations requiring interpreters.

This item is part of RantWoman's blog as filing cabinet, store so information can be found again practices.

http://www.nccccurricula.info/communication/D15.html

Another one about the difference between a husband, even one who follows directions and a trained interpreter.
http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/25/3/808.full

Matthew Sapolin: Commisioner of the NYC Office of People with Disabilities

2011-11-30T16:59:00.000-08:00

Matthew P. Sapolin, Who Led Bloomberg's Office for Disabled, Dies at 41

Donations in lieu of flowers to NY Community Trust-Sapolin Fund. New York Community Trust, 909 Third Ave, NYC, NY 10022
From: acb-l-bounces@acb.org [mailto:acb-l-bounces@acb.org] On Behalf Of Rick Morin
Subject: [acb-l] Matthew P. Sapolin, Who Led Bloomberg's Office for Disabled, Dies at 41
Hi all,
I had the priviledge of working with Matt a few years ago when we were advocating on behalf of the new Yankee Stadium and The Mets' Citi Field. I attended opening day of the new Mets Citi Field with him and a few other advocates. The last time I saw him, he was in Boston having consults at Dana Farber. It is with a very heavy heart that I pass this news along. He suffered and is now at peace.
Rick

Matthew P. Sapolin, Who Led Bloombergs Office for Disabled, Dies at 41 By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS
Matthew P. Sapolin, the Bloomberg administrations disabilities commissioner, died of cancer on Tuesday. He was 41.
Mr. Sapolin, whose death was confirmed by the mayors office, had served as commissioner for the Mayors Office for People With Disabilities since the post was created in 2006. In that role, he pushed to make New York Citys building code more accommodating to people with disabilities, created a mentoring program and led an effort to freeze rents for some disabled New Yorkers.

Mr. Sapolin was also blind. Friends and colleagues said that while Mr. Sapolins blindness informed his life, it did not narrow it. He was an accomplished wrestler, a versatile musician, a formidable chess player and an occasional skier.

His mother told him, you go to school and youll learn, and thats it, said Carol Robles-Román, deputy mayor for legal affairs. Youre going to school with everybody else, and theyre going to treat you like everybody else.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg appointed Mr. Sapolin executive director of the Office for People With Disabilities in 2002. Four years later, Mr. Bloomberg decided to elevate the job to the level of commissioner, and Mr. Sapolin rose with it.

At age 5, Mr. Sapolin lost his sight to bilateral retinoblastoma, a cancer that affects the optic nerve. Mr. Bloombergs office said he had battled cancer ever since, and it was that disease that killed him, a rare form called leiomyosarcoma.

Mr. Sapolin was the captain of his high school wrestling team in Islip, N.Y., the town where he was born. He went on to be co-captain of the wrestling team at New York University. In 1992, he was profiled in Sports Illustrated when he had the Division III nationals within reach, competing against sighted wrestlers.

I think what strikes me is what a fighter he was, Ms. Robles-Román said. He was tenacious and he was an advocate to the nth degree, but he was always professional, collaborative and collegial. Those words dont necessarily go together, but in Matts case, they really did.

Mr. Sapolin continued to go to work for Mr. Bloomberg who would sometimes joke that Mr. Sapolins golden retriever guide dog had a habit of shedding on his suits as recently as last week, said Jason Mischel, his deputy and general counsel.

Between the office and his apartment on the Upper West Side, Mr. Mischel said, he would run into three or four people who would come up to him and say Hey, commissioner, do you remember me? And he would know them by the sound of their voice.

Mr. Sapolin is survived by his wife, Candra, and their two children, Trevor and Toscany.

The Glamourous Life of the Work at Home Set

2011-11-28T22:52:00.000-08:00

RantWoman is unsure whether her readers will be amused by this account of the glamourous life of the work at home set. Still, it rattling away at the keyboard sounds like more fun than some "shoulds" on RantWoman's mind. More to the point, rriting this blog post is actually going to wind up on the critical path of some things RantWoman needs to get done today. That is one reason RantWoman is even permitting her ever-wandering mind to digress in the directions it wants to digress to.

An especially soggy day in the life of RantWoman.
Wake up the first time. Use the bathroom. Wash the Queen of Spades' water dish and refill. Wash and dry her food dish and deliver her morning half scoop of cat crunchies.

Go back to bed until public radio wakes RantWoman up again. Wake up to sound of Queen of Spades retching. The Queen of Spades gets embarrassed about her digestive distress and RantWoman feels obliged to murmur reassuringly when it happens. RantWoman is also peculiarly grateful when the Queen of Spades at least pukes someplace where RantWoman can easily find and clean up the results.

Use the bathroom again and clean up after the Queen of Spades.

Do RantWoman's morning stretching and strength training routine.

Throw an old denim jumper over RantWoman's sleepwear, slipper socks and indoor sandals on RantWoman's feet. Today's commute is from kitchen to desk so sartorial standards and footwear are fine for now.

Sit down at computer. Computer monitor is ailing so RantWoman's reboot / startup rituals are a dance worthy of another post.

A container of oatmeal from the batch RantWoman cooked a couple days ago from the fridge for breakfast with tea, vitamins.

Start through two streams of email. Delete the obvious spam.

Read a couple items from other people who have experienced in vision loss. Be soothed or something that other people are distressed by the same issues vexing RantWoman. Write Thank you eamil to list for solidarity.

Have a couple rounds of hiss and swat with the Queen of Spades. The Queen of Spades is really good at patrolling from RantWoman's desk for pigeons who DARE to land on her window ledge, but today the Queen of Spades is mainly interested in sleeping next to the warm air stream from the computer fan. This would be fine but she sometimes gets territorial about RantWoman's hands and the keyboard.

Take phone call from Little Sister. Today is one of the mornings when the Rant Sisters can phone fairly freely. Little Sister is being preremptorily fluttered about holidays but for a welcome change made RantWoman laugh hard a couple times.

Go back to email.

Succumb to temptation to try to collaborate with retailer's sweepstake exercise. Find so many reasons to be frustrated that RantWoman opts to stop and blog about it.
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2011/11/wish-this.html

Stop a couple times mid-post for more tea and a trip to the bathroom.

Notice that the Queen of Spades has also puked, more extravagantly than average in a long stream on the bedroom floor. Clean up after the Queen of Spades and mumble soothingly in her direction.

Consider the vet for two pukings in one day. Consider empty wallet. Consider emailing Cat Maniac friend for tips. Cat Maniac friend is another work from home language professional; she took up working from home years ago when severe allergies made it impossible for her to continue her college teaching. RantWoman occasionally consults Cat Maniac friend about extremely technical vocabulary, the kind one needs a PhD in chemical physics for. Cat Maniac friend consults RantWoman about matters of culture or of idiom where studying the language more than the science makes a difference. Cat Maniac friendtypes about a zillion words per minute. She can always drench RantWoman with a firehose of information flow. RantWoman is not up to being drenched at the moment so just keep an eye on the Queen of Spades.

Finish blog post about online retailer and take a break.

Look at clock and realize it's too late for one excursion that was on the maybe list anyway and for a phone call RantWoman owes someone.

Decide to eat lunch chicken rice vegetable soup taken from the freezer a couple days ago.

--Go outside to check weather and garden on balcony. Chives and parsley are raggedy but still growing after cold spell. Spy last cherry tomato still on thicket of tomato plants. RantWoman is absurdly happy that the eight or so tomatoes her plants grew from last year's seeds are eight more than some other friends got in an actual in-ground garden. The last tomato is finally ripe and VERY tasty. RantWoman appreciates the plant life and dirt therapy but is VERY glad not to have to subsist on what she grows.

Realize there are good reasons to forward rant about online retailer to eager you former staffperson at the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing who just got a job at the very online retailer RantWoman was blogging about. Compose and send said email.

Digress to the new Bus Chick item in blogroll.
http://www.buschick.com/?p=4420
Busling is a toddler. The item is a picture of, RantWoman thinks, a teenager. RantWoman is missing something.

Read Bus Chick's This I believe Essay! Yeah Bus Chick!
http://thisibelieve.org/essay/13074/

Back to email. Add a networking / disability access Meet and greet on behalf of the Friendly Neighborhood Center... to RantWoman's calendar. Compose email about the think out of the box approach to the requested mentoring option that occurred to RantWoman in connection with the networking opportunity.

Realize there are some other items in the inbox that, as long as RantWoman has her paper calendar out should get added. Bounce to something else before items get looked up.

glance at From and Subject fields from email to bling programmers list. Notice name of young guy who has grown up on the list, from typical teenager programmer to someone who can almost communicate professionally.

Glance at clock. Too late for face time with a couple people at the Friendly Neighborhood Center.

Shower. Upgrade from presentable if someone comes to the door to reasonable for going out in public.

Still to compose:
--responses to outcomes survey for the Friendly Neighborhood Center...

--motherly email to frustrated college student on blind programming list: accessibility is an eco-system. Thanks to representative of major vendor. Work with the humans you have both on campus and with vendors. This is RantWoman's view from long-ago life in academic tech support.

--email to corporate rep from above email. He mentioned doing consultation with a couple international companies and RantWoman wants to see whether there might be a chance he could play a role as blind language professionals try to get the right combination of expertise into an accessibility conversation so that a key product gets and stays accessible across new versions.

--email to person who just got appointed to FCC Diversity panel. Email is about how RantWoman thinks work-at-home phone interpeters such as those RantWoman interacts with on an online discussion list have some of the same consistent telecommunications performance needs on an individual level as RantWoman absorbed from listening to Boeing CIO about corporate level at an FCC hearing awhile ago. Maybe add some other comments about Work at Home and disabled people.

Digress to email from language professionals list. A youtube item RantWoman has viewed previously. Among other topical points, an example of economics of in-person vs remote interpreting. The payment terms in teh video are for expert in-person interpreting; people who interpret over the phone or video relay are usually paid by the minute. That scenario also has specific requirements as far as telecomm infrastructure. Video nicely captioned which is a good thing since it's about a sign-language interpreter.
http://alboum.com/2011/08/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-cancelled-interpreter/

Read the first of an email chain about using iPhones or iPad for accessible voting in Kitsap County. It's a twofer: it mentions both accessibility and language access so RantWoman is going to have to look up how the language access is accomplished.

Work on deciding which of two impossible to get paid for IT research projects RantWoman wants to take on next...

Kermieeeeee!

2011-11-28T13:32:00.000-08:00

RantWoman is feeling obliged to do her part for Muppet fandom in honor of the new Muppet movie. RantWoman does not need her arm twisted.

An interview. RantWoman is so out of the loop she has no idea who the host is. The interview made RantWoman laugh, but a couple moments would make RantMom blush. RantWoman is going to take awhile to get used to the new PGreality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=cNX9tCRwn9c

RantWoman is not sure what she was expecting for visuals, both Muppet body language and facial expression after the Muppets' long hiatus from the big screen. RantWoman had been poking at the thought that visuals akin to Mr. Spock and his father in different generations of Star Trek might be on point but that is not what has materialized. Nor is it Sean Connery Roger Moore Pierce brosnan, who's the new Bond guy? The new effects are not exactly Botox, but RantWoman would suggest Kermit's new guts study what God intended in previous generations of visuals.

Some safety vids to justify one's Muppets fix at work:

Kermit and the Swedish Chef:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKFlzY1ZyGo&noredirect=1

Kermit and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=EWwnXRbdphc
RantWoman does not remember Dr. Bunsen Honeydew being green. I mean it makes sense but RantWoman has seen white honeydew.

RantWoman has also just learned the tragic news that Lady gaga's cameo with Miss Piggy got cut from the final release. Which reminds RantWoman, RantWoman was not sure what to expect of visuals as far as Miss Piggy either.....

Biscuits to remember

2011-11-27T22:19:00.000-08:00

RantWoman has perfectly lovely cookbooks but looking up recipes online jsut works so much better for RantWoman's eyeballs.

Here is tonight's biscuit baking exercise

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/flaky-buttermilk-biscuits-10000001853981/

Large Print Best Practices

2011-11-27T14:23:00.000-08:00

RantWoman heartily endorses the following pages both for their specific content and to excellent additional resources about large print and good contrast and appropriate vs inappropriate ways to generate content to meet different people's needs:

http://www.cclvi.org/large-print-guidelines.html

http://cclvi.org/resources.html

Rhapsody on a Theme of Oatmeal

2011-11-26T21:24:00.000-08:00

Hard as it may be to believe, RantWoman tonight is finding OATMEAL much more fascinating than software documentation, even software documentation read aloud by a seriously australian voice. On a British-isles tinged note though, RantWoman for eccentric reasons has A LOT of oatmeal right now. RantWoman really likes oatmeal, and RantWoman definitely needs theme and variations.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dan-smith-and-steve-mcdonagh/peppered-rosemary-oat-crackers-recipe/index.html

RantWoman can seldom leave recipes well enough as written. Tonight RantWoman has no rosemary, but Thyme is doing nicely on the aromatic front. RantWoman added a couple tablespoons of flax seeds to the dough and omitted the salt. Then when the finished product was too bland even for RantWoman's salt minimizing tastes, RantWoman sprinkled everything with salt over the top.

RantWoman saw a different recipe with rye flour which makes her think it would also be fun to try these with caraway seeds. Maybe next time.

For the second variation, RantWoman recently cooked up something similar to this recipe for oatmeal mincemeat bars.

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1610,146162-230204,00.html

RantWoman thinks the recipe she used called for half the butter and brown sugar used here. RantWoman favors noshes that are not oversweetened. RantWoman saw some other recipes that add grated lemon or orange zest. RantWoman thinks that would be very cool. One recipe also called for a powdered sugar glaze. If RantWoman were doing glaze, she might make one of 1 cup powdered sugar and enough lemon or orange juice to make acceptable glaze, perhaps with more grated zest too.

NVDA 2011.3

2011-11-26T17:11:00.000-08:00

Tidings of the afternoon: The newest version of NVDA, an open-source screen reader program has been released.

http://www.nvda-project.org/blog/NVDA2011.3Released

Highlights, before RantWoman interacts much with the upgrade list:

--Highly on-point built-in exhortation to contribute financially which people see before being routed to the download page

--same AWESOME Austrailian accent as ever in the default voice distributed with the software.

--A GPL license that does not overflow with legalese nearly as much as some documents of the license agreement genre. It's technology. It'slegalese so pretty much abstruse verbiage is probably unavoidable, but the license document wins big RantWoman points for comparative readability.

--RantWoman thinks she is going to leave actually messing with the software for business hours.

RantWoman leads such a high-excitement, adventure-filled life

Google Docs Documentation Link Happiness

2011-11-26T12:15:00.000-08:00

In the LOOKS PROMISING and RantWoman wants to store NOW and test later department

http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=1632199

RantWoman is absurdly happy to have the above information. RantWOman can easily be crabby about the time it will take for the next increment of internaction. But RantWoman does not even have time to be crabby right now, so....

Giving Thanks

2011-11-24T19:04:00.000-08:00

RantWoman is a musician's kid. By RantWoman's standards tuxedos are work clothes and holidays mean a lot of WORK sometimes. So RantWoman is feeling both grateful and provocative. For now RantWoman is going to stick to grateful and send a big shout out too all the bus drivers and firemen and police officers and medical staff and people who get to work celebrations around their jobs.

RantWoman got to this thought via...Arlo Guthrie, Officer Obie, and LITTERING. RantWoman is feeling the march of years in her own celebrations and thankful also to note it in the contemporary clip below. RantWoman is also taking a clear-eyed glower at many a hero. RantWoman finds herself actually faintly annoyed that Thanksgiving songster Arlo Guthrie made such a name for himself over LITTERING or illegal dumping!

The Famous Blind Person in the Arlo Guthrie Alice's Restaurant clip below is of course the blind judge with the seeing eye dog presented with 27 color glossy photos with circles and arrows and crosses on the back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_7C0QGkiVo&feature=player_embedded

Wish This!

2011-11-22T12:06:00.000-08:00

RantWoman would have been perfectly happy to be a successful and satisfied consumer. RantWoman would have been thrilled by the thought of online shopping shaving hours of bus travel out of her life and freeing her to spend more time fishing for holiday festivities with RantMom, Little Sister, Irrepressible Nephew, and Brother-in-Law. RantWoman apparently cannot go anywhere without technological calamity, moral crisis, and better yet both.

RantWoman like many other red-blooded shoppers succumbed to this morning's email invitation from Amazon to

1. Help Amazon market...

2. Tell the world exactly which loot one would most like to own

3. Add an item to one's Amazon wish list and enter a sweepstakes for the chance to win a $2500 gift card.

RantWoman had in mind:

1. Sign on to her amazon.com account.

2. Find the wish list page.

3. Find the form field to paste in a url

4. Fish the links for a couple things already on her mind off this blog.
--Hope the links form in a way that convey needed size information.

--Did RantWoman mention that, besides being taller and longer-limbed than is average for her gender, she is "generously proportioned," "naturally built," or an assortment of other terms for "not bloody likely to be happy with just Small, Medium, or Large?" RantWoman is used to this reality, matter-of-fact, long past dithering in useless embarrassment. RantWoman just wants to store and convey the needed information as efficiently as possible.

--RantWoman has lots of friends and family feeling financially pinched. RantWoman hears expectations that she will help them gift her with holiday beneficence and RantWoman feels obliged to be VERY firm about what expenditures of time and money will most delight her.

5. Paste in a url. Only provide the url. Do not provide any more information about RantWoman's daily computer peregrinations. Just paste in a url, that's all.

6. Sign off and go about her day.

Does anyone anywhere in this list see a "give us this daily our daily quote of occasions for ranting" item?

RantWoman is about to arrive at step 6, with no urls added to her wish list and more ranting than she thinks desirable! In particular:

--Both the email and the sign-in to RantWoman's Amazon.com account want RantWoman to install a toolbar OR put something on RantWoman's bookmarks toolbar. Ix-nay! No Way! RantWoman is really happy thank you very much with the steps she outlined above. RantWoman needs to STAY ON TASK, not wander off and shop at every temptation. RantWoman does not WANT a one-click wish list. RantWoman has plenty of STUFF already. RantWoman does NOT mind having to go through a extra few steps to add items to her wish list because the extra steps help keep RantWoman from spending every second succumbing to temptation.

--In fact, does Amazon let its employees wander off in the middle of their shifts for a bout of online shopping? RantWoman is asking partly because she was recently reading an item about brutal pace and heat exhaustion last summer and burning out temp workers for only a few permanent positions at an Amazon warehouse in PA. All of this summoned images of overstressed officeworkers from the overlord class stealing a few precious seconds from jobs they are terrified of losing to shop online so Santa's sweatshop can spring into action. This does not necessarily sound festive on either side.
RantWoman is all for efficiency, promptness and commercial exchange. IN RantWoman mindspace though National Buy Nothing Day and go off an have experiences instead of stuff compete pretty fiercely with online shopping!

Part of Henry Ford's genius was realizing that his employees needed to be able to use and afford his products. What about Amazon??? RantWoman REALLY does not want to be giving anyone any electronic company store ideas, but RantWoman, on behalf of the other 99% feels obliged to ask such questions. Frankly, if RantWoman were employing anyone other than RantWoman, she would be extremely peeved to have the shopping scene intrude so insidiously into her employees' time! Arrrgh. RantWoman would also want her employees to believe in her firm's products but for the moment RantWoman needs to stop thinking and deal with other things already ensconced on her to-do list!

Oh Wait, the to-do list includes "outcomes" at the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing, also known as a community technology center. The Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing is not bloody likely to let our customers install Amazon's wish list on our toolbars and if the customers do that, there is software that is SUPPOSED to obliterate such changes.

RantWoman is darn sure plenty of Friendly Neighborhood Center... customers, many of whom do not have computers at home, might also like a chance to put things on the Amazon wish lists, enter the blooming sweepstakes, and share their hearts' holiday desires with all their kith and kin! Who knew, the rant of the day was going to turn out to be topical here too!

--RantWoman has her own computer and DOES want to be able to find items she is interested in again. RantWoman THINKS she probably knows how to navigate to the right locations on a toolbar with her screen reader. On the off chance that RantWoman is wrong, RantWoman emphatically does NOT need to be spending an additional increment of time figuring out the right functionality on her screen reader. RantWoman mentions this toolbar reluctance also because she did not find any way of adding items to her wish ist without installing one of the options. Growl!

--Next RantWoman found the entry from her blog as filing cabinet model of information accretion. RantWoman even THOUGHT she found the right link for a multi-colored high-visibility vest. RantWoman's ISP thought otherwise and served RantWoman up another whole screen of search results repetitive of the things RantWoman already waded through with her screen reader once. BIG raspberries to ISP for this intrusion! RantWoman had to listen to and scroll around the new page again and try a couple different clicks with additional screens full of stuff for her screen reader to chew through before FINALLY hitting the url for an item that was going to do for the wish list:
http://www.viccouniforms.com/Berne-Hi-Visibility-Mesh-Multi-Color-Vest-HVV046.html
Note, no option RantWoman found to include size in the link. Sigh.

--RantWoman actually might rather fantasize about other items of high-visibility clothing but RantWoman REALLY needs to tend to the circuses already in queue and does NOT need any more ranting just now. Plus Amazon's sweepstakes runs for awhile and MAYBE RantWoman will figure out how to interact better another time. Growl!

Or maybe RantWoman will pursue one of two shop in person options:

--Recently RantWoman was admiring someone else's reflector wear and learned it could be had at a store in SODO. RantWoman is wondering whether RantMom could be induced to take a two-bus trip about this. RantWoman is wondering this partly because she is fretting on behalf of RantMom over night-time visibility when we go about after our evening Symphony trips. RantMom is pretty allergic to online shopping and really likes both hanging with her kid and putting her hands on actual merchandise. Hanging with the kid AND getting the right merchandise is pretty close to RantMom's idea of heaven.

--OR RantWoman can take one of her multi-hop shopping trips up Aurora on the 358, get some supplies at Seattle Fabrics and have some reflectivity-themed experiences preaching the gospel of better visibility with RantMom and the rest of the Rant family.

Good thing RantWoman likes the Kindle she got awhile ago for reading on the bus though.

Overloaded AND Overcharged

2011-11-21T11:11:00.000-08:00

Who the heck is RantWoman to be advising all the foreign ministers of the world? Who indeed!

Memo to foreign ministers everywhere:

1. Use a real translator, not Babelfish, Google translate, "contract linguists" or whatever it was that generated peregruzka when perezagruzka was needed.

2. If your counterpart hands you a button with a mistranslation of
what she says she meant to say, try to correct her with the correct
translation of what she actually said. Peregruzka is overload like
electrical overload which is possibly in the same mental universe as
overcharge on the Russian side but definitely not in English RantWoman leaves to readers with a lexicographic bent the task of further research about the usage here in English.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sudCmrAsF4&feature=related

RantWoman realizes that the tale of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "overloading" US/Russian relations when she meant to reset them is old news. It's not quite as old as, say, President Carter's interpreter reporting that the President lusted after the Polish people, but still.

RantWoman is pretty selective about the media streams she bathes regularly in. Until RantWoman received the item here on an interpreter's mailing list, she had not realized that the mis-transated reset came with a mistranslation on the other side of the conversation too.

No wonder international relations are so difficult sometimes.

A'stralian Blind Humor

2011-11-19T23:40:00.000-08:00

Click on the link below to see the orignal article and find the audio.

RantWoman likes wry humor but still does not get the bit below about the cheese grater. RantWOman is wondering what is getting lost.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/11/18/3370694.htm?site=southeastsa
By Tasha Impey

Naming the cheese grater as the most violent book she's ever read,
blind comedian Elise Lehmann has drawn a wicked sense humour from her
disability. But her favourite fodder is reserved for the sighted
people in her life.

Born and bred in Robe in the South East, 24-year-old Elise lost her
sight at age two from a brain tumour.

Her family home which she lives in with her mother, father and
brother sits on the top of a hill with panoramic views over the
idyllic beachside town, an irony she finds rather funny.

"I've been told it's a very good view, so I'll believe it," she laughs.

The only vision impaired student in her main stream schools, Elise
went to Robe primary, then onto Kingston, before graduating from Year
12 in Adelaide.

Left with no vision memory, Elise has carved out a career using her
heightened sense of touch by starting a massage therapy business
which she runs from home.

In the winter months she is the trainer and massage therapist for the
Robe football team, a role which launched her comedic skills almost by
default.

Constantly cracking jokes at the team, she was asked to entertain a
crowd awaiting the late arrival of comedian Dave Flanagan.

Upon hearing her natural aptitude for making people laugh, he invited
her to attend his comedy school in Adelaide.

"He could see my sense of humour in my disability - the silly things
sighted people have said and done to me over the years," she said.

Learning basic microphone techniques and skit-writing skills, Elise
has begun to show her talents around the region.

Performing at the recent Beachport's Got Talent night, Elise scooped
Best Comedy Award and People's Choice Award entertaining over 200
people against 16 other acts.

Luckily for Elise, she is absolved from stage fright.

"I still get a bit nervous but probably less than people who look out
and see 200 people because I can't see them," she laughs.

Naming her biggest limitations as not being able to read signs or
menus, Elise remains matter of fact about her approach to life with a
disability.

"If you don't laugh about it you'll cry," she said.

Along for the ride is Elise's guide dog Gypsie who has been her
companion for five years.

Previously relying on a white cane, their relationship has become one
she has relished for more than just guidance.

"She's good company that's the main thing, but she's not a robot
she's still a dog, she has her off days so I have to be on the ball.

"The hardest thing to learn when we trained was to trust this dog I'd
known for a week to lead me somewhere," she said.

When it comes to dating, Elise said she hasn't had the same ease that
she's had with her comedy.

"It's probably hard for the guys who don't want to be seen as taking
advantage. And Robe is such a small place," she said.

Not deterred, she has plenty to keep her keep her occupied when not
rubbing down football players or cracking jokes.

Making intricate creatures from tiny beads, Elise has a chest full of
dragonflies, crocodiles, spiders and crayfish in perfectly matched colours.

Having never seen a crocodile before, she humbly said it's not as
genius as it may seem.

"I mould them all from different ornaments that I feel and work from there."

Elise has been invited by Dave Flanagan to perform at next year's
Adelaide Fringe Festival.

Who here has a Smartphone

2011-11-17T20:54:00.000-08:00

RantWoman has a friend who hesitates to admit he has a pickup truck because admitting one has a pickup truck tends to attract all sorts of "friends" who need to borrow the pickup truck. RantWoman is all about the possiblity that Smartphones are a new form of pickup truck. Much to the distress of Smartphone vendors and wireless broadband inundation enthusiasts, RantWoman would like to embrace this as a GOOD thing, on community-building grounds at least.

RantWoman has lots of granola-eating, fluorescent bikewear-wearing, highly educated, ecologically conscious friends who decidedly DO NOT OWN the latest in mobile geekware and are quite happy about it Thank you very much. RantWoman herself has an embarrassing abundance of outworn non-functional geekware. RantWoman also has enough geekware envy to put her well above the median of her close circle as far as electronic enthusiasm. And RantWoman is all about Smart phones as community-building tool.

For example, RantWoman was once at a meeting with mostly people younger and much more hip to Smartphone than she. At some point she realized that, while she herself was oblivious as to ways to access One Bus Away on her decidedly not-Smart granny phone, it would be perfectly sensible just to inquire of one of the Smartphone wielding youths fluttering their fingers around her.

Recently RantWoman was hanging around her house of worship. One couple needed directions to somewhere new. RantWoman assessed those nearby and guessed odds were pretty good that someone has a Smartphone.

Who here has a Smartphone?

Sure enough. A Smartphone was produced. The desired coordinates were entered. Some additional orienters were offered from someone with real space experience in the area, and the inquiring couple set off, uncharacteristically in their car instead of on their bicycles.

RantWoman has a similar story from a couple summers ago. RantWoman and a large number of her friends were more or less a convoy of cars returning west on I-90 from an event in Montana. Different members of the convoy were in touch by cellphone. People wanted to stop for supper at a wonderful Mexican restaurant in Moses Lake. Wonderful restaurant in Moses Lake is not on a straightforward path from the freeway exits, but someone in ONE of the several cars had a Smartphone. The needed routing good looked up and conveyed to multiple cars. Score! The convoy had just spent all weekend going to events together in MT and the weekend spirit definitely lingered, thanks also to adept communications.

Lest RantWoman's readers be tempted to put TOO much confidence in Smartphones though, another time RantWoman was in a car that pulled off eastbound I-90 in response to a sign advertising Taco Time. The fact taht RantWoman was in the navigator seat MAY have had something to do with our car driving right past the restaurant on the first pass off the freeway. Then a Smartphone was produced and asked to help us locate the nearest Taco Time.

Utah?

Mercifully we achieved contact with the desired veggie soft taco variations and did not even have to go to Utah.

Now about educational matters. One of RantWoman's cellphone minimizing friends says that among his students, Smartphones are considered "affordable luxuries." This friend is also vexed that the educational institution where he teaches thinks reading assignments should come in the kind of chunks that can be absorbed 3 minutes at a time. RantWoman as avid transit consumer can definitely relate to the short attention span and many interruptions to continuous thought, whether material is being read on a bus on an e-device or in some other kind of e-overdose spurts. But the fact that other people in RantWoman's life have Smartphones often enough makes RantWoman's life easier that she at least has brain space to think more about the educational future and information needs of the Smartphone set.

City Stream Premieres Nov. 17

2011-11-17T01:27:00.000-08:00

Verbatim from the email press release RantWoman received:

The Award Winning - City Stream Program premieres Thursday night November 17th on the Seattle Channel (#21) with a film about Vision Loss Connections! It will be broadcast at 7:00p.m or check the link to the program below. The Program will also be on the Seattle Channel Web Site.

Watch It Now: Vision Loss Connections Find Out How a Local Group is Creating Recreational Activities for the Low Vision Community.
CityStream premieres Thursday at 7 p.m.SEATTLE – Coming together to help address the unmet recreational needs of the local blind and visually impaired community, Vision Loss Connections works to "build bridges" between individuals and their interests, with the goal of creating community and support.

Learn about Vision Loss Connections and their activities by watching now at:
http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/video.asp?ID=3079997&file=1 Then join CityStream and host Nicole Sanchez at the Central Library of the Seattle Public Library. We'll explore some of the city's newest green spaces located in some unexpected places. Then, we will dive into the depths as we meet some local filmmakers who make their movies...below sea level.The award winning CityStream premieres Thursday, November 17 at 7 p.m on the SEATTLE CHANNEL, Cable 21 or watch it online anytime at: www.seattlechannel.org/CityStream .

While there, you can also check out a Vision Loss Connections Web extra from Kevin Carey, the Chair of the Royal National Institute of Blind People, giving an example of how to approach verbally describing an object.

-30-

RantWoman plans to check this out. She also admits to being perplexed: how can something that is premiering already aslo be award-winning?

Thanks / No Thanks

2011-11-15T00:10:00.000-08:00

First, RantWoman wishes sincerely to thank all bus drivers everywhere who, when Ambassador Thwack is chaperoning RantWoman in the vicinity of bus stops, stop and announce their route number. RantWoman feels very lucky sometimes to be able to read the bus reader boards or to figure out some other way whether she does or does not want a given bus, but RantWoman THANKS the drivers regardless.

Ditto for people who see RantWoman on a street corner and ASK whether RantWoman needs any assistance. RantWoman finds it a lot more difficult to be thankful for the people whose ignorant comments cause RantWoman to fear for their intelligence, but most of the time the fact that RantWoman is a work in progress about this point is not discernible to others.

RantWoman has heard many stories from her colleagues at "Blind School," WA State's adult rehabilitation program, about the unschooled masses offering ALL SORTS of extremely unhelpful and even inappropriate or dangerous "help" to people learning to use white canes. RantWoman herself has a couple people in her life whom she otherwise is generally fond of who seem particularly impervious to requests to modify the "help" they are delivering.

But this post means to recognize the all-time grand prize winner in the DUMB traffic intervention on RantWoman's behalf category: a couple years ago, RantWoman went out one night to visit a temporary public memorial for a tragedy in her neighborhood. Traffic was doing various things as cars approached and parked. RantWoman was trying to cross a street, but a woman dressed in black stopped her car in the middle of road, tottered up to RantWoman on high heels, and nearly dragged RantWoman across the street.

RantWoman did NOT need her help. To this day, RantWoman is completely unsure what force of restraing or stark raving terror kept her from just reading her would-be assistant the riot act. Perhaps it was a simple desire not to be in communication a second longer than necessary with this "help."

Powermapper blog Accessibility needs blog

2011-11-14T13:31:00.000-08:00

Another blog as filing cabinet item for right now. This blog has statistics about incidence of different disabilities and other resources.

http://blog.powermapper.com/blog/post/Website-Accessibility-Disability-Statistics.aspx

Grace Hopper Conference on Women in Computing

2011-11-12T23:32:00.000-08:00

RantWoman is again using her blog as a file cabinet to remember something she did not hear about in time to participate in this year, the Grace Hopper conference on Women in Computing

http://gracehopper.org/2011/

Readers unfamiliar with Admiral Grace Hopper might like to check out:

http://cs-www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/Files/hopper-story.html

http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/hopper.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper

Veterans' Day Gesture to Relate to.

2011-11-11T22:46:00.000-08:00

RantWoman has been HOPING for something to offer in the spirit of Veterans' Day!

RantWoman mostly thinks intemperate rantings, provocative opinions, and the peregrinations of her spiritual perspective about the plight of today's veterans belong on her other blog.

RantWoman REALLY wants to say something supportive to Youngest Cousin, proudly serving our country and regularly serving RantWoman various game invitations via a certain social networking miasma reasons of conscience RantWoman CANNOT just forward the picture Youngest Cousin wanted everyone to share. So pray for Youngest Cousin and RantWoman both.

In the meantime, RantWoman is sorry to hear such a high percentage of wounded veterans are affected by vision loss and is EXTREMELY grateful to receive the following tidings of a service specifically targetted at newly blinded veterans.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Serotek conquers a new frontier for blind veterans

Media Contact: pr@serotek.com
(612) 246-4818. Ext. 104

Technical Contact: info@serotek.com

Minneapolis, Minnesota - November 11, 2011 - More than 13% of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered severe eye injuries that result in blindness. In recognition of this year's Veteran's Day celebration, Serotek Corporation is offering all blind veterans a lifetime subscription to its popular System Access Mobile Network (SAMNet).

SAMNet is Serotek's renowned Internet communication portal that delivers the most complete content ever assembled for the blind. With email, news, blogs, podcasts, streaming radio, described video service for thousands of movies and more, veterans will have access to a new world of communications right at their fingertips.

"For many veterans sight loss is the new battleground," says Serotek's Chief Executive Officer, Mike Calvo. ""We want to do our part to help them face the challenges ahead with the same tools and confidence they showed in service to our country."

To that end, Serotek is offering lifetime access to SAMNet for all legally blind U.S. veterans. Individuals who can provide proof of status as a legally blind veteran will be eligible for the program, which will officially kick off on December 15. In addition to the wide array of content already available on SAMNet, Serotek will further customize the service by creating chat rooms, forums and other exclusive communication channels to help facilitate networking opportunities among veterans.

To stay on top of this latest initiative, please subscribe to the SAMNet-vets mailing list, where you can learn more about SAMNet and the program specifically designed for this segment of the country's wounded warriors. You can also get an overview of SAMNet and other Serotek products, and you can begin a 7-day free trial of these products and services by visiting http://www.satogo.com/ . Serotek looks forward to welcoming veterans to the SAMNet community, and the company is proud to offer this simple, intuitive means of connecting with family, friends and the world.About Serotek

Serotek Corp. is dedicated to accessibility anywhere for blind and visually impaired people around the globe. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the company is led by a growing staff of blind visionaries dedicated to expanding an accessible digital lifestyle through innovative, affordable and easy-to-use products. To learn more about the company's growing range of products and services, visit http://www.serotek.com/

City Club Conversations about Civics

2011-11-10T20:20:00.000-08:00

This year's City Club http://www.seattlecityclub.org/ Community Matters Campaign is about what people think should be taught as Civics. Yesterday RantWoman and a number of her uppity, opinionated, income- and otherwise-challenged neighbors got to participate in a round of the discussion. Just imagine!

For background, everyone there had graduated from at least high school but from a variety of cities in WA and other states; at least one person had attended a lot of military schools.

The event opened with an intro quizzing us about a few facts including how many courses specifically in civics are required to graduate from high school in WA. The presenter claims the number is 0; a participant pointed out that there are a number of courses with civics content that are required. So test the premise further.

The exercise requires participants to prioritize a number of components of civic education and civic participation. First people are supposed to score the categories themselves so that the point totals add up to 100. Then people get clumped into slightly larger groups and asked to come to consensus. RantWoman, surprise, wound up in a group of people just as passionate and opinionated as RantWoman though that does not mean we were in agreement.

For instance, RantWoman wanted to burn the box and change the definition of two existing categories as well as exercising our option just to add one. Another person in the group thought the categories should be only about half the exercise and the other half should be some sense of science. In hindsight, RantWoman thinks maybe we should have probed to see whether there would be a way to reflect this person's views within the framework available, but you get the idea, right Dear Readers.

Here is the RantWoman view of our results:
Components / RantWoman round 1 score / Round 2 score and notes.

Knowing how government works /15 / 15

Knowing history* / 15 / 15
*originally "knowing American history," but a number of people in our group besides RantWoman want "world history."

Understanding Media / 0 / 5?
RantWoman thinks this is subsumed in other categories. Others think this merits its own points. No consensus in time allotted.

Listening Skills and Empathy / 0 / 10
RantWoman takes this quality for granted more than she really should. Credit other group members' persuasiveness for the revised score.

Cultural Responsiveness** / 15 / 10
**RantWoman wants to add "knowledge of more than one language." RantWoman's world includes a lot of fog where facial expressions used to be. RantWoman's groupmates did not verbalize any comments about this and RantWoman has no idea what might have registered on faces. RantWoman is passionate about the value of knowing more than one language but RantWoman's groupmates were otherwise obsessed.

Knowing how to express oneself and persuade others / 10 / 5

Collaboration and Negotiation Skills / 10 / 5
RantWoman's reflex when the subject of teamwork comes up is a little "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy First Kill Your Lab Partner." So this is always a growing edge for RantWoman. Teamwork rated the item lower. RantWoman thinks her teammates misunderestimate....

Knowing how to be a Change Agent / 20 / 15???
RantWoman had in mind a whole bunch of things here including knowing how other parts of life besides the government work, knowing how to make efficient use of one's own and others' time, deciding when to act and when to stay back... RantWoman's group mates wanted to assign more points to all the interpersonal categories and not focus on this so much.

Knowing how to lead and Empower others / 0 / 5
This was one of the no consensus items. RantWoman thought this is subsumedin being a change agent, persuasiveness, and collaboration. Others thought differently.

The Add Your Own Category / 15 / ????
One of RantWoman's groupmates is very into the subject of whistleblowers and wanted to add a whole category for that. RantWoman and another groupmate besides the one who wanted more scientific testing throughout all thought there needed to be a category for numerical literacy, including basic arithmetic, ability to evaluate numerical information, knowing the difference between lies, damn lies, and statistics, being able to detect when one is being fed something BOGUS.

Perhaps one indication that numeracy is not to be assumed: more than one person had trouble generating rankings that added up to 100 in the first round. In the second round, the other group just averaged the individual scores for each item so RantWoman did not even pay attention to what they wound up with for a total.

So prioritize that Seattle and check the City Club website for info about further events. http://www.seattlecityclub.org/

Nov 17 Holiday AT Shopping Webinar

2011-11-10T09:13:00.000-08:00

Webinar: A Holiday Assistive Technology Buying Guide

Join the Washington Assistive Technology Act Program (WATAP) and theWashington Access Fund for a free webinar on AT gifts on November 17th! Learn about adaptive gizmos, gadgets and practical ideas that make great gifts for people of all ages this holiday season. We will be going over both low-tech, less expensive devices to more high-tech and expensive gadgets. The webinar will include a range of mainstream devices (items that may not be specifically designed as AT) and others will be actual AT products. WATAP's AT Specialists will explore devices for people with a range of functional needs and abilities that will make great small gift ideas to fabulously wrapped presents with a bow. Please join us on November 17th, from 10:00am-11:15am for a gift guide webinar on assistive technology. To register for this free webinar, please send an email to Leann at leann@washingtonaccessfund.org , or by phone at (206) 328-5116 or TTY (888) 494-4775.

niRantWoman has given in. RantWoman used to fly into a lather about maintaing the spiritual center of winter holidays and rail against interaction with anything to do with holiday gift-giving before Thanksgiving. Then life circumstances dragged RantWoman into realms where meticulous planning frequently HELPS about moments when cosmic viscissitudes could otherwise obliterate both absolute necessities and modest but crucial comforts. Then the Great Recession thundered across the land and even more planning became necessary.

At this point RantWoman has surrendered completely. RantWoman still has a whole blog full of matters vexing her sould but RantWOman has also decided to embrace any and all shopping opportunity that seems likely to include things she might actually need and want to buy. Word!

AFB Teleseminar about CVAA

2011-11-06T22:03:00.000-08:00

You're Invited!--AFB Teleseminar
Using the New Landmark Communications Law:
What You Need to Know to Have Access to Today's Advanced Communications Technologies

Monday, November 14, 2011, 2:30 p.m. Eastern

For further information, contact:

Mark Richert, Esq.
Director, Public Policy, AFB
(202) 469-6833
MRichert@afb.net

To implement the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) signed into law by President Obama on October 8, 2010, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recently released comprehensive new rules giving life to this new landmark law. Among many other important features, the CVAA is intended to ensure that people with disabilities will have dramatically broader access to today's advanced communications services, such as electronic messaging, video conferencing, and so-called non-interconnected voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) services and technologies. The new law is the result of extensive advocacy and negotiation with the telecommunications and information technology industries and has the potential to revolutionize the communications marketplace for people with disabilities, but only if we hold ourselves, industry, and the FCC accountable for keeping the new law's promise. To discuss what the law and the new rules require and how to best use them to make sure that customers with disabilities can finally take full advantage of the wealth of choices in today's technology-rich society, AFB is hosting a 90-minute teleseminar on Monday, November 14, at 2:30 p.m. Eastern open to all who may be interested.

Join AFB Public Policy Center staff and guests to learn

• What devices and services (including hardware and software) are covered by the new rules.

• What companies are expected to do and the flexibility they have under the new rules to get the job done.

• Under what circumstances may companies not have to provide accessible products and services.

• How do customers with disabilities resolve problems with inaccessibility using the FCC complaint process.

• What standards will the FCC apply in evaluating consumer complaints and assessing companies' claims that accessibility is not achievable.

• What's next on the FCC's agenda to implement the CVAA, and how can you help.

To participate in this free AFB teleseminar, dial the toll-free number below a few minutes before the prompt 2:30 p.m. Eastern start time on Monday, November 14:

1-866-939-3921

Participants should reference the "American Foundation for the Blind--New FCC Rules" conference call when the operator asks you to identify yourself and the call you wish to attend.

Stay tuned to AFB-DC for additional analysis of the new rules and how they will benefit people with disabilities, particularly those living with vision loss.

The Lord of the Rings--with cupholders

2011-11-04T10:41:00.000-07:00

The symphony?

The symphony chorale?

The Lord of the Rings movie?

The Key Arena?

All of this together, including your typical large venue concert search, redolent and carb-heavy snacks, beer, basically the whole sports arena drill?????

Ring. Ring. (RantMom) Hey RantWoman, do you want to go to the Lord of the Rings at Key Arena? RantMom has a line for free tickets.

Ummmm. ... Okay.

Arguably that was RantWoman's first mistake. RantWoman is kind of on the upper age edge of the Lord of the Rings demographic. RantWoman thinks there might be fans who are RantMom's age, but aside from the symphony, RantMom would not even think of demographics.

RantMom has never been to the Key Arena so she would be counting on RantWoman for "guide dog" service as far as buses. Woof. Woof. When RantMom is going someplace new, she has a tendency to get to meeting places preposterously early so that for instance RantWoman occasionally feels guilty for simply showing up on time.This time RantMom was good humored and we were travelling at the tail end of rush hour so we decided just to make the best of it as we met at our first bus connection.

RantWoman long ago had a get paid to go to rock concerts job that occasionally took her to the Key Arena, but apparently that was a couple remodels ago. RantWoman definitely approves of the current look. The odor of cinnamon snacks is also a big improvement over the pervasive odor of sweat and dust RantWoman remembers from previous visits. RantWoman forgot to warn RantMom there might be a search but RantMom has flown recently and probably was toting less of interest than RantWoman.

As far as cult experiences, RantWoman might more pair the cinnamon snacks with, say, Dune than the Lord of the Rings, but RantWoman and RantMon were aiming for a budget night out anyway. Good thing we skipped the snacks for other reasons though.

RantMom probably did not reckon with the topography of he average sports arena. They certainly have sports arenas in Montana where RantMOm moved from, but it does not necessarily enter RantMom's head to think about steps in advance. RantWoman is grateful that RantMom scored seats only a couple rows and hence just a few steps down from the level where we entered. RantWoman does not exactly qualify as a gazelle herself. Plus RantWoman feels obliged to fret on RantMom's behalf about too many sports arena steps.

We reached our seats without incident. Then there is the matter of cupholders. RantWoman is not even charmed by the IDEA of cupholders. Going to sports events is, RantWoman remembers reading, associated actually with relatively good fitness and smaller waistlines than our nation's expanding trends. Just being able to walk blocks from parking or the bus stop certainly requires a certain amount of stamina and physical capacity. But why, once one arrives, does one need an extra attachment at the end of the arms of one's seat just to prop up one's beverage? Why cannot people just hold their own beverage?

What is worse though, if one has the temerity both to be less than svelte AND to visit a sports arena, is that immoveable cupholders present at least to the RantContingent, substantial risk of inadvertant disembowelment. RantWoman and RantMom both managed to get sat down. The Rant women are both taller than average for women but not taller than average for men. One of RantMom's knees immediately began hurting in the cramped row. The production started. The orchestra was not disagreeable but RantWoman, as might be expected, was not really getting much out of the movie visuals.

RantMom sometimes gets into spectacle. RantWoman and RantMom immediately began a back and forth "we can go whenever you are ready," but in view of RantMom's intermittent enthusiasm for spectacle, RantWoman opted to wait at least awhile. But by 45 minutes into the show, reality dawned. RantMom was miserable. If we stayed for the whole show, we would be bussing home at an hour where all our bus connections had half hour headway. Time to leave!

Time to try to stand up. Time to face the cupholders. Maybe the young flexible Lord of the Rings demographic gets out of arena chairs by springing straight up. The RantMom demographic though tends to lean forward and pull themselves up. The process can be sort of a marvel of biomechanics but there is NOTHING biomechanical about cupholders on either side plowing into major organ systems.

RantWoman and RantMom both managed to wriggle free of our cupholders without for instance amputating our livers. We made it back out into the night and had an enjoyable walk to our bus stop. RantMom even soaked up some more RantWoman narrative about what might be fun to visit if RantMom ever accidentally or on purpose finds herself in Lower Queen Anne in the daytime. But if RantMom never wants to go to the Key Arena again, blame the cupholders.

Transit Advisory Commission seeking members

2011-11-02T17:49:00.000-07:00

A unique opportunity to meet and engage in public participation in person with RantWoman:

http://www.kingcounty.gov/transportation/kcdot/MetroTransit/AdvisoryGroups/TransitAdvisoryCommission.aspx

If you have specific opinions on proposed changes to Metro service, look here:

http://metro.kingcounty.gov/have-a-say/

or here
http://www.surveymk.com/s/9F7BKN5

While I am at it, happy 4th birthday Chicklet
http://www.buschick.com/?p=4339

and thanks to Bus Chick for this great item about kids on buses.
http://www.grist.org/family/2011-03-21-how-to-get-kids-on-transit-without-driving-everyone-involved-out

Truth in advertising: RantWoman and the BusChick family ride several of the routes. RantWoman and Bus Chick were in the same meetings a couple times as the Accessible Services Advisory Commission was getting folded into the Transit Advisory Commission. RantWoman feels like she knows Bus Chick better through her blogs and is just fine with that.

Way to go Bus Family.

Reauthorize VAWA; Pass IVAWA

2011-10-31T12:43:00.000-07:00

RantWoman received this item from a religious lobby group. RantWoman believes whole-heartedly in the faith communitym, even faith communities RantWoman might not agree with, being active and visible in public life, though RantWoman's instinct for a topic like the item below would be to include language from more than one faith community.a RantWoman means it about multiconfessional intent but RantWoman does not have time to go fine pithy topical quotes reflecting other faith traditions as well.

Today is the last day of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, but action is still needed. Tell Congress to Reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act and Pass the International Violence Against Women Act.

"There is no longer Jew nor Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28)

Worldwide, at least one in three women will be raped, beaten, or abused in some way during her lifetime. In the United States, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking affect 1 in 4 women and one in thirteen men. Women ages 20-24 have a particularly high risk of encountering these types of violence. Each year, about 1.3 million U.S. women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner, and three women die of domestic violence each day.

God calls us to change this story. October was Domestic Violence Awareness month-- a time to recognize thedestructive effects domestic violence has on women, children, and families, and focus efforts to curb domestic violence. But these concerns extend far beyond October, andlegislative actions are still needed in order to continue and buttress government efforts to protect women, children, men, and families against violence in their homes.In remembering that we are all one in Christ Jesus, and thus the suffering of one is the suffering of all, we must ensure that policies that protect and support victims of abuse are put in place and kept in place.

In 1994, the United States Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The act provides critical lifesaving services and essential support and resources to individuals and families who have suffered from domestic violence, including rape crisis centers, shelters for battered women, and a national hotline for survivors. VAWA also increased the severity of consequences for those who commitacts of domestic violence, as well as funded training programs for law enforcement and court officials which have improved the criminal justice system's response to domestic violence. VAWAhas been reauthorized twice and must be reauthorized again this year.

Building from VAWA's success, Congress introduced the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA) in 2010 with bipartisan support. If passed, IVAWA will implement programs to protect women around the world against violence, support programs for survivors, and improve women's legal and economic situations.

As Domestic Violence Awareness Month comes to an end, let us stand with the millions of victims of domestic abuse by speaking out against its perpetuation. Join in the effort to put an end to violence against women. Tell Congress to reauthorize VAWA and pass IVAWA.

Project SafePlace: The Right Meeting

2011-10-24T04:41:00.000-07:00

RantWoman has been spending a certain amount of time being severely annoyed to be pointedly NOT invited to certain meetings in RantWoman's faith community where RantWoman is clear she has things to contribute and where RantWoman really needs to take care of things RantWoman deeply values about her life of faith in order even to go the places RantWoman does.

RantWoman's annoyance relates partly to life experiences that others find at least a bit much even to think about. For instance, RantWoman adores public transit on ecological, social connection, linguistic research / vocabulary development and of course transportation and independing living grounds; others find even that topic oh, a bit much.

On the other hand, RantWoman has also found herself grateful sometimes to know she is in some respects getting to attend exactly the right meetings. For example, last week at the King County Mobility coalition meeting, RantWoman heard a great short introduction to a very new program called Project Safe Place. Project Safe Place is a unique collaboration between KingCounty Metro and King County youth service providers. A young person can tell a Metro bus driver they need "a safe place" and the driver will call dispatch and arrange to have the young person met by a representative of one of the cooperating youth services programs. This call does NOT involve the police.

http://www.kingcounty.gov/council/news/2011/October/JH_COWyouth.aspx

(RantWoman is vexed: RantWoman THINKS she remembers seeing a web item somewhere with the Project Safe Place logo for readers who care more about visuals than RantWoman necessarily does, but that is not what the search bar served up here.)

Recently RantWoman was one of several people with childrn in their lives who wanted to attend a presentation on Stranger Danger (not the Seattle area newsweekly). As if Stranger Danger, grooming, sex predators, abuse issues close to home were not scary enough topics, RantWoman has ears which occasionally, from time to time, in places like the front of a bus or certain interpreting-themed conversations pick up even scarier topics such as sex-trafficking.

RantWoman finds herself NOT very patient with people who might think RantWoman is hysterical for even using that term. Usually if that term might be applicable, someone is in a lot of danger and RantWoman wants as quickly as possible to make connections that will help, not just listen to others minimize or miss the point. Even getting to a point one can make such suggestions might take more than one conversation. SOMETIMES daily routines aboard a certain route are exactly what helps one make even tentative connections and assemble thoughts of need for such conversations in the first place.

Frequently when RantWoman picks up such topics, RantWoman finds herself wanting to be able to say SOMETHING to help or to give the person connected with the topic a sense of choices and options. RantWoman is VERY grateful she wound up at the KC Mobility Coalition meeting seated next to someone she could ask about the very topic of trafficking and Project Safe Place. RantWoman herself stammered a little just raising the issue during a break; RantWoman's neighbor was very respectful: yes, the people who designed Project Safe Place definitely have trafficking issues in mind too! RantWoman would definitely not mind if she never needs this info; somehow RantWoman thinks never needing ths info is unlikely and is grateful to have it.

Holiday Gift List: Braille Calendars

2011-10-18T16:50:00.000-07:00

RantWoman ordinarily flies into a lather when mention is made of winter holidays before Halloween. With that in mind, RantWoman encourages readers similarly scandalized to take note of a search term and feel free to come back later.

RantWoman has shamelessly written before of her halting Braille literacy. One way that RantWoman keeps trying to pick up speed is annual acquisition of one or more Braille calendars. Today's email brings tidings of one option. RantWoman is allowing herself to wonder why the nice folks at National Braille Press never spell out their company name, but is almost always deeply charmed by mention of Dr. Seuss.

Subject: NBP-Announce: Our print/braille Dr Seuss calendar returns!

2012 Dr Seuss Wall Calendar Print/braille edition, $13.99. All ages!

It's the return of a perennial NBP favorite! Throughout his life, Dr. Seuss had two goals - to make us laugh, and to make us think. He said, "I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.... And that enables you to laugh at life's realities."

Our 2012 print/braille calendar includes twelve scenes and quotes from Dr. Seuss's books, each providing laughter and insight to help keep you inspired throughout the year. The calendar features the Cat in the Hat, a Fox in Sox, Horton, the Grinch, and eight more well-loved scenes from Dr. Seuss's imagination.

This wall calendar is 12"x12" (hanging on the wall it's 12" wide and 24" tall). The braille is included on clear plastic labels that go right over the print pages. And as always, our calendar features a Special Bonus - a sheet of sixty full-color stickers of Dr. Seuss's more famous characters to mark birthdays, appointments, and other important days.

Order very soon - the calendar always sells out! To order or read more about this book online, visit http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/2012SEUSS.html

To order any books, send payment to:NBP, 88 St. Stephen Street, Boston, MA 02115-4302Or call and charge it: toll-free (800) 548-7323 or (617) 266-6160 ext 520. Or order any of our books online http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/publications/index.html

Okay, okay, it is not necessarily fair to put competitors' products in the same post but here is the link for the 2012 Braille Calendar from American Printing House for the Blind.
American Printing House for the Blind Braille Calendar

RantWoman notes vagueness about price and mention of bulk orders for fundraising. HINT! RantWoman also notes that one year she failed to get a copy from her local blind consumer group and ordered it cheap at the last minute. RantWoman has no opinion yet about how she is going to handle orders this year.

New ACB Pedestrian Safety Handbook

2011-10-12T22:48:00.000-07:00

Subject: [leadership] Press Release: Pedestrian Safety Handbook Announcement

For Immediate Release

Contact: Eric Bridges
Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs
American Council of the Blind
Phone: (202) 467-5081
e-mail: ebridges@acb.org

American Council of the Blind Releases Updated Pedestrian Safety Handbook

ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 12, 2011 - Coinciding with an annual nationwide event, White Cane Safety Day, the American Council of the Blind (ACB) today released an updated edition of its Pedestrian Safety Handbook, a publication which informs people who are blind and visually impaired, their families, and others about contemporary approaches to assuring safe paths of travel for blind pedestrians and effective ways to advocate for accommodations like accessible pedestrian signals, tactile warnings at the edges of curb ramps, and mechanisms for routing travelers safely through problematic intersections.

According to ACB's president, Mitch Pomerantz, the organization published its first Pedestrian Safety Handbook in 1999. "Since then," he says, "there have been several revisions and updates which have informed readers, orientation and mobility specialists, traffic engineers and others about changes in the regulations which implement the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as well as the guidelines which traffic engineers rely upon to design or renovate roadways, intersections, traffic circles and other paths of travel which motor vehicles and pedestrians must share."

"The last time we updated our Pedestrian Safety Handbook, quiet cars were still driving through the imaginations of vehicle designers," Pomerantz continued. "Now, they are just one more reality that can compromise the safety of a blind person stepping off a curb in front of a car that he or she cannot hear coming. Our role as advocates becomes more complex in ways we might never have even imagined. We are pleased that our Pedestrian Safety Handbook is a living document that will be able to keep up with the changes that govern all our lives and safety. The document, which is located at www.acb.org/node/625
, will inform people who are blind and visually impaired everywhere, as well as the orientation and mobility field, and the traffic engineers who need to take our safety into consideration as they maximize traffic flow and contemplate new efficiencies and equipment."

The updated handbook includes specific regulations which people who are blind can call upon to advocate for changes at intersections and along their paths of travel that will provide audible and tactile information about situations which sighted pedestrians can evaluate visually, such as when a traffic light changes color, a walk sign is illuminated, or where turning arrows might cause traffic to speed in front of an otherwise unsuspecting blind or visually impaired pedestrian.

"The Federal Highway Administration has made some significant regulatory changes since we last published a Pedestrian Safety Handbook," said Debbie Grubb, chairperson of ACB's Environmental Access Committee. "It is important for us to have the most up-to-date information about regulations when we approach our communities to advocate for the changes that can keep us safe. This handbook, which is being published online, will provide the most current information available anywhere."

In addition to chapters that deal with specific pedestrian safety issues and current regulations, there are case studies that describe how blind and visually impaired people have successfully advocated for change and safety across the country, and templates for writing letters and citing regulations that can work.

About the American Council of the Blind

The American Council of the Blind is the largest consumer-based organization of blind and visually impaired Americans advocating for the rights of blind Americans. Comprised of more than 70 affiliates across the United States, the organization is dedicated to making it possible for blind and visually impaired Americans to participate fully in all aspects of American society. For more information, visit http://www.acb.org/
; write to American Council of the Blind, 2200 Wilson Blvd., Suite 650, Arlington, VA 22201; phone (202) 467-5081; or fax (703) 465-5085.

Groupware Accessibility Bakeoff

2011-10-05T02:07:00.000-07:00

Accessibility is a Civil Right. Accessibility is a Civil Right. Accessibility is a Civil Right....

If you build in accessibility from the beginning, it's better software...

RantWoman absorbed these points at Accessibility Camp Seattle.

Unfortunately, RantWoman is the sort of event attender who absorbs info like that and still grumbles on evaluation forms about concepts like "vendor neutral event." SILLY RantWoman. Here is an example.

It all started innocently enough. An enthusiastic young intern at the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing started talking about editting documents in the cloud. The intern began gushing about groupware and uttering paeans to Google docs.

Soon the buzz was building. Several staffpeople thought that editting documents in the cloud sounded like a really cool idea.So in fact does RantWoman! In the cloud means people can edit and share the same files from multiple locations without having to download and upload. This sounds WONDERFUL to RantWoman.

RantWoman remembered the vast troves of quality info (?!?!?)lurking in RantWoman's email archives. RantWoman uses a screen reader. RantWoman knows and is willing to insist, and another Blind User knows that for a tool to become standard at the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing, it has to be accessible. It has to operate as fully as possible with the screen readers of choice. RantWoman's email is chock full of comments to the effect tha Google docs is NOT accessible.

The Friendly Neighborhood Center... (RantWoman still feels called to pay at least SLIGHT attention to respectful branding, but...) specializes in assistive technology and serving people with disabilities, no matter how badly we need GroupWare, we CANNOT standardize on a tool that is inaccessible to significant members of our community.

RantWoman's email has been full for months of complaints about how Google docs is inaccessible in various ways someone besides RantWoman darn well should be getting paid big bucks to document. Nevertheless, RantWoman poked out an email of inquiry to one of her email lists. RantWoman got back:

--another link to Google's actually fairly insightful survey about blind users, the kinds of equipment and software people have, and numerous related issues.

--a perky press release from Google about the accessibility initiative du jour supposedly over the current two months. In ohter words, rather than design some standard of accessibility into their product organically as part of every single build, accessibility is still in significant respects vaporware, all hot air and no actual realization.

--various workarounds to achieve partial functionality for various features of Google docs using a screen reader.

In other words, RantWoman had, AGAIN, to put her foot down. Poor Friendly Neighborhood Center...

RantWoman obstinately pointed out, Google docs is at best very partially functional with screen readers. SkyDrive, on the other hand is accessible from first click. How do we know this? We do not know this from some spiffy big-budget software evaluation process, for one thing because we do not HAVE a spiffy, big-budget software evaluation process. Instead we have...Blind Neighbor who clicked on an ad link and liked everything she read with her screen reader.

Soooo, after checking out that we can easily accomplish the file administration we need, guess which groupware tool is now standard at the Friendly Neighborhood Center...

RantWoman could stop here but RantWoman is going to bless her hardy readers with an additional increment of tirade:

The unemployment rate among blind people in the US has hovered resolutely near 80% for decades. RantWoman knows perfectly well that one cannot just say "poof" and "Make it So" and achieve accessibility. HOWEVER, if a mass-market product / service like Google docs is not accessible from the outset, blind organizations and the organizations that would like to hire them are endlessly on a treadmill. Who wants to hire someone whose very presence is going to force one's office to have to ask about accessibility for every single software standard decision? Plenty of small organizations are like the Friendly Neighborhood Center: they have no software evaluation budget and just need things to work! Word!

Still more tirade: RantWoman currently has a job posting in her in-box related to advocating about accessibility at still another gigantic software and media entity. RantWoman is weighing a number of considerations, starting with "Dear Potential Employer, RantWoman thinks you deserved to get sued when one recent initiative did not involve immediately accessibility. RantWoman wonders whether the decisions that got you sued were a calculated risk and RantWoman thinks you should just hire her to help you stay on top of...."

Ride Around the Sound Survey

2011-10-04T13:53:00.000-07:00

Hopelink recently received FTA funding through the Puget Sound Regional Council to launch a group excursions and travel training program for low-income individuals, veterans and people with limited English proficiency in King County. The goal of this program, Ride Around the Sound, is to provide participants with educational, community-building opportunities to gain confidence and independence in riding transit.

Sheila Sloan-Evans, Hopelink Program Manager, is in the process of developing this new program. To ensure we are best serving the needs and interests of participants, we invite you to help shape the excursions offered through this program.

You can help by completing a short survey online: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Ride_Around_The_Sound_Excursion_Survey

Please forward this survey to others, as we are seeking wide input on this program.

Warm regards,

Michelle

p.s. My apologies for any cross-postings.

Michelle Zeidman
Mobility Manager
425.943.6737 (office)
206.396.1647 (mobile)
425.644.9956 (fax)

www.kingcounty.gov/mobilitycoalition

Car vs bicyclist

2011-10-03T10:44:00.000-07:00

RantWoman guesses she was supposed to come on the scene of the fatal car vs bicyclist accident one night recently. RantWoman is deeply sorry.

RantWoman had the option of a bus stop adjacent to her departure point for buses that would take awhile or a bus stop further away for a bus with a half-hour headway but a more direct route. RantWoman chose the latter so she guesses she is somehow supposed to have come upon the corner all taped up with police tape. There were flashing lights and a dark vehicle. Between RantWoman fog and the darkness, RantWoman could see little of any use except the flashing lights on the police car.

The entire corner was taped off in such a way that RantWoman was either going to need to detour around the block or duck under the corner of the taped-off area. RantWoman is grateful for an observant officer who gave RantWoman permission just to duck under the tape and continue toward her bus stop.

For RantWoman's trouble, at the bus stop, RantWoman learned that she had just passed by the scene of a fatal car vs bicyclist accident. The bicyclins was going too fast. The car didn't stop or didn't see. There was nothing left to do but pray--and have a pang for all the day-glo-wearing, helmet clad two-wheeled road warriors in RantWoman's life.

Starbucks Card in Braille: Limited time only

2011-09-27T07:40:00.000-07:00

October is National Disability Awareness Month. RantWoman expects to have a festive celebration and will start with the following item

The Starbucks Card in Braille was first suggested at a community symposium hosted by Starbucks and attended by national disability leaders in 2007. Starbucks partners (employees) from the Starbucks Access Alliance initiated the work internally, and helped bring the first Starbucks Card in Braille to fruition for the 2011 launch. Starbucks has taken a number of steps to make our stores accessible and welcoming to customers. Our new and remodeled stores include universal design elements, including a lower height counter for beverages. And at participating stores in the U.S. we have offered a large print Braille menu available upon request since 2008. The reloadable Card is available now at participating Starbucks stores in the U.S. and Canada for a limited time. The Starbucks Card in Braille will also be available online at Starbucks.com/Card and at StarbucksStore.com while supplies last.

Building Bridges of Accessibility Walk: White Cane Day 2011 Oct 15

2011-09-19T07:41:00.000-07:00

First Annual Celebration of National White Cane Day!

Building Bridges of Accessibility Walk 2011
Vision Loss Connections Celebrates National White Cane Day -
Saturday October 15th
Seward Park Loop,
10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Walk to build Bridges of Accessibility to Hiking, Sports and Fitness. Support Seattle Goalball (Soccer of the Blind), Weekend Hiking Trips and Health and Wellness Activities.Vision Loss Connections uses the Power of Community to organize programs that opens up the Best of the Northwest to People who are Blind and Low Vision.

We are Celebrating with Food - Catering by Jackie Cabrerra's C What's Cookin' and Live Music with the Rock, Rhythm and Blues Band - Sound People Association featuring Vocals by Meka White, Quincy Daniels and Barbara Choi - Telea Noriega on Drums, Andrew Stauffer and Nate Greenwood on Guitar.

There are a number of ways that you or your organization can participate!

1) We are having a small number of information tables representing services and businesses of interest to people in the Blind and Low Vision Community.

2) Be a Walker & enjoy the 4 mile Waterfront loop at Seward Park ($20.00 suggested donation)

3) Team Build with a Walk Team representing your organization

4)You can also come and just enjoy the food and music! ($20.00 suggested donation)

5)You can also pledge to support a walker and support Health and Wellness Activities

Sign up is Easy via Paypal on our Web-site, reply to this E-Mail or Call (206) 282-3913

We will be meeting people at the Seward Park Bus Stop, Columbia City Light Rail Station and Ferry Terminal with rides to the event!

$20 Suggested Entry Fee IncludesFour-mile waterfront loop
With additional options

Catering by C What’s cookin’

Live Music by Sound People Association

Walkers are encouraged to seek sponsors to win great prizes

For more information visit our website http://www.visionlossconnections.org/
E-mail info@visionlossconnections.org
Call (206) 282-3913

Some other links about the history of White Cane Day

From the NFB on the history of the presidential proclamation
http://www.nfb.org/nfb/White_Cane_Safety_Day.asp

A nice directory type item that also emphasizes vehilcles yielding to users of white canes.
http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/white-cane-safety-day

The WA State White Cane Law
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=70.84&full=true

For the record, RantWoman received news of this event through United Bling of Seattle, one of three local chapters of the WA Council of the Blind, http://www.wcbinfo.org/ , the American Council of the Blind, http://www.acb.org/

This implies other bridges being built as well.

Less Vis: Glare and Worship

2011-09-18T22:43:00.000-07:00

RantWoman had decided she needs some form of eyewear that cuts glare--indoors. RantWoman has Transitions eyewear for outdoors, but RantWoman's house of worship has a number of features which generate LOTS and LOTS of glare indoors where the light has already passed through a layer of glass and gotten phase-shifted out of the wavelengths where the Transitions coating works properly. (Sorry: RantWoman just could not resist the physic nerd excursion.)

RantWoman REALLY needs to do something about the glare issues at her house of worship. For one thing, RantWoman's faith community right now is already reminding RantWoman of all the unholy reasons she REALLY needs a faith community; RantWoman is not even going to comment about what her faith community may think of RantWoman. RantWoman cannot even see any glaring human issues that may be going on. More to the point, RantWoman's personal religious experience and faith journey, not to mention the howling pain in her glare-tormented eyeballs sometimes tempt RantWoman to ... do Sudoku during worship!

This practice is much commented upon, usually by people not even interested in pretending to want to become privy to the eyeball vexations RantWoman is trying to manage. RantWoman feels no obligation to explain in the first place. In the second place, even though the glare and various other visual effects are a vexation to manage, RantWoman keeps grumbling under her breath AND having "count your blessings" pounded into her head: see RantWoman can ALMOST see enough to do Sudoku in fat pen in puzzle books with print large enough. Well, almost but definitely subject to some mistakes related to poor fixation, imperfect focus, and related realities. In other words, RantWoman is QUITE unrepentant about and even darn glad just to be able to do the Sudoku; this probably does not help about glaring humans either.

Fortuitously, tonight people on one of RantWoman's blindness email lists are gushing about the wonders of amber eyeglasses for cutting glare. RantWoman has no actual money to spend, but thanks to the internet RantWoman can shop to her heart's content from the convenience of her very own desk.

Look for brand name Balboa

A good search string:
amber eyeglasses glare

http://www.safetyglassesusa.com/amberlens.html

This page lists all of our safety glasses with Yellow lenses, also called Amber by many brands. Because of its ability to make your environment appear brighter, it is commonly used in low light conditions. Like orange, copper, and brown lenses, it effectively blocks much of the blue light that can cause haze or reduce sharpness, thereby enhancing contrast and depth perception. Not recommended for bright light conditions, or areas where accurate color recognition is critical. You can sort the page by Most Popular, Name (alphabetical order), or Price. Please click on an item for details and to order. For Indoor/Outdoor use. VLT = 78-87%

promises to filter blue AND increase melatonin
https://www.lowbluelights.com/index.asp?

Will this actually work? Stay tuned.

Hi Vis

2011-09-16T21:21:00.000-07:00

The days are growing shorter and grayer. Budget projections are growing more dour at every turn and in every quarter. RantWoman feels as if she SHOULD be burnishing her resume, redoubling her Make Your Own Job zeal, polishing up and MAYBE professionalizing her electronic presence, waxing eloquent and enthusiastic about the latest frontiers of broadband-based togetherness or at least making some appointments for information interviews, oh and applying the word warranty to her Kindle with its ailing screen.

First RantWoman needs to stay alive, and this time of year staying alive means BEING SEEN. RantWoman's basic perspective on this has not changed substantially since penning the following items

http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2009/02/make-me-glow.html

http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2009/09/pedestrian-reflectors.html

This year though, RantWoman's heart and fashion sense are turning to...High-visibility clothing:

Digression: ANSI standards, basically the traffic speeds / ravel distances at which different grades of reflective gear are supposed to be visible.
http://www.esafetysupplies.com/Safety-Vests/

RantWoman has decided that for city wear, ANSI Class 2 should be adequate but RantWoman definitely will not turn down Class 3 gear if it fits her budget.

Considerations: this type of highly reflective clothing tends to be worn a lot by police officers, telephone and electrical linepersons, various flavors of First Responders. RantWoman wants to be seen during her normal life and pedestrian activities and wants clothing designed to promote that. But RantWoman does NOT want anyone to expect her to fix their phone lines, direct traffic, or look officious in a disaster.

The bomber jacket: this will make RantWoman look like a long-legged giant walking lemon. RantWoman, though. is seriously considering some windbreaker and other jacket options. RantWoman would especially swoon for info that tells her the length of different sized garments. Such fantasies.

The Vest: again with the length issue. RantWoman is actually seriously considering a good vest if she can find one that is long enough to suit her, preferably zippered, and of a size that can be worn over all the other perfectly fine but not reflective enough outerwear that RantWoman already owns.

http://www.bernedirect.com/Hi-Visibility-Multi-Color-Vest.html

http://www.esafetysupplies.com/5-Point-Breakaway-Mesh-Safety-Vest-EMS-Rated.html

Some options RantWoman really likes but has not decided to buy:
http://3m.links.channelintelligence.com/oemsites/10191459/ScotchLite/index.asp

If RantWoman wants to really go nuts, she will also look for reflective gloves and a reflective ran hat with a decent brim all the way around the crown. RantWoman favors lightweight gloves, about the weight of knit gardening gloves; so far everything RantWoman has found looks too heavy.
Ooh, ooh, ooh, look, wait:
http://www.officerstore.com/store/category.cfm/cid_454458_hi_vis_gloves/

RantWoman found one hat she liked but neglected to save the link. Sigh.

And Dear Amazon, you are not the only offender in this category, but you are today's prize winner. RantWoman is amused that Amazon showed up in search results for a search string involving pedestrian and reflective. RantWoman clicked on the link and read through everything on the next page of search results that came up. RantWoman found not a thing that contains the more important word, reflective. RantWoman was thoroughtly peeved by all the entries on this page that offered to take RantWOman to hundreds more results per category. Even if RantWoman had functioning eyeballs this likely would be TOO MUCH and there is NO WAY RantWoman is going to take eny more steps further down the tree with Mr. JAWS.

Webinar: Making Programs More Accessible to Youth with Disabilities

2011-09-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

Definitely registers on RantWoman's Must Blog list:

This webinar may be of interest to you.
Making Programs More Inclusive and Accessible for Youth with Disabilities
September 28, 2011
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific

This webinar will provide an overview of various disabilities and strategies for enabling youth with disabilities to fully participate in your programs. Collaborations are key in making this happen easily and effectively. Exemplary programs and resources will be highlighted. This webinar is a collaboration between the National Girls Collaborative Project and the Computer Science Collaboration Project.

Register: http://www.ngcproject.org/events/events.cfm?eventid=202.

The goal of the National Girls Collaborative Project is to maximize access to shared resources within projects and with public and private sector organizations and institutions interested in expanding girls' participation in STEM.

The vision of the Computer Science Collaboration Project is to efficiently increase participation of underrepresented groups in computer science opportunities and activities by effectively building collaborations between K-12, community-based organizations, higher education and industry.

NGCP webinars are offered throughout the year focused on exemplary practices and program models related to engaging girls in STEM. Webinars and resources are archived and available for viewing after the live event.

Karen A. Peterson,
Chief Executive Officer, EdLab Group&
Principal Investigator, National Girls Collaborative Project
voice: 425.977.4750
kpeterson@edlabgroup.org

Lexicography Nerd point: STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.
www.edlabgroup.org

American Printing House and Dollywood...

2011-09-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

RantWoman's blog as file cabinet is happy to assemble info from multiple streams and to make it all searchable on the blog. Plus, RantWoman is passionate about early literacy in all its forms.

(Pssst. RantWoman could read regular print in bulk quantities out of one eye with glasses all the way through graduate school until her midlife vision meltodown. HOWEVER, RantWoman sometimes wonders, given family history, whether it would have been fun to learn Braille as a kid, say if there were already another kid in school learning Braille. RantMom probably would have been HORRIFIED, but it would have made things like giving a speech SOoooooo much easier. RantWoman will probably keep harping on this idea, so just get used to it.)

http://www.aph.org/dolly-partons-imagination-library/

Also, if you go to the page, you can watch the video of Dolly announcing the partnership and the president of APH speaking.

American Printing House for the Blind Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
Partnership

Accessible Books Website
Photo by The Mountain Press, Sevierville, TN

The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) and the Dollywood Foundation are pleased to announce a partnership that expands Dolly Parton's Imagination Library (DPIL) program to provide young blind and visually impaired children with accessible books!

Audio Books
Thanks to the American Printing House for the Blind/Dolly Parton's
Imagination Library Partnership and the support of Penguin Group USA we will offer a growing collection of audio files of DPIL books as free downloads.

Print/Braille Books
Beginning in 2012, the American Printing House for the Blind/Dolly Parton's
Imagination Library Partnership will make it possible for APH to produce
selected Imagination Library books in a print/braille format. APH will
select five titles from the current year's DPIL booklist, those most
appropriate for a child with a visual impairment, to translate into braille.

Two hundred copies of each title will be made.

The books will be provided free-of-charge to eligible families. Eligibility
requirements will be posted at this site in 2012. For all others, the books
will be available from APH at a low, affordable price, either as an
individual cash purchase or for purchase on Federal Quota.

APH President Tuck Tinsley: "We're excited! What an honor it is to partner
with someone like Dolly who is as passionate about literacy as we are. This
relationship between The Imagination Library and the American Printing House for the Blind means that blind and visually impaired preschoolers can now be more involved in the experience of reading with their parents."

Ms. Parton: "Any credit I get is really due to the hard work and fine
reputation of all of those who partner with us to bring the love of reading
to so many kids. I am just thrilled we can work together to bring this same
joy to all children who may have trouble seeing but have no trouble in
believing that all of their dreams can come true."

Seattle Area Readings: An Authentic Translation of the I Ching

2011-09-11T18:54:00.000-07:00

RantWoman heartily endorses and commends to her readers' attention the following wonderful new book and series of readings coming up this week in the Seattle area.

RantWoman especially recommends this book because it is the first translation of the I Ching by a woman. RantWoman had the privilege of meeting the author this morning and is impressed by the breadth of her scholarship and the slightly understated firmness she brings to comments about really key characters in the original Chinese being female rahter than male. RantWoman is pretty sure that better scholars of Chinese and Chinese history than RantWoman will find much of interest, much to digest and interrogate.

Readers who also need their daily quota of RantWoman ranting and rambling are invited to scroll to the bottom.

The Original I Ching.
An Authentic Translation of the Chinese Book of Changes
by Margaret J. Pearson, Tuttle Publishing, 2011.

My book is designed to help people navigate change which living with kindness and courage in a world
which can be perilous for those committed to living with integrity.
For September 11, 2011, Hexagram 11 PEACE (depicting earth above sky)

Translation:
Sky and earth interact: the image of peace. Thus the queen guides the natural
forces of both sky and earth, assisting them into harmony by
[gathering] the people to her right and left.
Explanation: As earth and sky interact with one another; all things are
created. This kind of peace is the reverse of immobility. Instead it
is a time when those above are receptive to those beneath them, so
that creativity rises up in abundance. When mother, teacher, manager,
or leader hears and heeds her children, students, or co-workers, she
acts as a life-giving refuge which provides protection to new lives
when they are as vulnerable as fledglings or new kings. Only the
greatest leaders are capable of the self-restraint and generosity
required for true receptivity to those beneath them. But such leaders
gain a realistic, nuanced picture of the realities they face and
elicit sincere and creative loyalty. Authoritarian rulers, listening
only to sycophants, quash creativity and real loyalty, bringing
destruction to their people. Because Mao refused to listen to those
who brought unwelcome news of bad harvests during the Great Leap
Forward, millions perished.
Peace here is not static, not everyone stuck in their “proper
places,” but out of their usual places and therefore moving towards
one another. Here earth, the receptive, lies above the creative,
usually associated with the sky above. It is because leaders are
willing to be humble and their subordinates dare to create that a
fecund peace can be attained.

Compare to hexagram 12, sky above earth: stagnation.
Seattle area readings
From The Original I Ching.
An Authentic Translation of
the Chinese Book of Changes
by Margaret J. Pearson,
Tuttle Publishing, 2011.

September 15 at 7pm, signing and talk, no cost to attend or need to RSVP
East West Bookshop of Seattle
6500 Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115
206-523-3726
800-587-6002

September 16 at 7pm, signing and talk, no cost to attend or need to RSVP
University Bookstore
4326 University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105
206.634.3400
Toll Free: 1.800.335.READ

September 19 at 7pm, signing and talk, no cost to attend or need to RSVP
Third Place Books
17171 Bothell Way NE
Lake Forest Park, WA 98155
206.366.3333
http://www.thirdplacebooks.com/

RantWoman needs to express vexation: as far as RantWoman knows, the book is only available in print, no electronic formats and RantWoman did not think to ask about some usual distribution streams for materials for the blind. RantWoman is aware that distribution in electronic formats comes with economic hassles for authors and small publishers but RantWoman is still vexed.

RantWoman has eyeballs enough to scrape over about a page or two at a time, especially in the typeface used by the book. RantWoman has a CCTV to enlarge the pages but it is ergonomically so uncomfortable to deal with that RantWoman has to steel herself to use it.

RantWoman can interact with the whole subject of human readers. RantWoman confesses, though, despite several years of experience with this midlife vision meltdown thing, RantWoman still has really not overcome her childhood association of being read aloud to with bedtime and falling asleep. Strange as it seems to some, RantWoman finds computer speech easier to stay awaked with because RantWoman can typically tweak speed and voice characteristics in various ways to enhance comprehension and increase the likelihood that RantWoman will stay awake.

RantWoman's personal experience with the I Ching is limited to some kind of reference in a book RantWoman remembers basically as Hippies 101. Based on where RantWoman knows she was living when this occurred, this would have been when RantWoman was about 10 or 11. RantWoman remembers for some reason thinking any more interaction would have been just too much. RantWoman has a few friends whose study of and experience with the I Ching is considerably more encyclopedic. RantWoman's point: in this, RantWoman's fiftieth year, finally RantWoman is charmed enough by the new book ans the author's insights about history and translation that she is going to have to try to overcome one or more of her reading whines to read at least some of this book!

Inclusive Disaster Preparedness

2011-09-09T21:21:00.001-07:00

Subject: Check out Webcast of "Getting Real II" - Promising Practices in
Inclusive Emergency Management for the Whole Community

The Office of Disability Integration and Coordination ODIC
Rehabilitation Research NIDRR
partners the Interagency Coordinating Council on Emergency Preparedness and People with Disabilities
This year, we’re particularly excited to have a webcast generously
supported by the National Council on Disability available for people who
cannot join us in person. This webcast will include many of the Promising
Practices presentations (and all will be videotaped for “on demand” viewing after the conference). Click on the link provided to register for the webcast Getting Real II

IMPORTANT DATES & TIMES:

September 12, 2011
7pm – 10pm: Opening Plenary

September 13, 2011
9:00am – 10:15 am: Morning Plenary
10:30am – 12:40pm: Promising Practices
12:40pm – 1:30pm: Lunch
1:30pm – 5pm: Promising Practices

September 14, 2011
8:30am – 9:30am: Morning Plenary with Administrator Fugate
9:45am – 12pm: Promising Practices
12pm – 1pm: Lunch
1pm – 3:15pm: Promising Practices
3:30pm – 5pm: Team Reports and Closing Discussion

Please plan to join the Office of Disability Integration and Coordination
and the National Council on Disability by webcast on Sept 12-14 for “Getting Real II- Promising Practices in Inclusive Emergency Management for the Whole Community
National Preparedness Month - September 2011

Public Transportation Related Webinars

2011-09-09T10:57:00.000-07:00

From eNews, the National Center on Senior Transportation's monthly
newsletter.

the National
Center on Senior Transportation's

Public
Involvement in the Transportation Planning Process―Webinar
On October 12 at 2 p.m. Eastern Time, NCST will partner with Easter Seals
Project ACTION to present a webinar on Public Involvement in the
Transportation Planning Process. This event is designed for transportation
advocates who want to come to the table better informed and prepared to
offer input that will be heard, understood and incorporated into their
regional transportation plans. Information on how to open the planning
process to include older adults, people with disabilities, aging and human
service agencies, and other advocates for accessible transportation will be
incorporated into the presentation. For more information or to ask the
presenters questions in advance, email ESPADistanceLearning@easterseals.com.
Registration deadline: October 7.

Creative
Solutions to Reduced Funding for Public and Human Services
Transportation―Webinar
On September 20 at 2 p.m. Eastern Time, the National Consortium on Human
Service Transportation Coordination will present a colloquium via webinar
for national organizations, states and communities that are experiencing
funding reductions. Speakers will include representatives of communities
that have taken different approaches to solving or alleviating the problem
of cutbacks as well as a panel representing national organizations. The
National Consortium is an alliance of national non-profit organizations and
associations dedicated to promoting mobility and the delivery of public and
coordinated human services transportation to all individuals with
disabilities, persons with low incomes, seniors and youth.

Web Accessibility Training Opportunity

2011-09-01T02:10:00.000-07:00

RantWoman recommended, for anyone near the Baltimore / Washington DC area

Web Accessibility Training Day
September 19, 2011

The National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute and the Maryland Department of Disabilities Technology Assistance Program are delighted to present the second Web Accessibility Training Day.
On Monday, September 19th we will offer a day-long, in-depth look at how accessible Web content that complies with federal and state regulations is created. Compliance with these regulations and with W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines is especially relevant in the light of the Department of Justice's recent confirmation that the Americans with Disabilities Act covers the Web. We will have a variety of general topic sessions, with afternoon breakout Sessions on policy and technical topics:
* The business case for accessibility
* How to evaluate and implement accessibility
* Mobile accessibility
* Easy accessibility fixes
* Opportunities to network with developers, vendors, web accessibility consultants and experts in non-visual access technology
* Exhibitors will present their products during session breaks,
and participants will have an opportunity to learn more about their services

For more information or to register, please visit
https://www.nfb.org/nfb/web_accessibility_day.asp

or contact Clara Van Gerven at the NFB (cvangerven@nfb.org , 410-659-9314, ext. 2410). We hope you can join us for this exciting event!

http://nfb.org/nfb/access_technology_blog.asp

Blind Guy does landscape scale art

2011-08-30T23:21:00.000-07:00

This sculptor acquired a whole lot of life experience before going blind in his mid-50's. RantWoman is intrigued by several art concepts elaborated here.

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/who-is-herbert-steiner/Content?oid=9638718

Accessible Flash Update

2011-08-30T16:18:00.000-07:00

RantWoman's email inbox has been ablaze with people complaining about messages to update Adobe Flash player. These messages are fine and well-meant but are a pain in the rear for screen reader users. RantWoman feels no obligation to catalog the exact nature of the pain in the neck issues. RantWoman only wants to report that her inbox has also delivered a link for an accessible option:

http://updateflash.org/

Window Eyes Training Opportunity

2011-08-30T10:48:00.000-07:00

RantWoman has read good reports but has never gotten around to testing that Window Eyes switches much more smoothly between English and Russian than JAWS does. RantWoman has a demo and WILL get around to testing sometime.

In the meantime, this training looks like something RantWoman would go to if she were even a tad closer to MN. RantWoman also notes useful contact information to be stored in her blog as file cabinet model of information repository, also known as a really good excuse just shamelessly to reproduce a press release:

Window-Eyes Training in Minneapolis, MN!
When: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 to Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Where: Minneapolis, MN
What: Window-Eyes Training
Who: Jeremy Curry

Register at
https://www.gwmicro.com/Training/Window-Eyes_Training/Registration/?cid=WE-MN0911

GW Micro and Blind, Inc. are proud to announce Window-Eyes training in Minneapolis, MN! Take the training that the American Foundation for the Blind raved about in
>their review of Window-Eyes training in the July 2010 edition of AccessWorld (www.afb.org/aw ).

This is your chance to learn the brand new interface of Window-Eyes 7.5! Learn all about the new apps included with Window-Eyes, learn how to make changes to your favorite settings, and how the new user interface makes your life easier. Do not miss this exciting opportunity!

In addition to learning the new version of Window-Eyes, do you need to learn the ins and outs of Windows 7? Do you need help learning how to use the Ribbon in Microsoft Office? Or, are you new to Office 2010 and need to learn how to use it with Window-Eyes? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this is the training class for you.

Window-Eyes training is intended for a wide range of people. If you are a teacher that needs to know how to use the latest screen reading technology, an IT professional that needs to support blind clients, a student or current Window-Eyes customer who needs to know how to get the most out of Window-Eyes; then Window-Eyes training is just for you.

GW Micro and Blind Inc. are proud to announce Window-Eyes training in Minneapolis, MN on Tuesday, September13 and Wednesday, September 14, 2011. The training will be located at the following address:
Blind Inc.
100 East 22nd St.
Minneapolis, MN 55404

What do you get when you sign up for Window-Eyes training?

You get. . .
* Hands-on training with a GW Micro certified trainer
* The entire two-day curriculum on CD
* Knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook using Window-Eyes advanced Office Technology features
* Knowledge of the Internet and how to use it to its full advantage with Window-Eyes
* Knowledge of how to customize your computer, making graphics, words, and colors speak the way you want them to
* CEUs (for an additional fee)
* Many more skills. Check out www.gwmicro.com/training for more information

Unlike other training courses that can cost up to $1,000 per day, Window-Eyes training is only $325 per day per student. Remember that GW Micro accepts most major credit cards, checks, money orders, and almost all state authorizations. To sign up for the training, please register at https://www.gwmicro.com/Training/Window-Eyes_Training/Registration/. Make sure to select Minneapolis, MN as the location for training.

For directions to the training location, please call Blind, Inc. at 1-800-597-9558 or visit the Blind, Inc. website at http://www.blindinc.org/ .

Space is limited, so sign up soon!

If you have any questions regarding the training, please contact Jeremy Curry at (260) 489-3671, or email Jeremy at jeremy@gwmicro.com for more information.

Blindness: Learning In New Dimensions (BLIND), Inc. is a world-renowned training center for the blind. By learning alternative techniques, building self-confidence, and developing a positive attitude about blindness, students of all ages become self-sufficient and independent so they are in control of their own life rather than having blindness control it.

Decision Fatigue

2011-08-29T23:36:00.000-07:00

This is a really interesting article that walks a boundary between cognitive science and language issues. The link came in on an interpreter list.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html?_r=1&ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=all

Grammar Lesson: Conjunctions

2011-08-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

RantWoman thanks two charming gentlemen on the number 8 bus on Saturday for the following stunning realization: RantWoman has heard forms of a certaing common English epithet which begins with an F used as

nouns

verbs

adverbs

adjectives

possessive pronouns

interjections

Alas, RantWoman in the whole entire history of her encounters with this word has NEVER head the F word used as... a conjunction!

RantWoman thanks two gentlemen, Seriously Needs the Gym and The Gym Definitely Wouldn't Hurt for drawing this grievous deficit to RantWoman's attention. Seriously Needs the Gym and The Gym Wouldn't Hurt were both wearing red t-shirts and baggy shorts. RantWoman is unsure about hats, but Seriously Needs the Gym had his right arm in some kind of a bandage with a splint and the end of an Ace bandage dangling off the fingers end.

See RantWoman and Ambassador Thwack were fogging home from a big picnic. RantWoman realized that a transfer to the number 8 would take her most directly home. As RantWoman boarded, Seriously Needs the Gym started in on some kind of rant and ramble of a decidedly provocative nature, well-salted with forms of a certain word in all its multipart of speech variations. Someone in back answered back a time or two and RantWoman decided the verbiage was most likely just trash talk, trash talk for which RantWoman was going to need to wash her brain out when she got home but just trash talk.

Well, if the gentlemen had ever gotten around to F word as conjunction, RantWoman would have leapt up, high-fived them both and congratulated them on their grammatical prowess. Alas, the driver spoke up and they decided just to move to the back of the bus; RantWoman is just as happy not to hear any further grammatical expiermentation after they moved back.

Good Night Irene

2011-08-29T15:08:00.000-07:00

RantWoman has been reflecting on Hurricane Irene and especially on eerie thoughts of

--weathering a hurricane in a skyscraper. RantWoman thinks this might be even more disconcerting than being in a skyscraper during an earthquake. RantWoman has personal experience with neither and is shamelessly speculating regardless.

--closing down all public transportation including subways in New York City.

RantWoman was thinking of all this but RantWoman's media diet tends not to include up-to-the-second visuals--except when RantWoman dines at RantMom's. RantWoman was actually looking forward, last night, to just a few visuals.

RantMom had other ideas. RantMom's take previously on total immersion news coverage, "Turn off the television. You're more fun than oil spills!" RantWoman is just going to have to be touched that RantMom feels the same way about RantWoman with respect to giant hurricanes.

RantWoman allowed herself a few moments of nostalgia from her plunge into far off college life. RantWoman opted for a week of hiking before school started. Unfortunately, our camping trip got washed out of the Catskills by Hurricane David even though David was a mere wisp of a storm compared to Hurricane Irene.

RantWoman also thinks the east coast probably has more than enough moisture thank you very much and is thinking with care of large recovery efforts.

Bounty

2011-08-27T01:28:00.000-07:00

RantWoman has this possibly absurd pretension that she is a gardener. That is RantWoman has a balcony. RantWoman has pots with various things planted. Specifically RantWoman planted:

chives, thriving

parsley, thriving in multiple pots

basil, no clue what happened

something else RantWoman does not now recognize which has already bolted after growing to 3 feet high and grey and spindly

and, most important, TOMATOES!!!!!

RantWoman is permitting herself that exclamatory excess because:

--RantWoman has about4 good plants forming sort of a jungle in one corner of her balcony

--RantWoman ACTUALLY HAS TOMATOES. RantWoman has spoken by phone to multiple informants who all imply that RantWoman is about the only person they know in Seattle who actually has tomatoes!

RantWoman is trying not to lead this distinction go to her head.

Lives Worth Living PBS Documentary

2011-08-25T11:54:00.000-07:00

One of the things RantWoman has always liked about The Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing is its “cross-disability” aspect. Stir a bunch of people with different disabilities and life experience into a computer lab. Add the internet and who can imagine what synergies might result.

End of commercial.

RantWoman felt obliged to include the commercial because of grousing about underpresentation of certain disabilities. The grousing got added to each increment of forwarding in the email chain that delivered this press release about upcoming PBS documentary Lives Worth Living.

RantWoman has no illusions that posting this item in her blog is necessarily anything but redundant. However, RantWoman wants reliably to be able to find info again for herself and the blogosphere gets to reap the benefits. RantWoman’s lexicography fans should especially note a number of terms related to disabilities, services by and for people with disabilities, and organizing slogans.

For instance, Mitch Pomerantz, President of the American Council of the Blind
…overlook completely the pioneering efforts of the organized blind movement throughout the '40's, '50's and '60's. The only blind individual included is Mary Jane Owen, … Mary Jane, however, was not a leader in either the NFB or ACB; in fact, she was known more as an activist in the independent living, cross-disability movement. One of the catch-phrases of the aforementioned IL movement is "nothing about us without us!" Well, perhaps during the talk back section following the program, one of us should point out that this slogan kind of rings hollow with no participation by one of our leaders.
Mitch Pomerantz

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
…
For downloadable images, visit http://pressroom.pbs.org
LIVES WORTH LIVING PREMIERES ON THE PBS SERIES INDEPENDENT LENS ON
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2011 AT 10 PM
Powerful Documentary Chronicles the History of America's Disability Rights Movement

(San Francisco, CA) - While there are close to 50 million Americans living with disabilities, Lives Worth Living is the first television history of their decades-long struggle for equal rights.

Produced and directed by Eric Neudel, Lives Worth Living is a window into a world inhabited by people with an unwavering determination to live their lives like everyone else, and a look back into a past when millions of Americans lived without access to schools, apartment buildings, and public transportation -a way of life unimaginable today. Lives Worth Living premieres on the EmmyR Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens, on Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 10 PM (check local listings).

Lives Worth Living traces the development of the disability rights movement from its beginning following World War II, when thousands of disabled veterans returned home, through its burgeoning in the 1960s and 1970s, when it began to adopt the tactics of other social movements.

Told through interviews with the movement's pioneers, legislators, and others, Lives Worth Living explores how Americans with a wide variety of disabilities - including the blind, deaf, mentally, and physically challenged - banded together to change public perception and policy.

Through demonstrations and legislative battles, the disability rights community finally secured equal civil rights with the 1990 passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, one of the most transformative pieces of civil rights legislation in American history.

To learn more about the film, and the issues involved, visit the film's companion website at www.pbs.org/independentlens/. Get detailed information on the film, watch preview clips, read an interview with the filmmaker, and explore the subject in depth with links and resources. The site also features a Talkback section, where viewers can share their ideas and opinions.

About the Participants, in Order of Appearance

Fred Fay, early leader in the disability rights movement (1944 - 2011)

Ann Ford, director of the Illinois National Council on Independent Living

Judy Heumann, leading disability rights activist

Judi Chamberlin, Mental Patients Liberation Front, a movement for the rights and dignity of people with mental illness (1944-2010)

Dr. William Bronston, former staff physician at the notorious Willowbrook State School who was dismissed after agitating for change

Bob Kafka, established ADAPT of Texas, a disability rights advocacy organization

Zona Roberts, counselor, UC Berkeley's Physically Disabled Students' Program and Center for Independent Living, Berkeley; mother of disability rights pioneer Ed Roberts

Pat Wright, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund

John Wodatch, Chief, Disability Rights Section, Civil Rights Division, U. S. Department of Justice

Jack Duncan, Former Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives

Mary Jane Owen, disability rights activist, philosopher, policy expert, and writer

Marca Bristo, CEO, Access Living and leader in the disability rights movement

Michael Winter, former director, Berkeley Center for Independent Living

Lex Frieden, former director, National Council on the Handicapped

Dr. I. King Jordan, President Emeritus, Gallaudet University

Jeff Rosen, alumni leader, Gallaudet University

Senator Tom Harkin, (D-Iowa)

Bobby Silverstein, Chief Counsel, Senate Subcommittee on Disability Policy

Richard Thornburgh, US Attorney General, 1988-1991

Tony Coelho, former Congressman, House Majority Whip, 1986-1989

About the Filmmaker
Eric Neudel (Producer/Director) has produced, directed, and edited numerous award-winning films for public television. His many credits include Eyes on the Prize, AIDS: Chapter One, LBJ Goes to War, Tet 1968, Steps, After the Crash, The Philippines and The US: In Our Image, Body and Soul, and more.

He was a visiting senior critic and lecturer in film at Yale University and served as producer, director, and editor for Harvard University's Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, and Spectrum Media's program series on the art and craft of teaching. Neudel was also a photographer and video production consultant, teaching video production to a team working for the Compass Project in Malawi. Photographs from his two years in Malawi were exhibited in the Sandra and Phillip Gordon Gallery at The Boston Arts Academy in October 2007.

He also served as story consultant for Row Hard No Excuses, an award-winning documentary about two middle aged American men who set out to cross the Atlantic in a rowboat. Most recently he served as a photographer in Rwanda for The Boston Globe, where he directed, produced, and edited a companion documentary about the Maranyundo Middle School, which was built on the site of one of the worst concentration camps and killing fields in Rwanda.

About Independent Lens
Independent Lens is an EmmyR Award-winning weekly series airing Tuesday nights at 10 PM on PBS. The acclaimed anthology series features documentaries and a limited number of fiction films united by the creative freedom, artistic achievement, and unflinching visions of their independent producers. Independent Lens features unforgettable stories about a unique individual, community or moment in history. Presented by the Independent Television Service (ITVS), the series is supported by interactive companion websites and national publicity and community engagement campaigns. Further information about the series is available at www.pbs.org/independentlens. Independent Lens is jointly curated by ITVS and PBS; it is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private corporation funded by the American people, with additional funding provided by PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts. The series producer is Lois Vossen.

An Astute Survey: ACB and Google Collaborate

2011-08-20T23:24:00.000-07:00

RantWoman heartily endorses the following survey. Well RantWoman lost patience part way through and did not actually complete it, but RantWoman thinks it asks astute well-informed questions. RantWoman thinks it asks astute well-informed questions, but this did not prevent RantWoman from getting frustrated part way through. RantWoman also supposes she would ask people who are employed what tools they use on the job what functionality is most important for the tools they use on the job, and how they rate themselves as far as knowledge of advanced functionality in their tools. But RantWoman wants to PROMOTE, not rewrite the survey.

Subject: [VICUG-L] ACB and Google Conduct Survey to Better Understand Computer Usage and Assistive Technology Patterns in the Blind Community

Dear all,

Thank you for all your interest in the Google survey. Those of you wishing
to take the survey through the web will now be able to do so. Please visit
http://www.acb.org/googlesurvey for more details. If you wish to use the
telephone option, please pay special attention to the hours during which Ms.
Hartmann will respond in person. She will be available between 11:00 AM and
9:00 PM eastern from Monday through Saturday. During other hours, please
leave a message. For your convenience, I am providing a copy of the press
release below.

Please also see http://www.acb.org/googlesurvey%20to find out more about how to win one of 7 Amazon.com gift certificates after completing the survey.
Encourage all to submit the survey.

Warm regards,

Pratik

For Immediate Release

Contact: Eric Bridges
Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs
American Council of the Blind
Phone: (202) 467-5081
e-mail: ebridges@acb.org

American Council of the Blind and Google Conduct Survey to Better Understand
Computer Usage and Assistive Technology Patterns in the Blind Community

ARLINGTON, Va., Aug. 16, 2011 -- Today, the American Council of the Blind
(ACB) announced it will be working with Google Inc. to survey blind,
visually impaired, and deaf-blind individuals to better understand how they
use computers and assistive technology to access information.

"Having access to information through the use of accessible technology is
paramount in this day and age for education, employment and social
networking. Many studies have evaluated how users generally access the
Internet, but none have focused specifically on the experience of blind
users," said Mitch Pomerantz, President of the American Council of the
Blind. "We're pleased to collaborate with Google to develop and implement
this survey, which will look at how blind users choose and adopt assistive
technologies and how they discover new tools and information. Understanding
the needs of the blind community is the first step to developing effective
new ways of accessing information in the cloud."

The survey, developed jointly by Google and the American Council of the
Blind, will gather data about technology use and needs in the blind
community. Respondents will be able to complete the survey by either
telephone or web. Survey data will be used to better understand how blind
users interact with the web, which assistive technologies they find most
useful, and how they make decisions about whether to switch or upgrade
tools.

"At Google we're committed to making our products accessible and we're
currently hard at work making improvements," said Alan Eustace, Senior Vice
President of Knowledge at Google. "By connecting with American Council of
the Blind members, we hope to gain valuable insight into how the blind use
the Internet and how their needs are evolving with technology."

The survey, which will run through the end of -September, is available
immediately at www.acb.org/googlesurvey.

About the American Council of the Blind

The American Council of the Blind is the largest consumer-based organization
of blind and visually impaired Americans advocating for the rights of blind
Americans. Comprised of more than 70 affiliates across the United States,
the organization is dedicated to making it possible for blind and visually
impaired Americans to participate fully in all aspects of American society.
For more information, visit www.acb.org; write to American Council of the
Blind, 2200 Wilson Blvd., Suite 650, Arlington, VA 22201; phone (202)
467-5081; or fax (703) 465-5085.

Life List

2011-08-19T21:28:00.000-07:00

RantWoman has the sort of friends only a transit geek could appreciate. Tonight a friend of RantWoman's called to regale RantWoman with a whole list of bus routes she has ridden today.

RantWoman was, for reasons of her own, not feeling especially attentive until....until RantWoman recognized the unrealized potential for bus riders to compile statistics and record, say, life lists of all the bus routes they have ridden!

Fantasy du jour

2011-08-13T08:55:00.000-07:00

Once again, RantWoman admits to, um, peculiar fantasies. Today RantWOman is thinking about going to an event at Anderson Park in downtown Redmond.

http://www.ci.redmond.wa.us/cms/one.aspx?portalId=169&pageId=4077

RantWoman calls her readers' attention to the directions and the stunning automobile-centeredness of the directions listed. RantWoman's most basic fantasy about transit-friendly enhancements would be either some kind of mention of specific routes with nearby stops or direct links to the Trip Planner, perhaps with the address already supplied in the destination field.

See, to go to this event, RantWoman is going to have to do a lot more work than just to get in a car:

--Look up bus connections and directions on the trip planner.

--Figure out whether there are workable routings that are Metro-only and therefore covered by RantWoman's current pass or whether the routings involve SoundTransit and then RantWoman will have to make sure her ORCA wallet includes sufficient funds.

--log on to www.orcacard.com and check the balance in her ORCA wallet for fares beyond the level of her pass.

--cope woth digressions and interruptions that come up in the course of all these steps.

--whine all over her blog about fresh new hassles made quicker and easier by the vast power of the information superhighway.

Oh wait, RantWoman is starting to froth at the keyboard and should just get about her tasks. Still recognition on such sites that people might arrive by bus would be fabulous. RantWoman realizes every city has lots of parks, but still

Earthquakes, Tsunami, Nuclear Power Plants Oh My!

2011-08-07T08:45:00.000-07:00

RantWoman is filing this item for future reference for a number of reasons:

--It comes from a source where RantWoman would not really think to look for opinions about disaster preparedness and relative risk.

--The point of view is other than RantWoman would automatically predict for this publication' readership.

--RantWoman finds the writing a little muddled but sees a whole bunch of interesting statistics and challenging arguments.

Maybe one of these days, RantWoman will have time to read more.

http://www.friendsjournal.org/earthquake-tsunami-and-nuclear-power-japan

National Lentil Festival August 19-20

2011-08-05T00:24:00.000-07:00

RantWoman is just thrilled! RantWoman clicked on something and something else entirely popped up. However, th something else is something RantWoman is actually interested in supporting, to wit the National Lentil Festival!

http://www.lentilfest.com/

The Palouse regionof Eastern WA and ID produces 1/3 of all the lentils grown in the US. This festival includes entertainment stages, a lentil cookoff, lentil king and queen, winetasting, and a host of other fascinating events. Plus the Palouse is just gorgeous and RantWoman LIKES lentils! Enjoy!

Idaho's Forgotten War

2011-08-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

RantWoman's summer travel budget is running long on colorful workshop experiences and opportunities to view amazing documentaries. RantWoman will specify the name of her experience in a separate post; the item here deserves to stand on its own.
Idaho's Forgotten War: a new documentary directed by Sonya Rosario
http://www.idahosforgottenwar.com/

RantWoman would have been in 7th or 8th grade (RantWoman is just fuzzy about the timing) the year the Kootenai nation of Northern ID declared war on the US. Even though ID is right next door to MT, RantWoman does not remember hearing a peep about this outrageous act of native aggression. Okay an 8th grade RantWoman had not yet even thought about enough Gandhi to fully appreciate the nonviolent wonder of this occasion. Nor had RantWoman acquired enough experience with protest where the number of police officers is nearly as large as the number involved in the protest. RantWoman remembers not hearing a peep, but RantWoman would almost certainly have been intrigued.

The Kootenai tribe of Northern ID had never signed any kind of agreement with the US government about tribal status and a reservation. In the early 1970's, tribal leaders kept addressing different relevant bureaucracies in Washington DC. One bureaucracy would say "we cannot help you without thus and so from another bureaucracy; the second bureaucracy would say "We cannot help you without thus and so from the first bureaucracy." Life was NOT going well on the reservation and the Kootenais elected a young woman named Amy Trice as tribal chairwoman.

RantWoman recommends that readers more interested in details such as circumstances leading up to the decision to declare war do more historical research than RantWoman has done for this post. The point is that a tribe of about 60 people armed with nothing more fearsome than a pen and a flyswatter the tribal chairwoman once waved at a representative of the state police declared war on the US. As if the US government did not have enough to do what with the Cold War and the Arab oil embargo.

Declaring war attracted the attention of the ID state police who sent in 35 police vehicles. It also attracted the attention of the American Indian Movement who wanted to send in warriors; a small contingent of scouts found a way to get there but the Kootenais declined further help. A congressman and two Senators realized that a visit to the Kootenais would be all in a day's work. Still the Kootenais held their line: there would be no violence; the only weapon they cared about was the pen. Finally a delegation of Kootenais was dispatched to Washington DC and very substantial progress was achieved.

Rather than go on at further length, RantWoman recommends her readers buy and watch the video themselves, talk it up and help ensure that it is widely seen. RantWoman is also obliged to report sad news. Former Kootenai Tribal Chairwoman Amy Trice was supposed to appear at the event where RantWoman saw the video. Unfortunately, Amy passed away the week before this event and RantWoman can only include links to some memorial items!

Amy Trice on ID public TV
http://idahoptv.org/productions/idahoportrait/about/trice.html

http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/missoula/amy-trice-dead-at-75/Content?oid=1489952

Indianz.com obit
http://64.38.12.138/News/2011/002498.asp

Spokesman Review
http://www.newsbf.com/news/1107/24amy_trice.html

We are all transgendered now

2011-08-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

RantWoman has discovered a very modest budget way to collide with cultures most people go a LONG time without thinking very much about: the life of the transgendered, intersex, or "gender queer."RantWoman has spent all weekend adding pronoun gender preference to her standard workshop go-around intro and elevator speech and choosing between conventional and "gender neutral" restrooms.

First the pronoun gender preference concern:
RantWoman is a she / her person and contented to be so. RantWoman has spent enough time around linguistic feminists sometimes to use they / their / them to avoid the generic male. This usage in contexts where the number is clearly singular would fry her late grammarian RantFather's nerves, though RantWoman hears the usage often enough from others to entertain the idea that, in the march of linguistic evolution, quibbling about use of plural forms when the referent is singular may be sort of "last century."

Still, RantWoman is further called to tread cautiously when it comes to idiosyncratic use of plural forms: RantWoman has a very, very good friend who uses plural forms in reference to her selves, the several of her that add up to the label multiple personality disorder. RantWoman's friend is far enough along in meeting the several of her that she would likely object to the term "disorder," even though she may be stuck with it as true to others' experience of the situation.

RantWoman was interested to hear, as she has previously actually that zie and hir are also used to avoid specifying or presuming any specific gender. At this point, interpreter brain was going to kick in. For one thing, RantWoman was at an event where interpretation to and from Spanish was available if needed; in practice people tended toward monolingual clumps anyway and RantWoman decided to take a holiday as far as thinking about the topic in any other language besides English. This also freed up RantWoman brain space for more meditations about gender neutral restrooms.

Gender neutral restrooms, for the uninitiated are a nod to people who identify as transgendered, that is generally they feel their true gender is not the one reflected by their body. RantWoman invites her readers to put any of the terms in the first paragraph into the search engine of their choice for all manner of opinion and emotion, background and back story. The point is that the peculiar forced intimacy of public restrooms is frequently a zone where transgendered people experience discrimination, hostility, and violence.

RantWoman can in fact cite a situation she heard about: teen from Seattle who identifies as transgender went to visit cousin in MT. Teen wanted to use restroom consistent with the gender he identified. Other local teenagers refused to use the restroom while the visiting teen was inside. RantWoman concedes this is one way to avoid violence and harassment but RantWoman wishes the solution had come with more articulate appreciation of the challenges faced by the visiting teen.

In gender neutral bathrooms, it is even less appropriate than average to make assumptions about a person's gender, gender presentation, or numbers of other points people frequently make assumptions about.

However, the restroom is also a place where people feel cautious and vulnerable and all sorts of views come spewing out. Gender neutral bathrooms are of course the same bathrooms provided by building codes and modern architectural and restroom usage practices: if RantWoman were looking for a reason to change her gender, the opportunity to use men's restrooms would NOT leap to the top of her list. In fact, RantWoman very occasionally for some good reason has used men's restrooms. Every single time, RantWoman finds herself wondering why guys put up with the amenities and (cough!) cleanliness typically offered. In any case, at the event RantWoman just attended, the only difference between regular and gender neutral restrooms is that signs have been stuck on the doors of he restrooms designated gender-neutral to allow the squeamish to choose other alternatives. These signs tend not to be ADA compliant. Signs or no signs, a time or two RantWoman has wandered into men's rooms by mistake; Ambassador Thwack the badly behaved white cane is generally quite helpful in easing everyone's embarrassment.

At the event RantWoman just returned from, RantWoman just opted to use whichever restroom was closest as long as it was not specifically a men's room. RantWoman finds herself grateful that she found only restrooms which in regular operation are women's restrooms. One of the members of RantWoman's group, the most vocally and colorfully queer member of the group had a different experience and had quite colorful things to say about someone he identified as a woman using a urinal.

RantWoman lives in Seattle. RantWoman knows several people who are transgendered. RantWoman does not necessarily know these people well, but in a few cases still knows more than she necessarily think she needs to know. However maybe that is the point. RantWoman's flamingly queer travelling companion is challenged about transgender issues. RantWoman is challenged about transgender issues. RantWoman knows other people, even people very engaged and supportive who are challenged about transgender issues. Maybe that is exactly the reason for everyone at a gathering of community organizers to have to decide about pronoun gender preference and gender neutral restrooms.

Okay, maybe that's the point, but RantWoman is still glad to be home!

For further reading:
http://petersontoscano.wordpress.com/2011/07/31/becoming-one-flesh-at-transfaith-in-color-conference/

http://aquakerwitch.blogspot.com/2011/03/radical-love-radical-inclusion-and.html

http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2011/01/community-teas-about-rape-and-violence.html

Happy Birthday IBM Selectric

2011-08-02T00:46:00.000-07:00

RantWoman thanks a former high school classmate for numerous reflections on music, culture, and reminiscence which have landed in the inbox since our high school class passed a major reunion a couple years ago. This classmate was one of about a dozen faces who showed up in our senior year yeabook on all the section division pages. RantWoman does not particularly consider him a close friend but continues to be touched by the material which arrives in the inbox.

RantWoman finds the following items particularly evocative but presently feels no need to rant at length about her own peculiar relationship with typing class. RantWoman's readers may assume there is something to say but let us let the IBM selectric stand on its own for now.

RantWoman has also opted to edit only lightly, mainly for length:

========

...I loved this thing so much in high school that I suppose I always thought of it as a person. A very special person. This "thing" was always there for me. It always gave unconditional love.

If I went back in time and back through high school again without this thing in my life, I don't know where I would be today. I would probably be some bum on skid row (does Billings still have a skid row?) mumbling about how society doesn't fully appreciate malt liquor.

I know it was eons ago just right after the dinosaurs. But try to remember your high school education. You can do it. Remember 8-track tapes. Your love of Barry Manilow. OK, a test for you. Look at the clock. You get one minute to think of one thing that stood out in your high school education (classroom education, not boy/girl anatomy education if you get my drift) that was of significant value to you in your life. Go!

...

The most valuable thing that stood out in my high school education had almost nothing to do with a teacher. Although a teacher taught this course obviously (this was before the Internet folks and taking on-line classes), the material was very rote and just about any higher level mammal could have taught it.

The course was Typing. And the very special thing in my life was the typewriter. But not just any typewriter. The typewriter we used was the IBM Selectric.

The IBM Selectric turns 50 this year.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/27/ibm-selectric-typewriter-turns-50-yells-at-tablets-to-get-off-i/

What a lovely piece of machinery. It was almost a musical instrument. If you try to learn to play an instrument that is out of tune, hard to play, looks ugly...guess what? You're going to quit learning how to play it. The Selectric was so lovely that you looked forward every day to caressing it (ok, Rob, you're getting a little weird now).

So I thrived in my quest to learn typing. Big whoop. Rob learned typing. So what?

How much time have I saved in my life due to my wonderful typing skills? Loads. I had no idea that computers would be sitting on every desk and typing would become a huge part of our lives. I was just thinking that I was going to college and I had better learn how to type because I would have to do term papers. How much more productive have I been in my life due to being able to type? Let me get out my calculator (don't get my started on my love of the TI-30 but since I piqued your curiousity, read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-30 ). 1.58% Yep, I've been 1.58% more productive in my life due to typing. Your knowledge of how state legislatures pass laws actually decreased your productivity by 2.13%. So there!

Anyone remember the movie "Peggy Sue Got Married"? Kathleen Turner is the actress who finds herself transported back into high school but with present day knowledge. She's in Algebra class and, of course, it's test day.

Watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3eKzmozvrI

So IBM Selectric, I salute you. By the way, if anyone has one in their basement, it wouldn't make a bad birthday present for someone else who is going to turn 50 in a few weeks. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

Really great client education: sign language interpreter

2011-07-26T17:36:00.000-07:00

Among RantWoman's many activities, she occasionally does spoken langauge interpreting. RantWOman is not nearly as much of a dynamo as the interpreter in this story.

RantWoman put the link in on purpose above the image partly as an experiment.

RantWoman is utterly charmed by the interpreter arguing ethics with the lawyer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGREpPnLLSY

Kindled

2011-07-25T10:34:00.000-07:00

For several weeks now, RantWoman has had...a Kindle.

The verdict?

There is much to like and much to be annoyed by; RantWoman has to admit that some of the annoyance may be RantWoman factors that any vendor will be hard put to overcome.

RantWoman has one of the low-end models, not the high-end model with all audio controls. RantWoman has enough vision in small time increments to be able to find the controls to turn on reading of menus and to find the buttons necessary to scroll through menus and turn on Text to speech every time she opens a document. RantWoman considers the need to do this a nuisance, but apparently not enough of a nuisance to pop for the more expensive model.

RantWoman is kind of wishing she had paid more attention and gotten the 3G connectivity option. However, RantWoman feels really lucky to have plenty of Wi-Fi about for most of her needs. But then RantWoman really does not feel obliged to be permanently in tune with the ether either.

RantWoman really likes:

Friendly customer service. At some point, RantWoman got a hostile error message but the hostile error message contained a phone number which took RantWoman to an actual live human and a live human taking calls at a date and hour RantWoman would not necessarily have predicted.

The size

The brightness of the display and some contrast control options RantWoman has not played much with.

the tactile keyboard even though RantWoman would not mind if some frequently-used keys had something to make them more easily findable.

The adjustable font size.

The male voice. RantWoman has tried the female voice briefly and likes the male one better. RantWoman found the volume control by accident and would like ever so much to have a speed control to increase the reading speed for the text-to-speech option.

RantWoman is challenged by:

Her capacity to fall asleep while reading the instruction manual. Boring content is one issue; the other seems to be that RantWoman just has not become as adept at pulling key chunks of content out of audio streams as she was when she could read visually. WHINE.

The lack of physical indicators to help scroll through content. RantWoman finds it reassuring to be able to use her fingers to get 1/3 or 3/4 of the way through something and then do more fine-grained thumbing some other way. RantWoman thinks she would find this lack of physical orienters challenging whether she were dealing with a Kindle, various of the Braille devices she occasionally contemplates, or, say, a tablet PC. Double whine.

Inability so far to figure what incantations she needs to murmur or what format transformation path she needs to find in order to be able to read PDF documents text-to-speech. RantWoman means to persevere in her attempts, but RantWoman finds the topic vexatious. For one thing, RantWoman downloaded a bunch of things connected with her faith community and the Kindle not only refuses to read them aloud, it also insists on partial inadequate zoom instead of the lovely text size adjustment RantWoman has found on actual Kindle content.

Bafflement about how to clear things out of her directory, either PDF files RantWoman cannot make work or free content RantWoman does not want to have to keep scrooling through. RantWoman supposes there are probably instructions about this in the instructions manual. Now if only she could either stay awake to read the manual or find a physical way to get quickly to the right section. Or call customer service...

RantWoman supposes she could have worse problems.

RantWoman may in fact really like her Kindle anyway.

RantWoman reads: Orhan Pamuk, Istanbul. As much exotica as her trvel budget will support, part literary essay, part autobiography, part reflection the march of history. The writing is very male, which in this case means, among other things that there are many wonderful, clear well-crafted moments but the complexities of one-on-one human interaction figure less than for other writers. RantWoman persists in enjoying the book anyway.

More fiftieth anniversary Civil Rights writing

2011-07-22T06:09:00.000-07:00

RantWoman notes the following item and book about Calvin Trillin and the civil rights struggles being commemorated in fiftieth anniversary celebrations this year.

http://wagingnonviolence.org/2011/07/calvin-trillin-on-carpetbagging-for-civil-rights/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WagingNonviolence+%28Waging+Nonviolence%29

F.Y.R.O.M.

2011-07-18T13:55:00.000-07:00

RantWoman geography quiz:

F.Y.R.O.M.

Today RantWoman's NeoWorx counter sent her an alert about now reaching F.Y.R.O.M. RantWoman was taken aback to think there is a country out there whose name is only capital letters and periods. RantWoman was a little worried that this must be some kind of surrealist typesetting exercise.

Then the RantWoman brain emerged from its summer vacation haze: Ohhhh. Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Now RantWoman has new queries and vexations. Who assigns names like this? They are the former whatever. Don't they have a present?

There is a further geographical non sequitur. Macedonian is an EAST Slavic language. What the heck is East Slavia doing right in the middle of South (Yugo) Slavia or is it Former South Slavia? RantWoman does not necessarily mean to make light of hundreds of years of bloody Balkan history, but RantWoman is PERPLEXED.

RantWoman is tired enough from a short trip that she should probably give her Cause of the Day good intentions a rest. Since when does RantWoman know when to quit? RantWoman hereby offers space on her blog for a campaign to help the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to find themselves a new name, to seek it out or generate it via a contest or.... RantWoman invites comments. RantWoman makes NO promises a to what she will do with comments, but here world, have at it!

Happy Birthday St. Basil's

2011-07-12T09:54:00.000-07:00

RantWoman thanks Google for calling to her attention the 450th anniversary of St. Basil's Cathedral, Red Square, Moscow.

St. Basil's is probably the most famous cathedral in Russia if only because of the numerous cupolas, some with knobbly textured roofs, some with roofs that swirl like a soft ice cream cone, some of one color, come of two or more.

RantWoman imagines that she is supposed to feel blessed that she has time to dabble in historical excursions; RantWoman does not feel blessed not to have more time to pen something thoughtful on her own and will have to content herself with a few excursions brought to her by the search engine of her choice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Basil's_Cathedral

http://www.moscow.info/red-square/st-basils-cathedral.aspx

Further full disclosure: RantWoman once visited St. Basil's, on April Fool's day, in the middle of a snow and slush festival, after visiting "The Stiff," Lenin's tomb. RantWoman notes the long historical practice of burying kings in cathedrals. Given a sepulchral choice between a pedestrian path through the boxy interior of Lenin's tomb and the light and dark and spatial complexity of St. Basil's, RantWoman would probably go for St. Basil's but RantWoman is mostly glad modern burial customs are more outdoor oriented.