Gimme Hoodie: On Earth as in Montana

RantWoman is simultaneously interacting with #BlackFriday and observing National Buy Nothing day. RantWoman is also warming up for #CyberMonday through contemplation online of buying options.

RantWoman is deeply amused by endless campaigns by www.teespring.com  exhorting the likes of RantWoman to hurry up and BUY from the short production run of the week for clothing patterns such as the below. RantWoman is well enough charmed by thoughts of a hoodie referring to "On Earth as in Montant" to present it as an option if asked by the right people what she wants for Christmas, but RantWoman is more likely actually to buy some other items ahead of this.

Survey: invitation to fantasize about a food and nutrition app

The survey at the bottom of the post came to RantWoman via the Nebraska Council of the Blind.

It is clearly market research, but it is also a great opportunity to fantasize about features one might want in a mobile app related to grocery shopping. It also has more than enough open-ended fields to satisfy RantWoman's need sometimes to respecify survey questions.

--For example, RantWoman's inclination to pay for such an app is ZERO unless it has some privacy features such as being able to scan barcodes from multiple places. into a private list and then check her list against prices at different stores.

--RantWoman might want to work her weekly or shopping list, recipe library, menu, on a website on a bigger device than her mobile phone and then have something brief available for mobile.

--RantWoman is always a giant advocate of designing accessibility in from the beginning AND RantWoman thinks doing so is garden variety reasonable accommodation. RantWoman wants it to work from the first release of the app and to work with other features the same ways other people access info.

With those comments to bias feedback,, er invite readers to riff on such themes, here goes:

This is a feasibility study for an app idea, as part of a group assignment for class. He is
requesting help to complete this survey for the feasibility study. The
survey should take no more than 5-7 minutes and any help is greatly
appreciated.  I took the survey and it is completely accessible.  Please
circulate this survey far and wide.

Here is the survey: http://goo.gl/forms/8Ztl6j5pLL

RantWoman has no idea how long thesurvey is open and encourages readers to get your licks in sooner rather than later.

WA State Transportation Commission Voices of WA State items

RantWoman shamelessly reprints from email in order to remind herself and make it easier to find again:

The Washington State Transportation Commission (WSTC) has released the results of several completed 2014 Voice of Washington State (VOWS) surveys. We would like to share the results of these surveys with you so you can see how state residents like you voted on key transportation issues. Click on any of the links below to see the summary of results for each survey.

Attitudes Towards WSF Held by Statewide Residents
Inventory of Residential Vehicles

If you would like to read the full report for any of these studies, they are available on the Transportation Commission’s website at: 2014 Voice of Washington Statewide Survey Panel Results.

In about a week we will also be sending you an invitation to a new study on how we should fund our transportation system going forward that we would like to get your opinions on.

Thank you for your continued participation in our VOWS panel, and for making your voice heard.


Anne Haley, Chairman
Washington State Transportation Commission
http://wstc.wa.gov/

Seattle Art Museum 2015 Accessible tours

Quote from the person who forwarded the item below:
"In 2015, the Seattle Art Museum is hosting free "accessible tours" that
includes a "touch tour" of American Indian Art.  That is a big step forward
from the last time I visited this facility and  felt very very unwelcome."

ACCESS tours occur monthly and may take place at any of SAM's three
locations: the Seattle Art Museum downtown, the Asian Art Museum at
Volunteer Park, or the Olympic Sculpture Park on the waterfront. The tours
cover content from SAM's permanent collections, or from special
exhibitions.
ACCESS tours are free of charge, but advance registration is required.
Spots are limited, so reservations operate on a first come, first served
basis. To register for a tour, email
educatorprograms@seattleartmuseum.org.
1/28/2015 (Wed) 11-12:30 pm: Multi-sensory tour on India/ City Dwellers,
SAM http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/exhibitions/citydwellers
2/25/2015 (Wed) 11-12:15 pm: Visual Description on Permanent Collection of
African art, SAM
3/25/2015 (Wed) 11-12:15 pm:  Visual Description on Indigenous Beauty:
Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Diker Collection, SAM
http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/indigenous
4/25/2015 (Sat) 10-11:30 am: Touch Tour on Indigenous Beauty: Masterworks
of American Indian Art from the Diker Collection , SAM
5/27/2015 (Wed) 11-12:15 pm: Visual Description on Permanent Collection,
Seattle Asian Art Museum
6/17/2015 (Wed) 11-12:15 pm:  Visual Description on Permanent Collection,
Olympic Sculpture Park

Yesler Terrace Youth Videos about Redevelopment Project

Here are the links to the films produced by Yesler’s youth about the Yesler redevelopment, for those of you that were unable to attend the screenings. If you have any questions about the project, please contact Asfaha Lemlem, Yesler Learning Center Coordinator at ASFAHA LEMLEM Asfaha.lemlem@seattle.gov.



Invisible Control: http://youtu.be/-MeUT6WfPI0

Portrait of Yesler: http://youtu.be/GYVXleNKGFY

What’s In It for You?: http://youtu.be/y0D-1TsxU78

Against All Odds: http://youtu.be/96rhL0WolGE



 

Update: Kevin Gallagher to return to SMC in 2015

RantWoman is reprinting this item verbatim from email update about ASL interpretation for Seattle Men's Chorus performances.

Kevin Gallagher is returning in 2015.  As for now, SMC will hire
qualified/certified interpreters from now to provide access.  However,
they are keeping Kevin. He will continue to provide his "interpretation"
for separate shows. He will return to "performing" in the Spring.
We, as of the SMC team, are still processing this information and we need
your input. Please email me directly at kmroberts75@gmail to share your
thoughts and input.

We need to hear from you. We want to know how you feel. We want to know
how you feel we should respond.

Here is the link to the blog  so you may read the full text of the letter
Flying House Productions sent out to their fans.
http://openlettertosmc.blogspot.com/2014/11/update-kevin-gallagher-will-return.html

RantWoman offers the following observations:
--RantWoman is glad from the links  that Seattle Men's Chorus at last recognizes that they have a problem.

--RantWoman says "At last" because RantWoman remembers Ferrener Husband's first and only attendance at an SMC performance. Ferrener Husband is Deaf, from a Deaf family and another country. He became Husband partly because he was willing to stand up as firmly as RantWoman does about some issues important to us. But Ferrener Husband a number of years ago came home from an SMC concert so disgusted by the interpreting that he could barely speak; he also said other deaf people had been trying for years to make improvements without success. So RantWoman is grateful for progress however modest.

--RantWoman is familiar with the whole genre of non-native speakers of one or another language making audio that encapsulates multiple kinds of mistakes that can creep into language: pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax. RantWoman suggests that people welcome Mr. Gallagher warmly but video tape his performances and then provide captioning of how song texts go awry in his arms. RantWoman suggests that this be done as affectionately as possible, in a spirit of honest effort to find fun in the situation. RantWoman does NOT mean to minimize continuing concerns but instead to grab them and keep shining light in their direction.

--RantWoman is reprinting this announcement verbatim, without succumbing to temptation to make small edits, to make the point that ASL is a separate language from English with different syntax. RantWoman is not in a position to evaluate whether the points she might edit to standard english reflect artifacts of writing ASL but is leaving them in the document to promote readers' awareness about the possibility.

Eggnog. Braille. Panini

Eggnog.

RantWoman would theoretically prefer not to have anything to do with Christmas until after Thanksgiving. RantWoman makes an exception for eggnog. RantWoman in the last couple days has enjoyed both an eggnog milkshake and and eggnog latte.

See recently RantWoman received a Starbucks gift card, a Braille Starbucks gift card, the perfect excuse to eat lunch at Starbucks.

First RantWoman must digress about the experience of the Braille gift card: the card has Starbucks on it in uncontracted Braille. It could just as easily have a tactile version of the Starbucks logo. Then maybe it would be easily findable by people who are blind but do not read braille. RantWoman does read braille. RantWoman appreciates gift cards whether they have braille on them or not but definitely considers it easier to find the right gift card if there is some kind of tactile clue to its origin. Call this a qualified endorsement.

Now back to the dining experience: RantWoman over the summer became quite fond of Starbucks savory croissants, both spinach and squash on whole wheat dough, the kind of whole wheat that leaves one with a lovely nutty flavor on top of the vegetable goodness.. RantWoman is unclear whether they were an option this time.

RantWoman wound up being seduced by a turkey and stuffing panin. There was nothing seductive in the plastic packaging in the cooler but somehow the lighting at the counter won RantWoman over. That is a good thing because RantWoman finds the lighting and signage at a typical Starbucks unhelpful because of bright lights at eye level and  print RantWoman is always foolishly tempted to try to read. Other hint: half the time the fastest way to see waht is available is just to listen to what other customers might be ordering.

Anyway, the thing came out of its sad plastic packaging and a trip through the microwave and went into a nice hot bakery bag. Brilliant except RantWoman was in a hurry and wanted to eat on the go, but not to have to fight gravity and juggle a hot sandwich trying not to lose its filling. Definitely not lose the filling, or the outside either. Crispy panini, slightly mushy stuffing and turkey mix. Piping hot from microwave.

What ELSE to grumble about?
The stuffing needed more vegetables, onion, celery, herbs. It would be very difficult to have too much celery around RantWoman. Yes, RantWoman knows opinions about celery are quite varied. RantWoman would also think to include either fresh or dried cranberries or raisins. But who knows whether RantWoman will even be a repeat customer!

Gender Terminology: short snapshot

If RantWoman were a more thorough lexicographer, she would compile a number of sites discussing language used for cross-dressing and transgender and intersex persons. This site is intended to be not a terrible start.

http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2014/09/gender-wars.html

Thank you so much for inviting me to tell you what I think

It's Thanksgiving season and RantWoman thinks the spiritual discipline of being grateful is especially appropriate this time of year. Unfortunately, this IS RantWoman.

Thank you so much for inviting me to tell you what I think.
A deaf person to open the meeting! Instant credibility.
A deaf person who specifically does NOT promise to fix everything: even more credibility!

Thank you so much for inviting me to tell you what I think.
Look, I know you work really hard on this, but I HATE YOUR PRODUCT for all of the following reasons....

Thank you so much for inviting me to tell you what I think.
Ya know, if the hardware depreciation period were 5 years instead of 3 years, there would be time for reasonable application development, time for training, and not so many gooped up features going way underused. In other words there would be time for the humans to be part of the picture not just slaves to the machines' treadmill.

Thank you so much for inviting me to tell you what I think.
Awhile ago RantWoman was talking to someone tasked to advise your company about how to be friendly to startups. RantWoman's advice: build the accessibility in. Do not turn off the accessibility features. Make it easy to USE and interact with the accessibility features. RantWoman is not a very competent capitalist though. RantWoman neglected to provide this advice for free and also did not think about a way to get paid for it. File this with "what RantWoman thinks about."

Thank you so much for inviting me to tell you what I think.
Okay, really, sometimes I HATE THE CLOUD. Sometimes i want to go off grid and write and just write based on what I have and not have to down in global infoglut while I comb the nuggets out of all the verbiage I can already generate.

Thank you so much for asking me about screen readers and screen enlargement.
You know that thing that all the sighted developers are too squeamish to name, I agree with all the blind people who think "Nose print remover" is absolutely hilarious and deadly on point!

Thank you so much for asking about my autodetect fantasies.
Look, maybe this is weird fantasy life, but RantWoman frequently reads amterial that contains text in more than one  language. RantWoman LOVES it when her screen reader automatically switches back and forth and between languages. Too often, this is a fantasy!
Thank you so much for inviting me to tell you what I think.
RantWoman at one point asked for walking directions from someone who from the sounds of things clearly drives. Score one for the usefulness of wayfinding!

Thank you so much for inviting me to tell you waht I really think.
Putting a bunch of blind people and people with hearing impairments and hopefully some other disabilities in a big noisy room with lots of conversations going on in the same area is a good recipe for brain melting. It's a great opportunity for all of us to commiserate about our different issues and MAYBE to share tips about work arounds.

For instance RantWoman made a point of trying to look at one person who says she lipreads. RantWoman knows she herself used to lipread; now she assuredly does not and therefore she has lots of trouble sorting out conversation threads in a big room. RantWoman peculiarly finds it easier to filter things in languages she does not speak; other people merely find that additional languages are another way to be driven crazy.

Thank you so much for inviting me to tell you what I think.
The term "inclusive computing" sounds like a really interesting concept. RantWoman's first screen of search results turned up a couple links RantWoman skimmed:
http://milesberry.net/2014/11/making-computing-more-inclusive/
http://inclusiveweb.org/

We here at the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing offer for consideration the following inclusive computing realities:

--Customers and staff who between them reflect a whole spectrum of sensory , physical, cognitive, cultural idiosyncrasies sufficient to qualify us for the term "diversity on steroids."

--one clump of about 3 customers who between them muster enough literacy to read their desired webpages.

--one customer who needs cheerleading so that the chatter in her head does not get in the way and she can, after visits over a couple days, interact with a certain online bookseller.

--RantMom whose search algorithm for info about bus boarding during a recent closure of the downtown Seattle bus tunnel was "call Little Sister and have her look it up." RantWoman is grateful RantMom did not ask her: RantWoman at the time was talking on the device she might haveused to look up the info if the device got to the desired info fast enough to suit RantWoman and in a format RantWoman could deal with.

But definitely, thank you very much for inviting me over because I am crazy enough sometimes to enjoy being driven crazy and especially getting to talk about it!

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Salmon Cannon (HBO)

Life around RantWoman is a real laugh riot sometimes. For instance, how about a rousing Saturday night spent making outrageous fun of an important wildlife conservation issue of extreme importance in the Pacific NW.

Research Study on Blind People's Document formatting Skills Seeks Participants

RantWoman probably actually has too much vision to participate in this study but in the interest of not biasing the feedback, RantWoman first presents a clean version of the announcement pasted as selected from her Gmail inbox with no adjustments for paragraphs, etc:

Greetings,
We are researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz. We are
investigating ways in which tools may assist blind people with tasks related
to document formatting. As a first step, we need to gather information about
document formatting practices, errors and barriers of blind persons. To do
this, we need to collect a large number and variety of documents that were
created and formatted by blind persons (with at most some light perception)
without help from sighted persons.
Please help us by providing documents (at least
3 pages long) that you have created with any word processor (Microsoft Word,
Apple Pages, etc.) and formatted without help from a sighted person.
We will run a drawing for two $50 Amazon gift certificates as a token of
appreciation for those who provide at least five documents that follow the
previous criteria.
Note: As this is a National Science Foundation study, we follow a strict
rule of maintaining your and your documents confidentiality and destroying
documents after the study is finished.
If you are interested in helping, please email your documents or any
questions regarding the study to:
lommoral@ucsc.edu
Also, if you know someone who fits the criteria and might be interested in
helping us, please forward this post. We really appreciate your help.
Thank you for your time.
Best regards,
Lourdes M. Morales Villaverde
Computer Science Ph.D. Student
Interactive Systems for Individuals with Special Needs (ISIS) Lab Baskin
School of Engineering University of California, Santa Cruz

Nevertheless, if you or someone you know fit the criteria, sign the heck up!


Readers who have scrolled this far get the following additional comments:
--RantWoman gets plenty of documents created by sighted people that show no command of even modest formatting niceties such as headings, never mind accessibility featurs for forms .

--RantWoman interacts with plenty of PDF's whose creators have no concept of the various accessibility nuances associated with PDF's.

--Just today RantWoman had anotehr of her Death by Powerpoint experiences. The sin: printing on black and white without checking for meaningful contrast. Whine.

--Readers of RantWoman's blogs will note that she herself has not bothered to pay attention to options for bulleted lists and tends to do as this post does on aregular basis.

--RantWoman's blogs are a natural product created with uneven visual attention to formatting. Sometimes all RantWoman does is reread with JAWS. Other times if RantWoman has more visual energy more visual niceties may occur. RantWoman does not really have any frame of reference as far as how other blind bloggers handle visual presentation. Plus the study criteria specify documents created with a word- processing tool, not a blogging tool.

RantWoman has newly discovered that Google docs ALMOST works with her screen reader; RantWoman wonders whether Google Docs count.

Africa For Norway - New charity single out now!

RantWoman notes the invasion of an Arctic air mass deep into the heartland of the US and recommends distracting ourselves. Perhaps the US can get in touch with the heroes of Africa offereing to send radiators to Norway. Perhaps they have some to spare for the US too.

Shameless Reprint of Boston Globe article about Comcast Rollouts

New Comcast service boosts TV for the blind

By Hiawatha Bray

| GLOBE STAFF NOVEMBER 12, 2014

· Share via e-mail

DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFF

Comcast’s Josh Chace assisted Perkins student Cullen Gallagher (left) and Kim Charlson, library director.

Kim Charlson is blind, but she loves television. Her favorite show is “NCIS,” the naval crime series. And thanks to new technology from Comcast Corp., it will soon be a lot easier for Charlson and other blind fans to tune in.

The cable television provider’s X1 digital service will soon feature a “talking guide” that will read out channel listings and program descriptions in a lifelike electronic voice. Blind users who “view” TV programs by listening to them will now find it easier to change channels, track down their favorite programs, and program their digital video recorders to copy shows.

On Tuesday, Charlson demonstrated the new talking guide at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, where she works as library director. She said the talking guide lets her channel-surf like any sighted person.

“I always wondered why they would say there’s 200 channels and I can’t find a thing to watch. That’s how I always felt,” Charlson said. “At least now I can identify what’s on all those channels.”

The talking guides will become available to all X1 subscribers nationwide over the next few weeks.

Users won’t have to get new equipment; the system runs automatically over Comcast’s data network.

“It’s cloud-based, so we didn’t have to worry about installing additional hardware or software in a box,” said Tom Wlodkowski, Comcast’s vice president of accessibility. He is also a veteran of the National Center for Accessible Media at the public television station WGBH in Boston.

Cullen Gallagher, a 16-year-old from Quincy who’s an 11th-grader at Perkins, isn’t a big TV fan. But the new talking guide could change that, he said.

“I want to see what’s out there on the TV networks,” Gallagher said. “I’m just going to play around and look at the menus. I’m a geek. I like to play with technology.”

Comcast said the talking guide is the first offered by any cable company in the United States. It was developed in response to the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, a federal law enacted in 2010. The legislation requires cable companies to start offering audible menus to make onscreen commands usable by people who have vision problems.

The talking menu system works in conjunction with another federally mandated service, descriptive video. This is a service in which a voice describes on-screen action during a TV show, saying things like, “Jack Bauer draws his gun.” The nation’s nine most popular broadcast and cable channels must offer these descriptive services on at least four hours of programming every week.

The combination of descriptive video and spoken channel guides will make TV a more immersive experience for about 8 million Americans with vision disabilities.

“TV is more than just a box with a picture in it,” Charlson said. “It’s our culture and our society, and people spend a lot of time talking to each other about what they watched on TV last night. It’s important to be a part of that conversation.”

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at hiawatha.bray@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeTechLab.

_______________________________________________

Oh Happy Day!

Happy 125th Anniversary of statehood: MT



Happy 125th Anniversary of statehood: WA



HAPPY BIRTHDAY RantMom



Happy Birthday Naomi Klein



Happy spacecraft landing on the comet.

VOTE and the do this Survey of Blind and Visually Impaired Voters

Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote!

And then, if you are blind or visually impaired, PLEASE consider taking this survey:

Online Surveys of Blind and Visually Impaired Voters Now Available

Calling all blind or visually impaired voters who participated in the 2014 United States mid-term election--the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) needs your feedback! Whether you voted using an accessible voting system, online ballot delivery and marking system, or a hand-marked paper ballot, we want to hear about your experience.

If you voted on an accessible voting system, or with assistance, during early voting, at your local polling place, or by a paper ballot that you received by regular mail, please complete the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XTY79KS.

If you used an online ballot delivery and marking tool to access and mark your ballot, please complete the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XCLZPP5.

The results of these surveys will be provided to state election officials, state protection and advocacy agencies, and voting rights advocates to help improve the accessibility of future elections. Funding for both surveys was provided through a Help America Vote Act (HAVA) grant from the Administration for Community Living, United States Department of Health and Human Services.

 

Questions about the surveys or accessible voting should be directed to Lou Ann Blake, National Federation of the Blind HAVA project manager, at lblake@nfb.org or 410-659-9314, extension 2221. Thank you for your participation!

ACCESS Board Guidelines for Accessible Playground Surfaces

U.S. Access Board Releases Guidance on Playground Surfaces

New guidance on selecting and installing playground surfaces is now available from the Access Board. Developed by National Center on Accessibility (NCA) at Indiana University with funding from the Board, the guide, "Seven Things Every Playground Owner Should Know About the Accessibility of Their Playground Surfaces," (also available in PDF) outlines key considerations and steps in selecting, installing, and maintaining playground surface to ensure accessibility and compliance with accessibility standards, including those issued under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA ) and the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA).

The ADA Standards, which apply to many types of facilities in the public and private sectors, and the ABA Standards, which cover federally funded facilities, include provisions for play areas and play surfaces. These requirements address running and cross slopes, changes in level, openings and apply industry standards for accessibility and impact attenuation issued by the American Society for Testing and Materials.

The guide describes the most popular types of playground surfacing materials, such as poured-in-place rubber, rubber tiles, engineered wood fiber, and hybrid surface systems. It compares information on each of these material types, including installation methods, accessibility issues and considerations, maintenance, repair methods, and cost. This guidance is intended to help playground owners and operators make an informed choice in selecting surface materials and ensuring that they are properly installed and maintained for accessibility. It is based on findings from a Board-sponsored study by NCA completed last year that assessed the performance of different surfacing materials at 35 playgrounds over a 3-year period.

For further information, contact Jennifer Skulski, CPSI, Principal Investigator, at jskulski@indiana.edu or (812) 856-4422, or Peggy Greenwell of the Access Board at greenwell@access-board.gov, (202) 272-0017 (v), or (202) 272-0075 (TTY).