What are you wearing: Zoom, Audio Description, and, and

RantWoman has been collecting various user experience data about Zoom. RantWoman has hosted two Zoom meetings with educational component and discussion components for an event in her faith community. Faith Community event demographics skew heavily to ages where hearing loss is rampant. part of RantWoman's prep involved reaching out to specific people and asking them about their experience and also other roles at the all virtual event.

RantWoman will write up what she learned separately.  RantWoman has also been attending weekly #CripCampVirtual Events, and RantWoman has just come "home" from the American Council of the Blind national convention #ACB20.

Before turning to comments about "What are you wearing?" RantWoman needs to get a few other comments out of her system.

Notes from all three strands of RantWoman's life

Re #ACB20: AWESOME job tech team. There were glitches but overall, wow! Wow also for making an event hashtag!

Both the #ACB20 and the faith community event have long lists of Zoom meetings corresponding to different event titles. One event sent the daily links in email; the other had a web page. In both cases with screen reader RantWoman found it a little to easy to wind up in the wrong meeting, not the event she came for. RantWoman wonders whether there might be some kind of spreadsheet process that could give the event links event specific titles. RantWoman can also be less lazy about trying to avoid screen reading all the text. .

This week's #CripCampVirtual session about #HastagActivism rocked. There was PowerPoint and screen sharing. RantWoman participated on her hand-me-down iPad figuring she would get what she could out of the audio and not worry about screen enlargement. So RantWoman was pleasantly surprised that, yes, there was screen sharing, and yes the content filled the screen very nicely but not too much: RantWoman could read the slides visually!

RantWoman also REALLY digs the #CripCampVirtual practice of asking the webinar presenters to describe what they are wearing in their introductions. This moment of audio description utterly charms RantWoman. For one thing, RantWoman would not necessarily look at the screen because visual work is tiring. But good narration draws RantWoman in and usually makes RantWoman glad to have looked. For another thing, for RantWoman it partially solves a "It's hard to feel emotionally connected over Zoom" issue. How can one not feel more connected if one knows the presenter is wearing neon green earrings that are different shapes in each ear?

The Faith Community and SURVEY

RantWoman is thinking about whether to whine about one cute faith community video about worship and Zoom: there are a couple moments where a tiny bit of audio description would be cool. Luckily RantWoman has screen magnification and coped.

RantWoman especially wishes to "thank" one figure in her faith community for adding a question about Zoom to a survey after omitting RantWoman from the process and then NOT thinking to add anything about software accessibility to the survey questions. Zoom software accessibility generally rocks, and team work and attention to technical nuances is still vital. RantWoman knows there are accessibility issues. Zoom is GREAT. RantWoman will write up her specific issues separately. As noted above RantWoman did not wait around for data from the survey, which would not have been insufficiently detailed anyway. RantWoman did what made sense to her. RantWoman would SO not mind if other people also were willing to learn to think about ....  Maybe if RantWoman is really good, eats enough chocolate, gets enough sleep, stays hydrated, RantWoman will also find the words to say to faith community figure "STOP TRYING TO DO IT ALL YOURSELF and make space for other people to learn!"

RantWoman would not mind this but faith community figure is very trying to be helpful (typo?). Faith community figure is, um, a slow learner. Faith Community figure's previous achievements included an offhand "Oh I hope it's accessible" after a tool had already been chosen. Then there was a suggestion from someone helping implement the tool: if you have trouble just come find me." No! The point of the tool is NOT to have to come find you in the first place. In the second place expecting RantWoman to be able visually to find someone, someone already trying to do too many things at once, in a crowded noisy room really frankly imposes undue burdens on RantWoman. Mercifully electronic #a11Y has come a long way in recent years and the tool was already mostly accessible. But the whole sequence of #DisabilityInChurch events is making RantWoman want to trot out phrases like "ongoing harm." In other words, RantWoman's faith community keeps reminding her why she needs a faith community. RantWoman has a versatile God who is trying to help handle this, but....

Now "What are you wearing?"

As RantWoman types, she is still wearing her Sunday Go to (Zoom) Meetin another excuse to procrastinate about hose cleaning dress clothes, in this case a lavender blouse with large white leaves pattern, a black jumper and purple argyle compression socks. As for other days, here are the introduction requests for the two events RantWoman hosted along with partial comments about RantWoman's access needs.

Day 1

Intros

            Name, where you are from

            Choose at least one of:

                        Pronouns

                        What you are wearing

                        Any access needs

                        A Fun Fact about you

                        Something you hope to take away from this interest group

                        Anything relevant on your heart 

RantWoman's Access needs:

            Pay attention to others’ access needs. For example,

                        People who lip-read can leave Zoom in active speaker mode.

                        Please remember to turn video on before speaking if possible.

I cannot see faces very well especially in Gallery View. So let’s all watch for each other and help hold moments of distress.

Screen share visual accessibility is very limited for me so I always like or files shared in the chat.

I am unlikely to use screen share myself. I use 4x screen magnification which I can turn down if needed. However, even at 2x, me moving around on the screen can give other people vertigo. But I am happy to email people before or after with what I have presented. [cue the word teamwork here for next time]

Why do I ask what people are wearing?

I have been going to a series of webinars called CripCamp. #CripCampVirtual is about the intersection of disability and BIPoC issues. All sessions have both ASL interpretation and a live transcript. They now use a model for chat of write in questions, someone reads and then presenters answer.

            I have discovered that one of the most fun things about the panel intros at the beginning of the session is when people describe what they are wearing. So as another way to connect, let’s try it.

I only want to know that you are zooming in your sleepwear if there is something really interesting about your sleepwear.

A white woman with a crinkled brow,  glasses and grey hair
wearing the T-shirt described in the text

For myself, I have been Zooming all week with the American Council of the Blind virtual convention #ACB20 . So today I am wearing last year’s state convention T-shirt which is black. The front has yellow lettering that says WCB on top and We Are Community under a picture of 3 different-colored hands grasping each other around a circle. I am also wearing a denim skirt because wearing skirts cuts down a little bit on getting misgendered in public. And I am wearing awesome compression socks with a grey, red, and white design because who says compression socks have to be boring and because good shoes and socks are a vital part of my transportation infrastructure.

Day 2

Intros

             Name, where you are from

            Choose at least one of:

                        Pronouns

                        What you are wearing

                        Any access needs

                        A Fun Fact about you

                        Something you hope to take away from this interest group

                        A specific question related to ADA issues

                        Anything relevant on your heart 

            Zoom and flow of Interest group.

                        If you have video, please turn it on while speaking

Please use Raise hand which is *9 on phone

                        Please be sparing about chat to everyone.

Suggesting resources is cool

Saying goodbye if you need to leave early is fine

If there is someone who can only use the chat, listen.

RantWoman's Access needs:

            Pay attention to others’ access needs. For example,

                        People who lip-read can leave Zoom in active speaker mode.

                        Please remember to turn video on before speaking if possible.

I cannot see faces very well especially in Gallery View. So let’s all watch for each other and help hold moments of distress.

Screen share visual accessibility is very limited for me so I always like or files shared in the chat.

I am unlikely to use screen share myself. I use 4x screen magnification which I can turn down if needed. However, even at 2x, me moving around on the screen can give other people vertigo. But I am happy to email people before or after with what I have presented.

Why do I ask what people are wearing?

I have been going to a series of webinars called CripCamp. Crip Camp is about the intersection of disability and BIPoC issues. All sessions have both ASL interpretation and a live transcript. They now use a model for chat of write in questions, someone reads and then presenters answer.

            I have discovered that one of the most fun things about the panel intros at the beginning of the session is when people describe what they are wearing. So as another way to connect, let’s try it.

I only want to know that you are zooming in your sleepwear if there is something unusual—but maybe not TOO interesting--about your sleepwear.

For myself, I have been Zooming all week with the American Council of the Blind virtual convention and I am very jazzed about all the great content I heard and the HUGE numbers of people connecting via different channels. ACB does not talk about clothing except for invitations to visit the conference mini-mall. Today though I am wearing a lavender striped blouse, black leggings with lace around the hem, and awesome  purple argyle compression socks because who says compression socks have to be boring and because good shoes and socks are a vital part of my transportation infrastructure.