Comments on: Recommended Reading for November 23

By: Vassilissa

Vassilissa — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:00:04 +0000

Hi. I tried to send you a link at admin@disabledfeminists.com, but it bounced.

http://vassilissa.livejournal.com/1060727.html

I wrote this about the case of a woman being denied cover for her depression because her facebook photos looked too happy.

By: thetroubleis

thetroubleis — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:13:42 +0000

Mia, good point. .-= thetroubleis´s last blog ..I am mine. =-.

By: K

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:38:38 +0000

When my school was introduced to Braille in 5th grade, we thought it was awesome. Of course, it was like a weeklong “special project”, never to be brought out again.

I took for granted that every place would stock Braille menus and things like that, until I worked at a restaurant/hotel that hosted a convention for the National Federation for the Blind. We were trying to be fully accessible to guests with vision impairment and willing to learn what we needed to do to meet that goal, and we met with the local chapter president, who taught us the proper way to serve blind guests in our restaurant. I was shocked by how many people told us that this was the first “nice” place that they were welcomed at and catered to in our college town.

By: Mia

Mia — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:13:15 +0000

Well, it is also that Amazon did not make the menu system accessible either. A TTS engine isn’t much good if you can’t get it to start without assistance.

By: thetroubleis

thetroubleis — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:50:09 +0000

Well, the Kindle really isn’t at fault for the lack of TTS beyond the fact that Amazon gave in. It’s the book publishers who whined that no one would buy Audio books if the the Kindle had TTS.

By: Rainbow

Rainbow — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:31:04 +0000

The problems of getting books in an accessible format continue to exist despite the increasingly widespread availability of e-books which should, in theory, be making a real difference to people with visual impairments and other disabilities that affect a person’s ability to read conventional print books. The e-book readers like Kindle seem very reluctant to make adaptations that could help solve this problem and if anyone suggests that audio books should be sold at the same price as print books accusations of ‘wanting special treatment’ are always aimed at the PWD or ally who raises it. It makes me very sad. As for the braille article, I think it is a good idea to destigmatise braille and hope it might encourage more children with sight loss to be taught it earlier as a back-up. There seems to be a real reluctance to teaching children with sight loss to read braille because they’re not ‘blind’, but surely having a back-up method of reading for when their eyes are tired or for if their sight deteriorates is surely a positive thing, I think as long as braille is seen as adesperate last resort it’s always going to be seen as a really negative thing.

By: Rodo

Rodo — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:40:39 +0000

I don’t think they have to do much to make braille cool for children. I went to school with a girl who was losing her eyesight due to a genetic condition, and we actually did spend a week of school learning how to read and type braille, among other related things. Unfortunately, I forgot most of it, but at the time, I thought it was really cool and sort of like a secret language.

Also: I have problems distinguishing between speech and background noise. I always look at people’s lips and not into their eyes for a reason. I hear everything, my brain just can’t sort through it. Not sure if it’s severe enough to be compared to what these tests test for, but as far as I know I’m not autistic, dyslexic or something similar. My mum was actually surprised when I told her that there are people who don’t have these problems, and she has trouble even in relatively non-noisy environments.

By: anthea

anthea — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:10:23 +0000

Auditory discrimination and dyspraxia here. I suspect there are many more links going on than the news makes clear, because most people have at least a vague idea what dyslexia is but the others are a mystery.

By: codeman38

codeman38 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:23:47 +0000

Not officially diagnosed or anything, but I’m pretty certain that it is some sort of dyscalculia.

By: The Bald Soprano

The Bald Soprano — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:23:32 +0000

codeman38: I have the auditory discrimination issue going on too (I kind of assumed it was the autism…) I don’t have dyslexia or dyscalculia, but I have dysgraphia!