Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

Check out the new Accessibility for people with disabilities topic on the Friends in Tech feedback forum. Thanks, Friends in Tech, for getting this right! Please keep up the great work.

Thanks, FIT podcasters, for NOT implementing visual verification, accessible or otherwise, to your forum registration process! It was very nice to meet
some of you in person at the expo on Saturday afternoon before TWiT. Please keep everything as accessible as possible so that blind guys like myself will continue to be able to participate. I’ll be very interested in the results of my poll question, too. Thanks again; FIT is great!

Digg is an experiment in the collection and dissemination of information where the users, not an editorial staff, get to decide what is news worthy. Sadly, if you’re blind, you don’t get to help make those decisions due to an inaccessible visual verification test that must be passed not only at account creation but also on each submission attempt. Please read the letter we at the journal submitted and contact Digg to ask for equal access by the blind and visually impaired to all the benefits this service has to offer.

Dear Digg Staff,

Thank you for establishing a Digg account for me in leu of your currently
inaccessible visual verification scheme. Unfortunately, the issue is not
over. I just discovered that visual verification is used when submitting new stories to the site. I endured visual verification during account creation. Surely, if someone is a spammer it is a simple matter of shutting off their account? Please, either remove the visual verification during the submission process or make it accessible. I anticipate a positive, affirmative response in the very near future.

All the best,

Darrell Shandrow

Decent introduction to some of netcat’s capabilities for those who have never heard of it before. Looks to be quite accessible as it is command line based. Wish I had one of my Linux boxes up and running now.

read more | digg story

Greetings Blind Access Journal readers.

First, let me thank Darrell for allowing me to blog here on his site.

I have my own blog at www.blindscholar.com where I spend my time posting about political issues from a conservative-libertarian point of view. I pretty much cover everything.

However, as Darrell noted in his recent podcast I will focus on the public policy and political issues around accessibility on this blog with some cross posting to my own blog.

I am currently a senior political science major at Sul Ross State University located in Alpine, Texas.

I should also note here that I am a member of the Youth Advisory Committee for the National Council on Disability, and at no time will I be speaking for or on behalf of NCD.

You can visit my blog for more details on me and to subscribe to my rss feed.

My first posting here will probably not be for a few days and you can expect the postings to be somewhat lengthy since I tend to research my topic in great detail before publishing, but I’ll try to keep them somewhat pithy.

Also, Darrell mentioned a nice little project he is working on due to be released in the next few weeks. I am helping him on this and until further notice all the details are NDA, but if you are part of the media, yes that means you MSM and even some of you podcasters, send me an e-mail and I think Darrell and I might be able to slide you in the door ahead of the rest of the world, but you have to bring your own canes and guide dogs.

Should you have any questions you can contact me via my blogs contact page.

Thanks to Allison for locating this excellent article by Standards-schmandards thoroughly covering the provision of accessible visual verification, especially by means of an audio alternative. Examples and a link to some actual code are included.

Shownotes

I took the opportunity to chat with Adam Curry at the expo about accessibility and he made some extremely positive comments on the Daily Source Code. Thanks, Adam. We’re looking forward to a brighter future of participation in all that Podshow has to offer the podcasting community.

Apologies for the windy weather audio artifacts in the introduction and conclusion of this episode of the podcast. I did try some new post-production techniques involving fading the segments at appropriate moments. Please provide feedback on my results.

Links:

Daily Source Code #278

Adam Curry pledges to insure that accessibility is a core value in the development of Podshow products and services.

Allison and Ron of the NosillaCast

Thanks for all you did to make the meeting with Adam Curry a reality!

BayCHI with Steve Williams

It was very enjoyable hanging out with Steve at the expo. He got to meet Allison and Ron right after my chat with Adam. Cool!

Digital Mediacast Experiment

Mentioned Michael Carrino when discussing how to podcast, etc.

The Blind Scholar

I’m working with Reagan D. Lynch on a new accessibility related project to be officially announced in approximately two weeks. NDA!

Download and Listen

Karen shares with us the news of her retired guide dog’s passing away yesterday along with a comforting story about animals who pass out of this world into the next. Condolences to Karen for her loss!

This morning I received some sad news from a close friend of ours. My
previous dog guide Chanel passed away yesterday. She was a black Lab age 10. Today, I am in mourning, grieving her loss. This tribute is for Chaneli whom will always have a special place in my heart. At a later date, Darrell and I will do a podcast about Channelli. For now, I am passing along this link which has a beautiful poem called The Rainbow Bridge about pets, guide dogs and other animals that we all have loved and whom passed on. I first saw this when Topper, my first Dog Guide, passed away 3 years ago. A friend whom I met on the internet (from my journaling mailing lists) shared it with me. Hope it helps those of you whom lost an animal close to you.

Digg is an interactive technology news site where the users get to decide which stories do and don’t make the cut. The staff at Digg describe their service as follows:

Digg is a technology news website that combines social bookmarking, blogging, RSS, and non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users submit stories
for review, but rather than allow an editor to decide which stories go on the homepage, the users do.

Unfortunately, if you’re blind this is not the case. Though the site appears to be generally accessible, the blind are turned away at the registration desk due to another inaccessible implementation of visual verification. I contacted the company approximately four hours ago via their web site to request registration assistance. No response has yet been forthcoming. Anyone want to start a pool to see how long it takes for me to get registered with this site?

Shownotes

UltraHost

Web hosting for the blind community and beyond!

GoDaddy

Does not allow blind people to order their services online. Please avoid doing business with the company until they fix this.

TicketMaster

Also does not allow blind people to order online. Even worse here as we are forced to miss out on all discounts and other special offers only provided via the Internet.

Yahoo!

Yahoo’s “accessible” visual verification is a blackhole since company representatives never actually call!

Google

Does not allow the blind to comment on most blogs, create new blogs, sign up for accounts or do anything else that requires passing the company’s completely inaccessible word verification!

Natalie Brown

Listen to my favorite POP/R&B musician sing Locked in the Shadows as you think about the implications of the first word of that song’s title with respect to inaccessible visual verification!

Download and Listen

Shownotes

If you are a decision maker in a company that is being asked to become accessible to potential customers with disabilities, following the ADMIT approach will allow you to rise up from the cold, dark abyss of exclusion, inaccessibility and isolation into the bright, sunny promised land of inclusion, accessibility and participation. As always, all feedback is welcome.

1. Admit the existence of the problem and the need to become accessible.
2. Decide to take sincere actions to reasonably solve the problem.
3. Make contact with the community of technology users with disabilities to help you implement, test and troubleshoot.
4. Implement accessibility as a core value throughout your company, doing your best now and building it into all new products and services.
5. Test accessible solutions on real people with disabilities.

Download and Listen