Disability and Accessibility

A newmembeer of the GNOME accesibility team talks about current issues and plans

This Tuesday, 2023-10-24: Women Who Code Advocacy Town Hall moderated by AmyJune Hineline ( @volkswagenchick@drupal.community )

From the event description:

• Hiring Process, Getting the Job, and Support at Work: Know the challenges and opportunities for individuals with disabilities throughout the hiring process, workplace support, and career growth.

• Visible and Invisible Disabilities: Understand and define visible and invisible disabilities, and how they affect individuals in the tech industry.

Legal Rights and Responsibilities: Learn about legal rights and responsibilities in hiring practices and actionable ways to advocate for yourself and others.

• How Allies Can Be Advocates: Explore how allies can play a role in advocating for individuals with disabilities and creating inclusive workplaces, and how technologists can develop with accessibility in mind.

• Access to Resources: Gain insights into accessibility resources and how you can find more support

Shared by @onsman@aus.social, a list of experts and organizations to follow for news and ideas on digital accessibility.

Employees of the state of Minnesota in the United States have created a "Maps Community of Practice" to advance the accessibility of digital and print maps.

• Story: How Minnesota Is Making Maps Accessible
• Resources: Minnesota IT Services Map Accessibility
• Webinar: Maps for All – Building Accessible Maps at the Great Lakes ADA Center website

Interesting news from the UK

Hi everyone thanks so much for accepting me. My disabilities include fibromyalgia, ROP (I was born at 24 weeks gestation.) I'm also autistic and have hyperacusis. I'm hoping to contribute to what looks like a wonderful community.

It's great to see other chronic illness suffers here. As I've noticed the broader disability community despite their best intentions can have a tendency to forget about us. I'm really encouraging thing was to hear an episode on Pushing Limits that covered chronic illness.

Been having a pretty rough time after a psychiatrist suddenly reversed course and refused to supply documentation I need for disability benefits. It definitely feels like a very personal instance of "you're a useless mouth and should be dead, or at least out of the system where nobody has to think about you".

Not the best idea but I also read pretty extensively about how bad Australia's health system is for disabled people. Also lived through two of my grandparents being left to die by it. Also a lot of contact trauma from being on the periphery of the welfare, disability, and poverty rights movements.

So, let's have a chat. What helps? I usually make it through immediate mental health crises but every episode of suicidal planning ratchets my preparedness up a bit more. I think I need to be more proactive about not getting to that state in the first place.

This week I logged on to a Zoom webinar that had chat enabled. The meeting had a large attendance. The chat quickly filled up with dozens of people sharing their city or country, and later commenting on technical problems.

Some screen reader users had a difficult experience due to the heavy use of the chat. Here are three bits of feedback:

What is your opinion on this aspect of videoconference chat etiquette? I'm not talking about offensive or dangerous content--just the volume of content.

• Should frivolous chat messages be avoided, so that screen reader users don't miss important chat messages?
• Or is important that chat can be a chaotic free-for-all, to get the full Zoom experience?
• Does anyone have personal experience with this?
• Does anyone have a preferred etiquette guide that covers this?

Thumbnail image is an illustration of over a dozen empty word balloons, overlaid on each other in a chaotic mess. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

i really need a mobility device/assistive technology for my brain. like thinking sticks. wouldn't that be lovely? we could do so much more.

Ahead of World Blind Awareness Month this October and in response to global demand, the LEGO Group announces LEGO® braille bricks are available to purchase for the first time through LEGO.com.

Via @nick@hkc.social:

Big update to Firefox (117) dropped if using a screen reader. YouTube video lists, and videos themselves, now scroll much better than before.

There is a heatwave over here, I hope everyone is surviving somehow?

Wish me luck tomorrow, I need to have some testing done,hopefully i will learn more about my conditions. I also hope the maskless staff does not infect me with fuckin covid, cause...long covid is most likely one of the main reasons i even need to get the testing done 🙃🙃 🙃

Diagnoses: Autism, TR-Depression w/ suicidal ideation, chronic insomnia with delayed sleep phase, GAD w/ multiple sub anxiety disorders (including agoraphobia), IBS C & D, Fibromyalgia, BPD, C-PTSD & PTSD, Pelvic Floor Dysfunction, Overactive Bladder, MALS, Hypertension, Gastroparesis, GERD, parasomnia, RLS, Hypoglycemia, Recurrent SIBO, TMJ, Anal Fissures, and the list keeps growing.

I applied for SSDI in November 2020 after becoming unable to work in December 2019.

I rode that claim past the ALJ (denied in January 2022) and to the AC, which supported the ALJ's denial in October 2022.

I submitted my second claim in October 2022.

That claim was denied in May 2023. I got a SSDI lawyer and they submitted the appeal in July 2023.

Now my psych - who handles all of my mental diagnoses and treatments, including weekly Spravato sessions, refuses to fill out the SSDI paperwork sent to them because "it's against office policy to handle SSDI documentation."

But I can't get SSDI without thorough documentation from the treating provider.

My GI specialists already completed and submitted the documentation.

It's not even a fee issue. I would gladly pay the fee or see if my lawyer would front it if that's all it took.

But, no. It's simply "against office policy".

I've literally submitted over 3000 pages of supporting documentation for my disabilities, but according to our government, I'm "not disabled" just because my doc won't complete a simple form.

FML

Edit: I'm at my weekly Spravato session. My psych gave me this signed form basically saying "fuck off".

To be fair to him, he did run the forms he received up the chain of command and the Director of Psych told him he couldn't complete them. Six years ago this Director McFuck decided that completing any type of disability paperwork (federal or otherwise) was "too much work" because of the "risk of being dragged to court".

FML twice over.

I really wish all the people who decided to pretend that the pandemic is over would read this and finally understand what is at stake

I've got a wedding to prepare for in a few months, and, let's not gild any lilies, I've gotten pretty fat since I injured my right knee and hip and lost a lot of mobility. I get around with a cane most days, and running/jogging (which I used to do a lot of) is now no longer possible (although I can use an eliptical).

I'm kind of scared to join a gym, because I hear they're pretty predatory with their subscription policies, and I don't know how much use I'd get out of one. I don't know what classes I can attend or what equipment I can safely use, or even what equipment to use for weight loss rather than muscle gain (or can they do both?). Unfortunately, the no-brainer option of "use a swimming pool" isn't available in my area, either.

Does anyone have any recommendations for fitness activities, classes, or equipment that are low-impact on the lower body? Are there exercises I can do at home without equipment that will burn fat? I'm not looking to become an Adonis, I'd just really like to be able to fit into pants smaller than a 46 waist.