Seniors and the disabled easy targets

Posted under: Access and Accessibility by donnaj

As we move into the busy holiday season, we need to keep in mind that this is the time when those hackers and pirates make themselves more known. Not for their good will, but rather for the havoc that they tend to cause and in most cases get away with. It is at this time of the year when they seem to focus in more on our seniors as well as the disabled so it would do us good to keep this in mind.

Most hackers and pirates seem to believe that seniors and disabled persons are the ones who are easiest to con and for the most part they are correct. However, there is something that we as a disabled community can do in order to change this for good. The biggest weapon that we have in our arsenal is awareness. Yes, awareness and as long as we keep our wits about us, be on the lookout for fast talking sales persons, bogus phone calls with callers promising something that does not sound true or logical, and companies offering exorbitant prizes plus more, we should be fine.

Here are some tips for you to keep in mind as you go about your hectic holiday shopping:
Never give out your personal information to strangers or unknown callers.
Never divulge your banking information to strangers or unknown callers.
Keep your credit card and your social insurance card extra safe. Put them in a place that only you or someone that you absolutely trust, knows of.
Be extra cautious when you go to do your online shopping.
Before you accept any type of prize, take the time to check out the details of your winning.

This is going to be my final blog for the year and for a while to come.
I would like to wish you a very merry Christmas and the very best for 2009. Feliz Navidad and Joyeux Noèl.

I’m Donna J Jodhan your access and accessibility consultant wishing
you a terrific day.
If you require accessibility, research, and writing services visit
www.sterlingcreations.ca
If you require translation and language related services visit
www.translationpeople.com
If you visit www.untappedwealth.com/businessdesk.html
you will learn the latest news on very important issues as they
happen and you can check out my weekly feature called important answers to consumers concerns.
If you visit www.accessibilitynews.ca/acnews/editorials/donna.php
you will see my biweekly editorial.
To view my monthly editorial visit
www.sterlingcreations.ca/magazine.html
To view my weekly blogs visit

To reach me please send an email to info@sterlingcreations.ca and I would also be delighted to send you a copy of our latest newsletter.

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Accessible cell phones

Posted under: Access and Accessibility by donnaj

Accessible cell phones

There has been a huge push towards making cell phones more accessible and I for one am just delighted to see this. Developers have come a long way in developing software that can be used to make cell phones more accessible. Now, what we need is for the price of accessible phones to slide downward.

An accessible cell phone with all of the bells and whistles is not beyond the realm of possibility. An accessible cell phone that we can use to surf the Internet, send and receive emails, play games, use GPS, plus more. One that would contain the same features that mainstream persons have. We’re getting there, slowly but surely and in time to come we will be able to have an accessible cell phone that we would be proud of. The thing is though: Like everything else, we have to wait much longer before we see products that are halfway decent. We are always having to play catch up and in the case of the accessible cell phone, it is no different.

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Where is VaShaun?

Posted under: Tales From The Dark by admin

I would like to first thank all my colleagues and friends at Dialog In The Dark for your support. Allot of you have inquired as to my where abouts and showed great concern.

I have been ensured by Manpower that I still am employed with Dialog In The Dark. Just like most of you that work there I have no hours but it has been iterated that I have a job. Imagine that, I have a boss, that I report to but no hours to speak of. Unfortunately we can’t talk about why we are not on the schedule, but we have a job for sure.

My counsel has advised that speaking on the reason or lack of one for me not working will be damaging, so I will leave that to speculation for now. What I will say is that I am not the only victim of this type of treatment and it will stop with us.

To answer the question as to my where abouts and am I OK, the answer is “YES”!!! I am working very hard to ensure that when you are hired to work a job and when you’re told that you can work full-time, part-time or that they can work around your schedule, then that’s what is done.

I refuse to be treated like a second rate person by companies that make a profit off my sweat. Has anyone wondered why the front of the house is paid by Premiere Exhibitions and we are employed by a temporary agency? Think about it and join us as we fight for equality. If we can have a black president, then we surely can have a job that actually schedules you to work for more than 6 hours a week or no hours at all.

Again I would like to thank you all and for the regular readers I apologize, but this is a outrage and it needed to be exposed. To be continued….

VaShaun Jones

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Time to take back

Posted under: Access and Accessibility by donnaj

Time to take back

For too long, blind and visually impaired persons have had to put up with unhealthy attitudes from society, companies, and governments. For too long, we have had to put up with second class treatment, inaccessible websites, and lack of access to information. For much too long, we have had to put up with persons telling us that we can’t rather than telling us that we can.

We continue to be dominated by mainstream persons designing and developing websites for us, actually dictating to us how we need to access the Internet. We continue to put up with companies refusing to provide adequate service to us. We continue to accept shoddy products that are supposed to be usable by blind and visually impaired persons but in essence these products are very unusable because of lack of manuals in alternate formats. For some reason, we continue to put up with inadequate services, products and information from both companies and governments.

It is time for us to take back our lives. Time for us to stand as one and say enough is enough. Time for us to say that if you dare to tax us then you must treat us like the rest. Time for us to raise our voices and say hey! We need to be treated like everyone else. If everyone else can have access to services, products, and information, then we also need to have the same access. In short, equal access.

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The untapped labor force

Posted under: Access and Accessibility by donnaj

The untapped labor force

If we have any hope of changing the present under employment picture, then we need to start preaching harder. Time for us to start promoting ourselves as the untapped labor force. Time for us to work harder and smarter at convincing society that they are losing big by not tapping into the untapped labor force and who is this untapped labor force?

Why! Us of course! We are the untapped labor force that so much of society continues to ignore. We are the untapped labor force that so many companies continue to under estimate! We are the forgotten labor force because so many persons view us as persons to be helped rather than as persons who can help. We are the ones that continue to pay our taxes and yet for all we are not being given fair opportunities to take our rightful places in the workplace.

We are the blind and visually impaired, the hard of hearing, the physically disabled, and those with learning disabilities. We are the qualified ones with so many skills except that society focuses on our disability first before looking at our skills. We are the ones with disabilities but with skills that are dying to be tapped into. We are the ones who want to work but are being denied employment.
Something not right with this picture! Time to change this!

I’m Donna J Jodhan your access and accessibility consultant wishing
you a terrific day.
If you require accessibility, research, and writing services visit
www.sterlingcreations.ca
If you require translation and language related services visit
www.translationpeople.com
If you visit www.untappedwealth.com/businessdesk.html
you will learn the latest news on very important issues as they
happen and you can check out my weekly feature called important answers to consumers concerns.
If you visit www.accessibilitynews.ca/acnews/editorials/donna.php
you will see my biweekly editorial.
To reach me please send an email to info@sterlingcreations.ca and I would also be delighted to send you a copy of our latest newsletter.

Comments (0)

Better bedside manners need to be taught

Posted under: Access and Accessibility by donnaj

Better bedside manners need to be taught

There is nothing worse than having a doctor who just simply does not have very good bedside manners. It is one thing to be a good doctor, but quite another to be tagged with having little bedside savvy.

So many times I have run into those smart eye doctors and ophthalmologists who lack for a decent bedside manner and it makes matters even worse when you are unable to see their expressions let alone gage their facial responses. Of course they know that I am unable to see but what do they often do? Here is my list of beefs for the day.
They come into a room and sit down without acknowledging my presence and just start talking to me with their backs turned to me.
When they are finished with me, they just get up and run out of the room leaving me to find my way out.
They often do not talk directly to me choosing instead to talk to the person accompanying me. This is a real upsetting one.
When they ask a question, they often ask the one accompanying me instead of asking me directly. Another upsetting one.
When they make a diagnosis, what do they do? They tell the one accompanying me instead of me!
Then there is this classic! They address me in the third person like this: “She needs …”
Finally, they ask you to sit up on the examining table and what do they do? They stand there waiting for you to find the table all by yourself without even thinking to lend a hand.

These are just a few typical examples that both I and friends of mine have encountered. Maybe it’s time for us to think of offering a course in bedside manners to our learned friends. What do you think?

I’m Donna J Jodhan your access and accessibility consultant wishing
you a terrific day.
If you require accessibility, research, and writing services visit
www.sterlingcreations.ca
If you require translation and language related services visit
www.translationpeople.com
If you visit www.untappedwealth.com/businessdesk.html
you will learn the latest news on very important issues as they
happen and you can check out my weekly feature called important answers to consumers concerns.
If you visit www.accessibilitynews.ca/acnews/editorials/donna.php
you will see my biweekly editorial.
To reach me please send an email to info@sterlingcreations.ca and I would also be delighted to send you a copy of our latest newsletter.

Comments (0)

The meaning of the word blind

Posted under: Access and Accessibility by donnaj

The meaning of the word “blind”

This is just my opinion and mine alone! I believe that most mainstream persons truly think that the word “blind” means that a person who is blind is unable to see anything. That everything is dark for that person, and that they are therefore unable to think for themselves, hear for themselves, and look after themselves.

I would just like to shed a wee bit of light on this matter. “Blind” does not in any way mean that a blind person is unable to see anything. There are varying degrees of blindness and varying degrees of what a person can and cannot see. There are persons with light perception, those with useful guiding vision, those with functional vision, and those who we call high partials. The lower end of the spectrum is where you would find those with no vision and at the higher end of the spectrum is where you would find those who do not have enough vision to drive a car. You see, a very wide variety of persons with varying degrees of vision loss.

A blind person can be anyone who was born with some vision, someone who was born with no vision, someone who was born fully sighted and has lost some or all of their vision, or someone losing their vision.
So the next time you meet a blind person, it would be useful to keep these thoughts in mind.

I’m Donna J Jodhan your access and accessibility consultant wishing
you a terrific day.
If you require accessibility, research, and writing services visit
www.sterlingcreations.ca
If you require translation and language related services visit
www.translationpeople.com
If you visit www.untappedwealth.com/businessdesk.html
you will learn the latest news on very important issues as they
happen and you can check out my weekly feature called important answers to consumers concerns.
If you visit www.accessibilitynews.ca/acnews/editorials/donna.php
you will see my biweekly editorial.
To reach me please send an email to info@sterlingcreations.ca and I would also be delighted to send you a copy of our latest newsletter.

Comments (0)

What are alternate formats

Posted under: Access and Accessibility by donnaj

What are alternate formats?

Believe it or not, many people are still not familiar with the term alternate formats let alone understand why they are needed.

First things first. The term alternate format is applied to documents that are produced in such formats as: Braille, large print, and electronic versions such as in rich text, plain text, MS Word, and HTML. Audio format such as cassettes and CDs that can be accessed with screen readers is also considered to be an alternate format. Who needs alternate format? The blind and visually impaired, and those classified as print disabled. There are others who need and use alternate formats and they include those with learning disabilities.

The why question as to the need for alternate formats should be answer based on the explanations above. Simply put, alternate formats are needed by those who are either print disabled, or those who can function better using these types of formats. What type of file format is normally classified as a non-alternate format? Why, PDF files of course! It is extremely difficult for blind and visually impaired persons to read PDF formats for the following reasons:
1 If they do not possess the right combination of access technology.
2 If the content within the PDF file has not been correctly tagged and coded. In short, if the content developer has not used the appropriate tags in order to make their content readable to those using screen readers.

I’m Donna J Jodhan your access and accessibility consultant wishing
you a terrific day.
If you require accessibility, research, and writing services visit
www.sterlingcreations.ca
If you require translation and language related services visit
www.translationpeople.com
If you visit www.untappedwealth.com/businessdesk.html
you will learn the latest news on very important issues as they
happen and you can check out my weekly feature called important answers to consumers concerns.
If you visit www.accessibilitynews.ca/acnews/editorials/donna.php
you will see my biweekly editorial.
To reach me please send an email to info@sterlingcreations.ca and I would also be delighted to send you a copy of our latest newsletter.

Comments (0)

Will airline cuts affect special needs travelers?

Posted under: Access and Accessibility by donnaj

Will airline cuts affect special needs travelers?

This is the big question of the day. Many airlines that I have contacted have assured me that cuts at their specific airline will not. However, I am concerned.

It is a well-known fact that whenever budget cuts are made, one of the first to be affected is special needs persons. It has been like this for as long as I can remember and it does not seem to be changing. For some unexplained reason, and this applies to both governments as well as to industry, whenever cuts are made whether it is applied to spending or personnel, services and products for special needs persons are greatly affected and the first to be cut. So, allow me to ask the question once again. Will cuts in the airline industry affect special needs persons?

Will there be enough attendants and ground staff to take care of our needs? Will in flight personnel be able to render appropriate and safe service to us? Will there be attendants to look after our additional needs at the check in counter? Will there be staff on hand to help us get to and from aircrafts? Will our safety be placed in jeopardy? So many questions and not enough answers to really reassure us.

My parting comment is this: I urge all airlines to keep in mind that special needs travelers are becoming more and more of your bread and butter consumer. They will make up the majority of your consumer base by 2010 and when I say special needs travelers please consider the following types of consumers. Seniors, physically disabled persons, the blind and visually impaired, the hard of hearing, those with cognitive and learning disabilities, and those afflicted with disabling diseases.

I’m Donna J Jodhan your access and accessibility consultant wishing
you a terrific day.
If you require accessibility, research, and writing services visit
www.sterlingcreations.ca
If you require translation and language related services visit
www.translationpeople.com
If you visit www.untappedwealth.com/businessdesk.html
you will learn the latest news on very important issues as they
happen and you can check out my weekly feature called important answers to consumers concerns.
If you visit www.accessibilitynews.ca/acnews/editorials/donna.php
you will see my biweekly editorial.
To reach me please send an email to info@sterlingcreations.ca and I would also be delighted to send you a copy of our latest newsletter.

Comments (0)

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Categories

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Seniors and the disabled easy targets

More video games needed

Accessible cell phones

Where is VaShaun?

Time to take back

The untapped labor force

Better bedside manners need to be taught

The meaning of the word blind

What are alternate formats

Will airline cuts affect special needs travelers?

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