#accessibility tech

Celebrate with me, Tumbltown, I completed WebAIM's Accessible Documents course and received my certificate today! Huzzah!

Two main takeaways:

Wow I don't think I could have learned this on my own just surfing the web to figure it out. There was a lot content I'd never heard or considered before.

Darn it all, you really do need to pay for Acrobat Pro to be sure you're doing it right. LibreOffice can generate purportedly accessible pdfs, but to completely vet it I need to buy Acrobat Pro. Thankfully, between this course's clear instruction in both text and video, I was able to learn what I needed without buying a subscription, but it's something I'll have to consider in the future.

Unlock Your Brain’s Hidden Ability! Sound Localization Explained Have you ever wondered how you can pinpoint the exact location of a sound – whether it’s a car passing by, someone speaking in a crowd, or birds singing in the distance? This incredible ability is called sound localization, and your brain is remarkably adept at it. But how does it work? This guide reveals how your ears and brain…

I read this in a small book club. It's a series of essays on various concepts and problems under the umbrella of relating technology design and disability. We agreed that it's fascinating and eye-opening, and has had a significant impact on all three of us, although some of the essays' concepts definitely needed a little more work to flesh out the arguments thoroughly.

And that's just the original use case

I can think of multiple different accessibility options, although

captions and subtitles are absolutely not substitutes for hiring professional sign language interpreters 👇👌🙅🏼‍♀️

(One of the things that happened unexpectedly is that the subtitle screen gave implicit permission for the conversation partner to look at the cheat mounted screen, not the wearer's face, which I know would be a boon for at least a couple of my autistic friends.

I kinda want to try deploying this or something like it in a convention context--does anyone have a blorbo with a screen on their chest?)