Monthly Archives: November 2016

Why this shit (meaning accessibility) matters

I'm front and centre at Accessibility Toronto Camp 2016, between a sign-language interpreter and the podium, with my laptop on my lap, speaking words on my behalf.
Behind me (I’m the one in the wheelchair) the Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) captioner is having trouble hearing my computer speaking this text. Seems a transcript could have been useful to them, had I provided it prior to starting. We’re all responsible for the accessibility of our content. I’m sorry Catherine. (Photo credit: Jonny James’ Twitter Feed.)

For the record, I don’t really think accessibility is shit. I’m speaking (tongue in cheek) towards the reason why I do what I try to do. And what follows is the transcript of the words I gave to the 6th annual #a11yTO Camp this past Saturday. These words, the words I had my computer speak on my behalf, appear here verbatim. That’s why words such as “trach” and “Tracheotomy” are spelled phonetically, and why some bits of punctuation may seem oddly placed. The reason for this is to help VoiceOver get my points across, with the intended affect. We all, assistive technology included, need a hand getting our voices heard. Read “Why this shit (meaning accessibility) matters” in its entirety