[OSList] Supporting the blind at an open space event

Tue Jan 22 02:25:45 PST 2013

Thank you Michael & Harrison,

The need for the American Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 reflected a 
need for a change in consciousness to support those with disabilities. 
Despite a professional requirement to understand and look at Section 508 
of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act when government contracts for software 
companies started to be directly impacted in 1998 because of the changes 
to that law to support digital accessibility, I still felt an inner 
"humbug" when I saw most of the best parking spaces left empty in public 
parking lots because they were reserved for the handicapped.

The movie "Music Within" helped me understand. It's the true story of 
Richard Pimentel who lost his hearing in Vietnam and became an activist 
for the ADA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_Within. This movie 
depicted directly something you said, Harrison, when they showed how 
someone with cerebral palsy became the center of attention in a 
restaurant because there were no facilities to make it possible for him 
to come into the restaurant himself, and he had to be personally carried 
up the stairs. What was worse was the depiction of how his disability 
made him a target of discrimination.

I really appreciate both having the faith, as a facilitator, that those 
without eyesight will be able to get their needs met and the community 
will support them and work it out. Yet I do wonder if there is also a 
need as an event organizer to do something to make it possible for those 
with handicaps to navigate the event without the need for them to be 
highlighted or stand out. It might be a bit confrontational to hear this 
- but even our community has challenges supporting the handicapped. 
There were no elevators or ramps at WOSonOS 2011 in Berlin to over half 
of the session locations, which made those with mobility challenges 
unable to attend those sessions.

Michael, several of your suggestions seemed like they would help support 
the sight impaired. It might be a little extra work, but having someone 
transcribe the session announcements and times would help the blind, but 
would have other benefits. I've heard reports at some of my open space 
events that accessibility to the schedule wall was an issue especially 
right after the morning sessions are announced and posted. I've been 
thinking getting a larger wall would support that, but I also 
specifically heard that the event was overwhelming to those with social 
anxiety. I can't help but think having a way to find sessions by going 
to a website could support that - and enable a lot of the technology 
that is available now for the sight impaired.

     Harold

On 1/21/13 2:56 PM, Harrison Owen wrote:
>
> I have never done an Open Space for Blind People... but I have done 
> many OS's with some or many blind people. And as near as I could tell, 
> they did just fine. Their own coping skills worked, and the community 
> pitched in (with a nice subtlety) -- so I never saw or heard of a 
> problem. But I did get one comment from a person of challenged 
> vision... who thanked me for not making him a special, stand out 
> person... just one more people. Needless to say it was not me 
> doing/not doing anything. But you get the drift. Unless somebody has 
> suddenly gone blind, they do make it in the world, and with the light 
> touch of a caring community (and what else do you have in OS?), 
> everything seemed to work out just fine.
>
> Harrison
>
> Harrison Owen
>
> 7808 River Falls Dr.
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> *From:*oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org 
> [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] *On Behalf Of *Harold 
> Shinsato
> *Sent:* Saturday, January 19, 2013 12:12 AM
> *To:* OSLIST
> *Subject:* [OSList] Supporting the blind at an open space event
>
> Some friends in Missoula Montana are holding an open space event about 
> digital accessibility March 9 this year. 
> http://accessibilitycampmissoula.org/
>
> Looking over the records I found fewer posts about this than I 
> expected. I saw posts about supporting 1 blind person, but they will 
> have at least seven and I don't think they'll have enough volunteers 
> to support one helper each. So they are thinking about some kind of 
> ipad readers around the session postings.
>
> How has the community here provided accessibility to the blind, 
> especially for the schedule wall?
>
>     Thanks in Advance!
>     Harold
>
> -- 
> Harold Shinsato
> harold at shinsato.com <mailto:harold at shinsato.com>
> http://shinsato.com
> twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
>
>
>
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-- 
Harold Shinsato
harold at shinsato.com <mailto:harold at shinsato.com>
http://shinsato.com
twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
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