No Quarter Asked or Given

for serious, it is every Chris Crutcher book EVER. Even if in those books it's usually a man, and he's not always white. Sometimes he's a Japanese cowboy! But it's still the same story.

"Nice white lady", the video.

This entry was originally posted at http://jadelennox.dreamwidth.org/349518.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

I have installed MediaWiki. More to the point, I have configured MediaWiki security. Dear top-secret government web administrators: PLEASE DO NOT USE MEDIAWIKI.

( could conceivably be considered spoilery )

I just wanted to apologise to everyone -- especially the DW styles and accessibility crews, but also all the rest of you -- for basically vanishing off the face of the earth for the last month. It's going to continue for at least a little while.

This entry was originally posted at http://jadelennox.dreamwidth.org/348050.html

when I was a teenager, George Tiller, זק״ל, for all intents and purposes saved the life of someone very important to me.

1. Dear Web accessibility development community,

I would like to introduce you to a new class of disabled people recently put out by product development: People with Non-Visual Disabilities ™. Marketing has been kicking around a number of names, and is considering "Crip 2.0", "People who can't hit you very hard when you piss them off", and my personal favorite, "Unicorns."

When you are testing your website with JAWS, Window-Eyes, NVDA, FireVox, and ZoomText, marketing would ask you to consider pretending to test your website for the new model of disabled people as well.

2. Dear Nuance,

You produce and sell the primary speech-to-text product on the market. Until the very recent addition of decent built-in Windows speech recognition, you had practically the only reasonable command-and-control product available for speech-based hands-free computer use.

Would it KILL you to make your own command browser, help files, advanced scripting modules, and options configuration navigable by voice?

I mean, I know I'm asking too much when I ask you to put as much consideration that an open-source project of often-newbie volunteers puts into making sure its documentation isn't written assuming able-bodied users. And I'm sure you would look at me like I'm an alien from the crippled planet if I asked you to pre-batch upgrade information so that installs can be done primarily by voice. Don't worry, I'm not asking for the moon, here.

All I'm asking is that the Command Browser and the MyCommand Editor be not among the least NaturallySpeaking-compatible tools I use.

The irony is really not that delicious.

This entry was originally posted at http://jadelennox.dreamwidth.org/347444.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

( A whole lot of linkspam, mostly about race, Judaism, and spoken word poetry )
Also, you should go to the Blogging against Disablism Day 2009 Archive, pick one post, and read it. Any one. Which reminds me, I have never posted about the proposed law in Massachusetts which, as written, would criminalize taking nude photographs of people over 60 and people with disabilities, even consensually. (Who is that amazing Globe correspondent out there doing investigative reporting of bigoted laws? Somebody give that journalist a raise!)

This entry was originally posted at http://jadelennox.dreamwidth.org/347219.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Which is worse, when you realize you said something awful, embarrassing, hurtful, or creepy to somebody else two days later, when it is too late to apologize? Or when you realize you are about to say it 10 seconds before it leaves your mouth/keyboard?

Which is worse, when it is in person, so you can see their face? Or when it is over the Internet, and there's no body language so they can see how appalled you are at yourself?

Which is worse, when it is someone you know well so the two of you will be carrying this around for a long time? Or when it is an effective stranger (casual acquaintance, Internet acquaintance, etc.) and they have no way of knowing you aren't that person?

Which is worse, knowing you have to apologize but not knowing how to do it in a way which won't be hideously painful? Or knowing that apologizing will only make you feel better but will make the person you wronged feel worse, so you really can't?

This entry was originally posted at http://jadelennox.dreamwidth.org/346473.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

I have been playing with Jaws for a little while so I can better understand the accessibility programming I have been doing. All of my accessibility knowledge is (understandably) focused towards the needs of hands-free navigation. Anyway, this morning I came into work and get socked in the face with migraine aura, which makes me unable to read text on a monitor.

But I have Jaws installed.

So my computer read me my e-mail. And wow. I know that other people find it impressive to watch me dictate, which I just find frustrating, because I don't want to have the special magic skill of dictating, but I can't deny how impressed I am now with computer users who have to use screen readers to access the text on their screens. I am in awe of how much you folks put up with -- and the way I write my own text and alternative text and design user interfaces is quite possibly about to undergo a massive change.

This entry was originally posted at http://jadelennox.dreamwidth.org/346270.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

( Things that are not the reasons why Dreamwidth is for me )

( Why Dreamwidth IS for me )

( Why Dreamwidth might not be the right platform for you )

( Why it's okay if you don't move to Dreamwidth while I do, and why it won't splinter community )

( So if you're not joining Dreamwidth, then what? )

( What's up with this crossposting people are doing? )

So that's it for my tl;dr Post about Dreamwidth. I absolutely want to stay in a community with you, whether you move to Dreamwidth, stay on LiveJournal, or have your blogging home somewhere else. The platform is just a tool, and the communities we enable are much larger and richer than those tools. To me, the Dreamwidth commitment to diversity includes a commitment to a large community of people, even people who aren't necessarily using Dreamwidth.

another blank verse blog week's come and gone
and now that I'm not hampered by my rules
(all self-imposed) I finally have the wherewithal
to make replies to comments that were left
during the weeks surrounding Shakespeare's birth.

---

My fic output for the week was brief but satisfactory, with two companion Merlin pieces, one from Gaius' point of view and one from Arthur's point of view. BVBW seems to bring out the introspective character analysis in me.

Less satisfactorily, I don't think I did any work on Dreamwidth all week.

This entry was originally posted at http://jadelennox.dreamwidth.org/345753.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Although I'm not a stranger there, I'm not
a Shapely Prose participant under
this name, nor are (I think) the other blank
verse bloggers. Thus the shout out FJ made
today produced a mix of squee and shock.

This entry was originally posted at http://jadelennox.dreamwidth.org/345458.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

The promises I've made (just to myself,
But those don't matter less) this week include
A second piece of fic, most likely a
Companion to my Gaius ficlet earlier
This week. And I will keep that promise soon,
Before week's end. But right now I am tired.
My hands are sore, my voice is done, my spoons
Are long since gone. I don't know where I'll find
The energy to write more fic, but it
Won't be tonight. I need some ice. Or gin.

This entry was originally posted at http://jadelennox.dreamwidth.org/344778.html. Please comment there using OpenID.