The Thoughts and Ramblings of Steve

Blog

  • An introduction to Accessibility Advocacy: an Interview With Steve Sawczyn

    I’m truly honored to appear in AccessWorld, Summer 2023 edition. Also, n extra thank-you to Steve Kelley for taking an interest in helping to tell my story. https://www.afb.org/aw/24/6/18363 About The American Foundation for the Blind The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is a non-profit organization that has been working tirelessly since 1921 to create… Read more

  • If I had to give up one word that I use regularly, I think that word would be, “disability”

    WordPress has these daily writing prompts and while I often just ignore them, this one caught my attention. If i had to give up a word that I use frequently, I think that word would be “disability”. Disability is a word that is really hard for me to avoid, especially given my work and given… Read more

  • Recalling Details About People Without Remembering Their Name, Is There An App For That?

    I’m just going to come right out and say it: I have a really hard time remembering names. It’s not a blindness thing; it’s a me thing. I can remember the most obscure details about people, but when it comes to important stuff like names, my brain often just goes blank. I’ve often wished I… Read more

  • 10 Ways to Make Your Site More Accessible

    I don’t remember if I’ve posted this before, but even if I have, I think it’s always good to have a reminder when it comes to making blog and other content more accessible. Read more

  • Playing around with Aiko, an amazing, accessible transcription app for Mac and iOS

    I recently heard about this fantastic app, available for both Mac OS and iOS, called Aiko which leverages AI technology to transcribe audio. What sets Aiko apart from similar solutions though include, in part: I was excited to test out this fascinating technology and so to really put it through it’s paces, in a sub-optimal… Read more

  • When Success Means Buying a Smaller Suit

    Recently, I got to participate on the Parallel podcast talking about, of all things, accessibility and fitness. The reason I phrase it this way is that anyone who knows me probably knows that fitness and I don’t normally go together in the same setence, let alone the same podcast. From the show description: Starting or… Read more

  • Tennessee high school students build robotic hand for classmate | Tennessee | The Guardian

    I don’t often share individual links via this blog, but I came across this story and, well, it was just nice to come across something positive for a change, so I thought I’d share.  What an awesome real-world problem for young students to tackle.  I hope more schools come across this and search for more… Read more

  • 100 Days of SwiftUI, my foray into understanding a bit more about how iOS works

    Ever since I was able to accessibly use an iOS device, an iPhone 3GS, I’ve imagined how awesome it would be to be able to develop my own applications. That excitement was very short lived though as I soon became aware of just how complicated developing an application really is. It’s a very involved process… Read more

  • The Ultimate Blog Challenge for October 2022 and a brief intro

    Many of you might remember that last year, I took part in something called the Ultimate Blog Challenge, a challenge that encourages bloggers to post every day over a given month. I really enjoyed the experience which not only helped me to write more regularly, but which also gave me the opportunity to connect with… Read more

  • An email attack, a Hilton hack, and a few lessons learned.

    I’d love to say it was a dark and stormy night, but the afternoon of August fourth started off like any other. I was busy working when I received an email on my personal email account, we’ve all gotten these sorts of emails, they say something like, “Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter, click… Read more