Tag: blogboost

One of the really cool things about participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge is that I receive daily ideas about topics on which I might want to blog. The challenge doesn’t require that I follow these suggestions at all, they’re just ideas.

Day 15’s suggestion was a particularly interesting one: Create an AMA, Ask Me Anything kind of post. The idea is simple: invite readers to use the comments area to ask questions and then I answer those questions as replies to the comments.

And so, in the interest of being brave and being open/curious to see where this might lead, you are invited to ask me anything. Have a question, but don’t want to ask it publicly? That’s perfectly fine, just ask your question via my contact form.

Remembering Formspring

This Ask Me Anything concept reminds me of a service that used to exist called Formspring. Formspring was a service that would allow people to ask questions anonymously. Answers to those questions would be posted, but would also be sent back to whomever asked the question. I had signed up with Formspring simply because I was curious about the service, not because I actually thought anyone would ask me anything. To my surprise, people did ask questions and the questions were not weird at all, OK some were, but most of them weren’t. The anonymity of the service made it possible for people to ask questions they might not otherwise feel comfortable asking: questions about blindness, questions about how I do certain things in daily life, questions about things I had been blogging about at the time. Unfortunately, the very anonymity that was so empowering, eventually helped lead to Formspring’s downfall. I found a great article answering the question of ‘What happened to Formspring?’ if anyone is curious. I’m sad that Formspring is gone because I never found a substitute quite as good.

So, if there’s anything you’d like to ask me, please feel free to do so either in the comments or via the contact form. I have no idea if this AMA concept will lead anywhere at all, but I’m definitely excited to see what happens and always willing to share.

One of the things that most excites me about accessibility is that it has proven Time and time again to be a springboard for innovation. Speech to text, text to speech, curb cuts and ramps, the Segway, and even the typewriter keyboard are examples of how thinking about a problem from an accessibility perspective has lead to incredible innovations that we all benefit from every day. In the digital space, we see numerous accessibility-driven innovations: image/object recognition, and speech to text devices (Hey Siri!) being examples that immediately come to mind. I love innovation and love that I get to work in a field that can be a springboard for that innovation because innovation is something that can improve the world for everyone, not just for those with disabilities.

And so it was with much sadness that I came across the following tweet earlier today:

FlickType, and its predecessor, sought to solve a very particular problem: how to type more accurately, and with more speed on a tiny screen-based keyboard such as that on iOS devices or even the Apple Watch. Their solution is both elegant and ingenious: essentially map out where the user’s fingers make contact with the screen and determine what that user is trying to type regardless of whether the correct keys are actually pressed or not. Typing on a phone screen, accurately and with speed, is challenging for many people, myself included. In my case, I often attempt to type with my phone in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other and typing one-handed like this is even more challenging. Of course typing one-handed is a particular user preference of mine — I could very theoretically put down my coffee — but for people with the use of only one hand, that option is not available. FlickType didn’t totally eliminate all challenges with on-screen typing, but the accuracy with which it predicts what the user is trying to type significantly reduced those barriers. In my mind, FlickType didn’t think about what is possible, but rethought what possibility could be.

Today’s tweet from FlickType is very sad for me because it is a very modern, and for me very real, example of how accessibility can be a springboard for innovation that can improve experiences for everyone. I’m not sure what will come next for the FlickType team, but whatever they do, I hope they approach their next endeavor with the same passion, drive, and innovation with which they reinvented the experience of on-screen typing. Thank you, FlickType, for all you have done to reduce barriers, and thank you for bravely innovating to get it done.

I thought I’d ask a question in this blog post because I find it interesting to learn what peoples’ favorite seasons are and why. My favorite season happens to be fall. No, not because pumpkin spice everything makes an appearance — I actually don’t like pumpkin spice — but because everything feels somehow sharper, fresher, as if there’s an energy as nature prepares for winter. Fall is filled with so many characteristics that I love: The sound of leaves crunching beneath my feet as I walk outside, the crisp air that doesn’t seem to be able to make up its mind about whether to be cold or warm, the birds as they frantically seem to migrate south. Winters are cold here in Minnesota and it’s almost as if everything around me, the trees, the birds, even the people are united in a common desire to get ready for whatever’s coming.

As I sit outside composing this blog post, I can feel, somewhere deep within me, that fall is fast approaching. It’s not a chill in the air — it’s actually a balmy 72 degrees (f), 22 (C). I hear the crickets and other insects around me chirping, not a fast chirp as they do when the temperature starts to drop, but a louder chirp, as if they’re asking each other, “are you ready yet?” There’s a gentle breeze blowing, very gentle, but strong enough to stir the very first leaves that have begun falling from the trees in my yard. As I sense the fast approach of fall, I am filled both with excitement and sadness. Excitement because there are so many aspects of fall that I love, but sadness because it means that summer is slowly coming to an end. I think I feel it especially this year since this has been a summer of connection, connection with people and with a slowly normalizing world and I don’t want those things to end.

So, what is your favorite season? What about it makes it your favorite?

I remember the first time I came across the term ‘A11y’. I had just discovered Twitter and I noticed that very often, the word accessibility was being replaced with this a11y thing. I was very confused, I mean what the heck does A11y mean and how did it come to represent accessibility?

numeronyms

Numeronyms are something you may not have ever heard of, but you’ve probably come across them without realizing it. I found some great examples on the A11Y Project of numeronyms we frequently use, such as Y2K, 24/7, or even 911. These all contain numbers, but are synonymous with other phrases. We generally know that Y2K refers to the year 2000, that 24/7 means 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 911, at least in the US, means help! But how does accessibility fit into this? Accessibility is a long word and this can be problematic, especially in the old days of Twitter when tweets were limited to a maximum of 140 characters. When we look at the word ‘accessibility’, we find that there are eleven letters between the ‘a’ and the ‘y’. If we remove all those letters and substitute them with the number 11, we magically have A11y, clear as mud, right? Unfortunately, it’s not always clear and for many people, including yours truly, it’s confusing when first encountered. But, where space is at a premium, changing accessibility to A11y can be very useful. On Twitter — yeah I’m kind of addicted to Twitter — A11y is often used as a hashtag, a method for quickly finding Tweets related to a particular subject.

It’s A11y, NOT Ally!

I remember the first time I heard the term ‘ally’ in reference to accessibility, it was my first day at Deque Systems. I was super excited and honored to be part of Deque’s awesome team and even better for me, I joined just before Deque’s annual meeting and so I got to meet my co-workers in person. At that meeting, my boss at the time was distributing these ‘Ally’ stickers that we could proudly display on our laptops. I had no idea what ‘ally’ meant, but being the new guy, I didn’t want to ask what seemed like a really stupid question. Besides, I really wanted the sticker, I mean who doesn’t want a really cool shiny laptop sticker? And so I got my sticker, I put it on my laptop, and six months later, I finally figured out the mystery. Apparently, the number 1 looks like a lower case ‘l’. Having never read print though, this was totally not obvious to me. Once I understood that the number 1 and lower case ‘l’ look similar, this made total sense, but only because someone explained to this non-print reader that the number 1 and lower case ‘l’ look similar. Making this even more confusing, screen readers don’t pronounce the word ‘ally’ the same way. They probably should, but sometimes, they pronounce ‘ally’ as ‘alley’ as in a path between two buildings, and those are two very different words indeed. The point is, while A11y may be confusing, using the word ‘ally’ could exacerbate that confusion, especially for non-print readers. As an aside, I still have that sticker and think fondly of my wonderful time at Deque whenever I come across it. 🙂

So, that’s the big mystery of how A11y came to represent accessibility. A11y is just one of many numeronyms, it’s just not one that people use every day and so it’s not readily apparent what it means. If you use ‘A11y, especially in presentations, try whenever possible to also use the word accessibility, so that others make the association. And if you use the word ‘ally’ for ‘A11y’, just know that this may be confusing for people who rely on screen readers, or who do not read print. Oh, and of course, if you use ‘ally’, be sure to follow it up with a shiny sticker, because laptop stickers are just awesome.

For today’s blog entry, I wanted to try and find two words that could sum up my day and I learned that it’s not really that easy to sum up an entire day in just two words. The more I thought about it, the more difficult this became. The thing is, a lot of things happened in my day and I don’t think I truly realized that until I tried to sum it up. I spent time outside in my little vegetable garden, I attended meetings, did work stuff, met some co-workers for lunch, had a nice long chat with friends, had a game night with friends and family, exercised, ate some really incredible food, read articles on a variety of topics, received a package from a friend; How can that be summed up in just two words?

For me though, one of the things about my day which has kind of been thematic is connection. I had lots of opportunities today to just connect with others and I’m truly grateful for those opportunities. I connected with some people in person, others over FaceTime, a few over Zoom, and of course there’s always social media. The important thing is that with each connection, I got to be part of someone else’s world and had the opportunity to let them be part of mine, even if ever so briefly. Regardless of whatever form it may take, connection is such an important thing to me, it’s how I learn, it’s how I share, it’s how I grow. For me, connection is often my source for inspiration and motivation.

Today, we have more options than ever before to connect with others and yet as I think about my own life, especially over this past year, I think I connect with others less often than ever before. Oh sure, I frequently have text conversations with people, and I social media a lot (can that be a verb?) and I may even call a friend from time-to-time, but today I had an opportunity to connect with two friends, in different parts of the world. We chatted for hours and it was absolutely wonderful just to catch up with each other and to learn about what has transpired in each other’s lives since we last spoke. And while it was wonderful to catch up, I feel a little bad because it truly has been a while. I mean, connecting couldn’t be easier and it’s cheaper than ever before. And yet I know I don’t connect with people, really connect, with people as often as I probably should. So that’s something I’m going to definitely work on because while we have more asynchronous ways to connect than ever before, there’s nothing quite as awesome as just having a good ol’ conversation with friends.

Inspired by the classic typewriter, the QWERKYWRITEr is one of the coolest and most interesting mechanical computer keyboards I’ve ever used. Now, I realize that some of my readers may never have used a good ol’ typewriter which is kind of sad. I mean they will never know the joy of erasing character by character, just hoping the correction ribbon hadn’t run out yet. They will never understand the feelings that come after typing a masterpiece only to realize that the latest few sentences were permanently inked on the roller because the paper had run out minutes earlier. Ah, but these were the norm for those of us who used typewriters back in the day and did we complain? … Yes, yes we did. . 🙂

Typewriters weren’t all struggle though, they had many advantages that one just doesn’t find in most computer keyboards these days. For one thing, a typewriter was a solid, almost immoveable object. Generations of people might come and go, but the typewriter would remain where it was, impervious to it all. I used to drum my fingers on the edge of the typewriter while I pondered what I planned to write next, something that is challenging for me now that so many keyboards hardly have edges anymore. There was never any question as to whether a key was pressed hard enough or not because a hard click would signify success, almost as if the typewriter were saying, “Hey friend, I got you..”. And of course there was a certain gratification that could only be realized after hammering on the return key at the end of an angry letter or memo, as if that would truly help to emphasize the point. I found out that this isn’t very advisable with modern keyboards after I once hit the spacebar with a little too much vigor: The spacebar flew across the desk, a little plastic piece flew across the room, and I’m pretty sure the spring is still in orbit somewhere around the Moon.

When I first heard about the QWERKYWRITER, I wasn’t sure what to think about it. It wasn’t until I listened to a wonderful podcast demo by David Woodbridge that I decided that this was something I really just had to have. The QWERKYWRITER looks and feels like a typewriter. The case is made out of solid aluminum and while it’s much easier to transport than its namesake, it’s still very solid. On the top of the unit, toward the back, is what looks like the old paper trays that used to collect page after page of writing. This has been repurposed into a stand that can accommodate many tablets. On the sides of the unit, again toward the back, are roller knobs, one on each side. These even have the little grooves on them, just like the knobs that were used to roll paper in or out of the typewriter. Of course these too have been made modern and functional, one serves as a volume control wheel and the other as a scroll wheel. Along the right-hand edge of the unit is a rocker-switch, yep an honest-to-goodness rocker switch that is used to turn the unit on or off. The keycaps are also very solid-feeling with a gap between the cap and the metal platform beneath the key. In order to create a similar feel to the typewriter, German engineered Cherry MX “clicky” switches  are used creating an experience that is incredibly smooth, while retaining a solid click sound as each key is pressed. And oh my gosh! I almost forgot about the cast metal return macro bar which is found along the top left-hand edge of the unit. Yep, while this bar used to advance the paper in the typewriter, it’s a programmable key on the QWERKYWRITER that can be programmed to type up to fifteen characters. I have this programmed to type my name — just type Sawczyn a few times to see why it’s so incredibly handy to relegate this to a press of a lever.

Of course there are some differences between the modern QWERKYWRITER and a typewriter, there’s no 10-key number pad for instance. I know, I know, many people love their numpad, but the typewriter didn’t have one either, so if they had added it, it’d kind of be cheating. The QWERKYWRITER also supports bluetooth connectivity with up to three devices, and also USB connectivity. The QWERKYWRITER does not come with a dust cover, but if you really miss that, or if you just need to have a carrying case, wrist rest, or other accessory, they have plenty available.

Curious what the QWERKYWRITER, with its mechanical switches, return bar, and rocker-switch sounds like? I’ve made a brief recording.

I really love this keyboard and truly appreciate having received it as a very unexpected gift. Not only is the typing experience absolutely fantastic and comfortable, but this keyboard brings back memories, memories of a time that unfortunately, many people will not be able to appreciate in quite the way I did. Sure the typewriter might be considered old fashioned these days, but for me, the typewriter opened up my entire world. The typewriter allowed me to produce documents that sighted people could read. The typewriter allowed me to write letters to friends and businesses, complete my own homework assignments independently, and so much more. Having a reminder of that on a device I get to use every day is incredibly powerful for me because it helps me realize that while technology continues to evolve, I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for the typewriter of yesterday.

Today, I’d like to talk about Day one, a cross-platform journaling app that, for me, has made journaling a joy. Journaling is something I’ve done on and off throughout my life, but definitely not with any consistency. The one time I did journal regularly though was during a year I spent in Germany as an exchange student. I’m super glad I did as I was able to capture many fond memories of my time there; maybe a topic for future blog posts. Anyway, I was talking to a friend about that experience and he asked why, if I enjoyed it, didn’t I continue journaling regularly? I had all kinds of excuses: not enough time, I was too tired by the end of the day, and many more.. My friend told me about Day One and as he was so passionate about it, I decided to give it a try.

The thing I really love about Day One is that it’s really a lot more than a traditional journal. Sure it’s possible to write a journal entry, but it’s also possible to capture audio, video, and images. There are also multiple ways to submit content to Day one: the Day One app (iOs, Android, and Apple Watch), Email, the iOS share sheet, SMS text message, even IFTTT can be used. Being able to capture all of these things in a single app makes it much easier to journal life as it happens and that’s very powerful. In addition, Day One can gather data in the background such as your location, the current weather, what music you might happen to be listening to, and more. This extra data is added to a special section of the journal entry and while it might not always matter what kind of weather I’m experiencing or what music I might happen to be listening to, that extra data adds context that I probably wouldn’t have added on my own.

One of my favorite Day One features is On This Day, a feature that shows all entries that were made, well, on this day. I find that I use this feature every day before bed, just to see what I was up to on any given day, last year, two years ago, or even further back. I find it so interesting to read my perspective on things and then to think about how those perspectives have changed. This has been especially interesting as I look back at my life last year during the pandemic. Entries can also be searched by tag or location making it easy to find entries pertaining to a particular place or event.

I’m admittedly a bit of a privacy nut and the idea of entrusting private data to any app or service was initially incredibly terrifying to me. In addition, I didn’t want to invest significant time putting data into an app that I couldn’t get it back out of if needed. Day One has put my fears to rest on both counts. Day One Protects journals with biometric security, end-to-end encryption, and automatic backups with the ability to export data anytime. Day One is also extremely transparent about the cryptographic methods they use and have published papers on the subject. Finally, and most important to me, Day One is very accessible and any time I’ve found an issue, the team has gotten it fixed extremely quickly. There’s a reason they are an award-winning app and I think their commitment to accessibility helps with that.

I realize journaling isn’t everyone’s thing, but especially if it’s something you’ve never done, using Day One might make the process fun and enjoyable for you, just as it has for me. Day One is available in both a free and premium version, I think I used the free version for about an hour before deciding that the upgrade to premium was well worth it. For me, journaling has gone from something I thought I would dread doing, to something I look forward to doing and I credit Day One for making the entire process, from capturing memories to recalling them later, very easy and enjoyable.