I'm heading off to the BlogHer conference in a couple of days to introduce more bloggers to the basics of accessibility. In honor of this occasion, I thought I would share a couple of interviews with folks I had the pleasure to meet in connection with last year's BlogHer.
Nickie of the blog Nickie's Nook was not at BlogHer last year, but she commented on a post I had created to document the accessibility presentation I gave at that conference. This year, she was gracious enough to fit in an email interview around her classes, finals, and self-publishing a book called Nickie's Nook: Sharing the Journey that contains her essays and blog posts. (Coincidentally, Nickie chose to publish with Lulu.com, which had a table at BlogHer last year. See, the world is really very small.)
Thanks to Nickie for answering my questions about her blog, the assistive technology she uses, and website accessibility in general.
Let's get started.
Nickie, could you tell me a little bit about yourself?
I am a junior at a private women's college, majoring in social work. My interests include medicine, psychology, dogs, reading, blindness issues and, of course, blogging. I travel with Julio, a male yellow lab from Guide Dogs for the Blind.
How would you describe your blog, Nickie's Nook?
My blog is pretty much a combination of journal entries about things that happen to me and thoughts I want to share with the world. Nickie's Nook describes the blog well, because I think of it as a quiet place where I go to gather my thoughts, but anything can and does happen there. It's a pretty large nook, though, because I tend to invite a lot of people to the conversation.
You've been blogging for over four years now. How did you get started? What do you like about it?
I got started blogging when a friend gave me an invite code for LiveJournal (they started letting anyone join about six months to a year after I joined). At that time, I had just started to deal with new health concerns, and was struggling to figure out how to survive teenage angst, high school and everything else in my life. I still blog because I enjoy making and keeping in touch with new friends. The questions I ask are different now, and the issues I care about are different. For example, the subject of accessibility in every area of life is more important to me now, than it was when I started.
How did you pick what kind of blogging software to use? Are you happy with it?
I basically chose LiveJournal because I was offered an invite code at the time. It was suggested by a friend who is blind, and I knew several friends who used it and didn't have problems with it. Now, I still love using LiveJournal, but I sometimes wish I was using something which would allow me to use a few widgets that are accessible.
LiveJournal still has a lot of features, like email posting, themes and customization and the built-in friends system which allows me to easily keep up with entries from my friends who use LiveJournal. I also like the ability to protect entries if I don't want others to see them. If I don't know if I should write a certain post, I can write it, then protect it until I have had more time to think about what I've written. It's somewhat similar to saving a post as a draft, at least to me.
What kind of computer and software do you use regularly for accessing websites? Anything special?
I use two computers to access the internet, depending upon where I am and what I am doing. I use a Toshiba laptop running Windows XP Media Center. I use Window-Eyes from GW Micro and generally browse using Mozilla Firefox. I also use a BrailleNote mPower from HumanWare to browse when I am away from my laptop.
The two specialized products above are Window-Eyes, which is a screen reader, and the BrailleNote. I know you've covered screen readers before, so I won't re-invent the wheel there as far as descriptions go. I will explain though, that a BrailleNote is a PDA with a Braille display and keyboard. It runs on Windows CE V. 4.2, and has a special suite of applications which are specially designed to be easy to work with without sight. It has a lot of capabilities, and works well for browsing text sites or listening to audio. I frequently write blog posts on it and post them when I'm out somewhere and come across wireless internet.
What types of blogs do you enjoy reading? Any favorites?
I try to keep up with over 200 feeds from blogs and a few news sites. Mostly, they come from the areas of personal blogs of friends and people I find interesting to read, social work, college and psychology related sites, health blogs, chronic pain news and blogs, blogs about dogs, books, general tech related news and blindness or other disability and accessibility blogs.
A few blogs not directly related to accessibility I love are ChronicBabe, The Poodle and Dog Blog, and Rickety Contrivances of Doing Good. In the accessibility area, I love Blind Access Journal and The Desert Skies. These are great blogs for anyone who wants to better understand how barriers actually affect us in real life.
What are your pet peeves about websites you visit? What makes it downright impossible for you to use certain websites?
The most difficult barrier for me is the use of CAPTCHA. It is incredibly frustrating to hear about a new web site and find that I can't register or leave comments or do anything on the site because I can't "read the characters and type them into the box below". I sometimes ask for help reading them just so I can continue to use the site and figure out whether I want to continue using it or not. It doesn't matter if the inside of a building is accessible to wheelchairs if there are stairs in front with no way to avoid them and enter. The same things apply to web sites. A lot of sites are actually very accessible, but because they use CAPTCHA for registration or commenting or any number of things, I can't even look at or use the accessible layout.
If there were three things you would want bloggers to keep in mind about people with disabilities, what would they be?
When you're writing or working on a new layout for your blog, remember that some of your readers may have disabilities. As bloggers we often try to write for a target audience. Remember someone who is blind, deaf, mobility impaired or who has other disabilities as one of your target readers. It's much easier to remember to use some of the great tips I've already read on this blog if you actually think that people with disabilities are reading and interested in what you have to say.
Label graphics. I know that this has already been discussed, but a labeled graphic can make the difference between a great experience and a headache. If all I hear is a series of numbers in place of a funny picture, I'm lost. And some poorly labeled graphics and graphical links literally create a headache with strings like "aaaahahhhbe127.gif". Trust me, some are much longer and harder on the ears.
When possible, use headings. Headings allow me to jump by section, which I understand the human eye can do with some visual help. It is helpful to be able to skip by date or post, for example. In my blog, for example, the "About This Blog" section, entries and tags are marked up with heading tags. Many blog templates will allow you to do this or already come with the
headings incorporated into them.
Your guide dog, Julio, has done some guest blogging for you in the past. Do you think he will eventually need his own blog, or is he content with the occasional guest post?
Julio's targeting abilities are absolutely amazing, and he types using his nose pretty well. I know he would love to blog daily, but the drool on the keyboard gets pretty gross. We've decided together that I'll let him blog occasionally, but he has to provide content for my blog.
Again, thanks to Nickie for her time and willingness to answer my questions. For more from Nickie, check out Nickie's Nook or her book called Nickie's Nook: Sharing the Journey.
I am a huge Nickie Colby fan. Huge. I'm so glad you featured her. And, I will see you at BlogHer Con!