I can no longer support “disability as an afterthought” — You don’t matter Your needs don’t matter You don’t deserve to be treated equally You are in the “we will get to you eventually” group because you have “special needs” and aren’t valuable enough to be included with everyone else These are the refrains that have been playing in my head for the last five decades every time I hear an excuse or get gaslit over something that creates barriers preventing people with disabilities like me from gaining equal access.

If you want to be perceived as inclusive, you have to BE inclusive. Otherwise, your words and actions are merely performative. — Let’s face it; Zoom meetings can be tedious. An entire business sector has popped up, focusing on making presentations more interactive by getting real-time feedback from the participants. Mentimeter is one such tool. That is the tool I am most familiar with, so I will use it as an example…

We want to be spectators. Many of us want to be or are, participants. So why is it that we face so many freaking barriers? — As a die-hard San Francisco Giants fan for more than four decades and compound archery 2024 Paralympic hopeful, it is unfortunate that one of the places that I have experienced the most overt public disability discrimination is in the sports setting. The Stadiums / Stadium Amenities

A question that is currently winding its way through American courts — It was one of the earlier plane trips I had taken independently in my personal wheelchair. As I waited upfront for the pre-boarding with an airline notorious for not having assigned seats, a woman said *VERY LOUDLY* “I wonder what I have to do to get special treatment like THAT.”…

In theory, absolutely. But it’s taking federal courts a while to get there. Meanwhile, Web3 is coming, and blockchain is already here. — Places of public accommodation is a particular phrase defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA identifies a wide range of public accommodations, including restaurants, hotels, theaters, doctors’ offices, pharmacies, retail stores, museums, libraries, amusement parks, private schools, and daycare centers. Private clubs and religious organizations are specifically exempt…

All jobs have up and down cycles. Try these steps to get back on the upswing when you are on a down cycle in your accessibility journey. — It is inevitable that somewhere along an accessibility journey, accessibility professionals hit walls. They run out of steam. They go to that well of energy one more time only to bring up an empty bucket. When (not if) this happens to you, all of the suggestions below have helped me…

Hint: “fix the bug” is probably the least important item on the list — It is incredibly common when I do accessibility podcasts, I am asked, “what does accessibility success look like to you?” I, perhaps oddly, count beginning to get accessibility bugs reported as a sign of accessibility success. Accessibility bugs are: a report of an issue; by a user with a disability…

An essential component to maximizing remote participation by people with disabilities — Part two of a two-part article. Part one focuses on how to optimize the video conference experience for the event. One of the lasting impacts of the pandemic is that business people are spending much more time on video conferences. Many of those meetings involve one or more PowerPoint-based presentations. …