But a lot of times, it’s really not. Especially when people who swear that they’ll only be a minute block someone else’s way. Personally, I find this happening constantly. Now, I can’t do anything in ‘just a minute’ except for racing down an aisle in my wheelchair. Everything else I do tends to either need to be planned out exactly (which takes quite a lot of time) or spend quite a lot of time trying to find accessible routes to where I want to go.

Blocking Access

And it’s one thing to be faced with a curb or step or a ramp that leads only to a flight of stairs but it’s a whole different thing to see an accessible route or an accessible parking spot being blocked because someone thought that they would just be a minute. To the non-disabled people who slide their cars in front of ramps and into disabled spots, you are not going to be just a minute and even for a minute it is still illegal. And it’s rude. It is ridiculously rude. There are people who need those spots, not because they’ll only be a moment, but because they can’t get anywhere any other way.

My Reaction?

When I’m out and about and I see that there’s cars either blocking ramps or taking up handicap spots without a placard I either just ignore it (if I can) or write a little note on their car. When it comes to my home? I don’t ignore it. When people block my car or the ramp, I start knocking on doors and yelling at people to move their cars. Sometimes I try to take the time to explain to them what exactly is the problem, other times I’m merely frustrated and yell at them that they can’t do that.

The Mail Truck Parked in the Hatch-Marks of the Disabled Spot

And yesterday, I left to grab the mail and I see that the mail truck is parked in the hatch-marks of the disabled spot. I went up to the mail man and said, “You know that’s illegal, right?”

He ignored me.

I said again and a bit louder, “You know you can’t park there right?”

He finally turned, shrugged his shoulders and said, “I’ll only be a minute.”.”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s still illegal.”

“I parked there so I wouldn’t get in the way of anyone,” he said.

I swear, my jaw had literally dropped. “You know, it’s people like you who are the reason I have to park in the back parking lots all the time. People need that space so they can get their wheelchairs out.”

“Well I won’t park there tomorrow.”

Nowhere in this conversation did he start to move his truck into one of the available non-disabled spots. Unfortunately, I have always had a terrible tendency to thank people for even the most basic things and I said, “Thank you.”

And then I waited a second. The mail man just continued filling the mailboxes. And then I said, “Wait. Just now, I didn’t mean to say thank you for something you shouldn’t have done in the first place.” I know, not terribly eloquent.

The mailman only shrugged his shoulders again and said, “that’s fine.”

And I waited again. And waited. The mailman continued with his business, not caring that he was blocking both the ramp and any wheelchair user who wanted to get about. So I snapped a couple photos and waited some more. When it had been almost nearly fifteen minutes I spoke up again, “so you’re gonna move that truck or not?”

And yes, I was nasty about it.

“You want me to move the truck now?” he asked.

“Yes!” I said.

He finally got in the truck and moved it to a regular spot. And funnily enough, it only took just a minute to move his truck from one spot to another.

‘anyone else’

The most aggravating thing about the situation, the thing that bothers me the most, was the fact that he said he didn’t want to get in the way of anyone else. I don’t know about him, but I’m fairly certain I still count as a human being. I’m also fairly certain that parking in a regular spot instead of handicap spot does not inconvenience able-bodied people while blocking handicap spots does inconvenience disabled people.

In fact, while able-bodied people are off jaunting around on their far longer than just a minute escapades, us disabled people are often stopped from going about our daily life. If you block the disabled spots we can’t get our wheelchairs out. If you block the ramps or the curb cuts we can’t inside. This isn’t us being angry or whiny. This is us just wanting to live like everyone else.

But I guess apparently we don’t count as real people.

Not to this guy anyway.

But whether or not he agrees, and it’s pretty obvious that he doesn’t, we’re still human. We’re still here. And I will keep driving everyone who blocks my way or others up the wall until they stop doing it.

Related Posts:

• Who Needs It?
• Easy Living
• Why I Don’t Love The Things That Make My World Accessible

Originally published at: Gimp ‘Tude

Growing Up “Hearing Impaired”

The world of hearing loss looked very different when I was growing up. Unlike the culturally Deaf, who were a community unto itself with their own language, I was “Hearing Impaired” and didn’t know anyone else like me and existed without a support system. Isolated and struggling, I was “hearing” when you faced me, but deaf if you were not.
My whole family was infused with the gift of humor. It was, and remains, my primary tool for coping. I presented my hearing loss in a way that strangers could relate so they’d understand and relax. But one Christmas Eve, there was nothing funny about my hearing loss.

One Christmas Eve…

I had just flown into Los Angeles from New York Christmas Eve morning. I spent the Eve with my father in LA and after dinner, my husband and I hit the road due south on the 405 to San Diego. By 2 a.m., I was exhausted and within miles of my mother’s house in La Jolla.

Lights Flashed

Suddenly, lights flashed and swirled behind me. CHPs motioned for me to pull over.
It was pitch black when the officer got out of his car and shined a huge flash light into my eyes. He said something to me, to which I replied that I couldn’t hear him. He opened the car door, and motioned for me to get out.
Cars whizzed in the pitch black as my husband frantically rummaged through my purse in search of my license and rental agreement. He told the 2nd officer that I couldn’t hear with a light shining in my eyes.

Walk a Straight Line

CHPs Officer #1 instructed me to walk a straight line. Of course, I wobbled. I had no balance in the dark. Next he ordered me to touch my nose with both hands. I relaxed and did it.

Handcuffed

He then motioned for me to turn around, and suddenly I was handcuffed and shoved into the cruiser. My driver’s license-less husband was driven to a nearby Denny’s and left stranded.
I was afraid, not mad – I believed any miscommunication was ultimately my fault. I had no idea where they were taking me and how my stranded husband would get out of there.

The Satellite Police Station

I was taken to a nearby satellite police station and put into a holding cell while they called it in. I couldn’t believe it.
I was brought in, questioned and submitted to a blood test (the most accurate). They questioned me about everything that happened that day, flight, dinner, drive, etc. I recited the classic Linke Christmas Eve dinner down to the creamed spinach and stuffing. I relaxed and felt confident that those two freeway cowboys got it. I was not drunk. They made a mistake. They apologized for their mistake, HOWEVER, I had to go to the jail in downtown San Diego to be processed and released.

Downtown San Diego Jail

This time, I sat in the front seat so that I could read the officer’s lips. The handcuffs were in front of me. We stopped and picked up more suspects – a holiday drunk driver round\-up. Three intoxicated guys were shoved into the back seat. Fueled by alcoholic rage, they screamed and shouted the whole trip.

Holding Cell From Hell

I was next put into the Holding Cell from hell in the downtown. I was offered one phone call. I made them call my mother to fill her in. This was before cell phones and pagers. I was scared and felt captive away from help.
I looked out of place with my mink coat and high heels. Alongside barefoot and bedraggled women who ranted, raved, cursed and carried on. They were old hands at this sort of thing.

Free

At 6:30 a.m., the jail keeper (definitely not Andy of Mayberry) motioned for me to come with her. I signed a piece of paper and I was free.
My distraught mother, who looked like she had just survived an earthquake and my distressed husband, took me home and I crashed
As my mother predicted, it’s funny now. People with hearing loss need to assert themselves just like their Deaf counterparts.

A Few Lesson…

Needless to say, I survived and have maintained a perfect driving record since. But I learned a few lessons. If you are pulled over, insist they drive you to a well-lit station before they talk to you. And affix a slashed ear sticker your drivers’ license. Even though the symbol refers to ALDs (Assistive Learning Devices), it remains the only symbol that mainstream hearing people understand.

Image Credits:

Some rights reserved by The.Comedian

Because viewers’ reading speed doesn’t align word for word with the speed of actors’ spoken delivery, and because reading speed varies from viewer to viewer, timing can never be fully controlled. A fast-reading viewer may finish reading a line of dialogue before a slow-speaking actor has finished delivering that line. What might start out as a perfectly timed caption can end up out of sync when readers finish reading before actors finish speaking.

If you’ve ever laughed at a captioned punchline before it’s been completely delivered in speech, even when that caption has been perfectly timed to appear when the first word of the punchline is uttered, then you have experienced one of the productive tensions between listening and reading.

Predicting the future with only dots and dashes

In some well-defined situations, caption viewers are able to glimpse the future by reading ahead and drawing on their knowledge of what’s transpired in the film or TV show thus far. Even something as seemingly minor as a dash or an ellipsis at the end of a caption can speak volumes to experienced caption readers. The timing of captions can play a role in making predictions, but the kind of viewing experience I’m talking about does not depend solely on caption timing. It depends on reading speed, one’s level of experience with closed captions, and the nature of pop-on style captioning (which permits viewers to read ahead into the future).

Let me share five examples of how dots and dashes provide clues to caption viewers about what’s about to happen.

1. Apollo 18 (2011)

In one scene from Apollo 18, Nate is suddenly pulled into a dark moon crater by some unknown force or creature. Every viewer can probably sense that something bad is going to happen because 1) that same scary crater was featured earlier in the film as a foreboding and dangerous spot, 2) Nate has been acting funny and now teeters on the edge of the crater, 3) the dialogue calls up our prior experiences of other movie scenes in which characters go down screaming “Save yourself!”, and 4) this is a horror movie (where scary things happen suddenly). But caption viewers have an extra bit of information in the ellipsis — if they can read fast enough and have enough prior experience with captions — that allows them to have advance knowledge of the moment when something dramatic will happen to prevent Nate from finishing his sentence.

When I first watched this movie on DVD, I surmised correctly, before Nate was pulled into the crater, that the ellipsis signaled the end of the conversation between the astronauts and the beginning of a sudden shift in focus. It’s always just a guess, and it must take place in a split second. I knew the scene wouldn’t end well and the caption gave me a clue as to the timing of the bad event. Sometimes we guess wrong. But I would suggest that experienced caption viewers are continually making educated guesses like this one as they read ahead. At the very least, the ellipsis tells us that something dramatic will happen to prevent the speaker from finishing his sentence. We may not know exactly what will happen, but we glimpse the future nonetheless.

2. Taken (2008)

At the end of Taken (2008), Liam Neeson finally tracks down his kidnapped daughter and proceeds to kill the final kidnapper as swiftly as he killed the other bad guys along the way. The movie poster has promised nothing less from Neeson’s character: “I don’t know who you are but if you don’t let my daughter go, I will find you and I will kill you.” So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that, just as Neeson has done with the previous bad guys along the way, this final bad guy will suffer a similar fate. But caption viewers have an extra bit of information in the dash that allows them to know precisely when he will be shot by Neeson.

We surmise ahead of time that the reason the bad guy can’t finish saying the word “negotiate” is because Neeson shoots him. The caption is poorly timed too, giving viewers ample time not only to read the line before it is spoken but to make an educated guess about the bad guy’s fate. It’s not hard to guess what’s going to happen when we consider Neeson’s take-no-prisoners style (negotiation is not an option!) and the audience’s expectation of a happy ending (i.e. daughter unharmed and returned to her family; bad guys pay the ultimate price). The dash on “nego–” allows us to predict when that price will be paid by the final bad guy.

3. 30 Rock (2008)

At the beginning of the untitled 10th episode of Season 2 of 30 Rock, Kenneth is sprayed with steam from a new cappuccino machine before he can finish saying his own name:

I really had no idea what was coming. I just could see in a split second that something was going to interrupt Kenneth’s phone greeting. What the dash on “Ke–” tells us an instant before those watching without captions is that Kenneth will be interrupted by something. We can only guess what that something will be. (The episode thus far has focused on that new cappuccino machine, so perhaps the interruption will involve that mach–?)

4. Psych (2010)

Sometimes, an ellipsis or dash doesn’t foreshadow a major interruption (like a powerful moon force, gunshot, or coffee machine spraying steam) but merely an emotional pause or break. In this clip from an episode of Psych entitled “Shawn 2.0” (2010), Curt Smith from Tears for Fears stops singing mid-sentence, presumably after seeing a look of shock on Shawn’s face. We know the interruption is coming because we can easily read ahead and see it coming in the dash. That’s all the dash tells us here. (If we’re fans of Tears for Fears, we also know what word is missing.)

5. Futurama (2008)

At other times, things happen so quickly that we can barely keep up, let alone read ahead. In this clip from an episode of Futurama entitled “Bender’s Big Score” (2008), the alien scammers have taken everything worth anything and thrown the gang out on the street. Dr. Zoidberg’s response to being fired is short (only one second long) and the accompanying caption is timed about 3/10th of a second too late, which doesn’t really allow readers any time to make a prediction about the meaning of the ellipsis or what’s coming.

Conclusion: Caption viewers can sometimes read ahead into the future

The issue of timing in pop-on style captioning usually refers only to the first word or sound in each caption. Captioners are encouraged to make sure that each caption appears at precisely the moment when the first sound/word in that caption is uttered. After the first word, all bets are off for when (or even whether) viewers will finish reading the remaining words in the caption. When speakers speak more slowly than caption viewers read, the latter can sometimes read ahead of the former’s spoken dialogue. Poorly timed captions can enable or hinder this practice of reading ahead. Differing literacy levels among readers complicate things even further.

Here’s the larger point: Through the eyes of experienced caption readers, even something as seemingly insignificant as punctuation — a dash or a couple dots — can provide important clues about the future, regardless of how well or poorly timed the captions are.

Related Posts:

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Originally Posted on Accessible Rhetoric

[Fair use notice: The videos on this site are transformative works used in good faith, in keeping with Section 107 of U.S. copyright law, and as such constitute fair use of copyrighted material. Read this site's full fair use notice.]

From the Associated Press: Life has never been easy for the disabled in Haiti. The blind and deaf and amputated often shoulder a social stigma, their disabilities dismissed as the product of a hex, and few have access to physical therapy or social services. But when the 2010 earthquake displaced forced hundreds of thousands of people into post-apocalyptic-like tent cities, a sliver of the homeless disabled population landed in the closest thing to a model community. They moved into neat plywood shelters along tidy gravel lanes in a settlement designed to house them. They formed a close-knit colony of sorts with ramps for their wheelchairs made out of discarded pool furniture and solar-powered lights to help the deaf communicate with sign language. The rare respite for the estimated 500-plus people living here, however, will soon end as the government moves to reclaim the land. “We’ll protest because we have no place else to go,” one resident said through an interpreter.

Haitians, some of whom had limbs amputated due to an injuries suffered in the 2010 earthquake, play soccer at La Piste camp in Port-au-Prince. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Double-amputee sets sights on London games

From the Associated Press: When he was a teen, Damian Lopez was injured by a high-voltage electrical wire when untangling a kite. He lost both his forearms and the incident melted much of the skin from his face. But Lopez, 35, is close to realizing an unlikely dream by representing Cuba at the 2012 London Paralympics in cycling, the sport that he says kept him from drowning in self-pity and despair. “After the accident I didn’t want to leave the house, but some friends came looking for me to play. That was key,” Lopez said. The Cuban Cycling Federation is supporting Lopez’s bid for an invitation to the Paralympic games, and an answer is expected in mid-April.

Damian Lopez trains at the Reinaldo Paseiro velodrome in Havana. Click the photo to see more pictures. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)

New York opens first gay senior citizens center

New York has opened the first U.S. senior citizens center dedicated exclusively to LGBT residents, one of eight initiatives launched by the city to improve the lives of the elderly. Another initiative targets the blind. AFP reports that 1.3 million elderly people live in New York among a population of 8.17 million residents. Their numbers are expected to grow by 46 percent over the next 25 years.

More reading:

• Your Facebook ‘like’ can fund seeing-eye dogs
• Nepal restaurant serves up opportunity for deaf
• A deaf son struggles to be heard in ‘Tribes’
• Autistic teen wins damages over police restraint
• Twitter adding to stigma of epilepsy, study says
• Disabled voters in America: Facts and figures
• British court: Right-to-die case can proceed
• Governor opposing lawmakers on cut to blind aid
  

Story: A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife.

Director: Christopher Nolan

Writers: Jonathan Nolan (short story “Memento Mori”), Christopher Nolan (screenplay)

Stars: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano

“Memento” on IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209144/

BLIND FILM CRITIC
Starring Tommy Edison
http://on.fb.me/my3qtK

Produced/Edited by Ben Churchill
http://benchurchill.com

CAPTIONING SPONSORED BY:
Yahoo! Accessibility Blog
http://accessibility.yahoo.com

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This review was originally posted on MEMENTO review (no spoilers) – BY POPULAR DEMAND

I think I get it now.

Acceptance

I’ve accepted the fact that I have CRPS. I’ve accepted the fact that at the very least I need a cane and at the most a wheelchair. But I find myself struggling to accept that there is still more that I need. On good days, I try to take my grudging acceptance and figure things out. On the bad days, I feel like a lazy, whiny child who just wants, wants, and wants some more. On the bad days, I worry that every new need is just a sign to others that I am looking for special attention. I worry that people think that I’m exaggerating or even worse, faking.

I haven’t accepted everything to do with disability. Being a disabled person is a lot of work. Trust me, I know, I used to be able-bodied. I haven’t accepted the fact that I need an adapted car even though I can feel my CRPS spreading into my right leg. I’ve known that there was a seventy percent chance of this happening. I know I might be lucky and it might be a lesser form of it. But it isn’t stopping the growing need to be able to drive without my feet.

I haven’t really accepted the fact that I need to buy a portable ramp if I ever want to go out on my deck. Sure, my apartment is wheelchair accessible, but there’s this one step to the deck outside that gives me a problem. And more so, I haven’t really accepted my need to use my wheelchair inside the house. I’ve been using it more often, but when I wake up, my first instinct is to grab my cane or crutches, not to shuffle down to the wheelchair at the foot of the bed.

I know I need an adapted car. I know I need a small ramp for my deck. And another bar in the bathroom. And I know I need to stop putting things on top shelves on my standing days. I know I need to keep my doorways cleared.

In Time

But do I accept it?

In time.

In time, I will wonder how I ever thought I could get by without. In time, the things I need will be replacements. In time, I’ll want shiny extras to go with what I need. In time, I will adapt and accept.

There are a lot of firsts with disability. I’ve had my first crutches, my first cane, my first wheelchair, my first day out on my own disabled!style, my first extraordinarily uncomfortable experience, and so on and on. After firsts come seconds and thirds, each time easier than the last (well perhaps not the extraordinarily uncomfortable experiences). My second cane was more suited to me than my first. My third pair of crutches were better than the first and second. Grudging acceptance over using a cane turned to excitement when I unwrapped my second black cane. Grudging acceptance over crutches turned to relief when I unwrapped lightweight polka dot crutches. And I just had pure bliss when I sat down in my first customized wheelchair.

It’s a continuing process of acceptance. I get it now. I really do.

And in time, I might understand it even better.

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• Why I Don’t Love The Things That Make My World Accessible
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Originally published at: Gimp ‘Tude

Image Credit

Some rights reserved by Felix42 contra la censura

Created this drawing whilst listening to this band I stumbled upon on Facebook. Emotional Stuff.

Art by Frank Allen

Music by Deafen the Creatures

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Image Credit:

Some rights reserved by horrigans

Katalin Eszter Varga

The winner of a Hungarian beauty pageant for wheelchair users says she advocate for increasing accessibility in the country, the Associated Press reports. Katalin Eszter Varga, 26, a perfume saleswoman who has been using a wheelchair for four years, won the Miss Colours event, which was the first of its kind in Europe. “It’s hard to access many buildings, bathrooms for the disabled are badly designed and there are few domestic hotels offering wheelchair access,” Varga said. “I have many hopes that all this will change.” The first Ms. Wheelchair America pageant was held in 1973.

Judi Dench: I’m not going blind

Dame Judi Dench

Dame Judi Dench’s recent revelation that she has macular degeneration led to an interesting moment in the media. When the 77-year-old actress told the Daily Mirror that her sight has already gotten so bad that she couldn’t read scripts, the headlines were as dramatic as some of Dench’s roles: Judi Dench reveals she is going blind, Veteran actress Judi Dench battles to save her sight, Actress Judi Dench says she’s battling blindness, etc. But Dench quickly sought to clarify her condition: “In response to the numerous articles in the media concerning my eye condition — macular degeneration — I do not wish for this to be overblown,” Dench said in a statement emailed to Reuters. “This condition is something that thousands and thousands of people all over the world are having to contend with. It’s something that I have learnt to cope with and adapt to — and it will not lead to blindness.” This move led to more nuanced reporting on the condition, such as a Good Morning America story that explains the difference in the two types of macular degeneration (wet and dry) and discusses incidence of and potential risk factors for the condition.

Are smartphones killing Braille?

New gadgets equipped with screenreaders are increasingly letting blind people listen to text. Is this contributing to “Braille illiteracy”?, The Week asks:

It’s too early to say, although Julie Deden, director of Colorado Center for the Blind, says smartphones are masking and encouraging the problem of “Braille illiteracy” by making it easier for young blind people to get by without learning Braille. But there’s a twist: New gadgets like iPhones and iPads also have the potential to make Braille more accessible than ever. Compact electronic “Braille Displays” (connected to a screen via Bluetooth) can translate digital characters into Braille using grids of plastic nubs that rise and fall as the text progresses. “The iPhone is the official phone of blindness,” one blind woman tells Britain’s Guardian.

Interestingly, though, Mashable has a take on an app called BrailleTouch that isn’t available for the iPhone but is ready for Android smartphones. Researchers created a mobile keyboard that “borrows the six-key system of the most common typewriter for Braille, the 60-year-old Perkins Brailler. The idea is that people who already know how to type Braille on a typewriter won’t need to learn a new system in order to type on their phones.” One test subject, “a 57-year-old visually impaired man who learned Braille as a child, was able to type 32 words per minute with 92% accuracy after just 20 minutes of practice.” Check out the app in the video below.

More reading:

• Zimbabwe’s blind commentator is on the ball
• U.S. government charges Bank of America with discriminating against three disabled borrowers
• Muhammad Ali, who has Parkinson’s disease, celebrates his 70th birthday
• Obama’s Alzheimer’s plan focuses on treatment and care
• Las Vegas Businessman builds a brain-research center