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It’s funny, I don’t consider myself disabled– that is, on most days.  Then every now and then, life will knock me upside the head and remind me that I can’t access the world sometimes.

I was born with hearing in the so-called “normal” range.  I know I started losing some hearing when I was in kindergarten, because I remember climbing into bed and asking Dad to repeat the story of Scamp, the scraggly little dog that went on adventures all over town.  All of a sudden, I was missing bits and pieces of the story.  I was outfitted with a single hearing aid at the age of nine, but the contraption often ended up on a shelf after school and disappeared during the summer.  I got by with lipreading and some impressive social bluffing skills.    When I was nineteen, I went from hard of hearing to deaf in an instant– I fell while barefooting and climbed into the boat deaf.

Sometimes it’s hard for people to believe me when I say that becoming deaf was the best thing that ever happened to me.  The bluffing skills went to the wayside and I picked up American Sign Language.  I worked at a Center for Independent Living and met people with disabilities from all over.  The very best thing that I learned was this:  Attitude is everything.

When we have an attitude of acceptance, equality and access, then we see the whole person, instead of just a disability.   Jo Waldron says it best when she says, “Attitude is the worst barrier of all.”

I generally find that most people have an open attitude when they meet me and we have to do a communication dance– I have to figure out how to lipread them and they have to figure out how to slow down and face me.  Once we get that dance coordinated, access usually follows.  The same thing happens with websites– sometimes I will ask for a transcript for a video or captions and folks are usually willing to follow up with some kind of access.  Eventually… someday… I hope for full internet access.  The passage of H.R. 3101 and S. 3304 would enable a step toward this access.

Today, bloggers from all over are uniting for people with disabilities.  Take a look at the posts and join the conversation.  Then take a look at your website and determine if it’s accessible for folks with disabilities.  If you need an accessiblity guru, connect with Glenda Watson Hyatt, she works miracles with her left thumb.

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Tags: Advocacy efforts // 4 Comments »