a blog about accessible services, products, and issues in tourism, travel, and education.
Seeing EyePhone: Could Your Phone Be Your Service Animal?
Jun 10th, 2011
iPhone App developers, take note: for the first time in awhile, I’ve found a situation where I can’t say, “there’s an app for that!” and I need one.
Have you ever found yourself in a situation when you simply didn’t hear something, such as the kettle whistling? or the water running because the TV was too loud, or there were screaming kids? It happens to everyone, whether or not you’re deaf. These are situations that can have negative effects if unattended. In this post, I’m going to explore the possibility of our mobile devices being able to provide us with essential More >
How Well-Crafted Podcast Descriptions Help Me Hear
Jun 1st, 2011
Have you ever stood in front of a piece of very abstract art at a museum, and been like, “Ok. I don’t get it.” Of course you have. And then you look at the small placard below it, and it gives you some explanation, and all of the sudden the abstract colors, shapes, and lines come together in a way that makes sense? Yeah. That’s how I hear.
Well, anyway, it’s how I hear NPR. I learned how to listen to – and understand – podcasts from well-written descriptions about each episode to help me out. Let me explain.
Ok, let’s face More >
How Twitter can be an #accessibility tool for #deaf / HoH.
Apr 27th, 2011
Last week, President Obama held a Facebook Town Hall event via live video-streaming to promote the StartUP America Partnership, which was followed by a panel discussion by start-up veterans. As an entrepreneur and a fan of this initiative, I “tuned in” to this live video stream to learn more about the program and learn from the panelists. Except…there was one road-block.
Road-Block: Lack of Captions at the Live EventThe live video feed wasn’t captioned. Now, I’m not here to whine or point fingers, but to tell you about an interesting accessibility “alternative” that I stumbled upon. This “solution” was instantly available, didn’t More >
Museums & Social Media: A Step Towards Accessibility
Apr 19th, 2011
“The Brontosaurus skeleton in the @AMNH is so tall!”
When was the last time you went to a museum or a cultural / community event? (Such as the cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C.) Did you provide any insight on your activities on your social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, or mobile photo sharing site Instagr.am? Chances are that you likely did, as a way to tell your families & friends what you’ve been up to. Perhaps you wanted to strike up a conversation, or remind people that the Cherry Trees were a gift to the American people by Japan. More >
How to Caption Voicemail Messages
Mar 31st, 2011
“You have 1 Voicemail”
Seeing the voicemail icon on my phone makes my shoulders tense up. That’s because I can’t always understand the voicemail messages due to a number of factors, one being the obvious if you know me: I am deaf. I can use the phone, thanks to my cochlear implants, but I really depend more on seeing visual cues. The other factors to not understanding voicemail messages include the clarity of the caller’s voice, background noise, and/or my listening focus. There was one particular voicemail that I couldn’t understand, and it was nagging at me for a couple of More >
AAPD Gala Remarks: “See what People Hear, and Hear what People See.”
Mar 23rd, 2011
AAPD Leadership Awards Gala
Last week was the American Association of People with Disabilities annual Leadership Awards Gala. What a GREAT party! It was such an honor to be one of the leadership award recipients – the Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award - which recognizes emerging leaders and advocates in the cross-disability movement. Many of you have asked for me to post my remarks, so I’m gladly doing so here:
Prior to taking the stage, the audience viewed this video, produced by AAPD about my vision for inclusive museum experiences:
Catharine’s Gala Remarks: March 15, 2011Thank you so much! This is an honor and More >
What Makes Content “Keen?”
Mar 11th, 2011
We love hearing from our fans who say, “How can I help get Keen in my city?”
That’s music to my ears, because that means the demand is there, and I can continue to tell museums and providers that there is an engaged community out there. With that said, there’s a handful of ways that you can help, and one way is identifying video content that you’d like to see on Keen Guides. Ultimately, we want to help museums understand that implementing accessibility doesn’t always mean a giant shift in how they run their programs. The smallest improvement makes a big, More >
Universal Design Helps MobiLegs Put its Best Foot Forward
Mar 1st, 2011
How many of you have used crutches?
And if you used them, how many of you “amended” them – washcloths under the armpits, furry things on the hand grips. Let’s face it: when you have to duct tape stuff to something you use every day for 6 weeks or more, it’s time for a redesign. I recently came across Jeff Weber’s innovative redesign of the crutch to enhance comfort and aesthetic design. This crutch, later to become known as MobiLegs is born out of a personal experience of Weber, who was already a designer by skill. (He helped develop the Herman Miller More >
Accessible Uses for New Technology: Telepresence
Feb 17th, 2011
Imagine that you’re homebound for medical reasons, or work from home, and you want to be able to communicate with your friends, families, and colleagues throughout the day. Not just for an hour here or there, but for a whole day. Connecting via “video chat” probably comes to mind, but what if these people are constantly on the move, from room to room, or even floor to floor, and you want to go with them?
Introducing Telepresence Robots
Meet the 4-foot tall steel and chrome robot, Vgo (pronounced vee-go) that has a high-definition video screen for a face and motorized wheels for More >
From Art History to Business
Feb 16th, 2011
It all began with an idea.
I have kind of a crazy career path. So it’s no surprise that people often ask me “what did you major in, that you’re doing this now!?” Basically, it’s their nice way of saying “how the heck did you get here?” Well, as it turns out, I was invited to speak at Gallaudet this week, to tell just this story. The short version is this: I was an art history major in college, having grown up loving museums and art with my family. But, whenever my parents took an audio tour on a museum visit, I was More >