[Nfb-krafters-korner] Twitter Feed

[Melinda Gorley]

Hi everyone,
My name is Melinda and I have volunteered to help Joyce with the Krafters
Korner Twitter feed.  She and I had a good talk about how to get the
message out to those who are blind that they can still work on their
favorite crafts and also to help the blind learn NEW crafts.  Her goal is
to reach as many blind crafters as possible with links to websites and
businesses that offer patterns and crafting info.  We put together this new
Twitter feed to do just that.  Since I do have my sight I am able to visit
many websites and see if they could be useful to the blind community.  We
will be following sites that offer patterns and tutorials, businesses that
offer sales and coupon deals, and even articles that deal with crafting as
a business so that those of you who are interested in selling your crafts
could get some info in how to do that.  We could also try to locate
teachers to teach some more classes.  (I am also interested in teaching
some classes.)

One of the things I could use your expertise on is what you would like to
see on a website that could help you in getting around on that site.  As
you know, most websites are put together in a visually appealing manner.
Maybe with your thoughtful suggestions we could help these websites in
making their sites more user friendly for the blind.

Also, how would you like to see patterns written out on websites?  Most
pattern designers use abbreviations and I am not sure how your screen
reader interprets these abbreviations.  I am just learning all about screen
readers, so I could use your help in this area.  Would you rather see
patterns that have pattern directions written out in full words rather than
abbreviations?  I have a crochet website that I will be working on this
next week to write out the full words.  I have found that even beginners to
crochet that have their sight are having trouble figuring out what all
those abbreviations mean, so I want my website to be more user friendly.

You can access the Krafters Korner Twitter feed by going to
Twitter.com/craftingblind

If you have a Twitter account and would like to post messages on your feed
about Krafters Korner you can include our Twitter handle  @CraftingBlind
in your posts.  Joyce will then be able to see all the posts about Krafters
Korner and see how many times those posts are ReTweeted out to the public.
This is how we will get the word out about Krafters Korner.

Please feel free to give me your thoughtful suggestions in how we can make
Krafters Korner the best crafting info site for the blind!

Joyce, please let me know if it is OK to list my website here on the list
for your members to be able to visit.  I would like to have suggestions to
help make my site more user friendly.  I am also considering adding a page
to my website that would post links for blind crafters that are more user
friendly for you.

Thanks everyone!
Melinda