[stylist] Poem: Blue Button

Fri Mar 11 15:11:01 UTC 2016

I'm not sure there is EVER a way that even a full-screen tactile display could help us distinguish colors. Much as I'd love to. 

Barbara Hammel

> On Mar 10, 2016, at 10:33, Bill Outman via stylist <stylist at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Oh, my goodness, Jackie, and welcome back.  
> 
> You have had quite a time with your computer.  
> 
> The poem as I said was inspired by a friend, who is actually in the other
> organization, who had a problem with a form with a blue button as I
> described.  She wondered out loud where our advocates were on these issues.
> Someone sighte might have told her the button was blue, even if the screen
> reader couldn't find it.  It is possible in Jaws, thoug,h to read the colors
> at a particular cursor location, but that wouldn't necessarily mean you were
> sitting on a particular control.  This was also in the wake of the petition
> that was put forward recently asking the Justice Department to promulgate
> the promised web accessibility regulations.  I wonder what the final count
> on that petition drive was.  I may have to call the national office and ask.
> 
> 
> The part about feeling the colors refers to another potential means of
> access that might, next to sight itself, be the holy grale of alternative
> technology for us if it could be done practically and at reasonable cost.
> That would be a full screen tactile display.  I know there have been some
> experimental moves in that area but it hasn't come totally to fruition yet.
> 
> 
> 
> This is something I mentioned to a computer instructor I had at a
> vocational/technical school about twenty years ago when I was having trouble
> with an introductory course that was on a computer that I had to have
> assistance with because some of it was in bit mapped graphics.  That meant
> that even if something was in text it was a picture of dots rather than text
> characters.  I said to him what the blind needed was a tactile display that
> would render these pictures, having no earthly idea how we would or could
> get there, or if I could be part of that process.  
> 
> Such a display could in my imagination have different textures for color
> contrast.  One might be able to locate an element and route the cursor to it
> in order to perform the needed action.  Perhaps the view could be zoomed in
> like with a magnification program, and text could be output as Braille if
> desired, which could in turn be adjusted in size and height for easier
> reading.  
> 
> The combination of feeling blue and seeing red describes the simultaneous
> feelings of depression and anger we sometimes feel with our technology,
> which we have a love-hate relationship with sometimes.  
> 
> Bill Outman 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jackie
> Williams via stylist
> Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2016 9:48 AM
> To: 'Writers' Division Mailing List'
> Cc: Jackie Williams
> Subject: Re: [stylist] Poem: Blue Button
> 
> Bill,
> I have been inactive for months due to my computer crashing. It took months
> which involved getting the hard drive replaced, getting an expert to
> diagnose and retrieve what was possible from my external hard drive,
> installing a new computer also, up-dated but still foreign to me with
> Windows 10, JAWS 16, and My Word program with its many files and folders
> still not transferred until I learn to use it.
> But the good news, the first e-mail this day from the group is a poem that
> could not be more pertinent. I have that experience so often, often not
> stating a color, but just saying just clicking on the button, and I cannot
> see or find it using the suggested hot key of B. 
> There are so many things that JAWS does not read, like when your entire
> screen goes black, so you have no idea what to do.
> I am sure that more lessons at 80. Per hour would help, but after all this,
> I just liberally delete things.
> I call myself a poet, sometimes in question! But I love your content, and I
> also like rhymed poetry.
> Thanks so much for putting our experiences in a poetic form.
> Now, I must try to keep up with the Stylist group once again I probably have
> missed a great deal from all of my friends.. 
> 
> Jackie Lee
> 
> Time is the school in which we learn.
> Computers are the fires in which we burn.
> Delmore Schwartzand Jackie Lee     
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Bill Outman
> via stylist
> Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2016 7:17 PM
> To: 'Writers' Division Mailing List'
> Cc: Bill Outman
> Subject: [stylist] Poem: Blue Button
> 
> Here is a poem I wrote tonight that was inspired by a blind friend's
> experience with an inaccessible web form with a blue button that could not
> be accessed in order to complete it.  I am writing as if in her voice, but
> any of us without sufficient vision to interpret a computer screen would run
> into this problem.  
> 
> 
> 
> Any comments are welcome.  
> 
> 
> 
> Bill Outman 
> 
> 
> 
> Blue Button 
> 
> 
> 
> When I came to a web form 
> 
> I wished only I had proper access.  
> 
> If to its requirements I could conform 
> 
> I could achieve full success.  
> 
> 
> 
> You tell me to click the button that's blue 
> 
> I reply I simply cannot see, what can I say?  
> 
> And without physical vision I see no hue 
> 
> No matter if green, orange or gray.  
> 
> 
> 
> I am left wondering what to do. 
> 
> For with the computer voice it cannot be read 
> 
> I'm left feeling very blue, 
> 
> And it's enough to make me see red 
> 
> 
> 
> If I could sense the color by touch, 
> 
> Or if it only had the proper tag 
> 
> It would help so very much
> 
> So that the job would be in the bag 
> 
> 
> 
> So to all I would implore 
> 
> To institute the correct fix. 
> 
> Such an act I would adore, 
> 
> For then I would be fully in the mix. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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