Good morning.

I wrote the following post a year or so ago.

Then, later on I reposted during a blogger conversation and it got a fair amount of comments, and what I found out is that there are a lot of folks who have other problems reading as well, and I learned a lot about font, coloring, size and type from that.

Since this writing things have updated for me where my screen reader is concerned so a few of the things mentioned here now read more clearly.

Also, I have found, since my first writing this those who follow me who I follow back have started making more effort where the things I mention are concerned. (Thanks muchly)

And now, my post.

***READER’S NOTE Make sure to read all the way to the end to see links that will give you information on screen reading software. ***

Good morning campbellsworld visitors.

This morning I’d like to talk to you about challenges I run into on a regular basis as someone who is a blind Reader, Author, and Blogger. Each day as I make my way through things like social media, email, and reading blogs, the most frequent problem I have is things not being visible to my screen reader, or Apple Voice Over.

Some of the hardest things I deal with are…

Photos with “No available text”
Not being able to read memes
Not being able to read screenshots
Info Graphics
And one of my latest annoyances, promotional videos with no audio or available text to let me know what the video is about.
I do not feel that people are doing these things on purpose. I simply believe that if a person is not directly affected by an issue, they give it no thought.

How many of you, who are sighted thought about adding descriptions to your book cover photos etc. before you started reading me?

If I had to guess, not many.

As a person who spends most of her time on some kind of social media platform I find great joy when I can read a post no matter if it is on a blog, Facebook wall, or in an email.

I love it when I can download an E-Book, and my Kindle App reads it because the author took the time to make certain that the Text to Speech (TTS) was enabled, and I hop up and down with joy, when someone remembers to write a brief description of a photo they just shared.

Now, let me just say, I have no idea how to tell if there is, “All Available Text” with a photo that you might wish to share. I can only tell you what types of photos that my screen reader software reads.

So far it appears, (Sorry couldn’t help it) that snapshots taken with a camera most times will read.

For example, one time someone took a picture of their little boy sitting with Campbell in his dog bed, and when they texted me the picture the Apple Voice Over said, “Photo may contain child dog, and indoor.”

I thought that was pretty cool.

At Christmas this year, when people took photos of their Christmas Trees it actually said, “Photo may contain Christmas Tree with packages.”

That, is way far out!

It also Appears, (Whoops did it again)

😊

That more and more ads are including “All Available text”

But.

Screenshots do not read at all, and photos such as what come in “Gifts” on messenger, don’t do a thing for me. All I get is a notification that says, “Photo may contain text” (Boring)

Again, this is not anyone’s fault. It hasn’t been that long ago since I could not read emoticons, or stickers, and when I finally became able to do so for a while I became addicted to them.

In fact, I wish my computer had buttons on it that would allow me to do them because I cannot ever remember all the keystrokes for emoticons, and I love them.

😊

There are a lot of challenges for those who are sight impaired, and while we have come a far long way, there is still a huge way to go.

☹

I deal with lots of other challenges as well. Not long ago I got a message from someone telling me that something I posted was off center. I was glad they told me because had they not done so I’d have not known it.

I try to make sure things I post are visually appealing, but sometimes it simply escapes what my screen reader technology will do, and even though I am careful about checking margins and the like, sometimes, especially when copying and pasting, things just do not go where I want them.

I also have issue with spelling words that sound the same but have different spellings. While spell-check has come a long way toward remedying that troublesome issue, it too is lacking. If someone can suggest a program that might catch more of those I’ll dance at your wedding if you’d tell me about it. Of course, said program is going to have to work with my screen reader, so it is going to be trial and error

Sometimes when I am writing I forget about paragraph structure, and then there are times when a post would do so much better grabbing people’s attention if only it had a photo with it but because so many of the images on the sites where we get images from do not read, I’ve no way to know what I might be posting.

So, how to over-come all these challenges?

Raise awareness. That is why I’m writing this post.

I’m not complaining, nor am I whining. I am just trying to let people know where I am at in the scheme of things.

I see a lot of blind persons chatting about this in blindness related groups etc. but I do not see enough conversations happening in the mainstream society, and so I have determined that this year I am going to try and bring us all together a bit more.

I’d also like to add, that totally blind, or visually impaired persons are not the only disabled writers who face challenges, and I’d love to hear from some of you who have other disabilities as to what your challenges are.

For now, this is Patty, who is very glad she can blog more and more on her own, and King Campbell who is snoring so loudly that his mother had to turn up her JFW screen reader saying…

May harmony find you, and blessid be.

If you’d like to see information on Jaws For Windows please visit:  http://freedomscientific.com/

For Apple Voice Over visit: http://Apple.com/

Thanks for reading, and if you would, please share.

PS. If any of the links give you issue please let me know. Sometimes I mess those up too. Not sure if that is screen reader related, or operator error. LOL!

POST URL:  https://campbellsworld.wordpress.com/2018/02/07/challenges-of-a-disabled-writer/