Action Blog
Viewing entries posted in June 2011
What not to wear
Fashion is weird and here’s why. Inspiration can come from anywhere, but usually it starts off on the streets from some cool or kooky kid who stumbles upon a different way to wear her blazer, or maybe in some trendy art school, a film, festival or event - a designer then picks up on it and creates a weird and wonderful version of it, it hits the catwalk, filters down to the High St racks, to the masses and back onto some school kid again - weird.
Accessibility, politics and change
For the past year, I have gone against type and strolled down an avenue in my advocacy work that was not only unfamiliar to me, but that I was reluctant to embark upon. Last June I joined the UK Government's eAccessibility Forum, with an open mind, not really knowing what to expect. I certainly had no innate confidence in my ability to influence change within Government: that would have been absurd. But I always have plenty of hope and a very strong will, so I set off down a road I knew nowt about. In fact, I recall being so scared that I resorted to my usual self-effacing, flippant remarks, like, "What I know about politics I could write on the back of a postage stamp", but it couldn't have been more true.
An open heart just has to get broken now and again
My life is nothing short of beautiful. I wake up every morning filled with hope and wonderment. No two days are ever the same and I have the good fortune to be able to do the things I feel passionate about. Of course, there are the day-to-day challenges posed by living with two impairments, but I have adapted and only ever really feel disabled by ignorance. On balance, I am a happy girl, but I have always asserted that there is no yin without yang, no joy without pain, no happiness without suffering, and this has certainly been true of late.
Permanent make-up... not really something you 'try'
When it comes to doing your make-up in the morning, if you are either bind or partially sighted the process may go one of either two ways.
HTML5 and web accessibility: is there hope for inclusion?
For those of us who have been asserting that web accessibility must be "built-in not bolt-on", the prospect of the much awaited changes to HTML, the technical specification that is the foundation for all websites, has filled us with great hope.
The art of etiquette
Should your wine glass clink or simply air kiss? Should you tip even though a service charge has already been included? Is it too formal to verbally excuse yourself from the table these days? What do you do with your olive seed if a small plate has not been provided? And the clincher… mobile phone etiquette: to answer or not to answer, that is the question.
Hope, sight loss, grief and the remarkable resilience of humankind
Yesterday, we made our pilgrimage to Moorfields Eye Hospital for my annual MOT: this involves having my eyes photographed, having drops that sting like crazy put into them and then having bright lights flashed in their direction at different intervals, only to be told that my eyesight is getting worse. The retinitis pigmentosa has now completely invaded my macula, which makes sense of the gazillion point font I need to read text, my whopping 1/60 acuity is now hanging on for dear life and the double vision as well as the psychedelic photopsy are now permanent features, but I am not troubled. In fact, on receipt of all of this news, I was so non-plussed that it was as if someone had told me that I was perfectly fine.
So tell me…
I have done a few fashion and beauty posts for the Action for Blind People website now and up to the other day, I actually thought that everything was going swimmingly. However, I was recently told by a friend of mine that she had a few issues with my posts.
Tag cloud
accessibility, apple, assistive technology, beauty, benefits, braille, burnley, christmas, confidence, coping, disability, discrimination, dla, dwp, education, employment, esa, family, fashion, grieving, guide dogs, holidays, human rights, inclusive design, inclusivity, independence, independent living, iphone, life, lifestyle, living with sight loss, money, pension, people, personal independence payment, pip, registration, rp, sailing, shopping, sight loss, social inclusion, stereotypes, technology, travel, vi people, web accessibility, welfare rights, white cane, work,
Browse by date
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
