must there be a title

I came across this article in the wall street journal and thought it might be helpful for some of my fellow spoonies

also good for ppl whose parents are getting older!

To disable unwanted buttons on a remote control or rubber buttoned keypad:

Disabling specific buttons is a great idea if there is a dedicated “settings” button anywhere on your remote. If you are feeling particularly devious you could setup a pass code (like Amazon Prime’s payment passcode or a pay-per-view pin code) that uses the number keys and then you physically disable one of those digits.

[Image description: text with drawings.

“The Art of Adapting

How older people "hack" household devices to make them easier to use

1. Soap in stocking”

Drawing of soap bar in a brown stocking. The other end of the stocking is tied to a rail, so the soap bar hangs down.

“A sensible solution to handling soap in the shower, according to Doctor Hougan. You can use the soap through the stocking, and if you "drop" it, the bar is still within reach, not on the shower floor.

2. Sponge/foam tubes

Can make doorknobs, silverware and toothbrushes easier to grip.”

A drawing of a fork and a spoon. Their handles go through the length of the blue foam tubes.

“3. Clip-on napkin holder”

A red cord with a clip on each end. It goes around a person's neck and the clips hold on to a napkin.

“Small alligator clips connected can be used to attach napkins to clothing, a more elegant solution than tucking the napkin into a shirt and less humiliating than using a bib.

4. Silicon rubber bumps with adhesive backs

Put on kitchen appliances, cellphones and keyboards to help people see and feel what buttons they need to press.”

A TV remote with a pink silicone bumps on one button. Next to it is a whole sheet with rolls of such bumps, except where one was taken.

“5. Sugru

The moldable rubbery substance can make materials easier to turn, grab and carry, like the tops of jars and pill bottles.”

Pill bottle with its top inside an uneven green square.

“6. Straw holder

Simply use a clothespin to keep the straw from moving around in the glass.”

A clothes pin clipped on to the rim of a glass.

“7. Clothes hangers

These household staples have a variety of off-label uses, including holding cookbooks in the kitchen.”

A clothes hanger hanging of a cupboard in the kitchen. There are pins on its ends so clothes can be clipped on. Instead it has the two covers of a book, along with its pages clipped. That way the book stays open on a certain page. The bottom of the book rests on the counter below.

“8. Shelf liners

These inexpensive materials can be used as nonslip seating.”

A shelf liner spread across the seat and backrest of a chair.

“9. Gadgetry

For the technologically savvy, a little customizing can go a long way. Like making remote controls easier to use by taking off unneeded buttons or removing the "delete" button from devices like cameras and picture viewers. In another example, one person repurposed a motion detector to monitor the movement of a spouse with dementia.”

A device with a screen, and buttons, one of which is crossed out.

End description.]

[Image description: A deaf person speaking in sign language, with the words "THEY/THEM" and closed captions printed on the screen, as well as a second smaller video of the same person speaking with their voice the same words that they're saying in sign language.

/ End ID]

Transcript:

CREDIT: https://www.tiktok.com/@themotherbirdie/video/7076229059000192299

"Love taking an 8 minute route that takes an abled 2 minutes"

Able-bodied people, this is what your world is like. In a new situation it's also usually impossible to even know an alternate route, so the options are like enduring the painful and dangerous illegal barriers or...going home. And for the people suggesting the op report these things- that's a great suggestion but you should also be aware of how often businesses, governments, schools flat out ignore concerns like this.

If it troubles you, I highly suggest making your own complaints every time you see something like this.

Do not shop at businesses that break the law. Do not let governments who deny disabled rights go unchallenged. Don't do nothing when your world is dangerous to us.

a prime example of government not giving a shit about disabled people is my local train station, which has two enormous staircases and no lifts

it also has no indication or warning that this is the case so if you happen to be going there for the first time and you don't know about this, you'd get off the train and find yourself completely stuck on the platform

there's a guy I've seen getting off there regularly who literally gets out of his wheelchair and climbs backwards up the steps on his hands, lugging the wheelchair as he goes

my aunt, who is disabled after having a stroke and struggles to walk, began a campaign to get lifts put in, which shouldn't have been necessary because it is literally illegal not to have them, but you know what the government's initial response was?

'get off at another station and catch a bus the rest of the way'

my aunt had my mum film her using the steps in order to put the film online to show the struggle, and they happened to catch the guy I mentioned earlier who climbs up on his hands, he agreed to be part of the footage and it went super fucking viral

it helped a lot with the campaign, but some of the online comments from able bodied people were absolutely idiotic

'this is staged there's no way they just randomly found some guy with no legs going up those steps'

'my political party would put the lifts in, vote for X!!'

'why the fuck did you just film him instead of offering to carry him up?'

which... holy fuck, for one the guy always declines assistance and hey maybe he doesn't want to be physically picked up by strangers, and maybe he doesn't trust strangers to carry his wheelchair up for him, because some people are fucking awful and might just steal it

disabled people deserve dignity and safety just as much as everyone else does, they shouldn't have to rely on someone carrying them up the stairs, let alone someone they don't know if they can trust not to hurt them, mug them, or drop them

and even if it was staged, that means absolutely nothing because there are still no lifts at a station that is legally required to have lifts, they are focusing on the exact wrong thing

and we really didn't care for people using disabled people's struggles as a platform to advertise their political parties, we didn't care which political party did it, they weren't gonna get brownie points for doing something they were already supposed to do, when it was a god damn human rights issue, our campaign had to fight this bullshit by making our slogan 'this is critical not political'

this campaign started years ago, there had been other campaigns decades before that, and they are only finally beginning to put the groundwork into place this month, we are the last train station in the region to get lifts when we have the largest staircase out of all of them

you wanna know why it was so much harder for us? because the set up of the station would make it more expensive to put the lifts in, and our area is historically a safe seat for the opposition to the current political party in office

they know this won't swing our votes so they don't want to spend money on us, this is a chronic problem with our government, areas where the votes swing the most get all the upgrades whereas safe seats get ignored, we've watched our biggest tourism area get million dollar reworks twice before this train station was approved

the government cares more about money and votes than it does disabled people, don't ever think any different

I can guarantee you the only reason we succeeded was because of that video and the public outrage, we as a society have to demand accessibility, we have to make noise and force compliance, because government, businesses, schools, they will ignore the issues for as long as they can get away with it to save a buck

and of course, when it was finally approved, the government made a big show and dance and patted themselves on the back for doing the bare fucking minimum

accessibility should be a right, not a fight

[Video description: A TikTok by user dark.moon.witch, the text displayed on the video is also read out loud.

Video opens with OP in a library. The text on the video reads, “Follow a disabled college student to class.” OP has light skin, is in a wheelchair, has headphones around their neck, and is wearing a mask and a short-sleeved pink dress with a long-sleeved white shirt underneath. They make the “hang loose” symbol with their hands and do a little dance.

Cut to OP outside with a brown jacket on. The text reads, “ADA violation #1”.

Cut to a shot of stairs leading up to a walking path and then to a building. The text reads, “My class is up there. Only stairs and no sign directing you to the accessible route”. Text changes to read, “Gotta take the long way”.

A sped up sequence from OP’s perspective moving to the accessible entrance. They press the button to open the automatic doors. They pass through the doors, press the button in front of the next set of doors, and pass through those.

A sequence of OP moving through this building and to the elevator, then to a ramp within the building. They arrive at a door. Text appears which reads, “ADA Violation #2. The button for the door is broken (caps) again.”

Cut to them moving outside in a parking lot. Text reads, “The only way out is so bumpy I almost tipped over multiple times.“

Cut to OP pointing to a ramp. Text reads, “ADA violation 3. Ramp that’s too steep.”

Cut to a shot of OP arriving to class. They are making a peace sign. The text reads, “Made it” with the smiling emoji surrounded by hearts. End description]

(Description copied from @spacesapphist)

@soibaremyskinandicountmysins

I didn't know what view would be of more use to you, so I took a few. I hope that is helpful.

[Images: Photographs of the physical editions of Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites, with a ruler for text size measurement. The fourth picture reveals that the capital letters in the text are about 3mm tall. End ID.]

Not that I expected any less from Joy, but this is commitment to accessibility.

Thank you for adding the captions! The weather is wreaking havoc with my joints and the thought of typing on mobile right now is horrendous. I was going back onto desktop to add them, but you beat me to it!

@thebibliosphere @mothman-etd May I suggest adding something of the sort somewhere on your website (perhaps in your FAQ?)?

Thank you for the suggestion! I'll keep that in mind when we update my website :D

the new snapshot (21w07a) changed how ores look.

im kinda glad they’re no longer the same thing recolored but like… damn… thats gonna take a bit to get used to.

for those of you wondering “why”, it seems like its might be so people with colorblindness can tell them apart better, because before they were just the same thing in different colors.

[Image 1: the grey wall of a cave in minecraft, on five separate places there are colorful spots of ore. On the left they are all in the same pattern and distinguishable only by their color. On the right, the image is the same exept the patterns of the ores are different with only the light blue one retaining the original shapes.

Image 2: black text on a gray background "Visuals

End ID.]

GO WATCH A MOVIE

Next up on Worth Reading: The other team should just fucking let me win when I play baseball. 

well this isn’t necessarily a bad point. there are games with great stories and really awful shoehorned fighting sequences. then you also have handicapped/disabled gamers who don’t necessarily have the dexterity to finish a game but would still like to be able to.

optional “cakewalk” modes aren’t that bad of an idea.

what if i want to just see the story of the game and dont want to actually play it? like??

as it is i would never pay for a bioshock game or a fallout game but i am very interested in the story. so i just watch youtube videos of it. they could get money from me if they sold the skip combat mode

i’m a games developer and an avid gamer and i really really think games should let you skip combat

honestly one of my favourite things about la noire was when you failed a sequence twice the game was like “yo do you just wanna skip this bit?” the gaming industry/community has a huge problem with accessibility tbh. like, thank god for standardised control schemes (although bring back full customisation jfc not enough games have that anymore) but fights require time, literacy in both that type of gaming & in the individual game, you need to be able to navigate the system which can be anywhere from slightly difficult to hellish for people with visual/audio processing disorders. and tbh sometimes you just wanna enjoy the story and not get stressed the hell out doing the sAME FIGHT 700 times. it’s why i always put a game on easy/casual when I’m replaying unless i’m specifically going for difficulty based achievements. not to mention SO MANY GAMES have either poorly designed battles or fights that have been shoved in for no reason other than to pad out the game (dxhr & da2 come to mind immediately) that sometimes it’d honestly improve the gameplay to just skip them altogether

Imagine if you were a gamer with arthritis or MS or some other disability that took away your ability to click buttons quickly, and every fight became as frustrating as THAT GODDAMN DA: ORIGINS OH FUCK I’M ON FIRE SLIDE PUZZLE. 

Yeah. Skipping combat might seem like a not bad idea then.

Mass Effect 3 has this:

[Screenshot from a Mass Effect 3 menu, with title: “Choose Your Experience”, showing the options ‘action’, ‘role playing’ and ‘story’.]

‘Action’ makes most story choices for you and conversations become straight up cutscenes. ‘Role playing’ is the default experience, both challenging gameplay and character/story building. And ‘story’ has the roleplaying but very easy combat, letting you breeze through it. (You also have a ‘casual’ difficulty setting that’s a bit more rewarding but still pretty easy.)

The thing about video games (particularly RPGs or in general games that allow you to explore or direct the story) is that the interactivity is what makes it different from movies or watching LPs on youtube. And I’ve played games that got FAR stronger emotional reactions out of me simply because I had to carry out the actions myself rather than just watching. And that experience should be more accessible.

Because SHOCKINGLY: games aren’t always about winning, or being good at it. It’s about having fun. This is kindergarten education here.

Yeah, it always baffles me when I see people react so negatively to a perfectly reasonable suggestion like this.

Why the hell shouldn’t games let you skip combat if you want to? Why shouldn’t there be a super-duper-easy-peasy mode for everything? No-one is gonna force YOU to play it like that if you don’t want to! Continue to be as hardcore as you like!

I just don’t understand the resistance at all. What we’re talking about is simply having more options for gamers. You’re adding something that would make games more accessible and fun for loads of new fans, and you’re not taking ANYTHING away from existing fans.

Like…do you…not want more people to enjoy these games?? Do you really hate the idea of other people having fun so much that you’ll rile against it even when it literally has no effect on you or your experience whatsoever?? Are you honestly that selfish??

I am *horrifically* bad at gaming, but it’s a genre that I’m intensely interested in and very desperately want to be more immersed in. I would HAPPILY buy so many more games if combat was a skippable option. 

Not to mention one of the best indie games out right now is pretty much telling you if you want the best ending, don’t fight.

Yeah, I hate the elitist mentality that only those ~*~*hardcore*~*~ enough should be allowed to enjoy video games. I mean, gaming should be an experience to be had and not just an obstacle to clear, right? Then again, my poor mental health situation and chronic pain+mobility issues on my right hand means that my gaming options are severely limited nowadays. So I’m all about making gaming accessible for everyone in the first place. Anyone who thinks gaming will be ruined by making it more accessible need to realize that they have already ruined gaming for many.

Anyone who thinks gaming will be ruined by making it more accessible need to realize that they have already ruined gaming for many.