[accessibleimage] Re: pictures of hummingbird mother Lola and baby Fan-Fan

Hi Francisco and all,

I agree completely with the idea that everyone should be describing things
at conferences, meetings, in classes, etc. whether or not a person who is
blind tells one that they are present and need such description. People who
are not blind can also benefit from receiving such descriptions, especially
when it comes to interpreting pictures or graphics. Not everyone can do that
quickly, and some fully sighted people may find pictures and graphics
ambiguous without descriptions.

My neighbor didn't prepare the description for me. He prepared it for the
sighted neighbor children, who also loved it. This man has a very
stereotypical view of blind people in general, and of me in particular. He
thinks I am a wonder because I am an educated professional "even though I am
blind," and he was amazed to learn that I have not been blind since birth,
etc. etc. So, when I told him that I visited the site and thanked him for
the good description, because I have always been interested in animals and
nature in general, he was sincerely surprised.

A few years ago I attended a lecture by a well-known teacher educator and
researcher. It was in a big lecture hall and about 200 professionals were in
attendance. I am currently totally blind. I attended along with two
colleagues, one who has low vision, and one who has full vision corrected
with glasses. The lecturer accompanied his talk with many slides of charts
and other displays. He did not describe them, just pointed and made vague
references. The colleague with low vision couldn't see what was on the
slides although he could see the projector screen. I, of course, couldn't
even see that. But, we both decided to keep quiet until after the lecture.
When it was finished, the three of us began to discuss it, and the fully
sighted colleague said that she was also angry, both because she knew that
the lack of direct description  left us out,  and because she hadn't been
able to see the writing on the projector screen either!

Ironically, one of the things that this teacher educator said during his
lecture that made me very angry was that he had determined during the 1960s
that blind people using braille are not able to achieve any real proficiency
in literacy. He said this as an aside; he is not really an expert on
literacy for blind people, but because he is a respected educational
researcher he was apparently asked to do some research for a federal agency
concerned with braille literacy. And, there I sat, a fairly proficient
braille user, knowing a whole slew of fairly proficient braille users! and a
literacy teacher! And, he said this to a room full of mostly fully sighted
professionals who may have never met a blind person, especially not a blind
professional before. That experience made all three of us respect this man
much less... so he lost too!

Sylvie
Sylvie Kashdan, M.A.
Instructor/Curriculum Coordinator
KAIZEN PROGRAM for New English Learners with Visual Limitations
810-A Hiawatha Place South
Seattle, WA  98144, U.S.A.
phone:  (206) 784-5619
email:  kaizen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
web:  http://www.nwlincs.org/kaizen/

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Centro de Estudos Inclusivos (CEI/UFPE)" <cei@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2006 1:32 PM
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: pictures of hummingbird mother Lola and baby
Fan-Fan


Hi members of the list:

I apreciated the very well done escription too.
In fact, this is one of the things we should be doing more frequently. Audio
description of pictures, ilustrations in general, senery and so on, not
forgetting transparencies, slides and so on in a classroom or a talk.
Once, I was at this conference on education for the blind, and the professor
presenting used a bunch of slides. They were beautiful and very good example
of how not use them with blind people. However, he did not notice it, during
his long presentation. He ddid not offer any audio description of what he
was showing.
Well, what was his topic about? Accessibility.
After his presentation, I was the only blind professor at the meeting, I
mentioned the problem, and his answer was that I should have told him I was
blind, at the beginning of his talk.
Well, one should be aware of accessibility issues all the time, and not
expect that the person with disability will be there, saying to everyone: "I
have a disability."
If he or she does not want to say so, he or she still have the right of
having the presentation accessible.
Hence, description like this can creat a habit in sighted persons, mainly in
teachers.
Best,
Francisco Lima

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kaizen Program" <kaizen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 4:23 AM
Subject: [accessibleimage] pictures of hummingbird mother Lola and baby
Fan-Fan


> Hi all,
>
> One of my neighbors took some pictures of a hummingbird mom, nest, and
> baby,
> located in a tree in our courtyard outside another neighbor family's
> place.
> He made a web site so that everyone could look at them at their leisure. I
> want to share it with you
>
> I enjoy descriptions of things like this, which I can reconstruct in my
> mind's eye. And, the naration my neighbor wrote is pretty good and
> accessible with my screen reader. A friend also looked and described more
> to
> me.
>
> For those who might want the pictures larger, they can be enlarged on the
> site.
>
> My neighbor has talked about adding bird songs too.
>
> I really love pictures like this. They make it possible for people with
> low
> vision to see beautiful creatures fairly clearly. If you are interested,
> you
> can find the pictures and narative at:
>
> http://www.writely.com/View.aspx'docid=bbfhwngm4w9mg
>
> Enjoy,
>
> Sylvie
>
>
>
>
>

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