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

Lisa,

I agree strongly with your ideas about what graphic designers should do.
Unfortunately, very many of the presentations by professional educators I
have been to in the past few years involve the use of a lot of overheads
that don't make much clear to many people. A number of sighted colleagues
have told me that the overheads didn't help them to understand more of what
was being said, even when they were extensively referred to.  They primarily
looked like slick advertisements, that demonstrated that people have
PowerPoint and other such programs. Most of the presenters weren't graphic
designers, but they appeared to be convinced that just having overhead
displays, whatever they were, would make their presentations somehow better.

I think that everyone who uses graphical displays in conjunction with
lectures and other presentations needs to think about and explicitly
describe their purpose and value to their audience. This might help the
presenters focus on how to explain them better, so that no one is lost. All
graphical images have the potential for being ambiguous if not put  in an
understandable context. One picture cannot really be counted on to
substitute for a thousand words. It can sometimes clarify and fill in
understanding, but not substitute in the vast majority of cases.

Unfortunately, many medical providers are also still not describing things
very well to many patients who are blind or have low vision. Many times,
they assume that they/we are too confused to need explanations, or they are
afraid that they can't explain without just pointing, or something like
that. I have been discussing this very problem with nurse educators in
charge of a new graduate program for nurse educators at the University of
Washington. I got involved with this because I have witnessed many of my
adult immigrant students treated as objects by doctors and nurses when
visiting health clinics, and I have heard stories about the same from
others. I haven't had this problem a lot, but I always ask questions, and
let the health care providers know that I am concerned to understand what
they are doing, etc. But, I shouldn't have to ask before getting basic
explanations either.

Also, I want to correct my statement about my neighbor's purpose in
providing the narrative with the pictures. I said that my neighbor prepared
the description for the
>sighted neighbor children. This is basically correct, but I should have
said primarily for the sighted neighbor children. Although the children were
his primary intended audience, he also prepared it for sighted adult
neighbors who don't know much about birds. He has some expertise as a
long-time interested bird watcher, and he also works for a nature
conservation organization. So, he was thinking both of providing the
children with an understandable description and, at the same time, educating
his adult neighbors. He knew that the pictures wouldn't do that on their
own, no matter how good they were.

I think that the idea of universal design is what we are talking about here.
It should definitely become more widely known and understood. When people
present things through a variety of senses and with access in mind, they
often make them more accessible, and even more enjoyable to a lot of people
they weren't initially thinking of.

Sylvie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lisa Yayla" <lisa.yayla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2006 11:50 PM
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: pictures of hummingbird mother Lola and baby
Fan-Fan


Hi Francisco, Syvie and all,
I loved the pictures of the hummingbird. So lucky they were to have them
visiting.

I have a pet theory that graphic designers and those that work with images
have an extra responsibility to making people aware about image
accessibility.  The main part of their work is to make images
understandable for the sighted, that is,   not making confusing visual
graphics and getting messages across clearly through pictures or through
pictures and words.   This is pretty much the same thinking one has when
making accessible images.   Not confuse and get messages clearly through

In Silvie's example the educator hadn't made the presentation accessible
to anyone. Am guessing but  if he had gotten any feedback from his
audience it would have to do with his slide presentation. The sighted
audience would react to a poor graphic presentation. It has become
expected that visual graphics are done wonderfully, though it is not
necessarily easy to do.It is something most people have to work on. Making
pictures etc understandable for the sighted also requires thought and
expertise.

If you take an analogy from the health world, before   the knowledge about
our health was confined to a few. Now a days the average  Joe knows a
whole lot more about health matters. Information spread out.  Graphic
artists should be rather like Doctors  who spread the word about good
health practices. Graphic artists should spread the word about good
graphic practices.  Since graphic artists are a main player in the
communication industries they should take the lead in increasing the
understanding of the general public as to accessible information.

Humm, humm

Lisa



accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx skrev 17. juli 2006 kl. 02:26 +0000:
>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
>>


Lisa Yayla
Huseby Kompetansesenter
Oslo Norway
lisa.yayla@xxxxxxxxxx

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