6 Your Eyes – Renee
1 cup of love from the night mode setting on your laptop.
½ cup of sunshine from the open window in your room.
Some flavour from the Zoom button on your laptop.
A sprinkle of cuteness from your pet laying loving in a ball at your feet.
Image description: Decorative photograph of the top of a white desk. On the desk sit an open laptop, framed picture of motivational words, vase of bright pink flowers, gold desk lamp, cell phone, notebooks, and a pair of glasses.
Artist Statement
I was inspired to write this piece because, for a while, I thought that there was nothing out there that was designed for or that represented the struggles of people with disabilities. Sure, there was stuff out there that we could use, but it required us to come up with workarounds to make it suitable. Being a person with a disability I have always thought to myself when working on things - whether for school or just in my everyday life - that there must be an easier way to get the task done. Now that I know that there is a group for those with disabilities out there, I do not feel so alone. This group means that we can share with each other what works and does not work for us, and hopefully pass this information on to the people who are making the decisions to let them know that being truly inclusive means that your software or equipment needs to be made with us in mind too. I believe my work helps to showcase the different steps and costs those with disabilities must take to achieve the same or comparable results as those who do not have disabilities.
I think when you are creating software that is being called inclusive, you should have members of your team that have disabilities so that they can point out to you the pitfalls that you may not be aware of. An example would be a webpage that looks and functions fine for others but that those with a disability find challenging because of the keyboard traps and it not working with the assistive technology they use. Also, the colours being used on the page, or the sometimes-flashing letters used for advertising specials, can have negative effects on different people. Zoom Text is a great piece of assistive tech, but it is expensive. Developers should find a way to make it more affordable like it being free if you are in school or discounted if you can prove to them that you have a disability, such as by a note from your specialist or an organization like the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB). Screen readers like JAWS are also another great piece of tech but sadly also expensive, so one might have to settle for workarounds such as making the screen bigger with keyboard commands, or a screen reader found through one of the app stores that may not meet all their needs.