-
Responding to Accessibility Requests
This tweet. All of it. A screenshot by Twitter user GHMansfield: Access and accommodation for disabled people are not a favor, gift, reward, amenity, bonus or advantage.You don’t bestow access and accommodation.You provide it to insure a level playing field after years of exclusion and discriminatory practices.It is equity not advantage. And if we tell you something isn’t accessible, I don’t care if your feelings are hurt. Your feelings aren’t my responsibility. I feel like so many people have a little “but I’m a good person!” tantrum when a disabled person brings up needs that aren’t being met. Being open and clear about our…
-
The Cost Of One To One Services
The Cost Of One To One Services There’s no real way to work around this, and I want to be up front about this. One to one services are expensive. I do charge an appropriate amount for those services. You probably have found this website through social media, and it’s you likely know I live with chronic health conditions. That means I can’t bill everyone $100 for a month of specialised advice and just “hustle” my way through. That would damage my health and be an unsustainable business model. And I plan to be here a long time! I work asynchronously around my health. I can’t work…
-
Just A Moment…
Image description: A photo of an entry to a mall. There is a large truck parked across all of the disabled parking bays and pedestrian crossing. What does a lack of accessibility do? This is what happened to me one morning. This is the only entry and the only parking spots I can use if I’m buying food on my own, as it’s the only combination that is a completely flat path to the supermarket. Other entries and parks have ramps and angles and things that I can’t use on my own while pushing a trolley/carrying weight. But thanks to these people, I had to park on a…
-
No Magic
I don’t promise magical transformations. No one can. I don’t promise you that you talk to me and the hard work is just gone somehow. People who promise stuff like that are full of shit. What I can do, what I am good at, is helping be your guide post. When you have the “ugh, why am I doing this!?” or the “Is this system really working for me?” wobble points. We can work out together if it’s that you need a system change or a different prompt/trigger to get started or if it’s just a shit day to be trying things. I’m here to help you…
-
Embracing Shiny Objects
Embracing Shiny Objects I love shiny objects. The planet seems to think that you have to hate them at all costs, but the planet is wrong. Investigating something new, learning, playing, trying… it feeds me. It’s ok if it feeds you too! The reason people say they’re “bad” is that they assume, sometimes rightfully, that the new thing will take over. This is how I deal with it: Limit Myself I try to find a limit on how far I go into a new thing. Not doing a new thing will bug me, but if I can limit myself to an hour looking into it, it gives…
-
Is Live Video For You?
I was watching a summit last year and there was a segment on using live video to sell your digital products. They made some really great points about the benefits of live video. The one that stuck out for me was no editing – gotta love something that skips a step and lets me embrace shiny objects when I want to! The other great point they made was that live video gives your audience a taste of what it’s like to work with you, talk to you, hang out with you. Which is a great point, but for me, it’s a great point in a totally different…
-
Systems and Scale
Most people can appreciate the need for systems when it’s framed as something such as hiring a virtual assistant and getting organised to pass tasks to someone else to action. Systems are so much more than outsourcing or hiring. Systems let your business scale. A simple example of this is a payment processor. Say you sell a single product or service, but you have no functionality to take credit cards. Instead, you have to email each person and ask them to deposit cash into your bank account. Then you have to cross check the name and other details to make sure you give the correct product…
-
Experiencing A Symptom…
I’ve experienced {symptom} and I have been disabled by {symptom} Are two very different things. This is an important difference to remember when you are talking about accessibility and inclusion in the workplace. You may very well have experienced a symptom that a disabled or chronically ill employee has … but that is not the same as having been disabled by that symptom.
-
I don’t want to be a thought leader
Thought leaders don’t really inspire me. It’s like the meme about forks … that’s how thought leaders and Ted talks sound to me: (Alt text is on image, I’m unsure of original source.) I don’t find thoughts impressive (mostly, there are always exceptions). I have too many thoughts, for crying out loud. I don’t need more and I don’t want to sell everyone on every thought that flits through my head. What impresses me is not so much the thought, but using the thought. How easy is it for people to implement a bright idea? Where is the support for the idea? What and where and…
-
One to One
Why are all of my services one to one? In the eons that I’ve been online, I’ve met great people, learned a tone, and seen lots of different things get sold. But the other thing I’ve seen is the downside… when someone presents {idea} as the only way of doing {task}, tons of people will follow them and try to make their life/idea/project fit into that idea. And… it just doesn’t work. Humans are diverse. Our experience, abilities, social factors are wide variables, and fitting into a box unnecessarily is something I feel tired of seeing. I want people to make progress on and achieve their goals.…