Stairs make the building inaccessible, not the wheelchair.
From my journal: 13 February 2022 In, “All About Love: New Visions (Love song to the nation book 1)” bell hooks writes,”To live fully we would need to let go of our fear of dying. That fear can only be addressed by the love of living.” Which reminds me that my mentor, William Loughborough, signedContinue reading Everybody say “Love!”
In August 2021, as I approached my 50th birthday, I kept having the thought, “I need a year off.” I was tired and unmotivated. Restless. With three years of sobriety, I was evolving. Healing. I talked with my manager at the time and we decided I would take three months of leave to see ifContinue reading Gap year: Part 1 of n?
A process not a switch.My feelings cairns on the path.I walk past cycle backI’m on the right trackuntil next time.The way blends into the landscapeand I wonder how I walked pastsomething so obvious.Distracted distractions blind meto the obvious signsuntil I stumblefall and the pain brings me back.One day.Please help mesit, pause, waituntil the next stepContinue reading Self (forgiveness love trust)
Yesterday, I wept to my therapist, “I am falling apart.” “Falling apart or transforming?” She asked. In my mind, an image of a bud and the realization that to a bud, blooming feels like falling apart and that I am embodying Anais Nin’s words: “And then the day came,when the riskto remain tightin a budwasContinue reading Falling?
This morning, I had the pleasure of helping to kick off Knowbility’s John Slatin AccessU with a conversation with Sharron Rush and Lainey Feingold, “Honoring Wisdom, Embracing Change: A Conversation about Eldering in the Accessibility Community.” Towards the end of the session I read a revised version of a poem I first read at theContinue reading Ode to Accessibility Communities
A few weeks ago I tweeted: Folks with low vision: what screen size and resolution do you use? Do you use browser zoom? If yes, what %? — Wendy Chisholm (@wendyabc) May 22, 2017 I received a bunch of great responses. Thank you. Since people were using different screen resolutions and zoom levels, we tookContinue reading Screen size, resolution and zoom. Oh my.
In preparation for Burning Man 2013, I printed 100 copies of a book of poetry and short stories that I had written during the previous 10 years. In the last few weeks, I’ve been drafting blog posts to start sharing those poems as well as new ones. I had hoped to finish a poem about tenacityContinue reading Towards the light
I haven’t blogged in a while. For the last seven years, I’ve been on an inward journey. Healing, evolving, growing. This may be me reemerging, I don’t know. I do know that I’ve survived trauma and the world is so full of it right now. And for some reason, I feel moved to talk aboutContinue reading Surviving trauma: reclaiming my voice
This last year, I’ve been happy that engineering teams are asking me to talk about accessibility earlier and earlier in their development process. A few months ago, one team asked me to look at a prototype that was a bunch of images with a few hot spots. I’m used to getting code and running my typicalContinue reading Wizard of Oz Screen Reader
I had so much fun delivering a keynote at OSCON a few days ago, “Introvert? Extrovert? Klingon? We’ve got you covered.” I enjoyed the hallway conversations afterward, the Facebook comments, the email and the tweets. It’s wonderful to know that I’ve said something that someone else identifies with, that in some way may shift their perspective. It’s beenContinue reading Backstage