deaf-blind RE: Flash captioning (was: RE: Javascript alternatives not necessary?)

On Fri, 30 Jul 2004, Joe Clark wrote:

>
>> How would Helen Keller receive the information in that
>> Flash presentation?
>
>Well, first she'd need to be revived from the dead, whereupon whe would
>likely evince a strange new appetite for BRAINS ("B-R-A-I-N-S!").
>
>Nobody-- including WGBH-- has any facts whatsoever on which to base any
>Web-accessibility claims for deaf-blind people. We talked about this at
>the Toronto f2f.

Huh? You mean, nobody has convinced you that they know what they are talking
about, or nobody knows anything. (I presume the first, although I am not
certain).

I've only once worked with a person who is completely deaf and blind, and I
have spent several days workign with a person who has no hearing and very
restricted vision (he uses a white-on-black screen, and magnification to
about 5 characters on the screen, and reads portuguese. I spent a lot of the
time talking about how things work or don't with him and the interpreters who
were working with him). I've talked on occasion to other interpreters who
have worked with deaf-blind people, and a couple of times had email
conversations with deaf-blind people.

This doesn't amount to a full knowledge of the field. It provides some
insight, and some useful connections and relations to other experience
working with people who are deaf or blind. What I would consider "useful
knowledge" - nothing more, nothing less.

I'd be very surprised if I am the only person on this list with that much
experience.

("gainsaying" is a sesquipedalian way of saying "claim it is not true".
"Sesquipedalian" means "using big words to seem smart". There are nearly
always two ways to say something accurately...)

cheers

Chaals

Received on Saturday, 31 July 2004 03:23:19 UTC