Good accessible NCAA brackets

by Beth Finke

Close your eyes for a minute and try to imagine someone reading through the NCAA Basketball bracket out loud to you. “Okay, there’s Hampton and Manhattan, and then if Kansas beats New Mexico State and then Wichita State beats Indiana and then Notre Dame beats Northeastern and Butler beats Texas…but if New Mexico State surprises Kansas and then Wichita State beats Indiana and then Northeastern beats Notre Dame…well, that changes the whole bracket.” It’s already mind-boggling, right? And I haven’t even started with seeds yet!

My family and friends have been filling out brackets for the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament for years, and my colleagues have filled out brackets here at Easter Seals Headquarters before, too. I never participate, though. The online brackets aren’t compatible with the speech synthesizer I use with my laptop, and trying to remember or even memorize the brackets and seeds that volunteers read out loud to me isn’t much fun, either.

Eyebrows up! I just found out about a prototype Accessible NCAA Tournament Bracket that’s meant to “make March Madness more accessible to the full spectrum of college hoops fans, including those using non-visual interfaces such as screen readers and those who are physically unable to use a mouse.” The bracket was put together by Terrill Thompson, the technology accessibility specialist with the University of Washington, and part of the reason it’s accessible is that it’s well-structured. Headings, sub-headings and lists make it much easier for users who can’t see to navigate. The site even includes a link for tips on how to use a screen-reader to understand the relationships between the teams.

The pool feature on the Accessible NCAA Tournament Bracket site finally allows those of us with disabilities to make our own tournament picks without help –- or opinions! — from others. Lots of online tournament pools allow users to enter using their computers, but this pool uses HTML forms to capture users picks, which makes it more accessible to everyone.

But wait. There’s more! The site developer is hoping users might be willing to fill out an accessible sports survey to help him collect data about people with disabilities and their interest in sports. He’ll use the data to come up with a business case to motivate online sports authorities to improve their accessibility. Please spread the word!

Related easterseals.com content for sports lovers:

• Learn about a baseball league for kids of all abilities, the Miracle League.
• Now’s the time to sign up for an accessible camp near you!

You can help train a guide dog too

by Beth Finke

The Today Show’s decision to raise an adorable puppy named Wrangler for Guiding Eyes for the Blind has increased interest in the generous work volunteers across the nation do to prepare puppies to head off to train as guide dogs. My friend Mary Ivory and her husband are two of those generous people –they volunteered to raise a puppy for Leader Dogs for the Blind last year. Mike and Mary live on the 12th floor of our apartment building here in Chicago. Imagine how many trips they took up and down the elevator for house training – and that was just the beginning! Mary explains it all in this lovely guest post.

Puppy raising: It changes the street life

By Mary Ivory

Everybody say aaaahhhhhhh! That’s Ananda at a very young age taking a nap.

My laid-back husband Mike came home one day sounding defeated. “I just walked up the street and no one said ‘Hi’ to me!” We’d been living with Ananda, a female Black Labrador Retriever for 10 months, and we’d just returned her to Leader Dogs for the Blind in Rochester Hills, Mich., two weeks earlier. Mike had forgotten what urban life without a puppy is like.

We live in a very friendly and close-knit neighborhood, but it’s still the big city. Everyone is in a hurry and distracted with their own lives, but you have to slow down when you are walking a puppy, and when others see you with the puppy, they often slow down, smile and say hello, too.

Watching and knowing what a dog can do for a person’s quality of life is a bit of happy mystery. Watching and knowing what a trained service animal can do for a person who needs assistance is the mystery turned into a real miracle. I have always had animals in my life, and as life would happen, I found myself with time and energy to volunteer to raise a puppy for Leader Dogs. Lucky for me, Mike was agreeable to this adventure.

As the job title implies, puppy raisers are charged with creating an environment and focusing on skills to help a puppy become a candidate for a career as a leader — a guide dog for a blind or visually impaired person.

Puppy raising is about nurturing a calm and focused dog to prepare them for the actual skill training that takes place after they are returned. For the first months of life after they leave the litter they live in homes to learn such skills as becoming housebroken — yes that means going outside hourly when awake when they are very small. Yes, that means even in the winter of the polar vortex you go for a walk. You also are taught how to teach calm walking on a leash, not easy when your pup is sweet and just full of friendly wiggles and licks, and the other ‘basics’ like sit, stay, come, no, heal, down……oh yes and ‘drop it’ or ‘leave it’ as she snuck a sock from the dirty clothes or found a stray chicken bone on the street.

Everybody say “thank you” to Mary, Mike and all the puppy raisers for all the schools. It’s a tremendous and generous effort.

And all of this happens during all hours of the day, which means you walk down the street a lot. It’s a busy but fun time — strangers snap out of a distracted or grumpy state to talk about the dog, and people seemingly down on their luck rise up to chat about and pet a friendly puppy.

That mystery of connection with animals and people is powerful and amazing to me. My busy city street transformed into a small town lane during the 10 months Ananda was living with us. And yes, it was hard to take her back to her career home. Ananda, which means joy or bliss in Sanskrit, was an intense and wonderful presence in our lives.

I’ve received an email from the Puppy Development Department at Leader Dogs with the picture above telling us she is progressing in her career training. We miss her but are so happy we had this chance to be a part of this great big task, and who knows? We may do it again. Next time, though, we’ll sign up when the dog doesn’t need hourly walks in deep freeze weather.

What the TSA does for travelers with disabilities, and what you should do!

by Beth Finke

Spring break is coming up, so it seems like the perfect time to remind you blog readers that if you’re flying anywhere, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has ways you can get help navigating airport checkpoints. TSA’s Passenger Support Specialists Program trains select Transportation Security Officers, lead TSOs and Sspervisors to take on the extra responsibility of helping passengers who may be in need of extra help at security checkpoints. The Transportation Security Administration website says more than 2,600 Passenger Support Specialists throughout the country assist passengers who require additional assistance with security and checkpoint screening, and Passenger Support Specialists receive specialized disability training provided by TSA’s Office of Civil Rights and Liberties Ombudsman and Traveler Engagement. The training for Passenger Support Specialists includes:

• how to assist individuals with special needs
• how to communicate with passengers by listening
• how to communicate with passengers by explaining
• disability etiquette
• disability civil rights

The site encourages travelers who need special accommodations or are concerned about checkpoint screening to ask a checkpoint officer or supervisor for a Passenger Support Specialist to provide on-the-spot assistance. Travelers can request a Passenger Support specialist ahead of time, too, by calling the TSA Cares hotline at 855.787.2227.

Many of you won’t be traveling until next week or so, but since TSA recommends you call approximately 72 hours ahead of travel to give them a chance to coordinate checkpoint support with a TSA Customer Service Manager at the airport, I thought it best to publish this now…happy trails!

Kids respond to having a dog at their daycare for a day

by Beth Finke

We’re focusing on inclusive childcare centers this month, and that gives me a great opportunity to tell you about a trip my Seeing Eye dog Whitney and I took to Easter Seals DuPage and the Fox Valley Region to visit the Lily Garden Child Care Center there. The Lily Garden Child Care Center is an inclusive preschool and child care program for children with or without disabilities –it offers both full- and part-time childcare to children from the community, children enrolled in therapy services, their siblings and children of Easter Seals DuPage and the Fox Valley Region employees.

From time to time, the Lilly Garden Center has guests come to read to the kids. They thought it would be especially appropriate for me to read from a Braille version of my children’s book Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound, and they were right. We had a ball!

I knew that some of the kids at the center had disabilities, but truth is, without being able to see them, I couldn’t tell. Some were scared of Whitney, some couldn’t stop petting her, others gave her kisses. Some seemed shy, others went on and on and on  about their own dog at home. Which of these behaviors were due to disabilities, and which were due to… well … childhood? Who knew? All we did know is that something different was happening in the room during our visit, and that we were all having fun.

Our own son has significant physical and developmental disabilities. Gus is 28 years old now and lives in a group home, and now I sure wish there’d been an inclusive childcare center available for him when he was a toddler. My visit with Whitney to the Lily Garden at Easter Seals DuPage and the Fox Valley Region showed me that everyone can benefit from inclusive programs like theirs.

What our childcare centers are teaching one 4-year-old

by Beth Finke

I am pleased to introduce Jasmine Musgrave as a guest blogger today. Jasmine served as Head Teacher at the Easter Seals Child Development Center in Washington, DC, and now brings her writing, design, communication and people skills to the Easter Seals regional offices in Silver Spring, Maryland. She’s writing for us today about the inclusive childcare model that she chose for her son.

Now Franklyn wants eyeglasses, too

by Jasmine Musgrave

My four-year-old son Franklyn introduced me to a very special person at his school one day. “Mom!” he shouted loudly and clearly for everyone to hear. “This is my new best friend!” Franklyn was standing proudly with his arm wrapped around the shoulders of his favorite classmate. His new best friend was shy as he could be, wearing a pair of brown, rubber glasses and smiling from ear to ear.

I eventually learned that Franklyn’s new best friend was not only blind in one eye, but had undergone several surgeries after being born prematurely. To Franklyn and the other typically developing children in the class, he was just part of the crew — no different than the rest.

Franklyn has been attending the Easter Seals DC | MD | VA Child Development Program for nearly four years. He began at the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Child Development Center in Washington, DC, at just 18-months-old, and transferred to the Safeway, Inc. Child Development Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, a few months later. He has been attending ever since, and is currently enrolled in the pre-kindergarten classroom at the Safeway Inc. Child Development Center.

The Easter Seals Child Development Program provides children and their families with an experience unlike any other: inclusion. From a very young age, Franklyn was taught that all children are special and loved, regardless of their abilities or disabilities. By attending the Easter Seals program, Franklyn has independently developed a sensitivity to children with all types of disabilities and continues to accept them just the same as the other typically developing children.

At age four, Franklyn is maturing and gaining more of an understanding of disabilities and the differences between himself and some of his classmates. Thanks to his experience at Easter Seals, he doesn’t base his acceptance of others on these factors. Franklyn has entirely accepted his new best friend in spite of his disability. The two of them are inseparable, and when Franklyn’s new best friend misses class to go to a routine medical appointment, he can always count on Franklyn to race to catch him up to speed when he returns to class – in fact, the very minute he walks in the door.

Being the parent of a child attending an inclusive child development center has been an interesting and beneficial experience for my husband and me, too. Our son Franklyn has reminded us of the true essence of friendship. He has taught me that no matter our differences, true friendship and acceptance comes from the heart. Our experience at the Safeway Inc. Child Development Center has been amazing, but it’s come with the challenge of over-sensitivity, too. Franklyn often expresses to my husband and me that he needs glasses like his new best friend.

Franklyn does not require glasses to see, so we have learned to thank him for his efforts to make his new best friend feel loved and accepted. We explain to him he does not have to rely on glasses to see. This has proven to be very difficult for such a young child to understand, but we know that understanding all these differences is a work in progress.

All in all, we are, collectively, extremely thankful to Easter Seals for such a great learning experience for Franklyn. We are hopeful that whatever the circumstances may be, because of his experience at the Safeway Inc. Child Development Center, Franklyn will always carry with him the principle that true friendship is not about how we appear on the outside, but does indeed come from the heart.

Find out how two families were saved by the Easter Seals childcare model, and the benefits of this inclusive child development model for all kids on easterseals.com.

Wired magazine’s article on Facebook accessibility disappoints

by Beth Finke

I’m blind, and I don’t go on Facebook very regularly. Navigating through all those buttons and links and menus and edit boxes with a screen reader is very time-consuming, especially when you consider the reward at the end: A few funny posts, but mostly photos…and I can’t see them.

So I was pretty excited when my boss here at Easter Seals forwarded me a story in Wired about efforts by Facebook’s “Accessibility Team” to make the site more user-friendly to those of us who can’t see. Facebook’s Jeff Wieland founded the Facebook Accessibility team in 2011, and the Wired story was called “Meet the Team That Makes It Possible for the Blind to Use Facebook”. I was hoping it might be about Facebook coming up with an alternative website for blind users, one with fewer bells and whistles, or that maybe Facebook had decided they wouldn’t put apps or updates on their site until they’ve gone through a quality assurance process to make sure they meet accessibility standards.

But alas, the article was a disappointment. It focused on a speech-synthesizer program called VoiceOver, which is not a Facebook product at all. VoiceOver is a built-in screen access program that’s built into all Apple products. It’s fantastic, and I’ve been using it on my iPhone for years. It’s an Apple app, and it’s old news

The article was written by Cade Metz, and he only refers to one single blind Facebook user — a woman named Jessie Lorenz — in the piece. She speaks for all of us, I guess. An excerpt:

In letting her read and write on the social network, Voiceover and other tools provide a wonderfully immediate way to interact with people both near and far.

The story said Lorenz is one of about 50,000 people who actively use Facebook through Apple Voiceover, but it never referenced where it got that number, or how successful those 50,000 people are in their attempts to use the site. It also claimed “tens of thousands” of people who are deaf, or can’t use computer keyboards or mice or touchscreens use closed captioning, mouth-controlled joysticks, and other tools to access Facebook, but again, no reference to where the author got that number, either.

The writer said that some of the tools people with disabilities use to access Facebook come from other companies and plug into Facebook, but after he says that some are “built into Facebook,” the only built-into-Facebook accessibility tool he describes is one they’d developed to help with photos.

“Now, together with tools like Voiceover, Facebook can tell the blind when a photo was taken (based on meta-data uploaded with the photo) or who’s in it (based on tags from users).”

I haven’t heard descriptions like these when I go to the Facebook site, and I’m guessing that’s because I do that with another speech synthesizer –JAWS –on my PC. I’m not sure how many blind computer users use JAWS, but if I were this reporter, I suppose I could just say tens of thousands. The reporter would have learned about JAWS and other speech synthesizers if he’d interviewed a few other blind computer users besides Jessie Lorenz, and hey, even she had reservations about Facebook’s Accessibility Team. “Despite recent changes made by Wieland and team, Lorenz says Facebook still doesn’t give her much info on photos.”

Oh, well.

Madison, Wisconsin, is a super vacation spot for kids with autism (+ 4 others)

by Beth Finke

With spring break coming up, you might want to take a look at this great article in Special Parent magazine from a couple years ago that I still reference today. The piece is called “Five Travel Ideas for Families with Kids on the Autism Spectrum,” and I appreciated the way the writer Cindy Richards acknowledges that it’s tough to predict what destination will work for kids on the spectrum — in fact, places that work for kids on one end of the spectrum don’t always work for kids who are on the other end and vice versa.

With that caveat, the author offers five suggestions:

• Book a condo, house or suite (rather than a small, confining hotel room)
• Visit during a less chaotic period
• Look for places that offers special programs for special needs visitors
• Visit a dude ranch (yes, this is a serious tip, and we love it!)
• Consider Madison, Wisconsin

Richards goes into detail about each suggestion, and I was especially tickled to read about Madison. Our son’s group home is near Madison, and it’s a great place to go with Gus: vibrant, yet calming at the same time.

The article is spot on when it says, “The capital of Wisconsin has a small town feel, but a plethora of autism-friendly attractions and support programs.” And I’m giving the city of Madison extra points for having the wisdom to have an autism expert on staff. Richards quotes Judy Frankel (public relations manager for the city’s visitor bureau) in the piece, and Frankel has a son with autism.

Have any other suggestions for vacation spots you’ve found to be especially good for kids on the spectrum ? Leave your ideas in the comment section, we love to hear from you, the experts! And here are amusement parks with special needs passes.

A good video on how to guide a person who is blind

by Donna Smith

When it comes to walking a person who is blind or who has low vision safely to their destination, you need a certain set of skills. But help is often impromptu, with a “sighted guide” or “human guide” lending a hand, so to speak, in the moment, leaving it to the person who is being guided to provide quick instruction as needed.

Familiarity and common sense are often all that is necessary for sighted guide assistance to work just fine. That said, a little instruction can go a long way toward improving this particular skill set. This is especially true when vision loss isn’t the only factor to consider.

The Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services reports that one in four people who have intellectual or developmental disabilities also have some level of vision loss. They’ve released a video called “Let’s Walk Together” that demonstrates sighted guide techniques for assisting a person with both intellectual and visual disabilities.

From their website:

This collaborative video with DDS shows how human guide, also known as sighted guide, can be used by individuals with visual impairment, legal blindness, or deaf blindness in a variety of everyday situations including walking through doorways, on stairs, and safely getting into or out of a car and van. This video also addresses the unique needs of individuals with vision loss who use walkers or gait belts.

I think anyone working in the field of disability services or who has a family member with a disability can benefit from this instructional video. The techniques taught are solid. To my ears, the tone of the interaction between sighted guide and person needing assistance occasionally crosses the line between nice and patronizing, but it is all done in a respectful and professional manner. Give it a try!

A new way to share #LifesMoments and milestones

by Jackie Orihill

When I was a young girl, I heard my aunt tell my mom and a table full of women how excited she was that my cousin said a word. I think the word was “juice.” My aunt gave us a play by play of how she drew it out of him. She held a cup of juice just far enough that he couldn’t reach it.  Well, he must’ve been pretty thirsty so he said “juice.” I remember thinking, “What’s the big deal?”

I was maybe 6 or 7, so he might’ve been 3.  My aunt seemed ecstatic and hopeful. This was a moment for her.

I didn’t realize yet that my cousin had severe disabilities that impaired his speech and development. The truth is, any time I was with him, I never heard him say a word. So the day he said “juice” was a moment of promise.

Today, I’m a mom myself and I also work here at Easter Seals. Both experiences have helped me have a better understanding of my cousin’s genetic disease. More important, I think I have a greater appreciation for the moments that moms and dads celebrate. And how much they vary. I mean, the first time my kid drew a stick person, I almost called MOMA to negotiate his first exhibition. Our son’s interest and confidence in drawing and coloring came later than many of his peers, so we celebrated that achievement —  for him and for me. (MOMA, er, I mean MAMA loves a refrigerator full of pictures.)

Whether you are celebrating a child’s first steps,  first words, or first drawing, at any age, I’d never again think “What’s the big deal.” In fact, I say, shout it to the skies!

We all develop differently and encounter different challenges in life, so I’ve tried to stop comparing. Let’s just celebrate our achievements and have others cheer us on. I’ve got one way you can.

I’m inviting everyone and anyone to share their life’s moments on Twitter or Instagram or even Easter Seals’ Facebook page with #LifesMoments. Your story and/or photo may be featured on our wall of #LifesMoments so we can celebrate with you and your family. And if you’re feeling shy, that’s ok. You can check out our wall of life’s moments at easterseals.com/lifes-moments and cheer others on, too.

Visit easterseals.com/lifes-moments now.

The Wizard of Oz as imagined by a girl who is blind

by Beth Finke

Emily

Did you happen to catch that adorable Emily’s Oz commercial during Sunday’s Academy Awards presentation? Seven-year-old Emily has been blind since birth, and Emily’s Oz is about what she sees when she watches The Wizard of Oz™. The ad touts TV technology for people who are blind, and it features Emily describing how she envisions the characters in her favorite movie.

I am blind, too, and I sat with my sighted husband on the couch during the Oscars Sunday night and enjoyed Emily’s Oz right along with him, thanks to the efforts of companies like Comcast, who are creating opportunities for people like me.

Easter Seals’ corporate Partner Comcast has been hard at work over the past few years to make their products and services accessible to all. Take their new talking guide, for instance –it’s a new feature on the X1 platform that reads aloud selections like program titles, network names and time slots. DVR and On Demand settings, too! Blind users have the freedom to independently explore and navigate thousands of shows and movies – something that can be very difficult otherwise.

Many of us with visual impairments love film and television, we just don’t always have the opportunity to experience Hollywood to its fullest. I’m grateful to Comcast for its efforts, and hope this blog post about the talking guide increases awareness of this new technology among as many people as possible – the talking TV guide brings us one step closer to making entertainment just as compelling, captivating and fun for people with a visual disability as it is for others.

If you missed the ad during the Academy Awards presentation, you can find Emily’s Oz here. Robert Redford does the voiceover, and you can opt for video description, too.