When you live with a disability, you spend your days adapting to a world created and operating for anatomically correct people. Sorry, Ken. I have never liked the word “accept” but “adapt” is something I can get behind as it is necessary to survive when something goes wrong with your body.
Eleven years into my visual impairment, I hired a web designer to refresh Sister Rain. J was compassionate and curious about my vision. As we began working together, he educated me on branding and web design, I taught him about blindness and the workarounds it requires to use technology and, well, live. The process took 6 months. It was painful for both of us, as well as the web developer he employs. I am a perfectionist with strong opinions and detailed plans. Sister Rain is me but she is also my baby. I am constantly thinking, which results in new ideas and lots of, “Can we . . . ?” and “What if we . . . ?” “Is it possible . . . ?“
If my desire to get it right from an end user (that’d be you) standpoint was paramount, my necessity to set it up specifically for me on the backend was a powerful objective. For once I had the opportunity to create something that was as tailored to my impairment as was possible. Most people would be using a desktop or laptop, I rely solely on my large iPad. Because of this, we had to figure out how to build in that functionality for me without compromising how things look to my readers on their desk, lap or in their hand. J would ask me valid, thoughtful questions. For example: “If you get a huge monitor can’t you use a desktop or a laptop?” Or: “What about accessibility voice features?” I won’t go into why these currently don’t work for me, but I did discuss the reasons with him. And he got it. At times he would apologize for his suggestions, I would tell him not to. After all, this is his field and his business; I relied on his expertise.
At times I felt a niggling of regret that J had to be the recipient of my meticulousness and my unwillingness to conform to the sighted world in this one aspect of my life. There is so much involved in getting every story and picture on this site to publication. The writing of the pieces is the easy part. I had the chance to make the logistics of this website work for me. Granted, when you can’t see much, everything is a challenge. There are some rough conditions I have to go through to bring what I have written to you. When I had my full sight it was a light breeze on a beautiful day. But with J’s help and understanding, we methodically examined each step of the process, matching them to my visual disability, the rest of my capabilities and my iPad’s technology. That never happens when you are living in a world built for something you don’t have. But it happened at a little website called Sister Rain.
#sisterrain #alittlesightalotofheart #legallyblindwriter #imjustken #adaptabiltome
