Archive for August, 2008
An accessible web
Target settles lawsuit with advocates for blind
Target Corp. will revamp its Web site to make it more accessible for the blind and pay $6 million in damages to plaintiffs who joined a class action lawsuit against the retailer, under a settlement announced yesterday with the National Federation of the Blind.
Virginia Tech Tries ‘Compliance Sheriff’ To Improve Web Site Accessibility
Virginia Tech has selected HiSoftware’s Compliance Sheriff to address management of its Web site accessibility. Compliance Sheriff is a browser-based service that crawls a Web site and compares pages against a user-defined set of criteria. The tool will compare the school’s site against world-wide accessibility guidelines such as the federally-defined Section 508, which addresses how technology should be designed to enable its use by people with physical impairments, and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0/2.0, from the World Wide Web Consortium, which address Web content and mobile Web applications.
Multimedia/Flash Screenreader Tango
Screenreaders don’t like flash, and I’ve invested huge amounts of time to try and satisfy the requirements of a flash (SlideshowPro) feature spot being “cool” and compliant at the same time. It ain’t easy folks. And there are quite a few universities deploying homepage flash content that isn’t accessible. And you know who you are.
WebAnywhere provides access to the web from any machine with a modern web browser and some way to play audio. It is useful for web developers who would like to check their pages for accessibility and for blind web users using a computer where no other screen reader is available.
Students of Color and PWI’s
Surviving and thriving as a student of color at a less than diverse university via Anti-Racist Parent
Asha Jeffers, an African-Caribbean-Canadian student, offered this article, originally written for a college magazine, that highlights her experiences as a person of color in a predominantly white institution and shares advice for tackling the associated challenges.
Each section of the post offers up some advice for students of color who attend a predominantly white institution (PWI).
- If you don’t want to answer a question, then don’t.
- You can speak any language you damn well please. Any time you please.
- There is nothing wrong with wanting to hang out with other people of color.
- That said…befriending people you identify with ethnically is easy; having a more diverse group of friends takes work (but it’s totally worth it!)
- You are not the spokesperson for your ethnicity.
- Exoticization is just no fun.
- When you are away from school, stock up on culturally specific food/stuff, because it’s likely a lot of it won’t be available where you are.
- It’s not your job to educate everyone, but if you want to, go for it.
The Sanctuary on Postville, Iowa
The Sanctuary has in-depth accounts and critical analysis of what happened in Postville, Iowa:
On Monday, May 12, 2008, at 10:00 a.m., in an operation involving some 900 agents, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) executed a raid of Agriprocessors Inc, the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse and meat packing plant located in the town of Postville, Iowa.
Start with this post for a comprehensive examination of what went down in Postville:
Erik Camayd-Freixas, an interpreter, speaks about the proceedings against undocumented immigrants arrested at a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa:
A lens of -isms
via Luke Sugie – Engineering Social Justice: Why not use a lens of -isms?
A typical tactic I’ve seen deployed against those who bring up issues of race, sex, class, ability, etc. is for the speaker to be accused of “always seeing racism everywhere” or “promoting the feminist/anti-racist/anti-classist agenda” and therefore unable to provide an “objective” critique of something.
This particular tactic has been used against posts on my blog more times than I can count.
Frankly, we should be able to move beyond this stage into the stage where we evaluate the claims people make — all people, feminist, anti-racist or not — by the evidence used to support them, rather than seeking to destroy credibility of the people that proclaim them.
Evaluating claims does not seem to be part of the process (although I deeply wish that it was) for folks who enjoy deploying the “you see it everywhere” trope.
This is my hometown
Many of you know that my hometown is Columbus Junction, Iowa. I posted several times in June about the floods that consumed Eastern Iowa, including my town – the “CJ”. Home of the Wildcats. The place where I grew up.
I’ve had a Chicago Tribune article that references Columbus Junction in my bookmarks for quite sometime now. The article was published on the Tribs website in June.
I wanted to share the article and post it, not as something that tarnishes my hometown, but as an example of the realities of where I come from.
Excerpts after the cut…
Kicking ass in the sphere
Kevin, a long-time blog buddy, thinks that I am a kick ass blogger. I am honored to be given this award. A lot of the bloggers that have received this award have been mainstays in my RSS reader since I started wading into the blogosphere pool.
There are some rules/regulations for the awarding of a Kick Ass Blogger award. According to Kevin, if you neglect to follow the rules, then your ass kickingness card will be subsequently revoked.
- Choose 5 bloggers that you feel are “Kick Ass Bloggers”
- Let ‘em know in your post or via email, twitter or blog comments that they’ve received an award
- Share the love and link back to both the person who awarded you and back to MammaDawg
- Hop on back to the Kick Ass Blogger Club HQ to sign Mr. Linky then pass it on!
So without further ado, here are 5 bloggers that kick ass:
Professor, What If…? A relatively new addition to my feedreader, Professor, What If…?’s posts are insightful and kick serious ass. Asking tough questions and providing critical analysis are the hallmarks of this site. Critical educational ass kickery. Add this feed to your reader. Go. Now. Do it.
Michael Faris at A Collage of Citations An ass kicking blend of rhetoric, composition, and pedagogy. Michael does not need nor want awards which is exactly why he should win them. Pretentious? Yes, in a he’s-smart-so-listen-to-him-as-he-puts-down-some-kick-ass-thoughts kind of way. Brilliant? Mostly 
Don’t let him know about it. His head can’t take the swelling 
Crip Chick Kicking ableism’s ass and putting up some amazing posts. One of my favorite bloggers. Go check out her stuff. Pronto.
Feminist Philosophers A multi-author site, Feminist Philosophers is a great read for anyone who wants to sit back, think, and learn. Learn a lot. Oh and they have cat posts on Sundays Ass kicking cat posts.
Nezua at The Unapologetic Mexican He’s blogging the DNC. Redesigning his site. Shooting video for MTV. Feeding zillions of posts into our feedreaders. Tweeting from morning til night on the twittersphere. Nezua kicks ass on so many levels. Every post is like a poetic essay that forces us to think while enriching our spirits.
WordCamp Portland Registration
Registration is now open for WordCamp Portland. More than 50 people have already registered! I wonder if Matt Mullenweg will make a guest appearance?
WordCamp Portland will be held at CubeSpace on September 27th. You can head over to the Agenda page to check out the details, but we’ll kick things off with a couple large-group speakers including Lorelle Van Fossen as our keynote speaker. The middle of the day will feature several small-group breakout sessions with a variety of topics. Attendees can pose WordPress questions to our “Ask the Experts” panel before dinner. After dinner, we’ll have a bunch of rooms available for unconference-style sessions to be determined by the attendees on the day of the event.
We’re now accepting registrations for WordCamp Portland. The advance registration fee is $10 which includes lunch, dinner, a WordCamp Portland T-shirt, and entry into drawings for door prizes.
Follow WordCamp PDX updates on Twitter.
“Guys” is not gender neutral
What if I could overcome my gut-wrenching hatred for the phrase ‘you guys’?
Well, it would certainly make my life a lot easier because I hear this phrase multiple times a day. I wish I could accept being referred to in terms that insinuate the whole population is male or that male terms are ‘neutral,’ but I can’t. When I hear ‘you guys,’ I don’t feel like whoever is saying/writing this is talking to me because I am not an f***ing guy!
Reminds me of my post on how “guys” was used in an email to advertise a web development job. “Guys” is not gender neutral.
360 pano + Water Cube
I’m a huge fan (Crater Lake, Oregon) of panoramic photos (University of Rhode Island). This particular pano from the NY Times is a gorgeous example of a panoramic photograph.
The full-size version of the Water Cube panorama is gigantic and showcases the enormity of the National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.
Interactive full-screen 360 Pano after the cut…
Read the rest of this entry »
Federally Recognized Gay Marriage
[T]he Coquille Tribe on the southern Oregon coast has just legalized marriage on their land. And Kitzen and Jeni Branting, in a committed lesbian relationship since high school, will soon be legally wed.
Though most Native American cultures have been fairly accepting of a wide range of genders and sexualities, sometimes honoring “two-spirits” as shamans, contemporary tribal laws have mostly banned same-sex marriage.
According to Brian Gilley, anthropology professor at the University of Vermont and author of the book, Becoming Two-Spirit: Gay Identity and Social Acceptance in Indian Country, “Because the Coquille is federally recognized, a marriage “occurring within the tribe would actually be federally recognized.”
via OregonLive
