WHY WE'VE GONE BLIND ACCESSIBLE:
I've always been a much more audio-oriented than a visually-oriented person. When I close my eyes, I see nothing. I realized this as a child. I have always thought a lot about it, to the point that when I was 19, I wrote a article for the local paper called "I'd rather be blind than deaf."
I am sick of TV, and think the future of media, at least for me, is mostly podcasting. I'm a filmmaker, but don't want to make films any more. I like the honesty of audio. I like the portability of audio, you can listen anywhere, while doing anything, and you can't do that with TV or movies. And you can't blink your ears.
I'm also sick of the look of the Internet. I hate how now it's all flash, style over content. I long for the way that things looked in 1994 (pretty much like this page looks.) And why should a podcast site be fancy looking? People don't return over and over to a podcast site. They listen to an audio sample, read a description, and if they like it, they subscribe and get their updated audio media that way.
So when a blind woman from Canada wrote us a fan letter (below), I decided to revamp the site to make it more accessible to blind people (who use screen-reading software, need the info at the top, and ALT tags on any images) and people with very limited vision or are color blind (who are best served by simple text, few images, good contrast, and clearly marked links). Thus, the new look (or lack of look) on our site.
(Also, an added bonus is it now loads very very fast on cell phones, iPods, and dial up. And it looks better on tiny portable screens, too.)
-- ThornDaddy, June 3, 2008
Here's a USB Mp3 player that holds two hours of us (or of music). And it has only three buttons and no screen, and can be used by the blind.
Here's a saved page of what the site looked like before the makeover. Here's another.
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Here's the letter from the nifty blind lady:
Hello
to both of you!
The meat of the message is really for Thorn Daddy, but
I'll get to that later, because first I want to say how damn cool you are. I've
read (er... listened to, actually) most of Diary of An S & M Romance, and
intend to finish it when I get the spare time. I'm a female submissive, myself,
and have to say that you both are really lucky to have found this kind of relationship.
The book is inspiring and really well done.
As I said, I'm a sub. I'm
also blind, or almost, which my Master gets a kick out of. He doesn't need blindfolds
to mess with my head.
Anyway, now that I've gushed about the coolness
of you two, I am wondering if I could get some utterly non-BDSM advice. I really
do want to listen to your podcast, but I have no experience with such things,
since I don't have an iPod (if you try using your iPod/iRiver/mp3 player of your
choice with your eyes closed, you'll see why right away!). Do I need a client
specifically for it, or will it just play on MWP? I did poke around the web page
and tried to figure out how to subscribe, but I admit I got a little confused.
I use JAWS, a screen reading program, and sometimes
it
makes web pages just a leetle bit awkward, though you could say it's always an
adventure. It's just like grabbing a can of frozen juice out of th e freezer without
being able to see what it says... you never know what you're gonna get. Help!
Any advice or help would be REALLY appreciated so I can get my weekly dose
of Dollie and Daddy.
I
loved the podcast, it's way more interesting than the book, and that is REALLY
saying something, because I loved the book. Must be the recorded sex. Purr.
I
also love all the 'mews' and 'yays' since those are the sorts of things I always
say. I am not alone!
Now, I am off to poke around the youtube site and hear
you sing.
Please, please pass on my opinions to Dollie, too, I adore her as
well. I think I just found a role model. 30-somethings (2, actually) need role
models too!
lots of
appreciation,
kitten
ps: If you're wondering why this is in hot red
text, it's not because you guys are red hot (ok, it's not JUST because of that)
but rather because my color contrast messes with some people's email clients and
they get black text on a back background, so I always change my text to bright
green or bright red to make sure the recipient can read it.