Identical pairs of shoes

Now, here is another problem for me and it comes when the feel of shoes is exactly the same. Let us say, for example, that I have bought two pairs of shoes, one black and one brown. Yes, the same style, length, shape, and everything is identical. So how do I deal with this so that I do not end up wearing one black and one brown?

Hmm, I need to separate them so that I do not get them mixed up. The black pair sits at one end of my shoe stand and the brown pair sits at the other end of the shoe stand. Simple, but I need to also remember where I have placed each pair and which is which. Problems for me if I can't remember but then I can use my color detector to help out. Funtime for me but that's okay.

I'm Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and inviting you to go out there and tell others about my identical shoes. Visit me at www.sterlingcreations.ca to learn more.

Body lotion versus shampoo

You may not get my problem at first but here it is. Whenever I stay at a hotel, I have to make sure that I know the difference between the body lotion and the shampoo. Many times, the bottles feel so much alike and the only way that I can tell is if I know beforehand if one has a pump top and that the other does not.

Sometimes, it is easy to tell as they may smell differently but the problem comes if/when they are made by the same company. If they are both in tubes then I am in trouble or if the bottles are shaped the same then even more problems for me.

I have to constantly make sure that I know which is which and then use some identifiers to help me out. In a hotel, this is a constant problem but if I ask the reception desk to help me out then there is my answer. No matter what, it is a continuing problem for me.

I'm Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and urging you to go out there and share my words with others. Come by any time and listen to my detective DJ audio mysteries at www.donnajodhan.com.

Telephone banking is for me

Ever since telephone banking came into existence, I have taken full advantage of it. I really enjoy doing my banking this way. It gives me privacy and independence. It allows and enables me to conduct my banking transactions in privacy and I do not have to ask a sighted person to assist me.

So what is telephone banking all about? Well, where I bank which is at the Royal Bank of Canada, I use a 1-800 number to do my banking. I can carry out such banking transactions as: Pay bills, check account balances, transfer funds, deal with credit transactions, update accounts, plus so much more.

Telephone banking is fast, independent, and I am the only one who needs to communicate between me and my accounts. No having to ask anyone for help and staff is available to me by simply pressing the 0 button.

I'm Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and inviting you to go out there and tell others about telephone banking. Visit www.aph.org to learn more about the world of blind persons.

Making sure to check my groceries

By now, those of you who read my blogs are probably very aware that grocery shopping for me is my least favorite activity. At the best of times, it is very nerve racking and extremely stressful on me. Please do not get me wrong! The staff at the Metro supermarket are extremely helpful to me but at the end of the day I need to make sure that what I ask for is what I receive.

As a result, I am constantly having to check each item as the good folks at Metro help me out on my shopping trips. I go armed with my shopping list and they take it from there. As they find each desired item, I ask for it to be placed in my hand so that I can inspect and check it out. The Metro staff is used to this and most times I do not even have to ask for them to show me; they do this automatically. It is the only way for me to ensure that I am getting what I ask for.

I'm Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and inviting you to go out there and share my blogs with others. Visit me any time at www.sterlingcreations.ca.

Carpets versus hard floors

Some people prefer carpets while others prefer hard floors. When I had enough vision to appreciate the beauty of hard wood, it was my preference but now that I need to be more careful with objects, my preference has definitely shifted to the carpet.

My reasons are very simple; if anything falls, it will not break nearly as easily as if it falls on a hard floor. Having said this, however, there are a few things to consider. If something falls on a carpet, it may be more difficult for me to find because of not being able to hear where it has fallen. If it falls and breaks then this is more problematic for me.

If something falls on a hard floor then I can probably hear more quickly where it has fallen but if it breaks then the problems are just as bad as if it has fallen on a carpet. It may be easier for me to clean up breakage and spills on a carpet but this is sometimes debatable. Breakage is easier to avoid with carpets.

I'm Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and urging you to go out there and tell others about my thoughts. Visit me any time and listen to my audio mysteries at donnajodhan.com.

How kids can make pictures

It is not as difficult as you may think, and I sure wish that when I was a kid growing up this was available to me. I am talking about those kids who do not have enough vision to draw using their sight.

I discovered this little gem a few months ago and here is what it is. It is an 8 by 11 inch board with an indent. The kid puts their ball point pen on a piece of paper that they have placed on the board and away they go. They can feel what they have drawn. Easy as punch and even I, as a big child, simply love it.

I use this little gem to help me remember the days when I had enough vision to see what I was drawing. I do not really know now if what I draw in any way closely resembles what I was able to see but that's just fine. I have lots of fun with it and my memory keeps ticking along. Fun! So much fun for me!

I'm Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and inviting you to go out there and share my words with others. Visit www.rnib.org to learn more about the world of blind kids.

Educating others about inaccessible PDF content

This is probably going to be an ongoing process as I strive to do my part with regard to helping others to understand that blind persons are unable to read PDF content that is not appropriately tagged so that we can read it.

The one thing to remember is this, PDF content is an image of what we wish to portray and screen reading technology is unable to read images. There is nothing that we can do about this. So we need to have a work around, so to speak.

There are tools out there that can be used to tag the PDF content so that it can be read by screen reading technology. These tools are, for the most part, free and Adobe has done its part to promote this process. The major barrier here is an unawareness of how to do this and why it is necessary. Just bear in mind that by making PDF content more accessible to blind persons it also helps others such as those with older technology.

I'm Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and urging you to go out there and help spread my message. Visit me at www.sterlingcreations.ca whenever you have a free moment.