“Life Rolls On” in review: Two atrophied thumbs up as high as I can muster

Jan 12, 2012 10:39 pm by: Blake Watson

As a person who has SMA, I can attest to the honest and real story of Duane Hale, a man with SMA type 3 who emerged through the glass ceiling and has made the world a better place in the process.

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Social novel writing and inclusion

Dec 20, 2011 9:36 pm by: Blake Watson

Thoughts about National Novel Writing Month and how it can be a great inclusive activity for people with disabilities.

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Imagine Conference 2011 – Day 1 Keynote

Oct 16, 2011 6:01 pm by: Blake Watson

Communities, parents, teachers, and administration who have higher rates of inclusion do so because they see what is possible for people with disabilities. Had Anne Sullivan not come along and saw what was possible for Helen Keller, what would the world be like today?

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We still have our dreams

Sep 10, 2011 8:25 pm by: Blake Watson

An honest account of one disabled man's hunt for employment and how an unlikely podcast episode taught him a life lesson.

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I hate conflict

Aug 25, 2011 5:09 pm by: Blake Watson

People are different. People have different worldviews. They operate out of different contexts. I'm not saying you have to be all postmodern and let everyone live in their own reality. You can have disagreement. I would even encourage it! But be friendly about it. Try to be aware of other's contexts as well as your own. Doing so will cut down on some of the unnecessary conflict in the world. And we could all use a little of that.

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The mystical gods of employment find favor in our very own, Matt Watson

Aug 18, 2011 4:27 pm by: Blake Watson

Matt finds gainful employment as a green Spanish lecturer at Mississippi State University. This comes as another victory for which he didn't work in a long line of handouts. It's time to expose Matt for what he really is—a fraud.

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BBC documentary supports suicide for disabled people

Jun 25, 2011 11:23 pm by: Matt Watson

Sir Terry Pratchett's documentary celebrates assisted suicide, a heated topic in the disability community.

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Everyone is fragile

Jun 23, 2011 9:36 am by: Matt Watson

Why "The King's Speech" is another example of how the good heroes are often the disabled ones.

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Losing weight as a crip could result in side effects

Jun 21, 2011 8:17 pm by: Matt Watson

There are a few downsides to losing weight when you have no muscles or mobility. Odd, I have discovered, but very true. Let me explain.

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We Hate Stairs: A creative community

Jun 9, 2011 11:13 pm by: Blake Watson

The idea is that there are people with disabilities who spend a lot of time alone and who have skills that, combined with others' skills, could be used to make or do some pretty cool things.

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Why campus life was perfect for me

Apr 17, 2011 11:40 pm by: Blake Watson

People with disabilities thrive on independence. We go through a great deal of trouble to get it. And it's excruciatingly difficult to give it up.

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A place for creative crips

Apr 13, 2011 9:46 pm by: Blake Watson

Many people with disabilities find themselves spending a fair amount of time at home. That isolation can be frustrating. But what if there was a place where we could get to know others like us and use our skills to make/do something cool?

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Not your average run of the meal experience

Mar 19, 2011 9:31 pm by: Blake Watson

Eating out can be such a hassle, right? Waiting in line to see the host, waiting to be seated, waiting to be served, waiting to pay, and on and on. Add disability to the mix and things get even more complicated.

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A more fluid social life

Mar 6, 2011 11:23 pm by: Blake Watson

Lately I have, for better or for worse, been neglecting the social side of the interwebs. And since my work and various projects often have me staring into the void of RGB, miserably alone and loathing my pathetic existence, I think it's important to spend a little time connecting with people online.

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Hit the ground running

Feb 6, 2011 6:53 pm by: Blake Watson

In my previous post, I mentioned things that I wanted to accomplish in 2011. Well, it seems I have really hit the ground running. In this entry, I talk about my new job as well as how my resolutions for 2011 are panning out so far.

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So with this in mind, I began to reach out to people of this marginalized community to get to know them more. And then I had epiphany number 2: These people are brilliant and amazing. Actually that doesn’t encompass it well enough, the are BRILLIANT and AMAZING. Yes, all caps is needed here.

The people I met are super intelligent, creative, patient, passionate and compassionate. They have discovered methods and tools to accomplish many of their goals, which are usually the same as yours and mine. Yet, despite being able to prove the desire and skill to do what drives them for a living, they are denied employment.

That’s the dream: To build a design and development agency comprised primarily of people that have the skills but are denied the opportunity because something allows the government to call them “disabled”, because they are not.

I’ve been thinking of something like this in the dark corners of my mind. But this is the first time I’ve seen it written down. And you know what that means? It’s more likely to happen! Read more about Gregory’s idea.

Jan 27, 2012 9:50 pm by: Blake Watson

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A quick shoutout to my friend Marissa at Abled Is. She is undertaking a fascinating exercise in empathy in 2012 by getting to know a new person each month who has a health condition or worthy cause that needs to be learned about and shared. She’s calling it “12 Months, 12 Journeys, 12 Lessons”. I’m thrilled that she has asked me to be one of the 12 participants in order to share about my condition, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). It’s going to be interesting and fun and I can’t wait to see who all she interviews. Stay tuned.

See the very raw video explaining the idea.

Dec 20, 2011 9:49 pm by: Blake Watson

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A rough idea:

A SaaS model that allows users to choose from a range of web features that are not accessible to them. Those preferences are saved on the Service. Web developers can check users’ preferences before programmatically implementing the features in question.

For example, before a jQuery slideshow is implemented, a check is done against the Service to make sure that slideshow transitions are OK for the current user (because it could cause motion sickness for some people). This would probably be done in a PHP function. If there is no conflict, a PHP function is run to implement the slideshow. If there is a conflict, a fallback PHP function could be run.

Graceful degradation.

Oct 11, 2011 3:52 pm by: Blake Watson

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Media guru and good friend of mine, Dylan McLemore, touches on what makes good products great.

We like the idea of being Macs, not PCs. Computers were boring plastic boxes meant to function as part of an office workspace (it’s called a “desktop” for goodness sake). Macs aren’t just trendy; they embody a creative spirit. From the physical design to the applications they are best at running – Macs were made for artists – and everyone wants to be an artist.

Oct 5, 2011 9:57 pm by: Blake Watson

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When my disability took away my ability to type on the clunky keyboards of times past, Apple released the thin notebook-style keyboards that allowed me to keep typing. When I was no longer able to type on those keyboards, a wonderful Mac onscreen keyboard app saved me. When I lost the ability to play video games because I wasn’t strong enough to operate a controller, the iPhone’s touch technology brought it back. When I wanted to write a novel and pointing and clicking on an onscreen keyboard was too slow, an iPhone remote app let me type on my Mac using the iPhone’s small touchscreen keyboard.

The technology inspired by Steve Jobs has helped me keep going when my atrophied body was trying to stop me. I applaud his accomplishments and am grateful for his help. So here’s to the crazy one himself.

Oct 5, 2011 7:14 pm by: Blake Watson

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