The Blog I Couldn't Publish

The Blog I Can't Publish,

Sept. 3, 2011

Usually, when someone makes an offer for a person to "try" something new, the person has the right to Refuse it and go back to whatever old thing they Were using. Not so with Blogger.com.

Tonight I was storing material on an external drive and I came across old published posts from when I went back to the house Ann and I used to live in, for the last time. I haven't read old posts since publishing them. The pain was sudden, surprising, and intense! I stopped reading.

Instead I decided to blog about something else. Went to Blogger.com and it stopped my computer from functioning at all, no speech, no links available, Because I had made the Major Mistake of "trying" the "new interface" by hitting Enter, when offered a chance to verbally take a look at it.

My browser cannot support the new interface. And it was Only through the "new interface" that I was offered a chance to link back to the "old interface". Hopeless!

So I searched and found that others are having similar problems. But there Are Sites (or should I say Sights) where If you can click with a Mouse, If you know what the hell a widget is, and If you can see colors And templates, you Can get back to the "old interface" of Blogger.com.

Am I the only blind person blogging out here? I doubt it. Thank you, Blogger, for making it so difficult for All of us.

What should I do? After exhausting my list of obscene words, (some of which even I haven't heard in a while) I wrote an "Access Technology Specialist to find out what an upgraded Internet Explorer might do to my screen reader, (speech). Then I wrote someone kind enough to check out my blog and vented my frustration Without obscenities. Next I realized I couldn't read this person's blog anymore because I cannot link to Anything through the "new interface" and was too tired, after searching for Any non-sight requiring way to get Back the "old interface" to recite the bad words list again.

I found that I can upgrade my Internet Explorer for free, but as usual, no mention was made of how it might effect computer users with disabilities to do so. So I will have to wait until I know whether I have to upgrade the browser (that word always makes me think of ruminants) I have or learn to use Another one via keyboard commands.

In the meantime I am cut off from either reading or writing posts. Yo People, how do you think those on the deaf-blind listserv to which I belong Communicate across four states and farther? We use Computers! Why do you think Hadley School for the Blind teaches Computer courses in Braille, on cassette tape, or in large print? Because, blind people All Over the World are learning and Want to learn How to Use Computers! I get SO TIRED of computer users with sight Pretending we Aren't Even Here!

If you look up organizations OF blind or deaf-blind people you will find Many. And if you look up organizations For the blind and deaf-blind, you will find More! And How do all of these organizations of blind and deaf-blind people communicate? They use, you Guessed it, Computers!

But from basic Tech. Support from my ISP to Blogger.com to Microsoft's adverts for newer products, there is Never either knowledgeable Help Or Information concerning computer use by Any people with disabilities. As the population ages there will be More of us, who Also may not be able to afford new equipment and who will be caught in a mess by "trying" new products which ruin the working of formerly functioning computers.

Frankly, most people with disabilities are poor. And our future doesn't look good at the moment. New upgrades or new computers will be hard to find, if they can be afforded at all. Do you think we have nothing of merit to say, or do you just never think about it at all? Most people don't think about situations they don't have to deal with, including most people with disabilities.

But it has always amazed me that in a Huge network like AT&T I can't find One Tech. Support person who knows keyboard commands, not One! And wasn't there an article years ago about how Google had employed a Blind software engineer? Hey Sir, where are you? Does Microsoft have any blind people working for it?

I've heard that using capital letters is Rude in computer-speak, equivalent to Screaming. Tonight I Feel like Screaming! It took hours to find out Nothing immediately helpful. It Is grand the way computers allow us to communicate, truly! And how they Save us time, except when they don't.

Thankfully, I got my speech Back after a while and shut the computer Down.

I was going to write about this weekend and how I was enjoying catching up on personal projects alone, but here's my rant and the End of my evening of work with the computer Instead.

Sept. 7th. A friend Was able to switch me back to the old format, using a, yep, Rodent/mouse. For this I am Very thankful!