Dad

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62.365: Dad

I remember listening to Radio 4 in the car on the way home from wherever, and sitting in the car outside the house because we were halfway through "I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue" or somesuch, and we wanted to hear it til the end.

I remember going to computer fairs and buying bits and pieces and building computers together on the kitchen table.

I remember how every visit to anything had to include a stop for a "cup of tea" which almost always involved cake.

I remember "The Goon Show" re-enacted, voices and all.

I remember sitting on wooden stools in the kitchen until my bum went numb, watching the TV or talking about things.

I remember the flat bottomed handwriting, because he always wrote against a ruler, except near the end, and that shaky, unflat handwriting still breaks my heart.

I remember the stupid Tandy beachball that blew out of my hands on Lossiemouth beach and running into the North Sea after it, afraid I'd get in trouble for losing it. I remember him running after me to stop me from going too deep, and telling me it didn't matter, but that he wished I'd dropped his (unread) copy of the Glasgow Herald before I ran into the water.

I remember having Dr Seuss read to me when I was ill with tonsilitis.

I remember him cooking "proper" fish and chips in batter at home once, when mum went away for a couple of days, and how it felt so rebellious and tasted all the better for it.

I remember him telling me to go live my life and not put everything on hold waiting for him to die.

I remember so much.

I miss him so much.

I can't believe it's been seven years.

Getting out more

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After a year of working from home almost exclusively, I'm going to be spending the next two weeks (maybe longer) working at a client's offices near Euston. On one hand this is great. With HFBB being away in Poole during the week, if I'm not careful, I can go days without speaking to anyone face to face. While I'm quite happy with my own company (and that of the internet) up to a point, I've been getting increasingly dissatisfied with rattling around the house on my ownsome all week. So the chance to get out and about during the day, and embrace the randomness that is life outside the front door is something I'm quite looking forward to. I'm also looking forward to the photo opportunities, because frankly, I'm almost out of things to photograph indoors, and while the tree outside is beautiful, there are only so many photos of blossom one can handle.

On the other hand, I've spent the last year not having to get dressed up to get to work, spending most of my time wearing jeans (once I'd got beyond the "working in pj's because I can" stage) and combined with some physical changes as a result of being on something of a health kick over the last year, it means the wardrobe is almost literally bare when it comes to work-wear. Luckily the place I'm going to be working isn't a full-on suit and heels kinda place, but I still had to do a bit of an emergency dash along Lordship Lane on Saturday. I managed to find a couple of suitable things that weren't ridiculously over-priced, but I will still have to hit the shops to get me to the end of the week. I'm also not entirely looking forward to the commute. In theory, it should be nice and easy: train to London Bridge then Nothern Line to Euston, but there's enormous potential for disaster in that deceptively simple route.

It'll be a bit of a shock to the system to get up and out the house that early every morning. It's not that I lie in bed til noon every day - I'm usually awake by 8 and at my desk by 9, but it's going to be a little strange dancing to someone else's beat again.

I should really be in bed by now, but I'm not nearly sleepy enough, so I've been trying to kill the time usefully by preparing everything for the morning.

Outfit: check. Accessories: check. Camera: check. iPhone: synced and charging. Knitting: check. New Moleskine: DISASTER! No fresh Moleskine available. How could this happen?! Shoes: choice narrowed to two pairs. Final decision pending. Bag: available selection unsatisfactory. Compromise chosen and packed.

Sorted.

Except for the sleep bit.

Damn.

Formula 1

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I know who is responsible for my indoctrination into the world of F1, even if I can't remember exactly which year it was. I know that it became a thing, to plan weekends around the coverage. Saturday lunchtimes are about qualifying, Sundays are all about the race.

The build up starts slowly. A lazy sunday morning spent either in bed, or pottering around making breakfast to take back to bed depending on whether we've got company or not. Then comes the move to the sofa to watch the start of the coverage. If we've got company, I'll sometimes do some preparation for a big roast dinner while this is on, stopping when they interview Jenson Button (my favourite) or Lewis Hamilton (who caught my attention for the last couple of years while Jenson was languishing in crap car hell) or if there's anything particularly contentious or controversial happening.

As we get closer to the start, I begin to locate the various bits and pieces that are necessary to facilitate the required race experience: snacks, drinks, knitting and Sharky.

Sharky was a forgotten. I rescued him from the IKEA Warehouse in Wembley very late on Friday night and he's my "don't break stuff" surrogate. When things get tense or stressful, I grab Sharky rather than breaking HFBB's fingers, and when things get reallytense or stressful, he has been known to fly. Across the room. At the TV.

But I digress.

It's a tradition. Post-race is for talking about the race, eating Sunday dinner and trying to forget that we're on the slippery slope downhill to Monday.

I don't know why I'm gripped by F1 but Touring Cars leaves me cold. I think I've only missed one, maybe two races in the last several years. I even watched a race on Arabic TV while on holiday in Crete (the most bizarre part of which was that the commentator was actually Scottish and kept switching from Arabic to English with a Scottish accent and it distracted me no end).

I was gripped two years ago when Lewis Hamilton came on the scene and blew everyone's ears off and nearly won the Championship. I was gripped last year when he blew everyone's ears off again and nearly lost the Championship and I'm most definitely gripped again this year, now that my beloved Jenson looks like he's back in the running.

I'm so gripped, I'm even contemplating staying up for the next couple of hours to watch the practice session (now it's being broadcast as part of the shift in coverage from ITV back to the BBC) just to see for myself if Jenson's got a hope in hell or not.

The thing I'm most excited about though, doesn't have anything to do with the actual racing. Oh no. After enduring the godawful ITV F1 theme music from the last few years, I literally cannot wait to hear the "dum, dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum duuummm" of The Chain start up.

So come Sunday, I'll be on the edge of my sofa, clutching Sharky, hoping for a great race. Keep your fingers crossed the soundproofing between my house and next door is decent.

I might get noisy.

Thought-provoking posts on Accessibility

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There have been several really thought-provoking posts about accessibility made over the last week or so, and while I'm marshalling my thoughts (and the several thousand words I've written in response) into something coherent, I thought it'd be worth linking to them. Accessibility to the Face from Northtemple

Here’s my point–if your brother or sister had a disability, you would give a crap. But you don’t have to have a sibling in a wheelchair to genuinely care, even if it’s only in your work.

Empathy is what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. We have an ability to imagine things the way that others see them and how it makes them feel. We don’t even have to have a disability ourselves.

And from my perspective, accessibility is about giving a crap.

Accessibility is NOT a checklist.

Accessibility is about usability.

Accessibility is a paradigm shift.

Accessibility is a personal issue.

If you read none of the other links in this post, read this.

Commentary on Sign Language and Accessibility from The Deaf Perspective

Quid pro quo. The loose translation for the Latin expression is “you give me something, I give you something.” We give the world accessibility to our community, our language, and our unique perspective. In return, everybody understands more why accessibility is so important for everybody.

When is the Right Time for Accessibility from Derek's Box of Chocolates

Is it possible to include accessibility support “too early?” I’m not saying it should be an add-on at the end of the process/project/product development cycle, but I’m very seriously wondering what the optimal time for integrating an actual accessibility implementation is? Is it enough to keep accessibility architecture in mind from the beginning, but not implement right away? Should we get the basics right first, and then build in accessibility support based on that previously envisioned architecture after we know we have a viable product? We continue to say that accessibility should happen throughout rather than just at the end, but would it actually be better if we left it out, just for a little while, at the beginning?

Is Web Accessibility a Human Rights Issue? by Wendy Chisholm

It’s important for us to recognize each other’s concerns. On the one hand we have technologists who want to create things to help make the world better–help people communicate more richly and quickly, to create technologies for self-expression and commerce. Rock on. We want you to innovate because you’re changing the world. On the other hand we have people who want to use the technologies and to participate in society. When the technologists say, “Don’t make me think about accessibility, I want to be innovative.” The response from people with disabilities can be hostile because the message from the technologists is, “I do not value you enough to include you in my innovation.”

TIFI: 19-25 March

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Some of the things I found interesting between the 19 and 25 March. Sadly, having roughly 100 tabs open between two windows in Firefox tends to quite seriously bork things, and I lost more than half the tabs I had open. Which, if nothing else, is a reminder that I should clean out the tabs more often. But anyway, on to the good stuff.

These women

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A few of the women who've inspired me, in honour of Ada Lovelace Day.

Heather Champ

Even before I started blogging, I read Heather's blog. I did then, and still (to some extent) do, want to be her when I grow up. I've been inspired for many years by her design skills and photography, and couldn't help but be something of a dork when I finally met her in person at SXSWi 2007, and then again at the Yahoo Open Hack day.

Donna Smillie

Donna started off as my boss, but became a dear friend and mentor, and without her support and encouragement, I probably wouldn't be where I am today.

From writing data analysis programs in the 1970s she took a somewhat circuitous route on her way to RNIB, where she started the Web Accessibility Consultancy and created the See it Right standard for web accessibility, which has more than stood the test of time. See it Right remains a practical and achievable standard and has been used by many organisations across the UK and internationally to make the web better for people with disabilities. She cares deeply about the needs of people with disabilities, but has always had the ability to take the wider view and identify solutions that meet the needs of businesses too.

Bim Egan

Bim and I applied for the same job (that of Web Accessibility Consultant) and thanks to some forward thinking by my manager at the time, we both got it. She is a fantastic example of ability over disability. She has a wonderful way with words and I've learned a huge amount from her over the years.

I have no doubt that she will continue to rock the accessibility world and lead the See it Right standard on to greater heights.

Lynn Holdsworth

You probably haven't heard of Lynn, but her talent as a web developer, willingness to find a solution and determination to get the job done have been an inspiration to me. She is another fantastic example of ability over disability. I'm honestly not sure I could listen to JavaScript through a screen reader day after day after day.

Glenda Sims

Glenda is one of the most positive people I've ever met. Her enthusiasm is infectious, whatever the subject she happens to be talking about. I can't imagine anyone failing to be inspired and enthused after spending just a few minutes listening to her talk, especially about accessibility.

I've learned so much from these and many other women over the years. I could continue writing for much longer, but there's other things I have to do with my day.

In such a male dominated environment, I can't help but feel that it's a good thing that I can think of so many women who are excellent role models. I count myself very lucky to have had the opportunity to learn from them, and even luckier to count some of them as my friends.

Battlestar Galactica

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I'm a big nerd. A really big nerd. I'm nerdy in many, many ways, and one of those ways is Sci Fi. I think it might be something I got from my dad (who, against my mother's wishes, let me watch Dr Who when I was 3 years old). My introduction to the web was actually mostly through Sci Fi (although back then it was the Sci Fi/Fantasy Media Forum on Compuserve, specifically the Star Wars section), before I caught the Babylon 5 bug.

The B5 bug was a serious one, and it got so bad I even went to a convention (and the internet is so fantastic that not only are there still convention reports from people I was there with hanging around, but there's also an entire Wolf 359 photo set on flickr).

But B5 ended, and the bug faded, and other things took over - most notably West Wing, which I love with a passion beyond reason, and have rewatched in its entirety several times - but I still needed some good hard Sci Fi satisfaction (which sounds a lot dirtier written down than it did in my head).

Then along came Battlestar Galactica and blew my mind. I remember watching the Mini Series on Sky One, and then watching the repeat. I still deeply appreciate the gift of the Season 1 and Mini Series DVDs, at a time in my life when things were really shitty. I've held on through ups and downs through this show (and my life) and I'm both sad that its ending and eagerly waiting to see how it ends.

After more than two years of protesting that he didn't like the shaky camera work, I finally persuaded the HFBB to give it another try, and apparently, a 42" telly makes all the difference, and he loves it. We've been gulping it down in multi-episode chunks, seemingly unable to stop mid-disc, and have caught up to the last few episodes of Season 3.

I wanted to wait to watch the second half of Season 4 with him for the first time, but I just couldn't. With the advent of twitter, it's almost impossible to stay spoiler free, and I'd rather re-watch it with him and try not to give the game away than be spoiled myself.

I'm just about to watch Episode 19 of Season 4, and the final episode is shown tomorrow night in the US, and Tuesday in the UK, so in case I'm too depressed by the end and forget to say it out loud...

Farewell BSG. It's been frakking awesome.

TIFI: 18 March 2009

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  • Fifty People, One Question. Great concept, beautifully shot videos and a gorgeous site to boot. Love these. My favourite is probably the London one (above). The answer given by the guy seen in the still is a heartbreaker.
  • Crush + Lovely. The people who did the Fifty People, One Question website. Stunningly gorgeous site. Very inspirational.
  • The Big Picture. I love this site and wish I'd been at the SXSW panel. It's my favourite example of accidental accessibility, and I really should write more about why (note to self).
  • Authonomy. Books and block printed lettering. Heaven.
  • Sexy Web Design by Elliot Jay Stocks. From what I've read so far, this is a great book. I downloaded the sample chapters, then had to buy the book. It's gone straight to the top of the reading pile.
  • UI Pattern Factory. Great resource (via the Sexy Web Design book).
  • Elliot's Inspiration Collection.
  • Chris Messina's Design Pattern Collection.
  • Talking about Design on Huffduffer. Great collection of audio files tagged with Design. I would totally Huffduff stuff if I ever found any audio files while browsing around the web.
  • Unofficial Landmark Trust Search Page. Matthew Somerville does it again. I'll definitely be using this to book my next Landmark holiday (and there will definitely be a next, and a one after that, and so on - staying in a Landmark is just the most amazing experience).
  • André Da Loba. I particularly love the shoes in the middle of the maze.

Goals for 2009

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…because having goals is important, writing them down makes them real and writing them down in public means they're really real.

  • get Equal Web site up and running;
  • get pixeldiva blog up and running again;
  • relaunch The Shoe Project;
  • write more (in places other than Twitter);
  • write more about accessibility and design;
  • do more design;
  • make more of the design work I do public, rather than deciding it's shit and deleting it before anyone else sees it;
  • finishing fixing the Adana Press and do more printing;
  • take a photo a day for 365 days;
  • do more portrait photography (and to that end, If you're in London and don't mind someone pointing a camera at you in exchange for some prints, please get in touch);
  • do more exercise;
  • drink more water;
  • pay more attention to skincare;
  • get out more;
  • find (or re-write) that sock pattern from a while back and donate it to the p/hop project;
  • be purple, fluffy and awesome.