Welcome to Barrier-free IT - Tips and Tricks
Hi this is Norm Coombs, this podcast is sponsored by EASI, equal access to software and information. EASI is the premier provider of information technology and how to make it accessible. While, in the past we have focused on people with disabilities we have found that the access problem is mainly an interface problem and many people without disabilities struggle with the same interface issues. So, we plan to make this series one that is broad enough that it will cover everybody. I want you to meet my friend Dick Banks, say hello Dick.
Thanks Norm, Hi everybody. I live in northern Wisconsin and while I spent years as a musician on the road playing with drums and various other bands. For the last 20 years I spent all of my time creating and using IT better known as information technology. Now I would introduce my buddy Norm Coombs.
Yeah, this is Norm again for many years I was a history professor and one day one of my buddies tried to tell me that I should look at a computer, and I said what does a historian want with a computer I was doing fine without it. So I've finally got bored and looked at it to keep him quiet and I haven't turned it off since. So in the last 20 years I have become very deeply involved in in using computers and information technology in my leisure and to help me in my work. I have become very deeply involved in information technology and distance learning and related topics. And here we have a series where we are going to cover some of these topics. Let's summarize some of the things we hope to do Dick.
Yeah, Norm, podcasts are an interesting way in which information technology has taken a turn, often we have, in most cases we have two get you know, whatever we would like to check into on the Web. And podcasts allow people to be able to have it come to them literally speaking. We are going to cover all lot of different areas in this podcast and most of them have to deal with the complexities of the Internet in information technology. It has become more complex than it used to be, and so things are really difficult to understand a lot of times. We have the ability to put things in laymenslanguage. In one of the big issues is software, it is so complex today. You have seven or eight hundred page manuals and a lot of these things can be reduced to explaining to someone and improving the way they access their information technology. So we are going to cover a lot of things. And maybe we can cover one or two of the things that we are going to do Norm, or try to help people with and I will cover a couple of others, so I'm going to turn it back over to you and see what you have to say on some of these issues.
Manuals are one of the things that is very difficult. My wife got me a scanner for Christmas and she was going to try and install it and use it, and my daughter who is a bit of a techie had been busy, so my wife opened up the box and the first thing she saw was a 62 page manual, she almost returned the thing to the store. She just wanted it to do a field simple things and she wasn't about to sit down and read a 62 page manual. A lot of those manuals are filled with all kinds of complex jargon that doesn't make sense to most of us. I remember in college taking creative writing course and thinking I was pretty good at it. One of the assignments we had was on assignment to write directions for assembling a cardboard box, and I thought oh well I've done stupid easy as assignments, but I found out to write directions they can only be understood in one simple clear way is really really hard. And most directions don't do that job very well. So we specialize as Dick said in taking technology in trying to put it into comp English type. We will pick out what you need to know to get started, and not bother me with the whole ball of wax. Another kind of technical problem I recall, is a friend of mine had a cell phone and she tried calling me, and she told me I was on my phone all day and I said I wasn't. And what happened was no way her cell phone was rigged when she put in a number and then pushed send on the screen it came up and it said in use, and what she thought that meant was I was using my phone, it was busy, and she hung up. My phone rang once I picked it up and there was nobody there. In use I guess meant that her phone was trying to call mine but I wouldn't have known that in use meant that, she didn't know in use meant that either. So oftentimes the directions and that come with manuals even cell phones are so complex that most people have trouble.
And the thing is Norm that software is a good example. You have a piece of software you use it you're happy with it like a browser for instance. For 2, 3, 4 years it's fine and all of a sudden that computer you use dies you can't get that version of that software anymore. So now you have to install this new browser that has 50 more things on it. And all of a sudden what you're familiar with is not there anymore. These little tips and tricks that were going to do with this podcast are going to help with those types of issues. Web pages are on another thing, web pages when you go to a lot of sites like your new sites and a lot of the other sites that you then visiting to keep up with the latest technology, all of a sudden you go to a page and it doesn't look like it should eradicate it to where I need to go and it's so complex and difficult to understand. These little tips and tricks are going to try to help you with some of those things. I am really looking forward to these things being able to be downloaded to your pod device or downloaded to your computer you don't have to go get them anymore if you forgot what we talked about or try to help you with. It's their on your computer and you can access it at any time. So I'm really looking forward to doing these.
You made a good point that I want to highlight what a tremendous wonderful thing about computers and information technology is that it is so powerful it can do so many things. Every program you have can be tailored to a million different personal taste. A power as potential of that is amazing. But at the same time you can get lost in all of those things. A piece of software I use all day, everyday, I changed one of its attributes recently and I decided I had made a mistake and I wanted to change it back I spent a couple of hours looking for all the menus and try to find where I made the change and I haven't found it yet. So the strength of IT is also the weakness of IT. We won't use the stuff but we don't want to be experts in it. Why don't you share a story of what IT has meant to you.
Boy, I could go on forever. One of the main highlight of my life is through information technology and computers and through the Internet I was asked to by the royal family in Thailand. Help them get a college that focused on people with disabilities and helping them, get them online for them and I spent a wonderful six months getting to know the people and the country and I worked with special education teachers in those kinds of things. That is just one of many, but if it weren't for information technology and me becoming involved with it and working with EASI, none of these things would happen. We could create a number of podcast on things that happened to both of us. Why don't you share one with us and people can realize just how powerful that information technology really is.
I could share tons of stories both with people with disabilities and some without. One of the most powerful ones is when I was a history teacher I am totally blind, and I had the students turn in their term papers and someone read them to me and I tell them what grades to put on them, and that worked reasonably well. One day when I was going down with an assignment to class I saw it you know if these kids turned in their assignments through e-mail, my computer could read it to me, so I got for volunteers to try this. And one of the students that I got to try this was a girl who was totally deaf and she wrote back two or three times asking questions about my grade and other related questions and one day when I came in to my office and opened my e-mail there was another message from her, I'm thinking what is this girl trying to do is she brown nosing is she trying to start an affair what is it. So I opened the e-mail and it said, this is the first time in my life that I have talked to a teacher without someone in between us and I was totally blind and she was totally deaf and the computer transcended both. And I can give stories of lots of people with no disabilities who e-mail and other things with the computer helps them to connect with people. We think of it as a dehumanizing tool and in many many cases it is exactly the opposite. So while we do talk about peoples with disabilities in this, they will apply to other people if we make the tools accessible for someone with disabilities they end up being more usable for everyone. Plus the fact as the baby boomers are getting older some of their faculties are failing their able-bodied are breaking down and so we hope we can get tips and tricks that will be beneficial to everybody. We hope to come up with a weekly webcast around 15 minutes. We hope to subscribe to the serious and follow a long, some will be advanced some will be simple but I expect every third or fourth one you'll find useful to you and your friends. Do you want to say anything to wind up.
Yeah I think we agree on is that we really want to make this podcast valuable as well. So if you would like to see anything in the podcast please send us a note we will have an e-mail on the contest page for you to write in and asked for help. And I just want a say in closing that your story about the deaf girl even though I have heard it so many times is representing around the country and around the world. I think it really says it all and we hope folks will tune in and you can also watch for other podcast, I am not ready to let the cat out of the bag on those yet if you keep watching you will see where we are going with this and we hope you subscribe.
Thank you a lot we hope you subscribe and see you soon.