Greetings and welcome to the newly designed blog!  I incorporated components of universal design to provide accessibility for the reading of this blog.  For example, all postings (and our Web site pages) now have the text-to-speech boxes available at the bottom of each blog.  In addition, I selected a new setting with simple white background, black font with a little color for accents.  My intent is to get my message across to persons with visual impairment, as well as the general public.

Furthermore, visitors can subscribe to receive the RSS, a plain document without visuals.  The one music video in the side bar of Celia Cruz has subtitles in English and Spanish, but our videos on the Web site don’t have closed captions since they are from YouTube.  I’ll need to pay for their site licenses to show the professional videos.  We haven’t received any donations, as of yet, so I’ll make that one of our fundraising goals.

I’m currently redesigning our Web site to meet the universal design requirements.  [1] BrokeButNotForLong.org already has large font without frivolous formatting, clear and concise headings and subheadings, and consistent page design.  However, I learned from the Web Accessibility in Mind (AIM) standards that every  non-text image should have the description in text, as well.   Therefore I’ll need to edit for accessibility for visitors with readers to hear everything on our site.

I’m currently taking an adaptive technology course online and learned about the free  Microsoft Office accessibility tools.  I learned how to enlarge the font on my computer screen and it really helps me see things better.  There’s also a PDF on tools to use on Internet Explorer 8: [2] Accessibility in Internet Explorer 8.

My last posting described another accessibility tool, the camera mouse: [3] http://www.cameramouse.org/  The free download is worth investigating for anyone who needs assistance with mobility. It helps those without the use of their hands but who can move their heads to direct the cursor on the computer via the camera mouse.  I found it via a tweet on twitter from the @PVA (Paralyzed Veterans of America).  The full articles is posted on our previous blog.  Moreover, I’m following several veteran blogs and government twitter accounts to find more resources to incorporate.

I created a Twitter account for our organization and used our organization’s acronym [4] @Sandra_BBNFL; this stands for BrokeButNotForLong, Inc.  Please send us your suggestions on how to make our site more accessible to everyone by leaving a comment or sending a tweet.  I hope you like the new design.  I want to apologize to all the Internet Explorer users, as the January blog posts went missing!  They’re currently reprinted on the main pages of the blog, at the top right hand corner.

Sandra Annette Rogers,

The Broke Blog

[5] sandra@brokebutnotforlong.org