I can't read. I know how.
It's BOOKS I can't read ( #ADHD End of Story)
At risk of sounding like a broken record... #Audiobooks are a breakthrough for me
I'm completing this book now, worth a read/listen #Recommended#Reading#Listening
The #1 New York Times Bestseller that shows why slowing down is the key to getting ahead
@Rasta
What country do you live in? In case you don't already know, in6many places, there is a free national library for blind and "print disabled" people. Any condition that makes you unable to read a book should qualify. In USA, it's the National Library Service, and all I had to do was have my doctor sign a simple form. They have a huge catalog of audiobooks, and you can listen on your phone or computer. Let me know if you want a link.
@temporal_spider I'm in Canada, and sighted. But Audiobooks were called BOOKS ON TAPE, there was no internet. I can't read because of ADHD. Ironically, I can read regulations and instructional manuals, it's just a page, but that's all I can do at one time. Know about free for the blind in the USA. IN the 80s, a blind girl had her reading materials sent to me with free postage, and I'd read for her on cassette tape and send back. I knew about free links ,postage.
I can get many audiobooks now
@Rasta
You and I have some things in common. I also used to read for blind people, mostly college students. We used to do these handoffs of cassettes and books at the subway station.
Your modern library has digital files. I am also sighted, and probably have some kind of ADD issues, can't really concentrate on one thing for very long unless I'm doing something with my hands. Audio or video and knitting works, but just reading is only for brief periods.
@temporal_spider Good Morning? I've been distracted from where I was replying, I usually make breakfast and lunch for us, and preparation of lunch usually takes me about an hour (I build salads from scratch for my wife and I and sometimes her company) Being flakey as I am 😂, I forget to mention when I am stepping away, and leave people hanging , sorry if I did that? I do it to everyone, unintentionally.
Back in the 70s, before some were born, before computers, before the internet, SM was:
@temporal_spider Membership in clubs and affairs that introduced strangers to one another through a purchased membership to a club, that sent out a catalogue of members. They used codes, and topics, like some Social Media platforms to help you find related interests, such as MUSIC, might be symbol by your catalogue entry such as ♫ Music [] for SCUBA divers 😎 for blind. Many icons or symbols listed your many interests, things I can't duplicate here to show you, but all topics, knitting too
@temporal_spider If you are old enough and encountered this, before the collapse of the organization, probably in the 80s, you'd still have a book with me listed in it, from voicispondnce (I think that's the spelling) Voice Correspondence. We would record voices on Cassette< R2R reels, or whatever tape medium was available. There was a symbol for whatever format you used. I was big into it, and subjects I knew nothing about, i was curious about. I'd contact people with different interests too
@temporal_spider For example, I met a United Church minister in a place in Ontario I had never been, but later, we met, and I visited. I had no PHOTOGRAPHY symbol, I didn't even own a real camera, just a Polaroid or Instamatic. But, the Reverend did microphotography, and that interested me. There was a huge lag of weeks, in the mail, to get tape back .This was the best thing before our favorite platforms online, Mastodon, for example. I follow all kinds of interests, I did then too
@temporal_spider I was removed from real society most of my life (on ships at sea) and knew nothing about disabilities. I'd point and say, must be crippled, I see the wheelchair, my level of understanding. One of my son's friends in the early 90s had spina bifida, I believe and was in a wheelchair. My son was having a birthday when we met and invited her to the party. I was a DJ and let my son and his friends briefly terrorize the neighbours with powerful pro speakers on the patio, ..
@temporal_spider Inaccessible wasn't on my mind when I poured a concrete sidewalk around to my backyard, or put a concrete ramp to it (I hauled speakers and equipment up that, that weighed more than I did, the initial reason for constructing it. This lady, said WOW, wheelchair accessible! (not practiced much then, stores and business still lag) and it made me aware of other challenges of wheelchair bound people. (Sorry to be long-winded, take a break, periodically LOL ) WE (his friend and I)
@temporal_spider became good friends. I just said this to my wife while preparing lunch, that before that lady, I had no understanding, and now, I feel proud to be aware and accommodating and have been used many times in my career in making government buildings and services DISABILITY READY. My new awareness brought me to the head of a disability group, who was also wheelchair bound, and informed supposed Handicap Access places how unready they were, for example, the size of a handicap toilet
@temporal_spider Basic needs that tone-deaf business owners put a blue sticker on and said WHEELCHAIR ready. But no one could use. 10 sq ft is the standard, I believe, to enter a stall, park a wheelchair and handrails to access the seat.
It made me a better person knowing this, and I realized I had been doing this for years, but lacked exposure to other things. In that catalogue, I chose a blind girl in California to communicate with, always broadening my knowledge. I learned so much, and
@temporal_spider That's why I always use Alt Text, except in private shares between sighted persons, but sometimes, even then, to become automatic at it, and learn to be descriptive. Posting a photo and describing it as "CAT" says nothing. Sharing photos without descriptions doesn't get shared in my world, it excludes valuable people in society from enjoying the shared images and video. And I practise hard to be descriptive, I'm not perfect but very teachable. Early one I learned about MAILING
@temporal_spider This club broadened my perspective on many things and during a six month trip away from home, there's a lot of free time, boring and lonely too. These tapes would arrive and they were as exciting as living vicariously through other people's travel blogs and shares. My blind friend sent me all her FREE POSTAGE FOR THE BLIND subscriptions, Even uninteresting things like Women's Magazines and local news in California, books, newspapers, magazines which everyone on ship could read
@temporal_spider News and magazines on a ship in the 70s, was like sending it to prison, they would be shared by prisoners for years until they wore out. It was hard to find a private place on ship, but with reasonable quiet and a microphone, I would read and describe all that she sent me and mail several cassettes back each month. She grew up and went her own way, and we both moved on in the late 80s, when the organization folded. But, that's where I came in, to being inclusive of others.
@temporal_spider Of course, we had no handicap people on ships or in the Military in general, but when I was working in bases, many civilian employees who were handicapped were all around me. I didn't want to exclude them then, or now. So, long before Mastodon, or Twitter, I was describing content, maybe poorly, but I work hard at correcting that. Since those days, my wife is also disabled. She was bedridden for a year after I retired. She has many limitations but is a trooper.
@temporal_spider My most valuable community in Social Media are those with handicaps. They are my teachers, my friends, and the people I want to do better for. The others, I want to be here to show an example to, hoping they will do the same. Exclude no one, all people good and bad, able or not, influence who I am, and the knowledge I possess. That understanding grows daily since I retired. Can't fault me before, I never knew. And now I do, you can blame me if I forget to be inclusive in any way
@temporal_spider And I will learn and adjust. I have my own issues of which others lack understanding, I certainly know about being exclude or left out by people with no interest in improving, but want to be part of a community. So, I told you all that, to let you know how ADHD I am ,hence 20 messages to say HELLO, LOL and my keen interest in being around people who are often excluded or overlooked. I don't want to be one of THOSE PEOPLE who are just about SELF and never think of others.
@temporal_spider People who have been ignored, mistreated or invisible in society are more valuable to me, because I know, at one time, in some way, I was one of them. Now I have time to expand my understanding without limitation of former times when I was far removed from any such contact, not even some people existed. I hope I'm better now? I want to be corrected, I want to be challenged. I was in a big OLD BOYS CLUB, but I have a strong minded sister who, thankfully, has put me in my place
@temporal_spider I know more about struggles of equality and improper conduct in a weekend around my sister, than ever taught in 33 years in the Navy, in spite of targeted sensitivity training they teach now. I'm a little more complex than my posts.
I was diagnosed in my 31st year in the Navy. Hardly a time for correction or medicating. I am what I am. I got out not long after and began my real understanding of my condition and that of others, with neo divergence & physical limitations
@temporal_spider
RELAX. I'm done LOL, you can't ask me the time, without getting a few paragraphs back. do those things sound familiar . I do important things in the early morning 4-5 am, pay bills, taxes, research, learn, audiobooks, exploration. And I share what I learn for others, hopefully helping some to replicate the effort. I've alway had a lead-by-example style of leadership. If I refuse to do it, I won't ask you to do it. In my roles, I could command you to but I'd rather ask you to
@temporal_spider
By virtue of time, and position, I was always someone's BIG BOSS, but I don't believe in BOSSING people or looking down at people who simply have less fortunate than I did. Some are much brighter than I am, I won't be condescending with subordinates or younger people, but I'm an old guy, probably stuck in my ways too, but I can improve, with the help of others. I hope people always push me, call me out and correct me when I am wrong?
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