XMAS GRIPES

Aloha,
This is a personal gripe.
When I lived in Bezerkeley,I had a few freinds who were quads and they HATED Jerry Lewisand his telethons,They talked about PITY PARTY FUNDRASING and TOKEN CUTE CRIPS.I was new to being permanently disabled at the time and thought their reactions rather extreme.
Not now.
Every Xmas the SF Chronicle and local TV stations runs all this SEASON OF SHARING feel good BS.

HULLO! WE ARE HERE ALL YEAR LONG!!!

We are poor,frail elderly,disalbed,homeless,jobless etc 365 days 24/7.
Now that the Economy is in the toilet all this is news-for Xmas.ARRRGHHH!
Gotta stop now,am grinding my teeth in frustration and I don't have that many left.
MERYY X OR WHATEVER.
mega

Web Accessibility In Santa Cruz County

At the Commission's monthly meeting in March 2008, a member of the disabled community registered a complaint that the Commission's web site was not accessible to people with a variety of impairments, particularly visual. A sub-committee was formed to investigate the complaint and, in a subsequent meeting with this individual, it was decided that the Commission's web site should be re-designed using established guidelines for accessibility. That effort has now been completed. The newly designed web site can be viewed at:

www.scccod.net

In the process of testing the new web site, several online validation and evaluation tools were used to measure the level of accessibility. In addition, the Commission requested an independent review from The Vista Center for the Blind. As a comparison, the Santa Cruz County's home page was also evaluated. A review of the test results clearly shows that the County’s home page has a poor level of accessibility.

Advances in assistive technologies such as the JAWS and WebAnywhere screen readers now make it possible for those with a variety of impairments to access the resources available on the Web. To be effective, however, many of these technologies require that individual web sites adhere to common design standards and guidelines. Guidelines for accessibility have been developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) through their Web Accessibility Initiative (www.w3.org/WAI/). Their recommendations include a number of relatively simple procedures to use when developing a web page. A summary of those procedures includes:

-Comply with W3C HTML coding standards
-Use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for page formatting
=A logical organization of page elements so that the page can be read as a document with titles, headings and content
-Appropriate tags and titles for images and tables
-Appropriate use of contrasting colors to accommodate those with color blindness

Currently, the Americans with Disabilities Act does not require government web sites to provide access assistance analogous to designated parking places or wheelchair ramps to public buildings. However, the ADA Administration encourages State and local governments to voluntarily incorporate these guidelines in to their web site development. Their recommendations, which reference the W3C/WAI guidelines, can be viewed at:

www.ada.gov/websites2_scrn.pdf

The Commission on Disabilities believes that County should "get ahead of the curve" and incorporate these guidelines into future implementations of the County's web site. There are potentially hundreds of people in Santa Cruz County who are currently denied access to this important public resource.

NAME GOOD THINGS ABOUT BEING DISABLED (HUMOR)

GOOD THINGS ABOUT BEING DISABLED...(humor)

1.my sons tell me that I am now worth more points on Grand Theft Auto.
2.my Christmas List has shrunk since many friends have fled ot died (note to self-remind people Disability is NOT contagious).
3.diabetes forces me to exercise and eat beter (and less).
4.being lame allows me to walk slower and appreciate the beauties of nature.
5.can sleep late everyday,if meds allow.
6.no more ties ! except at weddings and funerals.
7.slolwy learning Latin via many many docotr visits.
8.have fun wondering why other people are in the waiting room (and do I look THAT Weird to them?)
9.pharmacy staff no longer asks what my name is.
10.spend more time doing nothing and less time worrying (except for govt rule changes and cutbcks).
11.now have a nifty collection of canes,knee braces,diabetic shoes and walkers.
12.with Age Related Macular Degeneration the world only looks HALF as bad.
13.chronic pain now gives me an excuse for being snappish and grumpy.
14.my soul mate is disabled too and Very tolerant.
15.now have tons of time to annoy people with useless trivia and pictures vie Email forwarding (no,it's not spam if it's funny or mildly amusing).
16.have time to volunteer at Santa Cruz County and inform/harass local public officials instead of just bitching at TV endlessly.
17. have learned that Santa Cruz county is a Lyme disease hotbed and have met some really nice people via the local support group.
18.young people open the door for me without complaint.
19.can let worker bees cut in front of me in line since I am rarely in a hurry.
20.I may be broken,disabled and damged but I'm not going down without a fight!
21.helping to serve as a role model for others who might share the same concerns...

BASIC BLOG RULES #1

BASIC BLOG RULES

1.BE NICE( you may need their help someday)
2.BE POSITIVE (funny too if possible)
3.BE SUCCINCT (K.I.S.S. fed govt jargon is complicated enough)
4.BE PATIENT! ( we are all disabled volunteers and one P/T overworked county staffer)
5.LET'S ALL PULL TOGETHER SO THAT WE CAN KEEP THIS BOAT AFLOAT.

I am meglith (Charles) your grumpy moderator.