Memorial Day weekend finds the Seattle Center playing host to the 35th annual Northwest Folklife festival. The event, which I’ve not previously attended, is a collection of music, art, food and more with what seemed like a rather eclectic theme to me. The Seattle times obviously covered the event too.
Here’s some music we heard in a few hours of walking around on Saturday. The bagpipes were a disappointment as I think some instruments really are not meant to be played over a speaker. A steel drum band did two interesting covers, followed by some traditional folk music. Next is some Indian music recorded from McCaw Hall. This was the first time I’d been inside the hall and the acoustics were quite impressive. Unfortunately my tiny digital recorder doesn’t present things as richly as they sounded but for a small handheld the booming base of the tabla does come through well enough.
Our musical stroll finished with a short time listening to a country group from a balcony and then a collection of drummers keeping the beat going.
Apologies for not having names of artists but the music speaks for itself.
The Idea Place Posts
An early morning dental appointment had me catching a cab to return to work. Getting out of the cab I noticed a sign on the door with the large raised letters giving the taxi ID and such. A couple seconds more exploration showed this was reproduced in braille.
Walking into work I had to stop by the ATM. I grabbed an earphone I carry with a portable radio (old school I know because it isn’t an MP3 player) plugged it in and had the ATM speaking my entire transaction.
Both small items but at times you get a glimpse of how the world should be with respect to accessibility. It should just be there and just work. Taking the glass is half full perspective, these simple experiences really jazz me when it comes to accessibility.
From the better late than never category, here’s a video story of our trip to India that Aimee put together. This has been online for a while but I failed to link to it in my blog. There’s narration withthe pictures so hopefully all will enjoy.
Comments closedHere’s a cool tune about Brett Favre someone pointed out to me in e-mail. Favre certainly has become a legend and here’s hoping he chooses to add a bit more to the history he’s creating.
Comments closedIt has been more than a year since people from Washington and several other western states have been able to obtain free copies of their credit reports. Over the past year, citizens of the rest of the nation have had the same access made available in a staged process. As a recent article in the Seattle times points out, the process hasn’t been perfect but according to the article things should be getting easier. I must ask, “Easier for who?”
The legislation making free access to credit reports is something that we should have had years ago. With the number of companies using the details of your credit report it is vital that you know what it contains, especially because sometimes there are inaccuracies. I know in my case back when I was living in Portland, there happened to be another Kelly Ford living in the same apartment complex as me and some of that person’s bad debts did appear on my credit report at one point. It was a major effort to get them removed.
That’s in part why I’m a big fan of the required access to your credit report. Sadly in the year that the process for this has been in place, there’s been no progress on accessibility to the report request process or the reports themselves.
Obtaining a copy of your credit report requires you to go to the official web site to start the request at http://www.annualcreditreport.com. Aside from basic accessibility flaws like missing alternative text for images, the web site uses the increasingly common visual word verification test in the initial stage of the request process. With no alternative, such as audio of the graphical word to be entered that is used on some web sites, you are locked out if you are blind.
True you can request a copy of your report by phone or e-mail. Thus far my attempts to use these methods have not proved to lead to any greater accessibility as there’s no provision that I can find in these methods to get an actual accessible copy of the credit report. By contrast the online process will lead you to an online version of your report that is more or less accessible. Still it shouldn’t be necessary to get someone else to assist in the process at all, especially for government-mandated access to personal information.
I hope others reading this will consider writing to the editorial staff of the Seattle Times as I have done asking them to cover the accessibility aspects of this issue. Letters can be sent to opinion@seattletimes.com and must include day and evening phone numbers as well as your full name and home address. The paper’s web site gives full details.
In the past year I’ve exchanged several e-mails and phone conversations with officials from various congressional offices for the house and senate of Washington State. Thus far I’ve been unsuccessful at getting any politician to take a serious interest in this issue. In my view the process and credit reports one obtains should be 100% accessible and individuals with disabilities should be able to obtain and access the information independently.
The photos from our trip are now available online. You can see them at http://www.kellyford.org/iiepics and hopefully the titles give a clue of what you are viewing in the pictures.
Comments closedDriving from Dehra Dun to Delhi we had loads of time to spend in the car. Aimee provided a bit of audio description of the scenery as we arrived in Delhi.
Comments closedOne thing that sticks in my mind from trips to London are the street musicians one hears as you walk through tube stations. The stations tend to have long halls with concrete or tile walls which makes for an acoustically rich environment. Add a little reverb in and anyone can sound good (just ask the recording industry). Here’s a sample of some tube tunes from our recent trip.
Comments closedWe are now back in London after a 30 hour trip from Dehra Dun to London. We weren’t sure what we were going to do on our last day in India but the airlines decided for us.
We left our Hotel in Dehra Dun at about 10A yesterday to head for the Jolly Grant airport outside of Dehradun. As Gomer Pyle used to say, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!”
We no more than got out of our car when someone at the airport told us to hold the car because the flight had been cancelled. Apparently, if there’s no traveller from Delhi to Dehra Dun on a given day, the flights both way simply don’t happen. Our driver, as with just about everyone we met in India, was extremely helpful in helping us find a taxi back to Delhi.
If I thought the Road to Agra was an adventure, I should have driven to Dehra Dun first. You know it is quite an experience when the customs agent here in London talks about how much of an “on the edge of your seat” ride she had on the same trip five years ago.
I suppose it was really nothing new but rather just the intensity of the traffic, animals, people and perhaps the most aggressive driver we had to date in India that made things interesting.
We ended up at the airport at about 8P for a flight that left at 3:30A. The Delhi airport isn’t exactly the most exciting place to kill time. That said all went well with our flight and in the end that’s what matters. London is 5.5 hours behind Delhi and we arrived here about 7:30A. Customs, backage and travel to our hotel took a bit. You know you are back in the west when you are schlepping your bags down the street after getting off the tube. No drivers here. We made it to the hotel about 11A.
More on India, the wedding and some general thoughts after we get a bite to eat and some rest. I will say that while it feels nice to be back in the west (it is a comfort zone of sorts) I know that there are things about India that will be missed and I’m richer for the experience of the last two weeks.