Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

(Photo credit: Sandra Cunningham)

Wow, what a week!

Monday: Amidst the uncertainty of a looming labour strike, Darrell and I delivered the second web accessibility training session for a local municipal government. With both sessions successfully delivered, I can now say that we hadn’t done anything like that before!

Darrell is a qualified instructor, but web accessibility isn’t his area of expertise. Web accessibility is my expertise, but I haven’t done much instructing before, mainly because of my speech impairment. But, presented with this opportunity (or challenge, depending upon your viewpoint), we did what we do: we figured out ways to work around our strengths and weaknesses and did whatever it took to get the job done. We must have successfully met the challenged because we received at enthusiastic applause.

Employers don’t know what they are missing by not hiring us!

Tuesday: I picked up my first pair of reading glasses. I’m not thrilled with having reached that milestone, but I confess its nice not needing to hold the page just so to read the fine print. Now, if only I had time to curl up with a good book!

Wednesday: The doors to Readers’ Café officially opened with a resounding success. The next Readers’ Café will be Wednesday, August 1st, at 4-7pm PDT / 7-10pm EDT. Be sure mark your calendar!

Thursday: After three hours of fitting, fiddling and fixing, my butterfly brace was finished. Wearing it is like wearing a cast: I have absolutely no movement now in my ankle, which makes putting on the $135-per-pair shoe very tricky.

The orthotist was concerned as she was making the brace that I wouldn’t be able to get it on myself. She even called the rehab specialist with her concern. His response was to make the thing and then they would figure out how to get in on; he would arrange for help to come in, if necessary. Have someone to come into our home every morning only to put on a brace and shoe? Great, something else to schedule into our busy! What happened to fostering independence so that I can do things myself?

Well, I’ve managed to get the brace on myself, but I need Darrell’s help to get the shoe on. It takes an extra half hour in the mornings. I’m not sure what I’ll do the mornings Darrell is out of the house early. But, I will figure out this challenge too – somehow!

(Saturday morning update: I did it! The trick was a cat toy, a drawstring from a pair of track pants and a half hour. Now I can start my day!)

Today: Thank goodness its Friday because I am out of steam!

Watch for a special announcement early next week! Until then, please vote and have a great weekend!