Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

My holiday video message to my readers, friends and fans:

For those preferring the text version:

Hi readers, friends and fans,

Thank you for a most awesome year!

I would like to wish you a Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

All of the best to you and your family in the New Year!

For the past two years I have followed Christine Kane’s lead in choosing one word to guide me through the year. Focus was my word for 2008. What I discovered about finding focus was interesting and quite helpful.

Frustrated with needing to manage several lines of communications – emails, tweets Facebook comments and the like – my word for 2009 was streamline.

In 2009 I intended
To email, DM and PM
My people, peeps and tweeps
For wazoodles, widgets and gidgets
To follow, connect and friend
Friends, readers, robots too!

I did not find a way
I am sad to say
To mash together
Facebook, Linkedln, Flickr,
YouTube, Viddler, and Twitter.

I did not find a way
To be the best connector,
Inter-actor and communicator
With one left thumb.

“The reason?” you ask.
I was too busy
Emailing, tweeting, commenting,
Following, too,
To find a better way.
Streamline in 2009, I did not.

But, all is not lost.
There’s still hope
For a new year begins soon
And I’m giving myself a redo!

A do-over to try again
To mash together
All these messages,
To be the best connector,
Inter-actor and communicator
With one left thumb.

Will you help me
Streamline in 2010?
Would you leave your
Thoughts, ideas and tips
On wazoodles, widgets and gidgets
To follow, connect and friend
Friends, readers, robots too,
In the comment box below, please?
I thank you,
My friends, my readers,
My followers, too!

‘Tis the season for thoughtfully considering each loved one on your gift list. But panic seems to creeps in when that special woman on your list has a disability. What would be suitable? What could she use or enjoy, given her disability or limitations?

Any thoughtful gift comes down to knowing your recipient: her tastes, interests, passions, hobbies, favourite colours and the like. As a mere starting point, here are seven popular gift ideas with tips to consider if your woman happens to have a disability:

1. Clothes. We all wear them! Depending on the woman’s abilities and mobility, elasticized waists and zippers or Velcro, rather than buttons or snaps, would be greatly appreciated. If indeed needed, adapted clothes, such as from Kutaways, WheelieChix Chix and Easy Does It, may enable greater independence in dressing.
2. Music and iPods. Better yet, an iPod speaker system with a remote – forget fumbling with CDs and jewel cases!
3. Books and magazine subscriptions. For women with print disabilities, consider large print, audio books or electronic books. (My autobiography I’ll Do It Myself is also available in large-print format!)
4. Amazon’s Kindle. This lightweight electronic reading device holds over 1,500 books and saves trying to flip pages. The Read-to-Me feature benefits individuals with print disabilities and those with some types of sight impairments, as does the adjustable font size.
5. Make-up, perfumes and shower gels. Be aware of any allergies or chemical sensitivities. Great tips for adapting a make-up kit.
6. Jewelry. If doing up necklaces and bracelets is difficult, check out these magnetic clasp converters. (I’ve seen these in London Drugs, too!)
7. Looking for something more intimate, more playful, more sexy? Check out these tips on adapting adult toys.

The perfect gift comes down to knowing thy woman and giving from the heart!

What favourite gifts would you add to this list?

Tis the season for crowded stores, bustling customers and ringing cash registers! To better serve and assist your customers with disabilities during this busy shopping season, here are eight simple tips to keep in mind:

1. Keep sidewalks, curbcuts and ramps clear. Even a bit of snow can impede customers using wheelchairs, walkers and crutches.
2. Enforce your store’s disabled parking spaces. When able-bodied customers park in one of these spaces “to run in for only a few minutes”, those spaces are not available to customers who need it in order to enter your business.
3. Minimize extra products and displays in aisles. Cluttered aisles make navigating difficult for customers using wheelchairs, walkers and service dogs.
4. Clean and maintain wheelchair washrooms. An “Out of Order” sign on the only wheelchair stall is definitely cause for panic!
5. Keep paper and pens handy at the cash registers and services counters. These may be useful when communicating with customers who have hearing or speech impairments.
6. Review 10 Tips for Communicating with People with Disabilities.
7. Provide some seating for the weary shopper. Elderly customers and those with invisible health conditions are unable to walk long distances and must take short breaks.
8. Take an extra dose of patience in the morning. A  cheerful smile and extra patience can go a long way in easing stressful situations during this joyous season

Accessibility 100 is a series of 100 easy-to-implement, free and inexpensive tips for improving accessibility for people with disabilities. This is a community project. Feel free to leave your comments, questions and ideas for future Accessibility 100 posts.

Get the entire series by subscribing to this blog by filling in the form in the upper right corner or by subscribing to the RSS feed.

Last year, thanks to you, 100 people in need enjoyed a warm meal on Christmas. Let’s do it again this year!

Announcing…The Best of…The Left Thumb Blogger: Volume II – Readers’ Choice Edition

The Best of…The Left Thumb Blogger: Volume II is a collection of favourite posts selected by Do It By Myself Blog readers. To support  the Union Gospel Mission – the lifeline to basic necessities for thousands of men, women and children – and its hope-giving Christmas Dinner campaign, every ebook purchased before December 21st for only $6.50, $3.29 will buy Christmas dinner for someone in need.

(Some people are reporting problems with the Buy Now button, which I’m trying to figure out. For now, please try the direct link to the post rather than viewing via Facebook or such. If that still doesn’t work, please leave a comment below with any error messages you’re getting or other details. Or, if you know the possible solution, I’m all ears! Thanks!)

If you don’t wish to purchase the ebook, but would like to buy someone in need Christmas dinner, kindly buy me a coffee for $3.29 (using the link below this post) and I’ll add your donation to the total.

Together, let’s feed 100 people Christmas dinner and show them they are still valued members of our community.

Thank you!