Do It Myself Blog - Glenda Watson Hyatt

Where the heck does the time go? 2008 is already half over! Canada Day is already here, marking the beginning of the second six months of the year.

I figure it is good time to review my goals for the year and see how I am doing.

My Contribution to the Blogosphere

My goal was to comment on ten blogs per week – five comments on blogs I had previously commented on to further strengthen those relationships, and five comments on new-to-me blogs to expand my network by forming new relationships.

Well, results are less than stellar. Some weeks Friday comes around and I realize I haven’t made any comments! By now, I should be approximately halfway to 520 (or 260) comments; yet, my total is only 89.

However, I am not including the comments I make on Disaboom blogs since they don’t link back to this blog. Besides, reading Yaro Starok’s Blog Profits Blueprint, I’ve learned that blog comments create traffic streams, not traffic rivers. Although, my intention was to contribute to the blogosphere, not to generate traffic – that’s a side benefit of leaving comments.

Am I beating myself up for not meeting my goal? Nope! Those weeks that I can do better, I will try. The world will not end if I don’t reach 520 comments by December 31st.

My Word for the Year

I chose FOCUS as my word for 2008. To me, FOCUS entails minimizing my technologically-induced ADHD, decluttering and simplifying my surroundings, multi-tasking only when appropriate – tasks requiring my full attention will receive it. The results have been mixed.

When my husband had an unexpected two-week hospital stay in March, nothing else mattered. I was focused on what was happening with him and getting him well and home again, as I should be.

My desk remains fairly clutter free. The rest of my office still needs decluttering – like I have had time!

After blogging at Disaboom for five months, I finally found my blogging groove there and have a direction for that blog. That made writing June’s posts much easier because I wasn’t scrounging for post topics. June is the first month I maxed out the number of paying posts I can write for that blog. Can I continue that through July and beyond?

Reading ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett reconfirmed, yet again, that blogging is my future and that I can make a decent income from it – if I focus and work off my bootie! I publicly declared my goal of attending SOBCon 09 – the business school for bloggers – to learn how to become a better and more effective blogger. My ultimate goal is to become the first ever Six-Figure Left Thumb ProBlogger!

Launching Accessibility 100 has provided my blog with some direction and focus.

But, I still suck at curbing my technologically-induced ADHD! I’m easily distracted by email, Twitter or whatever rather than focusing on the task at hand. There is definitely room for improvement. I’ll keep working to maser my high distractibility over the next six months.

My Bucket List

Wow, search engines love my bucket list! Currently, this is the top-ranking entry page on my blog. Go figure!

• Spend more time with my kitty purring in my ear. – I do whenever she decides to cuddle.
• Listen more to my husband’s beating heart. – We’ve talk quite a bit and I try to really listen to him. I also like listening to his heart beat; it’s such a comforting and reassuring sound.
• Write love letters to him. – None yet. Expressing what he means to me is difficult to put into words.
• Find a way to get to the north shore to watch the eagles soar. – I still need that magic carpet ride!
• Meet more of my invisible friends. – Yes! I’ve met Suzie Cheel in Australia and Todd Jordan from Missouri!
• Be in the ‘real’ world more. – Hmm, how should I measure “more”?
• Connect with more of my invisible friends in a real way, if I can’t meet them in person yet. – I’m working on it.
• Become more physically active. – In this heat? Are you kidding!
• Finish selling the first print run of my autobiography. – Autographed copies are still available!
• Continue searching for a cp-friendly bra. – Still searching! (I don’t believe I included this here.)
• See Anne Murray in concert, finally! (I’ve wanted to see her for years and she is finally coming to town on May 5th!) – She was fabulous!
• Get organized for when I do kick the bucket. – It’s a good thing I haven’t kicked the bucket yet!
• Make a positive difference or impact on people’s lives. – I hope I am. You, my readers, are in a better position to say whether I’m succeeding here or not.
• Reconnect with my penpal Paivi and my Brownie friend Karen. – Yes, I’ve managed to find email addresses for both and have contacted them!

That is my six-month progress report. Not bad, eh?

How are you doing with your 2008 goals? Are you still on track or do you need to refocus?

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Last week I had the pleasure of meeting my Twitter buddy @tojosan, aka Todd Jordan, and his wife Sharon from St. Peters, Missouri. They were visiting family in the Seattle area and came across the border “to meet a few friends they had only met online”. (Nothing suspicious there!) It was Sharon’s first time to a foreign country. She was amazed to see so many American chain stores. (I’ll save that topic for another post.)

Meeting an invisible friend face-to-face to the first time always causes me a little apprehension. Will the real me live up to my online personae? Or will my cerebral palsy in person disappoint? But, I soon discovered I had nothing to fear with Todd who, in @conniereece’s words, “is a big ol’ teddy bear of a guy with a huge heart.” I totally agree! Having Darrell there to translate Glenda-ish definitely helped. Although, with more time, I’m sure both Todd and Sharon could master that foreign language!

Hanging out with friends, talking about blogging, social networking and such – what a great way to spend a nearly-summer afternoon (that’s why we’re all wearing sweaters!).

Awhile ago, I told readers to go ahead, ask me anything. Now is a good time to answer Todd’s question, “How are you able to stay so busy with your extensive disability? Is it a matter of not accepting that you are significantly impaired? A high energy spirit? Your uplifting voice is just amazing.”

Thank you for your kind words.

I am often curious to know how people think I should being spending my days, living with my days. Spending my days watching television? Have you seen what is on tv right now? Boring! Or, sitting around, feeling sorry for myself? Double boring.

But, seriously, you ask a good question, Todd. Perhaps it is because of how I was raised: my parents did not allow my disability to be an excuse. They expected me to try and to do my best. Perhaps it’s focusing on the cans rather than on the can’ts. Or, perhaps its because I see opportunities all around and I want to experience as many as of them as I can squeeze in.

The bottom line is to focus on what I do have and what I can do, and to make the most of that and to be content with it. William Wordsworth’s sonnet Nuns Fret Not holds a special place in my heart (see pages 52-53 of I’ll Do It Myself for the full story):

Nuns fret not at their convent’s narrow room;
   And hermits are contented with their cells;
And students with their pensive citadels;
   Maids at the wheel, the weaver at his loom,
Sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom,
   High as the highest Peak of Furness-fells,
Will murmer by the hour in foxglove bells;
   In truth, the prison, unto which we doom
Ourselves, no prison is; and hence for me,
   In sundry moods, ’twas pastime to be bound
Within the Sonnet’s scanty plot of ground;
   Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be)
Who have felt the weight of too much liberty,
   Should find brief solace there, as I have found.

~~ William Wordsworth, 1806

Sharon and Todd, thank you for crossing the border. It was so great meeting you both. I hope we can do that again next time you come north to visit your grandbabies. Todd, I’m looking forward to seeing you again at SOBCon in Chicago next May.

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Two weeks ago I shared how I was collaborating with my Australian friend Suzie Cheel to raise funds for her to come to Vancouver for Michael Losier’s Law of Attraction Certified Facilitators Program.

We met Tuesday evening in downtown Vancouver!

We had met very briefly at BlogWorld in Las Vegas last October, but didn’t get a chance to chat. This time, after logging into Liz Strauss’ Open Mic Night for a few moments, we shared a meal and had time to talk. Suzie enjoyed some local cuisine: a wild salmon burger and an Okanagan pale ale. And she received her first lesson in Glenda-ish. She has potential!

Being in the same time zone, in the same location, face-to-face was great! The internet has opened the world to me. Meeting my invisible friends in person is icing on the cake.

Unfortunately Vancouver’s weather didn’t cooperate this week, presenting Suzie with colder and wetter weather than the winter she had left back home. I’m so relieved she did bring her winter boots after I had said that she didn’t need boots in June! Otherwise the woman would have had popsicles for feet all week!

Thursday evening was the “Applying Law of Attraction To Your LIFE! ” seminar with Michael Losier, author of Law of Attraction: The Science of Attracting More of What You Want and Less of What You Don’t and host of The Law of Attraction Radio Show on XM156 Satellite Radio with Oprah & Friends.

(I really struggled with whether or not to include this photo of me with Michael in this post. It definitely isn’t one of the most flattering photos of me. But, sometimes, my cerebral palsy isn’t pretty. Sometimes it downright sucks and it can be difficult to take a good photo of me at times. I debated whether to omit the photo, to doctor it or to include it as is to show the real me. I’ve strived to be open about my disability here on my blog, so I hope I’ve made the right decision by including it. The exciting point to note about this photo is my book I’ll Do It Myself in Michael’s hand!)

Listening to Michael speak about the Law of Attraction, I was intrigued by how Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking, Wayne Dyer’s Power of Intention, Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth and the Law of Attraction all point to similar underlying concepts yet they use different language and come at it from different perspectives. I think there’s a fascinating Masters thesis in there somewhere, if someone was so inclined.

What intrigued me even more was Michael’s story of his journey with his book: a local guy (he’s in Victoria, BC) who self-published and, eventually, was offered a million-dollar book deal, which he turned down twice before a publisher made an offer that required no changes to his book! For this Left Thumb Blogger who self-published her autobiography, I’m sure my eyes were as big as saucers, listening to his story!

Sitting on the Skytrain on my way home, something hit me: Michael has a radio show on Oprah’s radio station, and, if I understood him correctly during the seminar, he is doing a webcast series, much like Eckhart Tolle did, with Oprah this fall. Holy smokes! My autobiography I’ll Do It Myself is one person away from Oprah!! That realization was a high-water moment!

I celebrated the closeness of the match and I will definitely keep it in my Vibrational Bubble. Next is to allow the Law of Attraction to orchestra events and circumstances to respond to my positive vibrations!

Meanwhile, I am going to revisit how to get a self-published book listed on Amazon, so it’s easily findable should Oprah be looking.

All this came to be because of my hairbrained idea for a worldwide event on Twitter to support Suzie’s Big Hairy Audacious Goal. Watch for what this Hairy Duo cooks up next!

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Blogs create a way for people to share their thoughts, pass on information and connect with others from around the world. Blogs provide countless individuals with a door to the world. However, for many individuals, blogs slam shut that door by creating as much of a barrier as stairs do for wheelchair users in the brick-n-mortar world.

Within the confines of their blogging platform, there are ways bloggers can increase accessibility for people with some kinds of disabilities.

Provide ALT attributes for all images

Images present problems for people with sight impairments using screen readers – software that reads aloud what is displayed on the computer screen. This technology cannot read content presented in an image or graphic format. Also, individuals with older computers or slow Internet connections may surf with image loading turned off and will miss information presented visually.

The simple solution is providing text equivalents for all images and graphics. In HTML, this is the ALT attribute. The code for inserting an image would look like:

<...img src="http://www.xxx.com/logo.jpg" alt="Accessibility 100" />

Individuals not able to see the image would hear or read “Accessibility 100″. They receive equivalent information.

In WordPress (version 2.5.1), when using the “Add an image” feature, filling in the caption field provides the ALT attribute:

Screen shot of the “Add an image” dialogue box

Other blogging platforms will vary in how the ALT attribute is inserted. For bloggers comfortable with HTML, the platform may allow them to insert the attribute manually.

When writing ALT text, consider:

• ALT text must communicate the purpose of a graphic accurately and succinctly.
• the length of ALT in relation to image size (rule of thumb: 150 characters maximum),
• if the image is purely eye candy, in which case the null ALT is appropriate. Without an ALT present, even a null one, an individual using a screen reader would hear “image”.

Not using images is not a solution. Images can increase comprehension and usability for others.

Make hypertext informative

Like sighted individuals, people using screen readers often scan a webpage for hypertext links that may interest them. Links like “click here” or “more” make no sense when read out of context.

To increase the accessibility of your blog, make hypertext links informative when read out of context, whether they are on their own or as part of a sequence of links. Make link text succinct.

For example, instead of:

Listen in on the interview here.

Try:

Listen to the interview.

Instead of:

…running two Group Research projects… (where each hyperlinked word points to a separate link)

Try:

…running the Internet Marketing Group Research Project and the Community Building Group Research Project…

Maximize colour contrast

Blogs entails countless hours of reading. Enhance readability by maximizing contrast between text and background colours.

Consider these suggestions when choosing colour schemes:

• Black on white is the most legible; white on black is reasonably legible; other colours on black are less legible.
• Mixing yellow and black is fairly legible.
• If using red or green text, make it large and bold enough to be legible in yellow.
• Black on red and black on green are not legible, as some people will see them as black on black.
• Combining blue and black is legible enough as long as it is not used for fine detail (e.g., paragraph text).
• Combinations such as red-blue, green-yellow, green-white, green-gray are poor.

Colour blindness and the web will be discussed further in a future Accessibility 100 post.

Provide text transcripts

Audio and video add another dimension to blogs. These mediums benefit individuals with some kinds of disabilities, such as learning disabilities or cognitive impairments, who find reading long pieces of text difficult and laborious.

However, for individuals who are Deaf or hard of hearing and those who don’t understand the speaker’s accent (we all have accents!), this content is inaccessible to them. (Also, audio content is not yet searchable by search engines.)

The solution is to provide a transcript for all audio and captioning for video. Darrell Hyatt does an excellent job of providing transcripts for his podcasts. (Perhaps, in a future podcast, he’ll describe his process for using the voice recognition software Dragon Naturally Speaking for creating the transcripts.)

Avoid CAPTCHAs

Bloggers are inundated with spam comments. CAPTCHAs – Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart – are frequently used to weed out spambot comments from human comments.

However, because CAPTCHAs are typically images of distorted characters, this information is not accessible to screen readers, leaving people who are blind unable to post a comment. As Darrell Shandrow, a screen reader user, said visual CAPTCHAs are “no blind people allowed” signs.

CAPTCHAs do not keep out only people who are blind. With the distortion of characters or extraneous markings, people with learning disabilities, particularly dyslexia, can have difficulty deciphering what the actual characters are. Likewise, with poor colour contrast, those individuals with colour blindness or low vision can also have difficulty getting past the CAPTCHA step.

One solution is to a combination of visual and audio CAPTCHAs. But, then people who are deaf-blind are excluded.

Read CAPTCHA: The FAQs for more about the accessibility issues.

Avoid using CAPTCHAs, where possible, to moderate blog comments. Instead, use Askimet or other spam filters to control that unwanted spam. Make it as easy as possible to participate in your blog’s community.

Additional resources

For more information on web accessibility, check out these resources:

• Simplified Web Accessibility Guide
• Web Accessibility Initiative
• WebAIM: Web Accessibility in Mind
• Web Accessibility Toolbar

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.

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If you have been wondering why I disappeared last week, I can explain!

The Story of how an experiment was born and how it will make a difference in the world goes something like this….

Suzie Cheel had set herself a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) and was on Open Mic Night over at Liz Strauss’s Successful Blog on Tuesday, May 20th. The topic was Great Turning Points. Being herself at a great turning point in her life, Suzie readily joined in.

Glenda: Hey Suzie, how goes your BHAG?
Suzie: BHAG - still a bit scary - launched my studio online today with a sale.
Would love if I could get all of you to help me promote this - I am giving prizes etc starting tomorrow, onmy Abundance Highway site, to people who promote me and my BHAG. Some will be LOA (Law of Attraction) stuff! I also plan to have tele-classes and a program to help bloggers use LOA to take your blogging to be really profitable, etc.
Liz asked Suzie: Tell us what BHAG stands for.
Suzie: As far as I can work out, the term scrawled on a million whiteboards by corporate trainers, Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs), was coined - or at least first publicized - by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras in their now modern business classic, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.
Glenda: What do you need, Suzie? Hey, could we do a tweet-a-thon or something, assuming the bird stays awake?
Suzie: Great.
Glenda: Suzie, thinking out loud, if we put together a team of core tweeters in different time zones and we each tweet for an hour or so to send your message around the world. What do you think?? I’ve wanted to try something like for a while. Perhaps some would blog about the experiment too. Yes? No?
Liz: Suzie, I think the world-wide tweet might be an idea.
Liz Williams then said she would tweet too.
Glenda: Suzie, should we try it? I can help mobilize/organize Team World after Friday. Then we set one day to tweet. What do you think?

So the idea was born.

Suzie later added:

“When I set first gave myself this BHAG I planned that my Attraction plan would continue on to attract $$$$ for The China Library Project. This is for schools and kids in China who have no books and my friend Lonnie Hodge is passionate about doing something to remedy the situation. Did you know that for $1,000 we can equip a primary school in China with its own library?”

That is where I have been for the past week: planning the Team World Tweet-a-thon, a worldwide event on Twitter, to help Suzie attract the necessary resources to come to Vancouver next week! If you use Twitter, please join Team World and be the Law of Attraction in action!

The Accessibility 100 series will resume shortly.

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Left Thumb Blogger Begins Her Journey to Six-Figure Blogging

A couple of weeks ago I pre-ordered ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett. The very next day I received a Twitter message from Chris that I had won copy of their book. Wow! I didn’t know I had even entered a contest. Is that a message from the universe or what?! (I will be giving away one copy at a later date.)

Reading Darren’s story about how he went from a hobby blogger to a six-figure problogger in three years gave me goosebumps!

I yet again laughed at what an employment counselor once told me: Blogging is a passing fad. Well, perhaps it is a fad, but, until it fully passes, I know I can create an income from blogging. It may not be a six-figure income; I’d be quite content with a decent five-figure income.

With blogging as an income source, it erases all of the barriers I, a person with a physical disability, faced when searching for a job. With blogging, my typing speed and inability to answer phones – requirements for many jobs I applied for – don’t matter. With blogging, I don’t need to deal will transportation or the accessibility (lack thereof) of the workplace. I can work from the comforts of home, on my own schedule, doing what I love to do: writing and connecting with people from around the world. With blogging, technology has finally caught up to me and given me something else I can do, and with stories like Darren’s and Chris’s, I now have a goal to strive for.

I dove into ProBlogger, skimming the first few chapters that introduced blogging and explained how to set one up. Then came the good parts: blog writing, earning strategies, promotion and marketing. The ideas began flowing – not a book to read before falling asleep! A notebook on hand while reading is a must.

Both Darren and Chris point out, several times throughout the book, that problogging is not a get-rich-fast scheme; that it takes consistent hard work, countless late nights, some trial and error, and a bit of luck. None of which is new to me.

To go as far as I can with blogging, I need to learn, to absorb, as much as I can about the medium, the technology, the community-building, and the promotion strategies. Much of these can be learned online and from the still few books on blogging. But, there comes a point when nothing beats being in an actual room full of bloggers, exchanging ideas, strategies and lessons learned face-to-face.

The ultimate event for such experience is SOBCon – a conference for Successful and Outstanding Bloggers, founded by blogger extraordinaire Liz Strauss and held in Chicago in May. Touted as Biz School for Bloggers, attendees are guaranteed to leave with a Business Action Plan that can be immediately executed for measurable success. A plan for becoming a better and more effective blogger sounds good to me!

Unfortunately, SOBcon wasn’t in the budget this year. However, SOBCon09 definitely can be! A year to raise $2000+ – that is definitely doable! This is where I would like to request your support. I am not asking for charity. That isn’t my style. What I am asking for is, if you enjoy the posts on this blog, if you find value in what you read here, please consider buying me a coffee (link at the bottom of the post ) or a copy of my autobiography I’ll Do It Myself.

Together, we can make this happen. I look forward to meeting many of you in Chicago next May.

Thank you.

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Following a month of sporadic blogging due to my husband’s unexpected hospital stay, I am ready to find my blogging groove again! The problem is I’m running on empty for ideas.

This is where you, my loyal readers, can help. Do you have a burning question you have been wanting to ask me? Now is your chance. Questions may help spark post ideas.

Your question may be about:

• living with a disability
• how to make something accessible
• my book I’ll Do It Myself
• virtual book tours
• whatever else is on your mind

Anything.

Go ahead, ask me!

I’d love to hear from you!