Do It Myself Blog - Glenda Watson Hyatt

In today’s guest post, Damien Patton shares a speech he recently gave at a college explaining why his company has chosen to embrace and push accessibility standards on the web:

Hello Everyone,

I’m Damien Patton, founder and CEO of FindAnyFloor.com, the Web’s Flooring Authority. I am often asked why I created an information portal for the floor covering industry. My answer usually surprises everyone as it is not what people expect.

Last year, in the summer of 2007 I was lying in bed searching the internet for ideas for my next venture. For whatever reason I came upon WebMD.com. Those of you not familiar with WebMD, it is a FREE medical resource for consumers and physicians alike. Coming from both a high tech and floor covering industry background, it immediately dawned on me, Where is the WebMD of Flooring. I spent the next couple of months searching the internet with a team of professionals to discover what type of floor covering information was on the internet and how it was presented to consumers as well as floor industry professionals. It soon became clear that there was a large void of unbiased, free information, on the internet for flooring consumers and professionals in one central place. In order to find a lot of information, you have to go through dozens of sites and most of the time the sites contradict one another.

The idea for FindAnyFloor.com was born.

Although the above was the catalyst for the idea, it is certainly not what propelled us to who we are today, and this is where we surprise a lot of people. While researching this site I met a woman at a high tech trade show who was disabled through complications during birth, resulting in mobility and speech disabilities. She just so happened to be selling a book that she had written called “I’ll Do It Myself.” Not only did I buy the book, I went down stairs in the convention center and read it in one sitting. I may have missed a few of the trade show classes, but the book gave me one of the most valuable educations I ever received. I, like many people, had no idea the limitations the internet has with regard to people with disabilities. Those of us that are not disabled may take for granted that we are able to search most sites without issue, and at our own pace. Can you imagine if buildings no longer had handicapped facilities such as restrooms, ramps, elevators, & hand rails? I couldn’t either. But this is exactly what most of the internet is like for those with certain types of disabilities.

Imagine a world where you can’t read what’s on the web, you can’t hear the sounds from video files, you can’t navigate through menu’s to other parts of the site; you have just experienced what the majority of websites operate like to those with visual, hearing and mobility disabilities.

The US Government has a standard for their websites that they must be accessible to everyone. This standard is called 508. Although this standard doesn’t apply to non-government related commercial websites on the internet today, I feel strongly that more has to be done to make the internet accessible to all. This is why FindAnyFloor.com is committed to becoming 508 compliant by the end of 2008. It is our goal that others in the online flooring community will take note of the 60 million people in America alone that have some type of disability that may affect the way they use the internet.

From the floor covering industry we are planning to launch a large green living website that incorporates all types of eco friendly building materials as well as items used in everyday life. Our mission will be to create to the largest green site for consumers that will be accessible to all, again hoping that others in that industry will follow suit. It would be great if the concept of creating accessible websites became viral. In the next 5 five years, let’s hope we are looking at a whole new internet, one that is created for everyone and is accessible to everyone.

Glenda’s note: I love when people get the need for web accessibility! If things go according to plan, I will be meeting Damien and some of his team at BlogWorld today. And I’m looking forward to working with him to ensure FindAnyFloors.com and other projects are Section 508 compliant. (See, the trip to Vegas was a business trip!)

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Nineteen months after releasing my autobiography I’ll Do It Myself, I am excited to announce the release of the book trailer!

Yes, I realize the order is somewhat backwards. But, I did not know book trailers even existed until after launching my book. And then there was the process of learning what exactly a book trailer is – similar to movie trailer to create hype for a new movie – and then figuring how to create one.

In the end and with some tips from my wonderfully supportive husband Darrell, I used Camtasia Studios, largely because of its relatively easy of adding captioning – a must for any video! Using my text-to-speech program TextAloud and the voice of Kate, I created the voiceover. The text was then used for the captions. And, I added I brief clip from John Denver’s Sweet Surrender.

I find it amazing that the technology exists to enable me to create such a project, even though it isn’t quite Hollywood style.

So…without further ado…

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With Canada Day and the Fourth of July around the corner, and my tenth wedding anniversary a mere six weeks away (yikes, where do the years go!), celebrations are on my mind. Not all celebrations can be marked with fireworks, marching bands and diamonds. Some occasions require conscious effort to not let slip by without duly savoring.

One such occasion was the arrival of the boxes of my book I’ll Do It Myself. After thirty years of dreaming, thinking, and preparing to write a book, and after four years of writing, revising, editing and much procrastinating, the day the boxes arrived and I held my book in my hands for the first time was what I can only imagine is similar to giving birth. The sight brought tears to my eyes. In that moment, my dream became reality. I had accomplished it! I had written and self-published my autobiography — and I had 500 copies to prove it.

Because I chose to self-publish and, hence, didn’t have a large publishing house to fund an official launch, and because it was December and lugging precious books in the rain wasn’t appealing, I did not know if an official book launch was in the near future. Yet, I felt the moment deserved to be savored, to be recognized, to be celebrated.

An impromptu Book Arrival Celebration was planned for a Sunday evening, in our home. I intentionally did not call it a “book launch” as that would have precluded me from having a launch at a later time, at another location. After all that work with my left thumb, I was all for celebrating as many times as I could get away with! (That reminds me, the official book launch is still waiting to happen…)

After an evening of sharing good food – thanks my friend’s sister who catered a large company Christmas party the night before and saved the leftovers for us – and good wine with good friends, I felt totally contented, reflecting upon the fact that I was now a published author. Although, that did take some time to fully sink in!

However, it doesn’t take writing a book to have a reason to celebrate.

Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living!
~ Amanda Bradley

What do you celebrate? Do you need a reason or an excuse to have celebration?

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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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Nancy Cleary of Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, Inc. did an awesome job in creating the cover for my autobiography I’ll Do It Myself. I was amazed and emotional when she emailed the mock-up! The cover captures so many aspects of my life.

Since the book has been out for over a year already (where does the time go?), I figured it is time I share the story behind each photo included on the cover.

While in Kindergarten, each time I walked down the hall for occupational therapy, I was allowed to choose an artificial flower from a large cardboard box to fasten to my walker. Once my walker was covered in flowers, they were removed and I began again. Adults will use almost anything to bribe kids!

I loved the Brownie Smile Song:

I’ve got something in my pocket that belongs upon my face,
I keep it very close to me in a most convenient place

I’m sure you couldn’t guess it if you guessed a long, long while.
So I’ll take it out and put it on - it’s a great big Brownie Smile!

Excerpt from I’ll Do It Myself:

Being atop a horse, I could separate myself from my wheelchair, which, although it enables me mobility, it symbolizes my disability. People instantly know I have a disability when seeing me in my wheelchair, and they approach (or avoid) me based on the stereotypes, assumptions and misconceptions they have about people with disabilities. On the horse, at first glance they do not see my cp in all its jerky, gross, misunderstood ways. For that brief moment, until they take a closer look or interact with me, my disability does not exist. They simply see me. That is the sense of freedom I feel atop of the horse.

On this day I won the gold medal at the BC Summer Games!

After seven long years at Simon Fraser University atop Burnaby Mountain, I earned my Bachelor of Arts degree, with a major in psychology and a minor in communications!

Our wedding day! Need I say more?

Kayaking for the first time! My brother-in-law Todd did most of the padding and kept us fair close to shore, just in case. That was an awesome day!

So many people have asked me who is the cute dog on my bookcover That is Hailey, my sister-in-law Daphne’s rat terrier puppy – a real sweetie! (Daphne is a sweetie too!)

Ain’t life grand!

This Friday, Robbie Burns Day, I’m kicking off my British virtual book tour in Edinburgh - thanks Joanna! As I write this, I don’t have any other dates booked. If you’re a British blogger and would like to host an appearance, let me know. I’d love to tour Britain for several days!

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I became aware of Twitter, yet another social networking tool, early last year. At that time, I resisted the temptation to answer “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less. I had decided it was the time in my life when it’s now or never to become financially sufficient. The last thing I needed was yet another distraction to exacerbate my technologically-induced ADHD when I really needed to focus my energy and attention. But, at one of Liz Strass’ indescribable Open Mic Nights last summer, my friend Susan Reynolds enticed me to drink the juice and I became a tweeter.

Initially, my opinion was confirmed: Twitter was instant messaging on speed. It was like being in a room full of people talking and overhearing bits of conversations. Some bits are useful, others are interesting, some are downright bizarre, and, occasionally, a bit is directed at you, drawing you further into that particular conversation momentarily. It was intriguing and addictive, but I didn’t see the value of all this tweeting. Several times I thought of leaving, but being one not to leave a party early, I hung around to see what would happen next.

Slowly, a few more tweeters began following me and I followed a few more, which is a good thing. When I would tweet about my latest blog post, a few fellow tweeters would pop over to read it and leave a comment. And tweeting from a BlogWorld session was kinda cool. I finally felt part of the in crowd. I began getting to know people beyond their avatars and handles.

Twitter limits tweets (messages) to 140 characters, which is such a great equalizer for me because I’m not expected to give lengthy responses; the system doesn’t allow it. So, I can pretty much keep up with my left thumb. And, it is in my medium: the typed word. Perfect for me!

In early December, Susan Reynolds discovered she had breast cancer, and openly shared in her tweets and new blog Boobs on Ice her journey from diagnosis to biopsy to surgery. She shared how a bag of frozen peas was more soothing on her battered chest than a brick-like ice pack.

Overnight green peas began appearing in tweeters’ avatars in support of Susan. It was then that I began noticing something – and I’m not sure if it was because Twitter was growing and reaching its potential more fully or if it was because I finally saw it: Twitter had morphed from IM on speed to a supportive community right before my eyes.
More and more tweeters creatively added peas to their avatars and words like please were spelled as PEAS. A Frozen Pea Fund was then launched to raise money for cancer research. As we don our peattire for the third Frozen Pea Friday, the fund has already reached more than $7,000 and continues to steadily grow.

Like with any community, the Twitter community’s strength is based on the contribution of each member. In return for the support that I received during my Blog for a Year campaign, I would like to support the community’s fundraising efforts. With each I’ll Do It Myself: Ebook Edition purchased between now and Friday, January 11th, at midnight (pacific time), I will donate $5 - the cost of two bags of frozen peas – to the Frozen Pea Fund for cancer research
Grab a good read and some good will be done. Thanks.

Twitter, I will be around for a while yet to participate in this vibrant, supportive community.

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Hi and welcome to the Readers’ Café – a place to gather and to share. Today I invite you into my home for a special, extended Readers’ Café so that readers in far away lands may join us.

Today we celebrate a birthday of sorts: my baby, my book I’ll Do It Myself is one year old. Exactly one year ago today, my thirty years of dreaming, planning researching and writing became reality when seven boxes of books were delivered. Opening that first box and laying my eyes and hands upon what I had created, I can only imagine that is what giving birth is like.

This past year’s journey with the book has been awesome! Copies have been mailed to readers across Canada and the United States, and to Britain, New Zealand, Australia and even Chile! Copies are also available from Celebration Christian Store and Black Bond Books, another childhood dream come true. Meeting people along the way on two successful virtual book tours, plus two book signings in Las Vegas – I am truly amazed and am sincerely grateful. Thank you.

Please help yourself to food and a beverage of your choice and make yourself comfortable. Then sit back, relax and join in the conversation by posting comments below. Feel free to ask questions about I’ll Do It Myself, share your favourite passage or to mingle with fellow readers. Don’t be shy. Hit your internet browser’s REFRESH button to see new comments as others join in the conversation.

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City lights, bright lights of Las Vegas - the City of Excess

Wow, what an amazing trip! Las Vegas is indescribable. Everything is humongus, bright, with bells ringing and lights flashing all of the time, and people everywhere. Yet, I felt relatively safe. But, man, the food is salty (and expensive – or, at least, every place we ate was)! I need to detox on Dr. Oz’s green drink for a week!

Even though the flight from Vancouver to Las Vegas was not quite three hours, we were twelve hours getting from home to our hotel. Traveling to a new place, when I don’t know exactly where to go or what to expect around the next corner is somewhat disconcerting and very exhausting. I confess our first night in the city that never sleeps was not a late night!

BlogWorld 07 in Las Vegas

We were up early, again, on Wednesday to take the monorail from our hotel, the Imperial Palace, to the Las Vegas Convention Center, which dwarfs our Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre! I really liked the monorail; I felt much safer than I do on our Skytrain transit system.

The Left Thumb Blogger at work. Serious stuff!

On Wednesday, b5 media put on a bonus day before BlogWorld officially started on Thursday. The sessions were informative and I was glad I had taken my laptop with my brand new full-size roll up keyboard. Many people were blogging while listening to the sessions. I was lucky to keep up with taking notes and manage the occasional tweet. That is why there hasn’t been a new post until today. I figured I went to BlogWorld to learn and to meet real people, not to spend hours at my keyboard!

Thursday at noon, I held my first ever book signing. I had the honour of sharing the table with thee Andy Wibbels, author of Go Blog Wild! His book story is amazing and was one of the things that kept me going while writing I’ll Do It Myself: A publisher happened across his blog, liked what she read and offered Andy a book deal on the spot! Go Blog Wild is now in its third printing and was just released in Poland. That is a writer’s wildest fantasy!

Being serenaded by the King!

I couldn’t go Vegas without one Elvis sighting at the Hilton! Because I was still being weaned off of Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers at the time of his death, I hadn’t experienced the Elvis craze while he was alive, although I have enjoyed his music and movies. Being at the Hilton where he had performed 800+ shows over eight years, I felt a connection to rock n roll history.

Since I missed the Elvis era by a few decades, to me, the ultimate Vegas experience would be to see Barry Manilow in concert. I’m not sure I can explain why; it just is. Perhaps its because I feel his passion for what he does coming through his music: “I am music and I write the songs/I write the songs that make the whole world sing/I write the songs of love and special things….” What an awesome life’s purpose! And to be able to live it – that is why I admire him.

Well, since the Hilton was next door to the Convention Centre and since Barry happened to be performing last week (information I happened across before leaving home!), we decided to see if wheelchair seating was still available and how much. Considering one of my life’s goals to live without regrets, Darrell purchased two tickets.

Sitting there in row 19 in a relatively intimate venue in Vegas (I’m not sure if it’s the same venue Elvis performed in), waiting for Barry Manilow to appear, knowing that this was an once in a lifetime opportunity, I found it difficult not to get a little teary. This year has been amazing for me! I’m so thankful I’m here, able to have all of these experiences.

In the photo, the guy in the yellow jacket is Barry Manilow! Honest. (I will soon have the credit card bill to prove it!) He gave a passion-filled performance. I was a little sad when it was over.

Big hugs from Wendy Piersall

In addition to seeing Barry Manilow so close up and personal, the other awesome highlight of the trip was meeting some of my imaginary friends in person, some of which had hosted appearances on my first virtual book tour; to hug and hear the people behind the two-dimensional photos and written words. Wendy Piersall came running when she spotted me.

Hanging out with fellow SOB Liz Strauss! What else do I need to say?

This photo with Chris Brogan is my favourite from the trip. He has a signature pose where he scowls at the other person. Apparently no one has ever scowled back, until this red-head came along! Rather than scowling at one another, we ended up laughing together. Thanks for the laugh, Chris.

Meeting Des Welsh all the way from Australia, after communicating since my Ryze days, was another special moment.

Attending BlogWorld validated for me that blogging is, indeed, real, is an industry, is a profession, and is where I belong. I did not feel alone in the least like I have at other conferences. I now know for sure that I can make a living doing what I love: writing and connecting with people from around the world.

A big thank you to Rick Calvert for his vision for BlogWorld. See you in Vegas next September 18-19th for the second annual BlogWorld!

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While at the BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas next week, I’ll be signing copies of my autobiography I’ll Do It Myself in which I intimately share living with cerebral palsy to show others that cp is not a death sentence, but rather a life sentence:

Thursday, November 8th
Outside of the Exhibitors Hall
12-1pm

and

Friday, November 9th
Blogger & Podcaster Magazine booth #315 in the Exhibitors Hall
12-1pm

Come on by! I am really looking forward to meeting many of my imaginary friends and colleagues!

If, perchance, we do not meet up, copies of I’ll Do It Myself will also be available at the Expo bookstore.

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Thank you for your continued support for the Blog for a Year contest.. We broke the 7000 vote mark today! Please keep the votes coming in. One brilliant idea is to make the voting page your homepage to remind yourself to vote daily.

Have a great weekend!

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Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. — Thomas Edison

When I was a young girl with the occasional bit of pocket money, I bought books such as Black Beauty and Alice in Wonderland at a small independent bookstore Black Bond Books. I dreamt that one day my book would be on those bookshelves too.

Last year, while I was still writing the manuscript for I’ll Do It Myself, I emailed Black Bond Books and asked if they accepted self-published books. (In hindsight, that was probably not the best way to ask the question.) The response was they typically don’t accept self-published works. Disappointed but not surprised because I was learning the self-published book was the illegitimate child of the publishing industry, I continued writing and proceeded with my plan to self publish my autobiography.

More recently and with encouragement from the Surrey Writers Group, I asked again if Black Bond would consider my book. This time I focused on the book’s message rather than on how it was published. After a delay of a few months and a gentle reminder from me, the response was positive! It was another “fall on my knees” moment along this book writing and self-publishing journey.

Yesterday I dropped off ten copies, which they are taking on consignment and will evaluate in sixty days. I’ll Do It Myself will be in local stores in time for Christmas! Please let Black Bond know they made a good choice!

Some times a “No” is not the final answer. “No” doesn’t necessarily mean failure. Some times you need to ask again, perhaps in another way or another person or at another time. Being persistent and driven, without being annoying, leads to success!

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