I am just back from the best massage of my entire life (and it cost a very respectable $22 this time).
It was such an interesting experience as the masseuse was blind and the entire room was in darkness. I usually close my eyes anyway during a massage but this was such an unusual sensation that I kept looking around for any light.
Ian Lloyd posted a while ago about why people got into accessibility. For me it was something that interested me since I heard about Bruce Maguire suing SOCOG but a particular event in Thailand renewed my passion for accessibility.
I was being incredibly vain and decided to get my eyelashes permed when I was in Bangkok (long story). Eyelash perming in Bangkok involves getting your eyelashes wrapped around curlers, then someone squirting perming solution into your eyeballs and then leaving you alone for 40 minutes. My eyes started burning after a minute and I spent the next 30 minutes alone with my thoughts and the knowledge that I was going blind.
My first thought was “I can’t read books anymore”. My second thought was “Oh.My.God. I’m going to have to use accessible websites”. That really made me panic as I know the state of accessible websites out there and there aren’t that many good ones. I spent the next 30 minutes promising myself that if I got out of this situation with my eyesight I was going to do everything I could to make the web a more accessible place.
Needless to say I got out of there with my eyesight, and some very curly and beautiful eyelashes.
I really cherish experiences like the blind masseuse today as it’s something that really reminds me that the web is for everyone, not just the lucky ones who have their sight.*
*note: ok saying that I seriously doubt the blind masseuse has ever used the internet in her life, but that’s not the point of the story.
This post is tagged under: accessibility
