LSW-WebDesign

Part 2 - Illness & Accident

Another form is shall we say Accidental. Another is per injury or Illness… but not occurring as part of your normal development. This can be more devastating. I have worked for years under my problems without knowing I had any. As they developed so did I, developing ways to deal with them. But the accidental form just hits you one day and tips your world upside down. You think your target group is healthy and has no disabilities? Wrong, accidents and illnesses happen across age groups, gender, culture, ethnic barriers, and religions.

I have asked and been given permission to speak about Shelley. Shelley is a young woman, mother, wife, and quite a successful freelance web designer. That is until recently. She got ill and now has complications resulting in cognitive difficulties. I will use as much of her own words here as I can. I have edited some parts out as being just technical info on the disease or not pertaining to Web use per say which this article focuses on. It is not about “The disease”, it is about the way “A disease” has changed her use of the web and her need for accessible web sites.

“I have Lyme Disease. I tested positive twice with Canadian testing (which is rare), and I am waiting on co-infection results. Some will know what this means… Some will not. Those who know about it might or might not know what it means when I say I am in Stage 3 and I likely have Neuroborreliosis which is when the disease passes the blood brain barrier. There are a number of things that indicate this including memory issues, cognitive issues, central nervous system issues, mobility issues, motor skill problems and the one I am loving the most this week (a newer development) Bell’s Palsy (minor but I’m admittedly a bit vain so I am praying this one fixes up more and I am thanking the stars I am only around a II on the HB scale).

Even a year ago I could still partake in my love of website design, and coding for hours on end but even that became too much. This isn’t to say I can not work on sites, and maintain sites. I just can no longer put a site out in 24 hours (as someone here once joked with me - ok… yes… I know it was true). Now I am like most and take at least a week, more complicated sites obviously take longer… Some will get this, and what this means about me and some won’t. Basically it takes me 1-8 times as long to do something which is hard to accept.”

Her symptoms as she spelled them out for me:

My symptoms include (but are not limited to):

• Fatigue - Sometimes the fatigue is relatively mild, allowing me to continue working, perhaps in a diminished capacity. Sometimes, however, the symptoms may be quite severe, such that I have been bedridden due to intractable fatigue for 1-4 days at a time.
  [Note: This can effect how well she can concentrate or even “enjoy” surfing, complicated dry technical articles of length will likely be avoided.]
• Memory problems - Memory problems, too, can be mild or quite severe. I have days where I am “ON” and days where I have a serious case of CRS (Can’t Remember S***!).
  [Note: Possible examples here and she mentions this further down, is not remembering what was just read, why you went to the site or page, what info you want or even where you are in the site and what pages you already visited.]
• Photophobia - idiosyncratic responses to particular kinds of light and often am in a very dark home as I pull all the shades. Which of course has my hubby wondering if I am part vampire?
  [Note: here the possibility is that movement from GIFS or Flash or extreme changes between dark and light could be problematic.]
• Panic-attacks -  that seemed to be triggered by sound or light stimulation-especially bright lights that flicker, such as fluorescent lights, headlights of cars moving in the opposite line of traffic - I am ok overall but I must take my glasses off at night when I am driving (which is fine because I see exponentially better at night but I can’t see anything at twilight so I wait that one out).
  [Note: Again potentially over use of flickering Flash could cause a panic attack making further use of your site impossible for the time being if not permanently avoided.]
• Sound sensitivity - hypersensitivity to and/or idiosyncratic responses to sound stimulation - ordinary conversation can be deafening, any sudden sound, like the phone ringing, and certain household sounds, like the running of tap water makes me shake, get flustered and lose all thought lines.
  [Note: Potential issues with use of Music on a web site that may be to loud or hectic to what she may be using. The sudden flash of unexpected sound on loading the page could cause reactions that end her visit to our site or her surfing for the day and most likely she would not return to the site.]
• Increased irritability (extreme) - Sudden, intense irritability is most often triggered by sensory stimulation brought on by my sensitivities to sound, touch or light but may also occur unprovoked and seemingly inexplicably.
  [Note: Any of the above mentioned notes could cause this and ruin her day as well as that of her family.]
• Emotional lability - unprovoked laughter, crying, smiling… and not always situationally appropriate.
  [Note: I considered dropping this one than decided against it. My daughter has emotional issues and she often cries not just at the sad parts of shows, but happy ones to. A web site with sad images, like those often used by animal rights groups are extreme examples of web sites that can cause an issue. However this is not really an issue you can do anything about on your web site.]
• Word Reversals When Speaking and/or Letter Reversals When Writing - I have a history of dyscalculia and dyslexic complications - but I should note that these did not really crop up until I was 9-10-ish and I remember clearly not having problems reading and writing certain simple things as a child. I remember practicing handwriting my name at one house and I haven’t lived there since I was 5-6 years old but by the time I was 11 my printing was atrocious, and I was having a lot of issues.
  - Patients with no prior history of dyslexia have found themselves writing letters backwards, reversing numbers or routinely reversing the first and second letters of a word.
  [Note: This is more an issue with her job. However to closely packed text can cause her to place words in wrong orders or letters from close words into the wrong word making the content hard to understand. Be aware of it, but not something you can do much about except consider letter spacing more than you might now.]
• Spatial Disorientation - lost in ones own neighborhood, on the way to someplace you know? Or… someone repeatedly bumping into things on the left side of their body, dropping things from their left hand despite having no weakness in that hand and occasionally placing objects, such as a milk carton, several inches short of a table edge with the result that they would fall to the floor. - This happens to me all the time!
  [Note: Again border line… but it could be an issue for the user when trying to click on small hot spots for buttons or text; they may repeatedly miss it and get frustrated. Or choose to use Keyboard navigation rather than a mouse. Be sure to have plenty of room in hotspots for the user to click on.]
• One I have not pegged but is partly a number of these things - I get “lost” part way through a page. I have to read, re-read, and go back to a previous page/post to figure out what I was reading if anyone goes on a tangent or even if they don’t.
  [Note: Mentioned above.]

“Fluctuations in Symptoms -This can be one of the most frustrating and perplexing aspects of the illness. A patient with late-stage Lyme disease might feel totally drained one day, the next day be able to function almost normally and the day after experience such mental confusion as to be unable to focus on even the simplest of tasks.”
[Note: Like following web site navigation.]

“Once a person reaches a certain level of pain they start to have impaired judgment, thinking, reasoning, and potential minor personality changes.”

So basically if you put it all together it all makes computer usage more frustrating. God forbid someplace has a flashing animation that moves quickly or is too bright. Outside of the taste and smell sensitivities I get lambasted by the world around me and being on the Internet is no different. Even the forums can be daunting because I have to re-read something over and over and over.”

So you see accessibility goes beyond “Target groups” because accidents and illnesses happen. Anyone any age can be bitten by a tick and develop Lyme Disease. To make my point, even JAN ( the Job Accommodation Network) lists Lyme disease in its own category for workplace accommodation.

[The original post can be found at http://www.killersites.com/mvnforum/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=13267]

Read Part 1: Naturally occurring

Read Part 3: Language Barriers