We move on past the half-way point of the semester and I remain cautiously optimistic for the rest of the semester. I have a good grasp in this class, I know what I’m going to be doing for my final digital project. A podcast episode introducing the ‘Sengoku Jidai’ my favorite period of Japanese history, a short episode, as I’ll aim for around 25-30 minutes and have it serve as an introductory episode for a longer series. That shouldn’t be too hard in itself, and my other classes are coming along well, so I seem to be in a good spot, which combined with this weeks readings helped me realize how lucky I am to live the life I live, as a samurai obsessed history nerd.
When I first watched this weeks demo on screen reader, I was shocked to realize that it was something I never heard of before. To me, watching it, it seems like it would be something a bit inconvenient given the voice that it reads texts out in and the work you need to do on the keyboard instead of simply scrolling down and reading yourself. However, looking at it in a broader sense it seems like invaluable technology that would allow people with certain disabilities to access the internet. One of the most constant things that have been discussed in class throughout the semester has been how we can make digital tech more available to a wide group of people. However, I can’t recall us having much discussion about people with disabilities. How do we compensate for people who may not be physically able to even use a computer.
I believe that most people think of computers and current digital tech as being easily accessible to most people. However, as the readings have pointed out that truly isn’t the case. It reminds me of the real world problem of being more inclusive and considerate to people with disabilities and being able have access to the same tools we have. There isn’t a one stop solution and will require a lot of work and slowly implemented steps to come up with effective solutions for everyone.
We’re more then halfway through the semester, and after the craziness of the first few weeks, I’ve finally settled and feel on my way to the end. All of my classes are set for the Spring, and I can look forward to furthering not only my MA degree but my Digital Humanities Certificate. The light is at the end of the tunnel and it gets brighter by the day.
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