Apple Pay, MasterCard, and Accessibility

Today in my new media class, we discussed Apple’s media event that happened yesterday. There was nothing particularly earth-shattering, mostly just the releases of new iPads and Macs. But there was one thing that was exciting. Apple announced that their new mobile payment service, Apple Pay, will be released to the public on Monday.¶ I have been looking forward to the release of Apple Pay, ever since it was announced at the last media event. Because it will be built in to iOS, it will probably work very well with VoiceOver, the screen-reading software that comes with all Apple products. Maybe there will be bugs in the beginning, but it will improve over time, just as iOS and Mac accessibility have improved over time.¶ Besides the almost guaranteed accessibility, since this process uses the phone, I assume I will be able to get electronic copies of receipts. I used to use Square because of this. I could pay with my phone, and I would get a notification with the receipt. I could unlock my phone and read the receipt fairly easily. If Apple Pay offers an option similar to Square, that will make my life easier.¶ Apple isn’t the only company introducing a new payment method. MasterCard plans to roll out a credit card with a fingerprint sensor, similar to Apple’s Touch ID, that would be used to authorize transactions instead of manually entering a PIN. Click here for more about how this card works. Although this won’t be like Square or Apple Pay—it works like a regular credit card—it is still interesting. I have a Visa card, so I won’t be able to take advantage of this, but I will be able to use Apple Pay.¶ With these new payment methods, if they work the way they should, and if retailers find them worthy of support, I won’t have to deal with something that annoys me: Inaccessible keypads to enter my PIN. There are a few places where I have had to deal with this problem. I swipe my card, and the machine can tell it’s a debit card and asks for my PIN. However, the keypad is a touch screen, with no physical buttons. Thankfully, when these situations have come up, the cashier was able to choose credit instead of debit so that I didn’t have to give her my PIN number, which I don’t feel comfortable doing, not because I don’t trust the cashier, but because I don’t want someone to overhear me giving it to her. Maybe that’s why these touch screen keypads don’t talk? Even so, the companies that make these machines could probably very easily make them at least a little bit accessible and only make this feature available when a headset is plugged into it, like with ATMs. If these new payment methods become very popular and work like they should, that would be a good solution to this problem.

Purple Penguins? Please Tell Me This Is Not True

The title says it all. When I first read the Fox News article about this, I thought it was a joke? This can’t really be the case, can it? After looking at multiple sources, it, unfortunately, seems to be true.¶ I’m talking about the campaign going on in Lincoln, Nebraska, to stop referring to “boys” and “girls” as “boys” and “girls.” Instead, teachers in Lincoln public schools are to refer to students as “purple penguins,” among other supposedly gender-neutral terms. Click here to read a conservative’s viewpoint on this, Or you can click here if you’re interested in looking at the more progressive side of things. I would like to comment on both of these.¶ The conservative Christian viewpoint seems to be that people are created in God’s image, either as men or women, and that a person should embrace the gender of his or her birth. In other words, there are only two genders and that if someone happens to embrace a gender that either does not happen to be one of the two or one that is contrary to the one in which they are born, that implies that God made a mistake.¶ On the other hand, on the more progressive side, there is more acceptance of transgendered people. I have heard about people with transgendered identities in the media, and even though I don’t completely understand it, I don’t have a problem with it. A few years ago, there was an episode of 20/20 that was devoted to discussing transgender issues, particularly concerning children. When I saw how they were treated in school, I didn’t like it. Why, oh why, must people make such a big deal out of something that doesn’t hurt anyone? If a boy wants to be like a girl, or a girl wants to be more like a boy, that’s fine with me.¶ Even though I would consider myself to be more on the progressive side, I do not agree with this campaign. Trying to avoid using gendered terms and making it seem like a thoughtcrime to use gendered terms will not solve the problem of the way people with gender differences are treated. There is a time and place for political correctness, but this is a case where political correctness has gone too far. I would also think that bringing so much attention to this issue would make transgendered students feel more uncomfortable rather than promoting tolerance. At least, I think I would feel that way if I was transgender or had some other gender difference. It just seems like the fine folks of Lincoln are overthinking this.¶ The handouts that were given to teachers were from the Gender Spectrum website. Click on the link above to learn more about Gender Spectrum and its mission. I clicked on the link to Gender Spectrum’s homepage from the Fox News article, and it didn’t seem as PC as the Fox News commentator who wrote the article made it seem. To summarize what I interpreted from it, it seems like they are genuinely trying to promote gender equality. I did not click on the link to information about training. Maybe that’s where the “purple penguin” handouts are located? Chime in in the comments section if you can find it.¶ The solution to this whole problem? I think, if you want to promote tolerance and that all genders are welcome, don’t make such a big deal about avoiding gender-specific terms. If a boy wants to be addressed a s a girl, that isn’t a problem. the same goes for girls who want to be referred to as boys. If they just did that, that wouldn’t be as much of an issue. However, it seems like using gender-neutral terms and avoiding using gender-specific terms will just encourage bullying and intolerance. P.S. On a humorous note, in the article I linked to for the conservative viewpoint on this issue, the author makes the point that calling children “purple penguins” might offend penguins, who are never purple

Babies Should Not be Put in Parentheses

Let me first start by saying that I am Catholic. I know that what I am about to say might offend some people, particularly some of the Catholics I know, but I feel compelled to share my opinion about Amendment 1, which will be up for vote on election day, November 4, here in TN. In case you didn’t know, amendment 1 is an amendment to the state constitution that would allow legislators to regulate abortion. These regulations could either make it extremely difficult to get an abortion or make abortion illegal altogether, even in cases of rape and incest. If you want to know more about the details of what the consequences might be if Amendment 1 passes, click here. Before I get more into why I oppose amendment 1, I want to explain a few things. I understand why the Catholic Church is pro-life. In an ideal world, every baby who comes into the world would be born into a loving family, with parents who genuinely wanted that child. Also, in an ideal world, people would wait until they got married and were in a position where they could take care of a child. While this philosophy will work for some, it might not work for everyone. If the bishops want to defend the pro-life position, you would think that they would support contraception. If life is to be taken so seriously, at least logically, a woman should have the right to take precautions to prevent pregnancy if she doesn’t want to have a child. Besides this, what about rape and incest victims who end up getting pregnant? What about teen moms? What about situations where the life of the baby and the mother-to-be are at risk? What happens to those babies if abortion isn’t at least an option? Adoption would be a possible option for pregnant teenagers, but what about the other two cases? If a woman’s doctor determines that she is at risk of dying if she doesn’t terminate the pregnancy, should she have to settle for death? Personally, I think a woman should have the right to do what she feels is right, whether that be abortion, adoption, or keeping the child. Legislators should not get involved in it to the point where she cannot do what she feels is right, based on her circumstances. When I think of how legislators could get that involved in this issue, a few examples come to mind. Earlier this year, in Texas, a pregnant woman passed out because she had a blood clot in her lungs. When she was taken to the hospital, they put her on life support, and the doctors determined that she would be dependent on life support for the long term because her brain was permanently damaged. The family had to fight with the hospital to take her off life support because her fetus was considered to be viable, and taking her off of life support would have been considered a form of abortion, which was illegal. They eventually were able to take the hospital to court to resolve the issue, and the judge ruled that it was okay to take her off of life support because it was determined that the baby would have been born with a lot of birth defects. Can you imagine being in that position? It’s hard enough to grieve the loss of someone you love. Grieving families should not have to fight so hard just so that their loved ones can rest in peace. This could be a possible scenario if Amendment 1 passes. I just want to go on record that I will not be voting for amendment 1; I will be voting against it. I am not trying to be mean or disrespectful about it; I’m just sharing my opinion on it. I will not stand behind something that will make it impossible for a woman to make the decision that she feels is right for herself and her family, and I will not stand behind something that could potentially put babies in parentheses. I may be pro-choice, but even if I was pro-life, I don’t think I would be okay with this amendment passing and seeing an increase in babies being born to rape and incest victims or teenagers who would have gotten an abortion otherwise. Babies should not be put in parentheses because of decisions made in the legislature. This is just something to think about when deciding whether or not to vote for Amendment 1.

ADA Training and Dealing with Unaccommodating Professors

Earlier this semester, I had a physical science lab professor who was not very accommodating. This professor, Professor W, acted as though he didn’t know he was going to have a blind student in his class. When I walked in on the first day of the lab, he seemed surprised. He said to me, in effect, “You’re going to need a helper,” and told me to go to the Disability and Access Center, which is in charge of such accommodations, to talk to them about having a lab assistant assigned to me. I went to the DAC, but I didn’t do what he suggested. Instead, I told them what happened and asked if there was anything I could do. Why am I telling you all about this? I want to bring awareness to the issue of whether or not professors should be required to be trained in how to accommodate students with disabilities. Thankfully, most of my professors have been very accommodating, and I have not had to deal with this kind of problem, but I guess my luck was going to run out at some point. Now that I know how bad things can get, I feel very strongly about this topic. I think professors should be required to have at least some ADA training. I have talked with the director of the DAC about this, and he agrees with me, but apparently, there are some complications due to the way the state of TN applies ADA laws that keep this from being a requirement. I understand that one professor might teach his class one way, and another professor might teach his class in another way. I don’t have a problem with this. However, there should be an expectation that no matter how the professor is teaching the class that there is at least some way to accommodate students with disabilities. If a lab professor is having everyone do their lab individually, make him aware of the adaptive tech that is available so that the blind can truly participate in the lab. Professor W acted as if he didn’t know how to make this possible for me. The DAC talked with Professor W, and the people who work at the Adaptive Technology Center (ATC) told him about the possible technologies and methods I could use to participate in the lab. The DAC met with the lab coordinator to talk about what went down, and after this meeting, the DAC recommended that I switch to a different lab class with a professor who has had blind students before. After following the procedure to drop the first lab class and add the second, I finally got to meet my new professor, Professor P, for the first time. This was two weeks ago, and dropping Professor W’s class was a good decision. Professor P has everyone get into groups to do the lab experiments, so I get to contribute to what my group is doing. Last week, for example, we did some experiments that involved measuring how long it took to get a certain kind of reaction, and I was able to use my iPhone’s stopwatch to keep track of the time. This didn’t require a lot of fancy, expensive tech that would have taken forever to get to the university. All I needed was my iPhone, and that’s it. Shoutout to Apple for committing to make iOS and OS X accessible! I may not be able to do a lot of things, but I at least have something to contribute to the group. I know I’m not the only one at my university who has had to deal with unaccommodating professors. This is the reason I am writing this post. I am not critical of the DAC because they helped me fairly quickly and in a way that was good for everyone involved. I appreciate the DAC’s commitment to dealing with these problems. However, I feel like we as a group can do something about this, with the help of the DAC. Whenever you encounter a professor who either is not very accommodating or who has a negative attitude toward people with disabilities, staying with them is not okay. If you don’t want to be miserable the entire semester, you should do something. I’m not recommending large scale protests or anything outrageous like that. However, I would suggest that you drop that class as soon as you can and ask the DAC if there is anyone they would recommend who teaches that same class. Educating the professor is the ideal option. My new media professor, who is very accommodating, put her syllabus on D2L, the website my university uses for online components of courses. This wouldn’t have been a problem, except that it was a PDF on the webpage, and VoiceOver, the software that reads everything on the screen, was not reading it correctly. In this instance, all I had to do was tell her what was wrong, and she sent me a text-only copy of the syllabus that I could read. It wasn’t that hard, and there was no drama. However, for professors who aren’t so accommodating or who aren’t willing to listen, educating them can be a problem. I felt humiliated when Professor W told me I needed a helper because of the way he said it. I understood I would need help for the experiments, but I felt like he didn’t think I could do anything. Trying to tell a professor, or anyone else, that you are just like everyone else when you’re offended is very challenging. How can you come across the right way without sounding like a jerk? Whatever you do, if you are ever in that situation, don’t settle for being treated that way. Do what you have to do to get out of that class as soon as you can, and don’t look back. Maybe, if everyone who has had this experience drops the class with the unaccommodating professor in favor of one who is more accommodating, it will send a strong message that this is not okay. I hope that Professor W becomes more aware through this experience, and hopefully, he won’t do this to someone else in the future. That’s all I can hope for.