New Microsoft Edge's best feature: Immersive Reader

For all the things I don't like about the new Edge browser, the Immersive Reader function balances all that out.

What it does: strips out all the web page ads, bells, and whistles, and reformats the article you want to read to look like a page in an ebook reader.

How to get it: It's already built into the Edge browser: once you are on the page of the article you want to read, just press F9, and the page is converted to the Immersive Reader view.
You can also have the article read aloud by a high quality computer voice: just click on the button labelled "Listen to this article"

How to customize Immersive Reader: Read the article
How to use Immersive Reader on Microsoft Edge browser
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-immersive-reader-microsoft-edge-chromium

Invisible Disabilities: What happens when you're disabled but nobody can tell?

Here's the link, but blind readers note I share some invisible disability experiences after the link

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/style/invisible-disabilities.html?smid=fb-share&fbclid=IwAR29dfq2Ib0T-H9EvGzJlVmksLegSNV3bA_hPPVihrpHpJ-6MGmchjaXuBg

Kes: When I was growing up, I had juuuuust enough functional vision in one eye to be able to walk around, and to read with the book literally touching my nose. I didn't use a white cane or think of myself as blind because my family and ophthalmologist didn't want me to "act disabled," so they didn't even tell me how bad my vision was. I just fell down stairs a lot and spent way too much time on the wrong bus (let me tell you, spending time on the bus to Schenectady is time spent in Purgatory) , because I was so insecure, I wouldn't even ask the bus driver which bus it was. As many times as I tried to explain that sitting in the front row of class didn't mean I could see the blackboard any better, adults would just tell me to stop being lazy and try harder (confirming once again my opinion that adults would always choose to believe whatever they wanted to believe, rather than anything that upset their tiny mental apple carts).

So, yes, for the first twenty-something years of my life, my being blind as a bat was pretty much invisible to everyone around me and, to some degree, even to myself. Once I became actually blind *and* stopped worrying about people who didn't want me to "look blind," I had all this energy I used to put into passing and could do so many other things, like go to MIT. Though, when I was doing my undergrad degree at UMass Boston, I still often had the "you don't *look* blind, because you're looking at me" argument quite frequently.

So, goal for the next thirty years: Can we get rid of the "you don't look disabled" prejudice? As the article points out, we are going to have more people who have acquired invisible disabilities as a result of Covid-19, and these are going to include disabilities associated with anxiety, trauma, respiration, the immune system, the heart, and many other physical problems which we aren't even aware of yet.

Be your own best advocate

Lee Huffman, Editor-in-Chief of AccessWorld for the past ten years, has
a great letter
https://www.afb.org/aw/21/7/17108
in AccessWorld's Back to School issue.
https://www.afb.org/aw/21/7
I'm quoting two extended passages because, as both a disability and technology advocate and someone with a degree from MIT, these two pieces of advice are also the guiding principles for almost everything I post here.

1. You need to be your own advocate and, in order to be your best advocate, you need to be informed and prepared.
From Lee Huffman's letter:
For all of the students in our readership, we urge you to take personal responsibility for your education, and be your own advocate. It is very important to prepare in advance, speak to your instructors, and tell those you'll be working with exactly what types of accommodations, both in-person and virtual, will best meet your needs. Your education will have a tremendous impact on every aspect of your life, so it's crucial that you do everything you can to get the most out of your studies.

Acquiring and learning to use the mainstream and access technology that best suits your situation, registering as early as possible for classes, obtaining reading lists, and searching out accessible formats should all be done as soon as you can. You will also want to contact the student services office at your school to find out what types of support or resources may be available to you. Waiting until the last minute is a recipe for disaster. ...

2. Technology is always evolving, and you need to evolve your skills along with it.
From Lee Huffman's letter:
If there is one thread that runs through every issue of AccessWorld, it's that technology is the key. Technology is the empowering force that will allow you to live your best life, whatever that means for you. Technology, in whatever form you prefer, whether it be magnification, speech, refreshable braille, or a combination, can provide you access to information, education, employment, independence, and leisure. It can provide you the latest COVID-19 information, access to a history textbook, the ability to compose a resume and submit it online, summon a ride share car and access audio description on your favorite movie streaming service. In other words, technology offers you access to the world.
I have said it many times before, and I will leave you all with this challenge: stay current with technology. Do not allow yourself to fall into the trap of relying on old or outdated technology. When people do, and are then forced to move up, the learning curve can be daunting. I’ve been there; I know. Stay current and keep looking for the next best thing. Technology is always moving, and you must move with it.

One of the most consistently useful resources I have found for increasing my knowledge of disability and technology is the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) itself
https://www.afb.org/
and they don't just focus on resources and technology for kids: they also have a lot of resources for seniors
https://www.afb.org/research-and-initiatives/aging
One of their newest resources discusses transportation options for seniors. They also make available statistics about seniors with vision loss, and have initiatives relating to aging and vision loss.
AFB also has a blog
https://www.afb.org/blog
and it's most recent posts are about a fashion designer who makes brailled beaded clothing, and considers the question of whether the post-pandemic world will result in a more inclusive workplace.

Did you know your bookshelves could have bookshelves?

Through search superskills and the use of my accessible tape measure, I found mini-bookcases which fit under the eaves of the aerye, and I thought I had gone about as far as I could go with that, but it turns out that there are book stands and book racks which are small enough to perch on top of the bookcases.

I got this spiffy adjustable wooden one
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UD6DA30/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
just this morning. It cost $10, and it came out of the packing already to go, just unfold the ends and adjust the length. It's also highly tactile, with vines carved all over it (I love vines).

Not unrelated to my ongoing book storage problem, it's
science fiction and fantasy week on GoodReads
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1890?ref=sffweek2020_eb

While GoodReads could really use an accessibility makeover (seriously guys, not even using headings?), I do enjoy it for a number of reasons and first among those reasons is all the lists, such as this one I found recently:
2020 books by Native authors and authors of color
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/132826.2020_Books_by_Native_Authors_Authors_of_Colour

Another great feature is that, if you check a book that isn't out yet as "Want to read," you get an alert the day it comes out. As I used to keep a list for this very reason, that's one less list I need to keep track of.

Occasionally, I even post reviews, and I always get a little buzz when someone likes one of my reviews. Oh, and when you look up a book, you can see the available formats. Now that NLS is using a lot of commercial audiobooks, especially for sf and fantasy, you can find reviews mentioning the narrator. The audiobooks for Rebecca Roanhor's duology, _Trail of Lightning_ and _Storm of Locusts_, for instance, was amazing, and pronounced all the Dine (pronounced di-NAY, the Navajo language, and the name by which the Navajo refer to themselves) words smoothly, which is the main reason I chose the audiobook.