http://www.ravishly.com/2016/06/14/writing-culture-has-ablei...
From my experiences, it's very true.
I have lots of ideas, but I can't type them out. Setting aside the organizational challenges, the hardware, the software, and the available ergonomic advice doesn't fit my abilities, my disabilities, and my needs.
I have searched far and wide for ergonomic advice on how to type with my disabilities, without worsening my rsi, and haven't found any answers.
I haven't been able to use speech-to-text software, though I've tried Apple's Dictation and Nuance's Dragon for Mac. It's possible Dragon *would* work with steady, continuous text. But lately, I've been working on game projects, and that involves editing text, checking references, adding data, etc. And Dragon can't recognized isolated words. It's also possible that Dragon wouldn't work with my choppy speaking and writing anyway.
I also have trouble with software that assumes the ability to coordinate two hands at once, and assumes the ability to see near flashing lights, animation, and flashing cursors.
Comments
I was going to stay quiet.....
but then decided why not.
I am not sure if the writer of the linked article really believes that the writing community, to the last person no matter if they're a wordsmith working in the trenches or in the owner's office of the largest publishing house in the world are, to a person, all of them thugs and bigots... or if this was a poor attempt at satire and humor?
I couldn't read it.
I got to the parts about seasonal disassociative disorder and "an undiagnosed learning disability" and stopped reading right there. The author might very well have good points in their article, but when you go from proclaiming "third in my class in high school" to "I have a learning disability," and are using that in references to not WRITING, it's doubtful you could pay me to listen to what you say.
Disability or not, writing is hard, but to say that the community is "able-ist" is like saying that PGA golf is ableist since it requires you to swing your own club to play, or that being a newscaster is ableist since it requires you to communicate with others in some way. The only real barrier to writing, as many many authors here will tell you, is how much pain you're willing to put yourself through to do it, whether that be physical or mental.
If the difficulty is in deadlines, well, companies have quotas to meet and time limits to work in, and it's entirely in their interest to enforce that. If the difficulty is simply getting your ideas written down, then I don't know what to say, because even the most able-bodied writer has those problems. Heck, with ten working fingers including thumbs I STILL can't write my way out of a paper bag, nor does anything I've posted here or elsewhere bear the eloquence I wish it did.
Writing is hard, period.
Blogger, your structure and spelling in the above blog is good: what's the part of writing that gives you issues? I'm asking honestly.
Melanie E.
...All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper...
"Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead." - Gene Fowler
“There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and just open a vein.” - Red Smith
"A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people." - Thomas Mann
"Writing is not easy. Not writing is even harder." - Erin Halfelven, among others
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
I suspect
I probably agree with the last quote more than the others, though I find writing easier than some might. Not writing is very difficult.
Angharad