Archive for the ‘Handicapped,’ Category
Quick Tip: Increase the Font Size in Your Browser
Author: Vic
Rick Broida
Nov 24, 2008 1:57 pm
So this morning we pulled up a pumpkin-pancake recipe on the kitchen laptop. Just one problem: My wife couldn’t read it from where she was mixing. “Can’t you make it bigger?” she asked. (Go ahead, insert your own “that’s what she said” joke here. No class.)
The horror: My own wife didn’t know one of the world’s best (and simplest) browser tricks! Bad tech-savvy husband. Bad! Anyway, all you do is hold down the Ctrl key and slowly turn the mouse wheel to enlarge or shrink browser text. No wheel? Hold down Ctrl and tap the + or – key on your keyboard.
This works in Firefox and Internet Explorer alike. (If you’re a Mac user, you’ll need to hold down the Command key while pressing the plus or minus key. Don’t use the mouse wheel, however, unless you want to enlarge the entire screen.)
What do you think? Was this an “aha!” discovery for you like it was for Mrs. Hassle-Free PC, or did you learn this five years ago? Let me know, and share your favorite browser tips down in the Comments. Oh, by the way, the pancakes were awesome–especially with a handful of chocolate chips tossed in.
Posted in 
dealing with being handicapped all of a sudden!
Author: Vic
Mentally [2 of 5]
Now, I never liked hospitals, so I wasn’t happy to be there at all. No privacy, they keep track of every thing you do, and I couldn’t walk to the bathroom so I had to use a urinal… ugh! Now remember, before the stroke I was getting around quite well by myself. I’m kind of a self-sufficient guy, and I really didn’t like the idea of not being able to do things on my own. You see, I was thinking that this is just a short-term thing. duh. As I look back on this experience from 2008 I seem really foolish!
They kept me in the hospital for about a week. Then they transferred me to a convalescent hospital. They said it would be good for me to begin therapy. I was still thinking that this would be a short term problem. So I threw myself into therapy with gusto, figuring I’d be all done and ready to go home in a month. Well, walking was extremely difficult and I would get so angry with myself for not being able to walk. Now this particular stroke hit me on the right side of my body… I’m a right-handed person, so it really affected me.
So you see that mentally you must shift gears.
This was no picnic for me, like I said I thought I would be out of there by a month, but the harder I worked on it the harder it became. When I first had my stroke my mind was foggy. I could not remember things I should have known. This was very frustrating.
My stroke affected my speech also. I could not talk clearly, and this was very frustrating. I spent hours with a speech therapist . She was very good. As I write this today. I am using a speech program on the computer that transfers, what I say into typing. It’s called Dragon nine.
It was hard to keep from being angry all the time. So… I set out to find out more about a stroke. The more I found out, the more depressed I became. I didn’t want to be this way, so I made my mind up that I would be determined to get better. I firmly believe in God, and I believe that he helped me get through this very scary time.
wheelchair users
Author: Vic
Statistics tell us that there are approximately 1-2 million wheelchair users in the USA and approximately 1-2 million wheelchair users in Europe. This means that approximately 1 in every 200 people in Western countries are in wheelchairs. That number may seem high to you. Where are they?
Walk along any street, any shopping area, any recreational area and look around. When you see 200 people, do you see 1 wheelchair? Almost certainly the answer is NO. And it is more likely to be NO in some states than others and in some countries than in others.
Why? It is hard to be in a wheelchair, and the reason for this is not due to the wheelchair. In fact, wheelchairs, wheelchair ramps, wheelchair lifts and other wheelchair accessories have been improving remarkably over the past two decades. As will be discussed below wheelchairs are lighter, faster and easier to use than just 20 years ago. But unfortunately society has not been advancing at the same rate. The reason you do not see so many wheelchairs has to do with accessibility and culture.
Accessibility
In some places, buildings, public transport, streets and sidewalks are slowly becoming more accessible to wheelchair users as wheelchair ramps are becoming more common. But in many places, if you are in a wheelchair you will not be able to move. Steps, curbs, broken sidewalks and inadequate public transportation provide barriers to wheelchair users. Wheelchair users are simply excluded.
Culture
There is discrimination against wheelchair users just like there is discrimination against people of different races. Maybe it is not openly discussed or recognized, but it is true everywhere and this discrimination is stronger in some societies than in others. At the minimum, wheelchair users are stared at and made to feel different and uncomfortable. In some cultures families feel shame and denial and wheelchair users are all but locked away.
The problems of accessibility and culture make it very hard for wheelchair users. It is difficult enough just to be in a wheelchair. But add to that the problems of accessibility and culture and it is easy to understand why wheelchair users often give up and stay at home. And it is easy to understand why you can not find 1 wheelchair for every 200 people you see.
My stroke..Joining the handicapped club
Author: Vic
This will be a 5 part posting of what happened when I had my stroke… this will probably take me several weeks to complete so please bear with me..
My story begins with my third stroke. It happened on the morning of March 9th 2005. I was working at my desk at home and answered a phone call, and I couldn’t speak clearly, and my vision started getting dancing lights. [now I didn't feel like anything was really wrong] I went and laid down and called the doctor. He recommended I take some aspirin and just take it easy [of course this was not the right thing to do]. After a few hours I didn’t get any better so we called 911 and they came and took me to the hospital.
Now I was the kind of guy who figured how bad could this be? I had always been careless with my health… I was taking blood pressure medication [not faithfully ] since I had always had high blood pressure and I also had two previous strokes… you think I would’ve learned a lesson about high blood pressure … donucha know….
Now I was quite a distance from the hospital so it took awhile to get all this done. And of course after I got to the hospital I waited quite a while more, and I got worse the longer I was there it got to the point, I couldn’t move my legs, I was scared. Well it seemed to take a long time for them to figure out I was having a stroke. Now this took place in 2005 you would think they would know better! So they found me a bed and began to give me treat ments.
So, began my adventures in handicap living .
Loading ...