(not so) far and away

was recently interstate for most of last week. as a result, there was ‘radio silence’ (as only had my phone and the ‘smaller touchpad is challenging for me) on my part and spent the last few days ‘catching up and prioritising time-sensitive things’ – hopefully, I can start posting again as most things have now been ‘attended to’…

bbbeat

BBBeat is apparently an ‘educational game’ for the visually impaired used to ‘train’ them on ‘locating sound sources.’

practice: words – ‘w’ (?)

when i searched for words starting with ‘wj-‘, it returned words beginning with ‘j”; and for ‘ww-‘ just ‘w’ – is it just the keywords i used?

do you see what i see

i try to play connections ( https://www.nytimes.com/games/connections – it’s free BTW) daily to help with my ‘associative thinking’ , but today it’s pictures instead of the usual words. unfortunately, two don’t ‘seem visible’ to me and one is ‘unclear’ – don’t know if it’s a ‘bug’, i’m using an ‘old’ Mac, or my ‘low vision’…

not ‘prompt’ enough

thought my ‘prompt game’ is now ‘decent’, but received a different answer than i expected – guess, i need to work on my ‘wording’…

an AAC app: Day Three

yesterday’s ‘challenges’ made me think. in trying to set-up my ‘old’ Mac desktop for development, certain components needed required me to ‘upgrade’ to a newer model.

while people use ‘backward compatibility’ to sell more units, for users with disabilities as most aren’t ‘financially independent’ this is a ‘major consideration’ as they probably don’t have the ‘disposable income’ to replace their existing phones with a newer model. That said, there are two ‘issues’ here that we shouldn’t conflate: 1. having contributors with ‘more advanced configurations’, and 2. ’cost-effective’ phones that allow users to run the app.

the other thing that made me pause, is despite my own lived experience i defaulted to my ‘primary instinct’ to code first as a former software engineer – call it ‘force of habit.’ it seems more sensible to start with constructing ‘paper prototypes’ to refine requirements. given my ‘challenges in writing’, i’m now looking at digital tools for this to prioritise design, but there’s no reason to completely stop coding so i can also learn from this experience and continue ‘to scratch that itch.’

an AAC app: Day Two

Task(s) done today:

• test update of readMe file, and
• uploaded first React Native app (think it’s right…)

Task(s) underway:

• Configuring development environment in Mac and ‘testing’ first app

an AAC app: Day One (Part C)

have tried downloading and installing the Visual StudioCode app (using React Native for the prototype ) to ‘test modifying’ the readme file in the GitHub project (two birds and all, but still trying to figure this out instead of resorting to do it manually). The month of January has been allocated to a ‘build to learn prototype’ – preparing to throw one away per the software engineering practice. The next month, after experimentation, is meant to help establish ‘baseline requirements’ to inform a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) if you will. Afterwards, succeeding releases are optimistically scheduled at the beginning of each month and deliberately twice the length of a ‘two-week sprint’ as most contributors have a day job’ and some take ‘longer’ for most physical tasks; and to try to build in a ‘midpoint jump’ per the research. Moreover, this timeline isn’t only consistent for users and contributors, and is ‘loosely-based on Steve McConnel’s. Staged Delivery and Design-to-schedule methodologies Finally, you’ll notice i’ve taken ‘a cafeteria-like approach’ to software development and am generally open for discussion of things that may help app ‘quality.’

Have purposely started on Jan. 1 to try and take advantage of what Prof. Katy Milkman of Wharton refers to the ‘fresh start effect.’

I’m usually just ‘productive’ only about four hours a day given my Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) compounded by headaches from recent visual ‘issues’ – it must be due to ‘adrenaline and excitement’ given the amount ‘worked’ today, but I’ll ’surely pay’ for this tonight. i make this ‘explicit’ for two main reasons: 1) to better manage expectations (hence my ‘reliance’ on contributors), 2) as a user with Complex Communication Needs (CCN), i’m hoping to ‘constantly road test’ this and to be empathetic enough that my own use-case is also ‘beneficial’ to others.

when possible, i’ll try to do some work everyday so as to try to form a habit (ufortunately, the research isn’t consistent and spans anywhere from ‘chains of straight days” of three weeks up to 100 days) and as an economic technique known as a commitment device.

an AAC app: Day One (Part B)

here’s the GitHub project link:

https://github.com/LinsAbadia/AAC

i’m currently working on a ReadMe ‘iteration.

an AAC app: Day One

i’m initiating (with the help of some friends) an ‘open source, cross-platform, community-based, app’ for an Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC) for the mobile phone. i’m not a ‘big advertiser’, but i’m hoping to ‘pique the interest’ of ‘more potential contributors.

i’ve used GitHub before but mostly not as a ‘primary.’ Have set up a few sites before (a long while ago) as part of MOOCs so i can ‘share’ my code for ‘evaluation.’ My ‘goal’ (given my physical limitations) today is to set-up the project page – will post the link once i’m done.