Uncategorized

“What brings you in today?” the doctor asked as she sat in a chair next to mine. She looked about my age — mid-forties — but unlike me, she didn’t slouch or have dark bags under her eyes. Opening her laptop, she waited for me to begin. I inhaled, trying to hold back the tears starting to choke at my throat. But the words tumbled out: I’m exhausted all the time, my heart is going crazy, beating hard in my chest then not beating at all, I have arthritis in my wrists, I get cold and hot but not like a fever, I can’t think straight or remember anything, and when I leave my house I feel like I’m having a panic attack!

Everybody has the right to feel safe in nature. But, like the physical accessibility of a birding location, there are many factors that can affect any one person’s feeling of safety and security when they’re outside. Physical safety concerns (like roots, rocks or dogs off leash), and social and cultural safety concerns can impact someone’s ability to go birding. Remember: everybody has different experiences, and just because you feel safe doesn’t mean everybody else will too.

I didn’t — I couldn’t — consider any of those questions. I only thought of my bag. If I could fit everything I needed inside of it I would be fine. If I only had the perfect baggage, I wouldn’t carry any invisible baggage of my own. The more consumed I became by the bag, the more I imagined I might need. But there was no way the bag could hold everything, until I suddenly had the solution: think of Mary Poppins’ bag. Everything fits into it, and everything returns to it. The bag will be enough.

Captions are an easy, important way to ensure that the information you’re putting into the world is accessible to as many people as possible. They also signal, strongly, that you and your organization prioritize including people who are Deaf, deaf or hard of hearing in what you’re doing. They’re one way of allowing folks to opt in, instead of forcing them to opt out.

Being autistic has shaped my birding identity and experience much differently than the way most others experience birding. Being an autistic birder can be both a blessing and a curse. For example, I struggle to go birding in busy places, observe noisy birds, travel far from home, and go birding in a group with other birders. However, being autistic gives me certain strengths as well.

When birds are named useful names that tell us something about their field marks, their behavior or their preferred habitat, they are so much easier to learn and remember for beginner birders. And when we do this, we make birding that much more accessible for everybody.

I used feel frustrated that my hands were full with my hiking poles, just when I wanted to pull out my camera and snap a photo of a gorgeous stream or some visiting Ring-necked Ducks. I have learned to stop, make sure I am standing in a stable place, then tuck my poles under one arm, freeing my hands to grab the camera. Once the photo is snapped, the camera goes back in its case, I grab both poles, and we’re on our way.

Once upon a time, a woman with a spinal cord injury who uses a wheelchair to get around discovered birding. Along with the joy of the actual birds, she discovered the fun of being part of a like-minded community, the perfect kind of exercise (that doesn’t really feel like exercise), and the health and wellness benefits of being in nature.

My journey of getting involved with other birders while having FSHD muscular dystrophy is long and circuitous. (“FSHD” stands for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy — referring to the face, shoulder and upper arm.) It started out innocently enough…

The readability of text is important — usually, that’s the whole reason you write something! Whether you’re writing on a website, in a newsletter, for interpretive signs or on PowerPoint slides, it’s important that your choices make your work as readable as possible.