In the Twin Cities, we are fortunate to have a wonderful organization called Minnestar:
Minnestar exists to build, nurture and engage those interested in technology through meaningful connection. Our goal is to promote connections that help our community learn from each other, build their businesses, and start new entrepreneurial ventures. We aim to foster a thriving and connected tech community for all in Minnesota.
They put on the annual Minnebarunconference. I have been attending since the early days. Earlier in my career, I had issues with self-confidence and imposter syndrome. I never imagined I could be a presenter at Minnebar. It took decades of working in tech with years of running training sessions, teaching web development at the college level, and years of therapy. Then I realized I could, in fact, successfully present a session at Minnebar. I actually submitted my presentation idea while I was attending another event, the CSUN Assistive Technology Conference. The full title of my talk is a mouthful. Choose Your Own Adventure: Pros and Cons of a Formal Autism / ADHD Diagnosis vs Self-Diagnosis. Growing up, I was a huge fan of the Choose Your Own Adventure books.
The stories are formatted so that, after a few pages of reading, the protagonist faces two or three options, each of which leads to further pages and further options, and so on until they arrive at one of the many story endings.
I submitted my talk idea before the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, RFK Jr., ramped up his misinformation campaign about autism and suggested creating a national registry to track those of us with ASD. What he and the Trump administration are doing is dangerous and wrong. I modified my talk somewhat in light of these developments. I delivered this talk in person on May 3rd, 2025 and went over these very real choose your own adventure options, walking through the Pros and Cons of:
A formal diagnosis through health insurance
A formal diagnosis through private insurance
Self-diagnosis via vetted, trustworthy resources
While balancing the privacy implications of each with their potential benefits. I didn’t record my talk but I am sharing the slides. Last year I was invited to deliver a variation of this talk to another company’s Neurodivergent Employee Resource Group. I would be happy to speak to this or related topics at other organizations. Feel free to reach out to me at info@sharynmorrow.com.
International Wheelchair Day is observed every March 1st. I am interested in physical accessibility as much as digital accessibility, but especially the point where the two meet. Where technology can improve physical accessibility by removing barriers or at least warn folks about them. Recently, I came across an older project that came out of “Random Hacks of Kindness” in Berlin called Broken Lifts.
Broken elevators at train stations are a big problem for people who rely on wheelchairs and walking aids, but also for families with strollers. That’s why it’s important to find out about breakdowns in good time. Of course, complex machines like elevators can occasionally break down. Vandalism does the rest. For this reason, BrokenLifts was created – a project by the SOZIALHELDEN association and the Berlin-Brandenburg transport association in collaboration with the HENKELHIEDL project office for the automated visualization of elevator breakdowns in local public transport in Berlin. The elevator malfunction information from the Berlin S-Bahn and the BVG is retrieved, analyzed and bundled every 15 minutes as a database.
The same folks who came up with Broken Lifts are behind wheelmap.org, a map for finding wheelchair accessible places. Anyone can contribute and mark public places around the world according to their wheelchair accessibility.
Google
Of course, there’s a bigger player on the scene. In 2020, Google Maps launched a mode called Accessible Places. When toggled on, it more prominently shows wheelchair accessibility info.
“When Accessible Places is switched on, a wheelchair icon will indicate an accessible entrance and you’ll be able to see if a place has accessible seating, restrooms or parking,” Google explains in a blog post. “If it’s confirmed that a place does not have an accessible entrance, we’ll show that information on Maps as well.”
Updated Live View experiences for users who are blind
A new identity attribute label for disabled-owned businesses
“It’s a basic human right to enter a place like anybody else,” says Sasha Blair-Goldensohn. This simple ideal can seem maddeningly out of reach for wheelchair users in America’s largest and most expensive metropolis. But for Blair-Goldensohn, a 48-year-old software engineer and United Spinal member from New York City, it’s the driving force of his life.
Though his work at Google touched on its Maps technology, Sasha Blair-Goldensohn wasn’t thinking much about the actual route-finding features — how people get from A to B. That changed one morning while he was walking through Central Park to catch the subway and a 100-pound tree limb fell on him. The limb fractured his skull and he sustained a T5 spinal cord injury.
New York City has one of the best subway systems in the U.S., but only if you can navigate stairs. Blair-Goldensohn’s Manhattan commute was hampered by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority system. More than 30 years after passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, it still lacked wheelchair access in nearly 75% of commuter train stations.
Advocacy
Sasha Blair-Goldensohn stepped up his advocacy by working with legal nonprofit Disability Rights Advocates to bring a class action lawsuit. Blair-Goldensohn served as one of the plaintiffs alleging violations of the New York City Human Rights Law due to the subway system’s inaccessibility. It took six years, but in April 2023, a judge approved a final settlement compelling the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to budget for and “add elevators or ramps to create a stair-free path of travel [in] at least 95% of the system’s currently inaccessible subway stations by 2055.”
Subway elevators were frequently broken down, further limiting mobility and inclusion. “You are either stuck on the inside or the outside,” he says. “In one situation, at least you are on the surface, but you realize there’s no way home because the elevator is shut down for who knows how long. In the other situation, you are several flights of stairs down and you have to rely on strangers to carry you out.”
Sasha Blair-Goldensohn
Accessibility + Technology
For accessibility information to be helpful, it needs to be comprehensive and widely available. Collecting all the information needed to create a useful accessibility map is a big task. Fortunately, a software engineer at Google, which has the most popular free mapping app in the world with over a billion users each month, has become a strong advocate for accessibility. When Blair-Goldensohn returned to his job after his injury, it quickly became clear that his skills and understanding of what people with disabilities need made him a perfect fit for this work.
Since then, he has been working to improve the accessibility information available on Google Maps. In 2017, Google introduced a feature that lets users add details about the accessibility of places they visit. Now, Maps can show if a location has a wheelchair-accessible entrance, marked by the ♿ icon, as well as accessible seating, restrooms, and parking. In 2018, Blair-Goldensohn led a project to display wheelchair-accessible routes for public transportation.
Google Maps depends on its users to share information about various features, from what businesses offer to travel times and directions. Before last summer’s Paralympics, Blair-Goldensohn’s team met with Paralympic athletes to inform them about the accessibility features on Google Maps and to gather their experiences using the service while traveling abroad.
For Blair-Goldensohn, whose work revolves around universal design, it’s hard to understand why you would do things any other way. To him, working toward a world that can be accessed by everyone, benefits everyone. “Solidarity is powerful,” he says. Agreed!
One of the best parts of my job is curating our monthly Accessibility Community of Practice meetings. I like to tie into monthly awareness campaigns. For January, I highlighted World Braille Day and Braille Literacy Month. But then jumped into some particulars. Like sharing a video from one of my favorite folks, Anthony Ferraro, a blind athlete, musician, motivational speaker, and podcaster. His catchphrases are “the only disability is a bad attitude” and “one love.”
Some fun podcasts
Talk Description to Me podcast
Where the visuals of current events and the world around us get hashed out in description-rich conversations. J.J. Hunt is an innovative Audio Describer and a natural-born storyteller. Christine Malec is a perpetually inquisitive member of the blind and partially sighted community who’s always wondering about something.
In Talk Description to Me, their discussions plunge into current events and topical issues to explore the content of important images and help place vivid descriptions in their cultural context. Lively, hard-hitting, witty, vibrant, and fun, this is conversation with a view!
Say My Meme is exactly what it sounds like: A podcast that literally describes the world’s most relevant memes, bringing the blind and sighted people together through laughter and the power of visual description. Brought to you by Will from Be My Eyes and Caroline from Scribely.
Blind beauty expert and journalist Lucy Edwards recently sent in a request to Say My Meme, for beauty and makeup memes. Lucy joined as their first guest host to talk all memes skincare, makeup and more.
In our monthly meetings, I also have Accessibility Hall of Shame and Hall of Fame sections. The Hall of Shame section often features accessibility overlays and why they are terrible. For our January Hall of Fame, I highlighted a resource I came across called Accessible Social. This is a free resource and education hub that shares best practices for creating accessible and inclusive social media content. Guides include best practices for sharing:
We meet Andrew Leland as he’s suspended in the liminal state of the soon-to-be blind: he’s midway through his life with retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that ushers those who live with it from sightedness to blindness over years, even decades. He grew up with full vision, but starting in his teenage years, his sight began to degrade from the outside in. Soon— but without knowing exactly when—he will likely have no vision left.
Andrew Leland talks with Phoebe Judge about slowly losing his eyesight. He was in high school when he received his diagnosis of the degenerative eye disease retinitis pigmentosa, also known as RP. “It was like, ‘I’m going out in the woods with my friends at night. And oddly enough, I’m bad at it.’” Full transcript of the podcast.
Andrew Leland’s memoir, The Country of the Blind, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. I chose to listen to the audiobook version, narrated by the author himself, and found him to be incredibly charismatic and engaging.
In The Country of the Blind, Andrew Leland tells the story of his gradual transition into the blindness community with sensitivity and insight. He vividly describes his new sensory perceptions and emotions and outlines controversies about the training of the blind. His experiences will resonate powerfully with those in the autism community and beyond. A valuable book.
Temple Grandin
Not long after I found Andrew’s book, I encountered a non-fiction film about the same topic. I missed its brief release in theaters but the film will be streaming December 17th, 2024.
When three of their four children are diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare and incurable disease that leads to severe visual impairment, the Pelletier family’s world changes forever. In the face of this life-altering news, Edith Lemay, Sébastien Pelletier and their children set out on a trip around the world to experience all its beauty while they still can. As they fill their memories with breathtaking destinations and once-in-a-lifetime encounters, the family’s love, resilience and unshakeable sense of wonder ensure that their uncertain future does not define their present.
This isn’t my usual year-end post. The mood has been bleak in the US, post-election. The incoming administration is openly hostile to people with disabilities, among many other marginalized groups.
Project 2025 takes a wrecking ball to federal measures that address real issues disabled people face in accessing critical supports and services. If even only some of the policies outlined here are fully enacted or required by executive order, disabled people would face insurmountable hurdles to living and participating in their communities.
The TPT series Art + Medicine explores healthcare through story, song and the arts. Hosted by Drs. Jon Hallberg and Tseganesh Selameab. This series is a co-production of TPT-Twin Cities PBS and the Center for the Art of Medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School.
Gaelynn Lea’s episode about disability, culture, and creativity was nominated for an Upper Midwest Emmy. Artists and healthcare clinicians create alternative perspectives on disability, through stories and performances, and redefine what we perceive as normal. Watch the episode in full on the TPT website.
Disability Pride Month takes place each year in July. I follow a lot of other accessibility professionals and disability activists and either learn a lot or experience validation (or both) from their posts, especially during the month of July. One post I came across recently really had me nodding my head. Celia Chartres-Aris and Jamie Shields reached out to disabled people around the world for ‘The BigAbleism Survey.’ They asked participants how they really felt about ableism, how ableism affected them, how they dealt with internalized ableism and more.
95% of disabled people have experienced ableism
99% of disabled people believe that non-disabled people need more training and education on Ableism.
Only 1.5% of disabled people have never experienced internalized ableism.
Only 6.6% of disabled people have never experienced mental health challenges as a direct result of their disability.
In June 2020, I had the option to renew my DL online, as it was. Or go in person to make any changes. At the time, we were still a year away from a COVID vaccine so I chose the physically safer option. But today, the wait was over. I was able to quickly change my gender designation to nonbinary. And update my photograph (my hair color and eyeglasses have changed 5 or 6 times in the last 8 years).
Since my last drivers license renewal, I’ve also been formally diagnosed with Autism and ADHD.
Studies suggest that individuals with gender and sexual identities outside the cis-hetero binary were also three to six times more likely to have a diagnosis of autism.
The Swaddle: The Link Between Neurodivergence and Queerness, Explained
This all serves to help me understand myself and feel more confident in myself. Happy Pride, all!
This is my first April celebrating Autism Awareness / Acceptance month since I was formally diagnosed with autism myself. I believe self-diagnosis is perfectly valid, but I wanted to learn more. Not just for myself, but for my community. Last year I worked with an incredible neurodiversity affirming clinician. She was excited to dive in and learn about my wiring. She helped me understand more about how my neurocomplexity impacts my personal and professional life. In my professional life, in the accessibility space, I continue to encourage others to learn more about neurodivergence. And provide guidance about how to support neurodiversity in the workplace.
Be accepting of autistic (or other) behaviors that might deviate from the norm. Personally, I used to expend SO much energy attempting to mask to fit in while in shared office spaces. Working remotely has allowed me to channel that energy to focus on the work itself. But not everyone is so lucky. To learn more about masking, check out autistic reporter Eric Garcia’s great interview with autistic social psychologist Devon Price, PhD. The timing worked out perfectly. I ordered a copy of Devon’s book, Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity, and it arrived just now, on World Autism Day.
I’ve been working in tech for 30+ years at this point. But many autistic people experience high rates of unemployment and underemployment compared to adults with other disabilities and adults in the general population. This needs to change. Sustainable progress will require a real, measurable commitment to neuroinclusion. Which includes working with autistic and other neurodivergent people to foster lasting change.
To enable wheelchair users to celebrate the positive impact a wheelchair has in their lives so that they can access employment, participate in the community, get involved in social activities and more.
To celebrate the great work of millions of people who provide wheelchairs, who provide support and care for wheelchair users and who make the world a better and more accessible place for people with mobility issues.
To acknowledge and react constructively to the fact there are many tens of millions of people in the world who need a wheelchair, but are unable to acquire one.
Progress
In 2023, many wheelchair users took to social media. They expressed the impact their mobility devices have on their freedom and quality of life. Here are 10 of their reflections. Last year I was also introduced to a cool company called Izzy Wheels. Founded by two sisters who creates cool wheelchair covers so that wheelchair users can customize their look.
In the past, I’ve also posted about off-road wheelchairs being made available in public parks. From those in my own state of Minnesota, to the beaches of Oregon and beyond. Unfortunately wheelchair users still face many frustrations. Especially when traveling by air.
Problems
Last Fall, a video went viral of an American Airlines baggage handler. Showing a passenger’s wheelchair sliding down a jet bridge chute. It crashed into a metal barrier, flipped over and tumbled onto an airport tarmac.” Sadly, this is not an uncommon occurrence.
In 2022, the 10 largest U.S. airlines lost, damaged or destroyed more than 11,000 wheelchairs and scooters, according to the Department of Transportation. That represents 1.5% of all wheelchairs and scooters boarded onto planes.
When an airline damages, loses, or delays a passenger’s wheelchair, it is a significant problem. It endangers that person’s health and can seriously limit their mobility and independence. Just last month, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced a new proposed rule from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) that would ensure airline passengers who use wheelchairs can travel safely and with dignity. This proposed rule would be the biggest expansion of rights for passengers who use wheelchairs in the United States since 2008.
Potential Solutions
The proposed rule would take major actions in three key areas:
Penalties and remedies for wheelchair mishandling
Safe, dignified, and prompt assistance
Improved standards on planes
It’s unclear if this was prompted by Senator Duckworth’s MOBILE Act from 2023. Whatever the case may be, I hope for an outcome that will lead to more accountability and accessibility for travelers with disabilities.
