I've been a little reluctant to detail my experience because I feel I'm a bit of a thorn among the roses, but it certainly fits the "winding path" analogy! Here ya go:
I studied journalism with a minor in anthropology at Marshall University. My favorite studies were a history of modern China (alluded to in an earlier post) and a series of interdisciplinary honors classes. I wanted to write and photograph for National Geographic, but at some point I traded that dream for others; I may come back to it later. My specialized studies in anthropology involved Hopi and Navajo mythology, but I've also been much interested in the Choctaw and Kwakiutl. All these are tribal people in what is now called the United States. My work experience has been in writing and reporting, photography, newspaper editing, newspaper and magazine layout and design (initially with offset printing that was actually pasted up and photographed, later with Quark XPress and Adobe Pagemaker), web design including some work with javascript and ColdFusion, and (long ago) television production with particular emphasis on videography, videotape editing and lighting design. My photography initially was on film, and I learned archival black & white processing while working briefly for a museum, so I did all my own processing of various film formats for many years. I shoot mostly digital now and use Photoshop and The GiMP, among other tools. I run Ubuntu Linux on two desktops at home, and I've been using more open source software including Scribus (DTP) and Bluefish (web coding). I use Dreamweaver 8 at work and hand-code CSS at work and at home, where I maintain a few simple sites for small businesses. I hope/expect to do more site design and site maintenance in the next few years using a content management solution, maybe Drupal. In 2002 I came to work for a state agency for vocational rehabilitation, and my emphasis has shifted somewhat from writing/editing/photography to accessible web design (printing is far more expensive than pixels). All our clients have a significant disability, and overcoming that disability is key to getting a job. This has opened my eyes and heart to the desperate need for simplicity, semantic structure and standards compliance to accompany the mushrooming functionality of the Web. I've learned a lot from some of my colleagues who specialize in adaptive technologies. Some are engineers who develop innovative custom solutions (mainly hardware), and others teach clients to use JAWS or Window Eyes. We've recently started outsourcing occupational, physical and speech therapy services, but they were in-house for a long time so I've also learned from seasoned professionals in those disciplines. We've had numerous clients here with traumatic brain injury, so I've had opportunities to observe different kinds of cognitive disability. Of all the things I've learned, the key one is "don't make something complicated when it ain't." I'm part of a group of state-employed web developers who sponsored a design contest for our peers last year. I wrote up pretty thorough accessibility assessments for each of the nine finalists, and on the basis of that alone I've been asked to talk about web accessibility to some people who develop distance learning strategies for the state of West Virginia, where I live. It may be the last time I'm asked to speak, but I'm just as eager to listen to their needs and intentions. My time has been spent primarily here and in Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina and Guam, where I lived from age 14 to 24. I speak and understand a fair amount of Spanish, Chamorro (the language of Guam and the Marianas Islands), and a bit less Japanese. For a few years in Guam, I directed weekly TV news programs in Mandarin, Korean, Chamorro, Japanese and Tagalog. Also in Guam, I photographed and videotaped part of the war refugee exodus from Vietnam in 1975-76. I've studied the philosophies of India, China and Japan with particular emphasis on Zen Buddhism and the writings of LaoTzu. I have a mantra given to me personally by a real live guru, and I'm not afraid to use it. I've practiced taijiquan for about 15 years. I am not and never have been a hippie. I surfed some pretty big waves and raced sailboats (and won!) in my teens and twenties. My three teen-aged children live with their mom some 250 miles away, and I miss them; I pay child support faithfully and see them as often as possible. I'm 51 years old. I believe in God, but I may not perceive God as you do, and that's OK with me. And though this paragraph may suggest that I'm some kind of nut, I do not have ADHD and I'm very laid-back most of the time. I do occasionally react when I should instead act, and that's an unresolved bug in my own interaction design; yes, it's been reported. I also sing and play acoustic fingerstyle guitar, write my own songs and adapt or rearrange songs written by others. I've done this since the early 1970s. I record music on computer and mix it using Audacity, with the idea that I may eventually produce a CD for friends and family. I do this mostly for my own amusement, but I think that an understanding and love of music has informed most of my life and work. All the above details have some impact on my work because I'm passionate about living and I don't live in a vacuum. I've been fortunate to always do work that I care about, and I think my efforts generally are in the right direction or I'd be doing something else. I believe our ability to share information is essential to maintaining and improving human civilization. In these changing times, I'd like to be one of the people helping to push the medium out of the way so the messages can come through undistorted. This sometimes puts me at odds with people who design with needless complexity, but I'm essentially a decent guy who respects your right to veer off that path because I've done it myself. Didn't mean to write a manifesto, but felt some of this may be useful for context. If not, mea culpa. Jeff Seager _________________________________________________________________ The best games are on Xbox 360. Click here for a special offer on an Xbox 360 Console. http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/wheretobuy/ ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
