Spacetrawler, audio version For the blind or visually impaired, October 7, 2019,
Yahooo! New story BEGINS! And with a CRUSH!
Although, I just noticed that I have to give the website a makeover soon. NOT a priority at the moment, but I recognize it and it’s on the list!
ALSO, to expand accessibility, starting with this iteration of Spacetrawler, I am now creating an audio file describing the strip and reading dialogue for the blind or visually impaired (and hopefully at some point I will find time to go back and do the same to the archive). I’m still trying to figure out the best way to present this: if I should simply present it like this on each page of each comic, create a new sub-website. But for now I’ll post it with the comic. Here it is below, if you’re curious, and you’re here, at the bottom. BUT after today I’ll only post it at the top of the page (so that screen readers for the blind or visually impaired will find it right away).
Spacetrawler, audio version For the blind or visually impaired, October 7, 2019,
Ah, the legendary subtlety of aliens. It’s a sad commentary on the human race that we’ve managed not to notice them yet.
I think the ship just hit the van.
Most excellent!
Looks like the garage might have survived, but the house and pole-barn are toast. I see what looks like a work van and a pickup close to the garage and the obligatory rural-subdivision-gentry SUV next to the house.
Sign out front: (Something) Creek Specialty Farm.
I’m pretty sure they’ve landed squarely on at least two houses. (The one shown in the first frame, and the red one shown in the second frame.)
A house and a shed according to the audio. Would have been nice if the audio had added “fortunately, nobody was home.”
Hm, given how architects designs buildings, I dare venture that a lot of modern buildings may in fact be spaceships…
Everybody remember where we parked!
I think the first priority in terms of accessibility for visually impaired people is to have a transcript for each comic. This also makes it searchable, which is a plus.
Here’s a code snippet to show the gist of it. https://jsfiddle.net/web5me/j6b8ar05/
The transcript could be visually hidden, e.g. in an expandable section so it does not take space for users who don’t use a screen reader.
Recorded audio files in addition to that is wonderful of course because it allows the story to be told by you personally adding much more flavor than a purely text based transcript. And it could be the basis for a later audiobook.
Whichever way you do it it’s bound to be more work for you. I think it’s beautiful that you’re prepared to do that extra work to help out the people who are usually disadvantaged in our society. Feel free to contact me if you’d like to discuss options for improved accessibility for your comic. (I’m a seasoned web developer.)
Thank you, @Marc! It is a crazy week for me, but I’ll be in touch!
I agree with Marc; it’s great of you to make these changes. You’re the first comic I’ve seen that’s working towards 508 compliance; nice job!
Actually, I’ve seen quite a few that have scripts attached, for those readers.
Hector’s Creek Specialty Farms. We grow hardshell gourds for the arts and crafts crowd. The red building to the right side is, well was, the gourd storage barn. So, lots of crunch out of that one! 😛
Alpaca are far more useful and you can eat them.
Looks like Nogg still hasn’t gotten the hang of parking on Earth.
I can’t recall that Nogg did any worse than parking on the flower bed. On the other hand, I don’t think it’s Nogg.
i’m astonished the ship didn’t leave impact craters or even scorch marks.
all things considered, honestly that’s first-class parking, with a keen eye toward sustainability and minimal-impact.
a few homes and lives are not that big a deal really — there’s billions more where they came from.
Aw c’mon — a few dozen feet to the right and it would have just been a matter of some lawn divots.
Really big divots, yeah, but still.
Hi,
Lawn divots I could fix. Even really big ones. Not shown in the pics I sent is the back side of the garage. I have a bulldozer in with the other farm equipment back there. And, it appears the garage was missed. Can’t fix the house with a bulldozer, though. Could dig a big hole and push what is left of it in. After the aliens leave. If they see me, they’ll either shanghai me, or blast me. 😉
I can hardly wait to see where this all goes! 🙂
Smashing beginning, Christopher. Where’d I leave my popcorn?
You and your popcorn makes me think of Mr Zorilla and cake!
Hey! I wonder how Zorilla explained his “much more useful metal arm” to Earthians ?
Sheesh. Aliens build amazing ships, can traverse the galaxy in less time than Columbus used to sail from Spain the the East Indies. And yet, and yet, … can’t even get them to put a camera in the back so they can see where they’re going when they back up!
Stupid aliens.
Hey, I’ve seen one super-advanced spacecraft that managed to get stuck looking like a police box.
Just proves one thing man, just one thing. People is people and some of those people no matter how advanced. No matter how dang smart. No matter how technologically advanced they are…you still get those ones who can’t park to save their lives and think they are better than everyone around them.
They probably thought my ham radio signals were an automatic parking beacon. They missed the ham shack, which is upstairs over the garage. 😉