I actually find very high contrast bad, like night driving, welding, etc.

But yes, congrats on attracting a blind audience.

Localised dialect is great! The spice of language. I was trying to think of a good example of the Appalachian dialect, but gave up, and decided to just link to a video of someone with such an accent. http://youtube.com/watch?v=-mu9De9mNk4

Storytelling’s a big thing down here in Appalachia… this one’s not exactly stellar, but it’s the best I could find on short notice. You can get a real good idea of the style and voice though. There’s this fellow from western North Caroline, Fred Chappell, with a couple of amazing books out dealing with Appalachian culture and stories, and storytelling. The first one, I Am One of You Forever is well worth a read, if you like stories or tall tales. And chock full of local dialectic.

I suppose they rarely get as high contrast as this comic though.

…and you’re talking about the progressive village of Londinium. Up here, it’s worse.

As for the sign language, I did know that, that ASL is single-handed… which is great because it means that you can actually do things whilst talking (try drinking a cup of coffee whilst having a conversation in BSL). Though we do have quite a few dialects in the UK with localised terminology:

Make like you are hanging yourself from the neck (arm up holding the rope) and that’s local sign for Lancaster (or Preston)… because of what we used to do to witches (and non-witches).

In London I was amazed by the lack of ramps. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 made it basically illegal for publicly funded projects not to be accessible by wheelchair, among other things. So basically all public transit, libraries, museums, et cetera, have prominent ramps, particularly if they were built pre-1990, because the ramps are add-ons. At… I forget which station (somewhere near the British Museum), I saw some fellow tied to his wheelchair, or maybe with his wheelchair tied to him, hauling himself up the stairs of the Tube station, hand over hand on the rail. It was an odd moment, that pointed my attention to the lack of handicap access. I did notice later that the stair-less stations were marked on the map, and there were additional shuttles from those stations.

It’s interesting how different people deal with these things. In America we’ve basically made our uncomfortable ignoring of it law. Just pretend everything’s normal, folks. That’s the law.

But yeah, we are more than that. We like to think so.
In our heads. We are fighting.

I haven’t seen enough of the rest of the world, but I think that most ppl are still focussing on the disability, rather then the person.
But we have come along way since we killed any infant that showed signs of deformity or disability.

My sister’s favorite “meant well, actually horrible” tribute to the disabled came when an elderly lady once said of her “she’s a cripple, but she talks right smart”.