Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2017-01-17/Interview

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• A huge shoutout to Graham87 for all the work you've done on Wikipedia! Three years ago you would never have imagined the level of surprise I got when I realized that the person who welcomed me to Wikipedia was blind! I've always been curious as to how you manage to edit Wikipedia with a screen reader, but always was far too shy to ask. —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 11:41, 17 January 2017 (UTC)
• Thank you. An excellent interview with a great Wikipedian. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 12:08, 17 January 2017 (UTC)
• Many thanks for the article and Graham87's work. I appreciate the info about speed reading while blind. Graham87 has paved the way for other blind editors, and also for editors who are progressively losing sight, his work in making it work for him is an example that losing vision doesn't mean that editing and using Wikipedia is over. It may be easier for someone who has always been blind to use the techniques, maybe not, but this is great news and I hope that more is done to facilitate blind editors.TeeVeeed (talk) 13:50, 17 January 2017 (UTC)
• Colleagues interested in helping to make Wikipedia more easily accessible to people in Graham's situation can do so by following our accessibility guidelines and participating in WikiProject Accessibility. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 17:44, 17 January 2017 (UTC)
• Great write up Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 23:23, 17 January 2017 (UTC)
• I've always wanted a perspective like this, thanks for the interview. Keep up the great work Graham, Wikipedia needs to keep up its strong focus on accessibility. Opencooper (talk) 00:13, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
• Great to see how nothing stands in the way of editing and a great proof that WP:ACCESS works. — Iadmc♫^talk  00:38, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
• Thanks, everyone, for the kind words and comments. Graham87 02:16, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
• I filed phab:T155604 for the problem with diff formatting. Viewing the HTML source of the page seems awkward to me. -- Tim Starling (talk) 02:51, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
• Thank you, Tony, for this interview, and kudos, Graham, for your inspiring work. Ijon (talk) 03:59, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
• –

  In those early days he wasn't able to view diffs properly: "I discovered that by viewing the html source and looking for the CSS class diffchange, the diff changes could be accessed. But this method is problematic when people add/remove line breaks while making edits. In these cases I have to restore the line breaks to figure out what else the editor changed."

  But really, our diff display still chokes on combining two paragraphs (or if an editor simply removes the white space in-between the section heading and the text...) Is there really no better solution for comparing the true diff than re-inserting line breaks? Great piece—hope to read more from the Signpost on accessibility in the future czar 06:50, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
  • Yup line breaks are a pain an hopefully our diff viewer will one day handle them better. I too need to sometimes restore line breaks to get the diff viewer to provide me useful information. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 12:51, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
• Enlightening and inspiring.--TonyTheTiger (T / C / WP:FOUR / WP:CHICAGO / WP:WAWARD) 16:27, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
• One point that needs to be added is that Graham is a unique resource on Wikipedia for anyone testing accessibility fixes. He is always generous with his time and is consistently able to explain how a particular issue is handled by multiple different screen readers. His efforts have made Wikipedia a far more welcoming place for the many visitors who use assistive technology. --RexxS (talk) 16:49, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
• Graham87 is somebody I first encountered not long after I started in 2009 - he drew attention to himself in a positive way. His spelling, grammar and punctuation are (almost) always spot on, it's extremely rare that I need to fix anything (maybe three times in seven years). So it was something of a surprise to find an error today - but one which Graham87 self-corrected straight away, so acute are his senses. He also spots things that many people don't. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 20:33, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
  • @Redrose64: Thanks! I have a confession to make: I'm a terrible typist, as can be seen from the edit linked above. and I'm sure you remember this. :-) Graham87 07:55, 19 January 2017 (UTC)
• Good article, very informative. I think something experienced editors should consider when editing. I myself need to pay better attention to the details of MOS:ACCESS, and WP:ALT in particular. int21h (talk · contribs · email) 18:45, 19 January 2017 (UTC)
• In an issue that talks about the future of The Signpost, this is an excellent example of how valuable it can be in fostering community. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 02:30, 20 January 2017 (UTC)
• Graham effect: I am really very very happy that you wrote an article on this on the Wikipedia Signpost. He is an amazing editor and I highly respect his works.
  Let me share something: whenever I am asked this question: "what motivates you to edit Wikipedia? Is it barnstar, is it reputation you get for your works, is it Wikimania or other Wiki-conferences/events? is it . . .?" I reply: all of these might be true, but the first thing which motivates me to edit Wikipedia is "Graham effect". Of course no one understands what I mean by this "Graham effect", and I generally never explain that as well. Now, you may have some idea about this "Graham effect". People like Graham, User:Sitush, User:Bgwhite, and a few others encourage me to continue. Graham is an inspiration to many, including me. Thanks a lot Graham, for all your works. --Tito Dutta (talk) 07:49, 22 January 2017 (UTC)

Awwww, thanks, User:Titodutta! *blushes* Graham87 10:59, 22 January 2017 (UTC)

• Great article! Thanks Graham87 for everything you do here - as someone who is disabled (Asperger syndrome and Developmental coordination disorder, amongst other things), I believe that disability is no barrier to success, nor should it be one, and more should be done to make Wikipedia and other websites more accessible. :-) Patient Zero^talk 13:01, 26 January 2017 (UTC)

• Very good article. Inspired by this real life story. Thanks a lot Graham. Thanks Tito. I hv seen this article link on your FB wall.I am sharing this with visually challenged students from West Bengal,India. সুমিতা রায় দত্ত (talk) 14:22, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

• Thank you Graham and Tony. I've always been a fan of Graham's work and was thrilled to meet him in person at Wikimania - the first time I realised he was blind was when I saw him in person! Deryck C. 14:46, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

• Congratulations to Graham87 for receiving some well-deserved recognition! It might not come as much of a surprise for others to learn that Graham87 appears in the feature for the current issue of the WP:VG Newsletter too. Thanks for all of your help Graham! -Thibbs (talk) 20:19, 3 February 2017 (UTC)