Recap: Accessible and Healthy Screen-Life Balance with Adaptive Climbing Group
Image description: Square graphic on a teal background, Tiffany and Kareemah’s photos in a white border next to their names and titles. The event details appear in white font in the top right.
By Tiffany Yu, Founder & CEO, Diversability
Last week, I had the honor of joining Diversability community member and founder of the Adaptive Climbing Group Kareemah Batts on Instagram LIVE for a conversation on healthy screen consumption and accessible ways to stay connected.
We will be talking about healthy screen consumption during this time when we are most dependent on technological advances for human connection, school, work and general quality of life. What ways can we make this transition to online engagement more accessible. what are we missing? what do we have too much of? And how can we keep a healthy balance?
Image description: screenshot of Kareemah and Tiffany during Instagram LIVE
The inspiration for this conversation came from a question I had posed in our Diversability community a few weeks ago around “screen-life balance.” Since I’ve been sheltering in place, the amount of time I’ve spent staring at screens has gone up significantly, from staying connecting with friends, to checking my email, and even watching Netflix! I’ve been wearing blue light blocking glasses to help with the strain on my eyes (and I just realized there is a “Night Shift” option if you are on a Mac and click on the “list icon” in the top right, scroll to the top of the Notifications, and turn on “Night Shift”).
Video overload and access considerations
Many of our friends and partners have moved their programming online and we have curated many of them on our Events calendar (you can also submit your events to get added at http://bit.ly/diversabilitycommunity), meaning that now we are not constrained by geographic location and time zones to attend events. It also means that there are more events than ever, and we at Diversability did not want to add to the already excessive amount of time that you were looking at your screens.
In addition, we want to ensure that if you are moving your events and content online to video, you are doing them in an accessible way (I’ll include a few tips and tools to do that later in this post). I also noticed that moving to video made assumptions around whether people’s hardware could handle that, whether their home environment was suitable for video, and whether people had a strong internet connection. These are also access considerations I have kept in mind.
At the same time, even though we are physically distant right now, it is important than ever to stay socially connected during this time. At Diversability, we are still checking in with our community through periodic posts through our online community.
Staying connected over audio calls
Personally, I’ve been opting for voice calls (over video calls) for informal catchups with friends to give my eyes a break. While some might recommend opting for video as a way to connect on a deeper level, “Zoom fatigue” is real thing and understand that your choice for video vs. voice is up to you!
Here are a few reasons why I prefer voice calls (inspired by this post from Kat Vellos, also embedded below):
Break time for your burned-out corneas
Can practice embarrassing yoga poses or just wiggle your butt for no reason at all
Can make deviled eggs at the same time
Can eat deviled eggs at the same time (or any snack, almost)
Can stare lovingly at the outside world through the window
Bad lighting? No lighting? No problem.
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[image description of Instagram post embedded below: a gray illustration of the back of a smartphone drawn on the left side. On the right, a black speech bubble with the text, “why audio calls are your new favorite thing” with the bulleted list above.]
I’ve been using my voice-only calls to sit out on my balcony and enjoy fresh air and looking out into San Francisco. These days, I’ve been asking myself, “Does this conversation NEED to happen over video?” (i.e. the video is being recorded or someone is sharing a presentation on a screen).
Healthy screen time
Kareemah recently got a bike, which allows her to stay socially distant and be active. She also shared that she sets a schedule for herself where she checks the news in the morning (and limits it to one hour) and then moves to an activity that will take her outside, such as walking around the block or watering the garden in the backyard. Make sure you are consuming content that educates and uplifts you, instead of depletes and stresses you.
Living in an urban city like San Francisco means that I’m not as close to green space as I would like. I’ve been joining the Dance Church donation-based classes to stay active, but that is still requiring me to look at a screen! Since it is harder for me to get outside, I have enjoyed listening to audiobooks (pro tip: I borrow them from my local public library), journaling, and meditating (I’ve been doing Oprah & Deepak’s “Finding hope in uncertain times” meditation). Journaling and meditation are what I would call my “survival care,” in that I started them during this sheltering period to stay grounded and centered.
Picking up a good book is another way to get lost in some good storytelling outside of screens. And if you are listening to audiobooks or podcasts, you can multitask! I will normally listen to audiobooks while washing dishes and Kareemah has been sewing face masks while she listens to podcasts. (Shameless plug: I also launched a podcast during this time to encourage consuming some non-screen content :-) )
If you are opting for video, is it accessible?
If you are taking your programming online, have you thought through making sure access needs are met, such as captioning, sign language interpretation, and breaks? Here’s a guide to accessible meetings from NYC.
For example, we hosted our conversation on Instagram LIVE, which meant that some attendees couldn’t access the comments in the chat and others couldn’t listen to the conversation (note that I had recorded and transcribed our conversation using Otter.ai).
My hope is that the move to an online environment for all of us will shed light on access needs and our tech friends will adapt their products (like captions on Instagram LIVE), just as the disability community has had to adapt many things to thrive in a non-disabled world. With my advocacy hat on, hiring disabled people into these tech organizations is so key to ensuring this tech is accessible from the start.
I gave a shoutout to Diversability community member and founder of Project Hearing Mariella Paulino, who has hosted some virtual workshops on making your content accessible.
The next workshop is on May 21 in honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (register here).
She highlighted some great tools that you can use to make your content accessible:
Otter.ai records and transcribes audio (up to 40 minutes on the free version) — make sure that you have consent if you are recording a meeting. It also highlights the words in the transcript on playback
Mariella recommends Google Live Transcribe on Android phone
Google Meet has an auto-caption option
Use Kapwing to burn captions onto your video to post on social media. There is an “auto-generate” option that uses AI to create subtitles for your video that you can clean up through their online platform
If your video is on YouTube, you can turn on auto-generated captions and allow open-source edits to your captions
If you use an Apple phone, use Clips to add captions to your video
Include image descriptions in your posts (here’s a guide to accessible social media)
She also offers a great service to caption your videos at an affordable rate!
Kareemah asked about tools and platforms when working with kids with disabilities during this time. I gave a shoutout to Infinite Flow, who has moved their programming online (Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11am PT) and has great programming for youth dancers as well.
Serving the Adaptive Climbing Group community
Kareemah posed the question around if ACG’s live content and exercise videos were contributing to the problem of excessive screen time.
She had surveyed her community (great idea to ask your community what they need) and realized that the biggest areas of concern were around financial health and mental health. She understood how important routine was to mental health and has been hosting weekly gatherings for her community to stay connected.
She also thought creatively around hosting “virtual walks” that allowed people in heavily populated areas (like me) or those who couldn’t get outside to still be connected.
Kareemah asked what the balance was around video content versus community.
What we’re finding is that these days, we are mainly finding our community and stayed connected through the screen. Most of the activities that Kareemah and I mentioned that took us away from our screens were mainly solo activities. Even the one time I saw a friend at a social distance, it felt like an awkward interaction (like we were two strangers on opposite sides of the sidewalk yelling at each other). I would say, during this time, do whatever you need to do for your mental health first. And what I told Kareemah is that if her community is continuing to show up online, she is adding value to them.
I recently attended a workshop where they stressed the need for “check-in and regulation” during this time. Check-ins create space for understanding and acknowledging what we are feeling in the moment and regulation (i.e. 3 deep breaths, stretches) allows you to settle into the meeting.
I often tell people that things are not “business as usual” and there are no rules right now. We are all trying to figure it out as we go. We are in a crisis and I want to acknowledge that it is a luxury for me to be sheltering, and it is a luxury for me to thinking about my screen-life balance right now.
What about you? What strategies are you using to manage your screen time? And are there tools you have found to help make your online content accessible?
And join us on May 21 for the GAAD workshop on captioning your videos for social media!
Here is a highlight from our conversation that I captioned using Kapwing! [video description: screen recording split screen with Kareemah on top and Tiffany on the bottom from our Instagram LIVE conversation.]