❄️ You’re not a special snowflake… and that’s okay (SBLTN Lab Notes 050)
Audio tools for in-person captions and name pronunciation; Adobe + Pantone workarounds
IN THE MARGINS
“I was gone for a minute but I'm back now”! Kicking off my first newsletter after a break with a bit of a clickbait hot-take 😈. Feel free to skip down to the Regularly Scheduled Program.
It's statistically not in your favor that you're unique. There are BILLIONS of humans. Maybe the thing is not to be the ONLY, it's to be one of the few or one of the closest.
On one hand I think each human truly is unique in that there will never be another you. It's impossible to create your same experiences, thoughts, etc in another person - even in a parallel universe. (Theseus' ship, anyone?)
That said, I think we all share enough in common that there are A LOT of people similar to you: the way you look, what you've been through, your perspectives, etc. (And that can be a good thing! Yay for relatability and human connection!)
So it's always bothered me when it's asked in a business sense "what makes you unique?", “what’s your USP?” or "how can you solve their problem in a way that only you can?". Ego says "yeah, no one can do it like me!" but reality is, yes, they can. Maybe it's just my Mariana's Trench level of low confidence speaking, my jaded mindset, or my logical math brain crunching numbers, but hinging everything on you being the ONLY seems like setting yourself up for failure. It's very rare that you would be. Maybe you're the only 12-letter named person who lived 38 days in every country while whistling the McDonald's jingle twice every rainy Tuesday but you're not the only brand designer or life coach. It's like when people chase to be the next Apple Dude or whatever. Those people are exceptions to the rules and not the standard.
And before you say "well thanks for shitting on me, unsubscribe!", I'm in that category too! I'm a dime a dozen brand designer. Even "niching" down to focusing on accessibility doesn't make me the only. Being a Black woman that does accessibility and design doesn't even make me the only. But it does make me part of a "local" few.
While there are a lot of designers, some even accessibility focused, not everyone knows ALL of them. And they never will.
So instead of being the only ever, maybe just focus on being the only in your pocket of our wild universe. Focus on being known. You're not the only illustrator ever but you're the only one that Townsville coffee shops and authors knows of. You're not the only TedTalk Trainer but you're the only one that Corporation X and the local entrepreneurship support group knows of. Right-fit math. You might not be the only but you're the one for that specific client.
But I could be totally wrong. I don't have a fancy business degree (I can barely run my own). I tend to lean toward being a cog in the machine (thus my aversion to the spotlight). And I read books about phenomenology, quarks, and ligatures (so do you really trust I'm in touch with real life? lol).
I'm just saying that I'm sick of chasing that "be unique" narrative. Maybe my service isn’t special and that’s okay. Maybe what I offer is a dime a dozen but I do it well and I enjoy it. Why can’t that be enough? I'd rather just be me, regardless of how many other Me's there are.
ACCESSIBILITY
In-Person Captions
A helpful tool that I used for in-person events like meetings and academic classes was a browser-based captioner called “Web Captioner”. I was bummed to learn that it will no longer be available after Oct 31, 2023.
Luckily the creator, Curt Grimes, has offered some alternatives. I tried 2 that work in Google Chrome:
ZipCaptions - Limited appearance settings but it’s straight-forward so quick and easy to use: just open it, give permissions to your mic, and go!
Mimuchi - More appearance options and language selections. Allows text-to-speech and ability to download a basic transcript.
Curt said WebCaptioner will be open source under the MIT license but I don’t know how all that works so hopefully someone can pick up the project.
Discord + audio accessibility
Annoyingly, Discord doesn’t have built-in captioning/live transcription (that I know of so if y’all have a hack, please share). I was hoping I could use this kind of tool to make my SBLTN Community on Discord more accessible. Since you can only screenshare 1 thing at a time, I wouldn’t be able to have a live captioner open and share a presentation as well. Plus it would only pick up my voice and not other peeps present.
A big thing that drew me to Discord was the audio channels because I enjoy the casual drop-by vibe of them but I’m still figuring out accessibility for that too. It just makes me think of how many tricks for the Hard of Hearing trade there are haha. Like when I listen to podcasts on my phone, I play it aloud and use either the “Live Caption” Android feature built into my phone or the “Live Transcribe” Google app.
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
Name pronunciation tool
Thanks to my friend Abbiola, I saw that you can put the pronunciation of your name as an audio in your email signature, website, etc! (Check out a demo on NameDrop website)
I’m a fan of “make them learn your name”. Some people don’t mind but for me personally, I don’t rock with giving the ‘American’ version of your name or letting them off the hook with a nickname. There’s power in being seen and named as you prefer.
“…my full name is Uzoamaka, which means “The road is good.” Quick lesson: My tribe is Igbo, and you name your kid something that tells your history and hopefully predicts your future… I was the first in roll call, and nobody ever knew how to pronounce it. So I went home and asked my mother if I could be called Zoe. I remember she was cooking, and in her Nigerian accent she said, “Why?” I said, “Nobody can pronounce it.” Without missing a beat, she said, “If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky and Michelangelo and Dostoyevsky, they can learn to say Uzoamaka.” -Uzoamaka Nwanneka “Uzo” Aduba (video clip of quote)
ART & DESIGN
Adobe and Pantone break up
Since Pantone color books are not available in Adobe anymore (unless you have a paid subscription to Pantone Connect), people have found clever workarounds.
Some have written tutorials for how to copy color books, make ASE Files, and/or use online Pantone converters. Others, like Stuart Semple from Culture Hustle and the Vantablack/Anish Kapoor drama, took matters into their own hands. He made “Freetone”, an open-source version of Pantone-ish colors and is giving them away for free on his website.
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Signing off from the Starship SBLTN,
Laneen (Pronouns: she/they)
HEARD IN THE HALLWAYS
Whoever runs the social media accounts for NASA’s little rovers, helicopters, etc must be having a blast. They somehow infused personality into machines so far away from us (WALL-E inspiration maybe?). Well, the cuteness isn’t slowing down it seems. NASA’s “Ingenuity” Mars Helicopter was caught snapping pics of its bestie “Perseverance”, a Mars Rover.
🎧 Listening: "Layover" EP by V of BTS
📖 Reading: The mathematically correct way to tie your shoes
💬 Quote: "Here at #blkcreatives we're always in pursuit of progress not perfection, community over clout, authenticity over algorithms, freedom over fear" - Newsletter from BlkCreatives
"I don't have a fancy business degree (I can barely run my own)" - RELATABLE. Every biz advice I've gotten (set financial quarterly goals, create a marketing plan, etc) has never ever served me well. I don't know if that's because of me or cause the things really don't work like how they should.
At this point my biz feels like it's being held together by masking tape and the next strong gust that comes through is gonna tear it down lol. Running a biz is just guessing and getting lucky and no one can convince me otherwise at this point 😂