They Saw One by Emily Owen

 

Free Images on Unsplash

(ALT: A red book with 'Thank You' on the cover, in gold. There is a fountain pen beside the book.)

‘It makes me so happy to think ACW could include you in writers’ days.’

This is part of an email I received after the ACW Writer’s Day on 7^th October.

I’d hoped to attend the event in person, but when it was moved online, I wasn’t sure if it would work for me.

I’m deaf, so obviously wouldn’t be able to hear the speaker, and I find lipreading easier in person then onscreen.

Usually, in Zoom meetings, I use auto captions (subtitles) to follow what is being said but, in order for the captions to work, the host Zoom account must have the ‘caption’ option selected.

Would the ACW account have captions enabled?

I didn’t know. 

I emailed Jane Brocklehurst to ask. Despite all that moving the event online probably meant for the organiser, Jane found time to reply to me.

She didn’t know about the captions, and suggested I ask Dan Cooke, who does the tech.

He didn’t know either, but – and it’s an important but – he said he’d look into it. Which he did, and he enabled the captions. Furthermore, he arranged to get to the meeting early, and try out the captions with me. Just to check they worked.

They did work, and I was able to follow everything that happened on screen.

Why am I telling you all this?

To let anyone else who might need captions know that ACW online events are accessible for you.

And because I want to celebrate the ACW committee. I was only one amongst many, yet they found time to support ‘one’.

‘Did the closed caption option work? You seemed to be following along but it’s hard to tell.’

Jane B even saw one (me) amongst faces-in-boxes on her screen! And her email continued:

‘It makes me so happy to think ACW could include you in writers’ days.’

Fiona L checked in with me to see how I’d got on, too.

It was my niece’s seventh birthday on Tuesday. As she waited impatiently-patiently to open her presents, I asked her if she’d had a good day at school. Did your class sing Happy Birthday to you? Did you give out your sweets?

A hasty ‘yes’ to both, followed by her best news from the day.

Eyes lighting up with excitement, she said, ‘I saw Daddy in my classroom!'

(He goes to help with a Lego club for the older children.)

The highlight of her day was seeing her dad.

 The Lord your God is in your midst...

Zephaniah 3:17

I love seeing Abba God. It’s always special.

I see Him – as I’m sure many of us do – in and through the ACW committee.

They are a literal Godsend.

Thank you to each one.

I thank my God every time I remember you.

Philippians 1:3