Home on Lanie: Faith, Tech, and Advocacy

The Context Window Tax: Why Autonomous Agents Break Low-Income Budgets

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

AI holds a lot of promise for disabled people. For anyone operating a body or a mind in manual mode, these systems can act as a literal cognitive prosthetic. They handle the execution logic that standard environments take for granted; they summarize mountains of dense text, automate multistep system tasks, and keep things moving forward when your own internal CPU cycles are completely saturated. If you’ve got a limited energy pool, the idea of offloading your executive function to an intelligent system isn’t just a gimmick. It’s a baseline accessibility requirement.

AI as a Second Brain

Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The productivity advice says: use a second brain. Pick a note-taking app, capture everything, link ideas, review weekly. Build a system and trust it.

I’ve tried most of the popular options. Notion collapsed under its own visual complexity. Obsidian’s graph view is a spatial nightmare for someone with topographical agnosia. Roam required too much upfront structure on days when I have nothing left for structure. Apple Notes doesn’t persist across my fragmented hardware setup.

No Home Base

Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

There’s no community that accepts my whole stack. Every space I enter runs me through a filter. Sometimes I get bounced on the disability check. Sometimes on the faith. Sometimes on the AI. I built Hermes Agent because I had nowhere else to go.

The Disclosure Trap #

I never know whether I should lead with my disability profile. The social cost is high regardless.

The Multiplicative Nature of Disability: Why 1+1 Equals a System Crash

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sourcing Note: The examples in this article are not hypotheticals. They come from my own captured daily logs, technical sessions, and lived experiences. For a plain-language breakdown of the physical mechanics behind my diagnoses, see my Human Terms summary.

The Comfortable Lie of the Sum #

There’s a model of disability that feels mathematically tidy and is almost entirely wrong.

It goes like this: a person has Disability A and Disability B. Their overall difficulty is therefore $A + B$. If we build an accommodation for A, we’ve reduced the total load to just $B$. Progress has been made. The spreadsheet balances. Everyone goes home feeling useful.

My Conditions in Human Terms

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This page is a reference for my family, friends, and colleagues. While I’ve documented my accessibility notes elsewhere, this list explains the mechanical and physical “why” behind my daily experience, with as little technical jargon where possible.

Allergies and Postnasal Drip #

Most people think of allergies as just sneezing or itchy eyes, but for me, they’re a physical barrier. My body produces a constant supply of extra mucus that doesn’t drain right. This mucus pools in my stomach, which makes my gastroparesis symptoms and nausea much worse. It also clogs my airway, which is already small, forcing me to breathe through both my nose and mouth just to get enough air. When I’m sleeping, this makes my sleep apnea even harder to manage. If I don’t use a heated tube with my breathing machine, my throat gets so dry and irritated that I can’t breathe well the next day.

Services

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I’m currently available for freelance accessibility, usability, and product feedback work. I test websites, apps, games, developer tools, and technical workflows from the perspective of a blind, autistic, and chronically ill assistive technology user.

My focus is practical. I help teams understand where real users get blocked, confused, overloaded, or excluded.

I don’t provide legal accessibility audits, WCAG certification, VPATs, or formal compliance sign-off. Instead, I provide lived-experience feedback on whether a product is actually usable, understandable, and humane.

Tools and Resources

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

People ask me a lot what I actually use day to day to get through work and life in a world that wasn’t built for me. This is my running list of tools and resources I trust and use often.

Some links on this page may be affiliate or referral links. That means I may earn a small commission or account credit if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. I only recommend things I have personally used or found genuinely helpful.

Teleporting Through the Code: Why I Traded Spatial Maps for Semantic Logic

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Broken Autopilot: Defining the Terrain #

Have you ever thought about how much of your life gets handled by background processes? For most people, basic functions like swallowing and breathing are automatic, handled by the system’s kernel without any conscious input. For me, these are manual system calls. I call this “Manual Mode.” I don’t have a background thread for swallowing. Every single swallow is a conscious execution; if I lose focus, I find myself choking or realizing I’ve stopped clearing my throat entirely. My breathing follows a similar logic. While my body technically keeps me alive, it doesn’t do it efficiently. If I’m deep in a coding problem, I forget the instruction to breathe deeply. My system starts running on shallow air, my intracranial pressure spikes, and I end up with a system crash in the form of a debilitating headache. Every breath is a manual command, and the CPU cycles required to keep my physical hardware running are cycles I can’t use for anything else.

Community & Advocacy

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My advocacy is rooted in the belief that technology should be an act of care. I lead several text-centric communities designed to reduce cognitive load and offer humane alternatives to traditional social media.

Multiple Disabilities Peer Support #

These groups, collectively known as MultAbilities, focus on the unique challenges of navigating overlapping disabilities.

MultAbilities (GroupMe) #

Our main outpost for people who prefer the simplicity of a linear text stream or SMS-based participation.

Building a Franken-System: When Ecosystems Fail Disabled Users

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Myth of the Seamless Ecosystem #

The modern tech industry is built on a specific promise: buy into one ecosystem, and your digital life will effortlessly sync.

But that convenience is a privilege. When you live with blindness, multi-system chronic illness, neurodivergence, and topographical agnosia (a spatial processing disability that prevents my brain from forming mental maps, making it as easy to get lost in a complex software menu as it is on a physical street), brand loyalty is a luxury. You can’t choose a platform simply because it integrates well. You choose a platform because it allows you to function. You have to constantly weigh the cognitive load of one operating system against the screen reader reliability of another.

About Lanie

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hi, I’m Lanie.

I’m a Christian, a blind, autistic, chronically ill backend learner and accessibility advocate. I provide freelance accessibility, usability, and product feedback from the perspective of someone who relies on assistive technology every day. My work is driven by a desire to make technology more inclusive, practical, and humane. I treat accessibility not just as a technical checkbox, but as a reflection of care, dignity, and faith.

My Learning Path #

I’m a self-paced Computer Science student. Because traditional education often doesn’t provide the accessibility and accommodations I need, I’ve built my own curriculum around logic, systems, and low-cognitive-load design. My current focus includes:

Accessibility Notes

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This page documents my consistent interaction model. My access needs aren’t just preferences; they’re the framework that makes programming, gaming, and digital life possible for me as a blind, neurodivergent, and chronically ill user.

What Works: The Persistent Text Model #

I thrive in systems that are text-first and keyboard-centric. Information has to be persistent so I can process it at my own pace.

Work and Learning

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t focus on building polished products for show. Most of my work is exploratory, rooted in lived experience, or focused on making systems hold up better in real life. This page highlights my active roles and the technical systems I’m currently working through.

Professional Usability Testing #

I work as a Freelance Accessibility Specialist and Usability Tester. My work includes identifying barriers that automated tools often miss, especially where multiple disabilities overlap.

Blind, Multiply Disabled, and Pushed Beyond Capacity: A Personal Narrative

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Content Note: This narrative discusses medical trauma and institutional harm.

Preface #

This is a personal narrative about my experience as a blind, multiply disabled student in a residential school setting. It reflects my lived experience and my understanding as an adult, informed by later medical and psychological evaluations.

This account isn’t intended as an attack on individual staff members. It’s an account of systemic failure, medical misattribution, and institutional decision-making, and of the long-term impact those failures have had on my health, functioning, and sense of safety.

The Case for Self-Paced Education

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction: Why Self-Paced Education Matters #

As someone with multiple disabilities, including total blindness, neurodivergence, and chronic health conditions, I’ve found that traditional education often fails to accommodate my learning needs. I’ve attempted college online four times and community college once in person. Each attempt came with major barriers that made it hard to succeed.

Barriers included rigid schedules, campuses that required physical navigation and mental mapping, fixed expectations around learning styles, a lack of understanding from educators on how to support diverse needs, and financial aid that was only available if I attended at least half-time. Those obstacles made it clear I needed a different approach to learning, one that actually fit my abilities and circumstances. That’s what pushed me toward self-paced education.

What It's Like Gaming as a Blind, Neurodivergent, Chronically Ill Woman

Sun, 08 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Gaming has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. From puzzles as a child to text-based adventures in school, games have always been a place of joy, challenge, and escape.

As a blind, neurodivergent, and chronically ill woman, finding games I can actually play and enjoy has become increasingly difficult. This post is for other disabled gamers, accessibility advocates, and developers who want to understand what accessibility looks like in practice, not just in theory.

Contact

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The best way to reach me is through the contact form below or on Mastodon.

Because I manage my life and work using energy-based planning, I’m selective about my commitments and may take a few days to respond. I value clear, direct, thoughtful communication.

Where to Find Me #

Mastodon: @RareBird15@allovertheplace.ca: My main social home base for accessibility advocacy and tech talk.
Facebook: RareBirdLanie: Where I share visual updates and community posts.
Professional: LinkedIn or GitHub.

Communication Preferences #

To respect my cognitive load and access needs: