Tagracadabra!

What the heck is Tagracadabra?

Tagracadabra.com is the official website of White Feather Interpreting, LLC, DBA White Feather Tales.

What a daunting task to come up with a catchy name for a website. (Or for that matter, a catchy header image. I know mine looks like a homicidal weed but really it's a magic wand.)

Choosing names for other things is so much simpler. If a painting of someone called Mona Lisa begs a sobriquet, any fool can come up with one (although I understand her name was really Lisa Gherardini). It would be equally unchallenging to decide on a title for a book about someone called Robinson Crusoe or for an anthology about the poems of Emily Bronte. But when the site is designed to discuss a diverse collection of topics, the task becomes more complex.

I am a sign language interpreter, an author, a captionist, an assistive technologies and alternate format specialist. I wanted to reflect those specialties in the domain name. I mulled over numerous possibilities that I ran by a couple of friends, whose aggregate response was, "Hmmmm". I then played with a variety of acronyms, all of which were un-imaginative and un-catchy. A couple, Access Software Systems (ASS) and Communication Resources for Access Providers (CRAP) were most decidedly not an option.

In the wee hours of a morning the word "tag" popped into my head and took root. After all, we interpreters and alt format specialist often tag team, and an author must tag team with editors, illustrators, publishers, and a host of other support specialists. Lots of "tag" domains were taken so I was stuck on tagsomething for weeks (tagsomething.com was available but just no - I do have standards).

Then I read a fascinating article about Amazon. Did you know that its founder Jeff Bazos almost named his business "Cadabra", as in abracadabra? When his lawyer misheard the word as "cadaver", he wisely dropped the idea.

The magic concept appeals to me. Yes, I know - interpreting, producing alt format, writing, are not really magic. They're a combination of skill and sweat and commitment. Yet, they're also a bit of magic. Of course some cad already registered abracadabra.com. However, from the womb of my mental drawing board, tagracadabra.com was born. By the way, there's also a tagracadabra.net and a tagracadabra.org, but those are just reserved in case some other cads want to grab my amazing creation for their own).

I'm guessing you're tongue-tripping over the name Tagracadabra. I can barely pronounce it or spell it myself. Too bad I'm not as wise as Jeff and therefore did not drop the Tagracadabra idea when I heard the hosting company techs mumble, "What did you say? Tagabada? Bagataba? Or my favorite, Baghdadaba? I also paid no heed to all the website gurus who say a domain name should be short, descriptive, and easy to use. You just can't always do what you should (if you're interested in other "should's" I challenge, head on over to Gadfly Journal).

So welcome to Tagracadabra, all you interpreters, alt format specialists, writers, readers, everyone who is passionate about communication, language, access for individuals with disabilities, books, children. Drop in, stay a while, contribute or just read - come as you are and do as you like, except...

Comment DOs and DON'Ts

If you want to dump random garbage or nasty stuff targeted at a specific person or product or company, or you're in search of funky socializing, move along, nothing to see here. (A more robust and even more boring legal sermonette is available on the Terms of Use page. It's not my fault - my lawyer makes me post it.)

Comments that don't include the above are most appreciated. They don't have to be nice or politically correct - when I'm fuming about some injustice, I don't always adhere to arbitrary nice rules - I just prefer your comments share my love of language and accessibility. To comment on this intro to Tagracadbra, type something in the Leave a Reply section at the bottom of this page and then click Post Comment.

Accessibility

I designed this website to be fully accessible. Aside from behind the scenes accessibility features, there are 2 accessibility options located in the pink area to the far right of the right sidebar: toggle high contrast, toggle font size. Mouseover reveals their labels. If you have low vision, I encourage you to use a proper screen magnifier such as ZoomText or Magic, or on a MAC its built-in magnifier. On a MAC you can also press Command + to increase font size. I bailed from the Windows environment years ago so I don't remember its accessibility shortcuts, and the last time I checked its built-in accessibility options were decidedly anemic. I have verified screenreader accessibility. I'm not a guru of VoiceOver and WindowEyes but I'm pretty adept at using Jaws. However, if you're a screenreader user and find accessibility issues here, please let me know so I can fix them forthwith.

The End

I learned the word "forthwith" from my favorite TV series Blue Bloods, where the characters use it at least once every couple of minutes to get things moving along quickly. Seems like the perfect word to end this long rant and move along.