Tue Dec 30 22:27:40 PST 2008
Service Dog Task Generator
It's been entirely too long since my
last blog update, so I'm making amends by providing a brand-new
tool to the service dog community: the Service Dog Task
Generator.
The task generator was an idea I've had in the back of my head for a very long time. I had an on-list discussion way back in 2006 about my idea for providing a "Mad Libs" type tool to enable folks to communicate more effectively about how service dogs can help with invisible disabilities.
While the tool is certainly imperfect, it seems like it would be difficult to fill it out in such a way that it wouldn't clearly describe a legitimate task or function. Contrariwise, if one can't fill in all the blanks (especially the what and why), it seems likely that one has an emotional support animal (ESA) and not a trained service dog (SD).
Just like the real Mad Libs, you can certainly enter nonsense, create a narrative that is grammatically broken, or fail to be honest with yourself about the results. Nevertheless, I'm confident that this will help the majority of people who use it.
For the geeks amongst the readership, one notable feature of this tool is that it uses HTTP GET requests. This enables people to bookmark their work for the future; they can review it or edit it at some later point in time without having to create a profile, store a cookie, save state on the server, or other similar shenanigans. In other words, the bookmark itself contains all the data required to reconstruct the task narrative at any point in the future.
If you didn't understand anything I said in the last paragraph, never mind. Just enjoy the tool, and please let me know if you find it helpful!
The task generator was an idea I've had in the back of my head for a very long time. I had an on-list discussion way back in 2006 about my idea for providing a "Mad Libs" type tool to enable folks to communicate more effectively about how service dogs can help with invisible disabilities.
While the tool is certainly imperfect, it seems like it would be difficult to fill it out in such a way that it wouldn't clearly describe a legitimate task or function. Contrariwise, if one can't fill in all the blanks (especially the what and why), it seems likely that one has an emotional support animal (ESA) and not a trained service dog (SD).
Just like the real Mad Libs, you can certainly enter nonsense, create a narrative that is grammatically broken, or fail to be honest with yourself about the results. Nevertheless, I'm confident that this will help the majority of people who use it.
For the geeks amongst the readership, one notable feature of this tool is that it uses HTTP GET requests. This enables people to bookmark their work for the future; they can review it or edit it at some later point in time without having to create a profile, store a cookie, save state on the server, or other similar shenanigans. In other words, the bookmark itself contains all the data required to reconstruct the task narrative at any point in the future.
If you didn't understand anything I said in the last paragraph, never mind. Just enjoy the tool, and please let me know if you find it helpful!