raison d'etre

Every once in a while I feel the irresistible urge to rave a bit about why 
we're here, sometimes with the still-rather-radical notion that we live in 
a society where "disability" is regarded with both fear and loathing.

<rant>In a post to his Webwatch list Kelly Ford says: "Given the track 
record of poor accessibility, don't you think it would have been prudent to 
investigate accessibility as a main component of the Olympic web site as 
I'm sure other criteria were investigated and demanded to be working? 
Failure to do this and running from the issue at every opportunity 
demonstrates malice to me."

I hang with blind guys a lot and the experiences in everyday situations 
make this proposition no longer "radical" but "real". In the case of 
"developmentally disabled" folks it is even more unseemly, vicious and 
altogether inhumane how they are regarded and treated. When Mary Frances 
Platt at the May Media Meeting in Louisville last year pointed out that the 
most important reasons for a Disability Rights Movement were based on the 
undeniable fact that there is a powerful movement in our society to 
incarcerate and even eliminate people with disabilities (sometimes in the 
guise of "curing" disability entirely), she wasn't just whistlin' Dixie.

The task of providing access to the Web as a read/write medium is very 
important to the economy but more to our humanity. The "enlightened 
self-interest" of inclusion is a basis for all our activities in the 
Authoring Tools Working Group. </rant>

--
Love.
                 ACCESSIBILITY IS RIGHT - NOT PRIVILEGE