- From: Kynn Bartlett <kynn-edapta@idyllmtn.com>
- Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 21:13:19 +0200
- To: love26@gorge.net (William Loughborough), Al Gilman <asgilman@iamdigex.net>, w3c-wai-gl@w3.org
At 11:52 AM -0700 10/12/00, William Loughborough wrote: >We're all disabled - there is no "last 20%" of some spurious >demographic category. We're talking about the accessibility of the >Web that informs/connects us all and we'd best not be into claiming >that this is some "do-good" undertaking to help a handful of poor >unfortunates. I don't disagree with this approach, but it's also possible for us to lose track of the human factor with an approach which says we are all "equally disabled in different ways" and we are talking about completely abstract things. I don't think we are doing this for "poor unfortunates" and I agree that there is a universal benefit for everyone. However, it is very important that we not lose track of the actual people we are talking about, and those people -- for the purposes of this specific activity (WAI) -- are people with disabilities such as eyes which don't work as well as quote "normal" unquote, legs which etc., eyes which etc., and so on. A general approach is good, but on the other hand, we have specific people with specific needs which aren't being met due to artificial barriers to access which have been introduced through thoughtless decisions. I don't currently fall into the demographic which faces barriers. Other people do, as a result of their disabilities. I think we need to keep the people in mind -- not as "poor unfortunates" but as people just like you or me who shouldn't have those unnecessary artificial barriers thrown up in front of them. -- -- Kynn Bartlett <kynn@idyllmtn.com> http://www.kynn.com/
Received on Thursday, 12 October 2000 15:16:41 UTC