Getting Old

At 11:22 AM 12/24/2000 , Sean B. Palmer wrote:
>So, William, what is it really like to get old? I feel that we often forget
>to include "age" as a disability (too young or too old), in much the same
>way as Ann steers us in the direction of cognitive disabilities.

I think we need to be careful about the terminology here; age (old
or young) is not a disability, it's merely a state of being. 
Disabilities are a state of being as well, but are a specific
subset.  The arguments for "increased accessibility for people
with disabilities" are weakened whenever we adopt a well-meaning
principle that makes most people effectively "disabled."

For example, if I claimed I was "disabled" because I am about
30 lbs overweight, or because I need glasses to see, or because
I never learned how to play the piano, then the definition of
disability loses its meaning and power.  While that may seem like
a good thing -- realizing that we all have varying abilities --
it also serves to engender skepticism in many people who will
look at the so-called "disability" and then conclude that most
anyone claiming a disability may have as weak a claim as mine.

This has been seen before, in the US, when dealing with people 
who need public support to avoid starving.  Because there are
visible, but rare, cases of welfare abuse, many people have
decided that welfare itself is wrong because all it does is
help lazy cheats who want a free ride -- even though the majority
of people on the public dole are honest people who simply lack
money or the ability to earn it.

Now, that's not to say that age isn't a condition we should
concern ourselves with -- at Edapta, we consider aged users to
be a primary target demographic for our edaptations -- but to
declare that the state of being aged is inherently a disability
will just confuse the issue.  Especially as there are a number
of age-related changes which are not "disabling" at all, but
rather just simply -differences- (such as cognitive changes
related to age) -- and especially as the specific effects of
age will vary by person.

When someone becomes disabled -- due to age or otherwise -- then
clearly they fall into the realm of someone with a disability!

Anyway, back to guidelines...

--Kynn


-- 
Kynn Bartlett  <kynn@idyllmtn.com>                    http://kynn.com/
Sr. Engineering Project Leader, Reef-Edapta       http://www.reef.com/
Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain Internet   http://www.idyllmtn.com/
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Received on Sunday, 24 December 2000 14:57:17 UTC