- From: Kynn Bartlett <kynn-edapta@idyllmtn.com>
- Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 14:12:39 -0700
- To: "Charles F. Munat" <chas@munat.com>, "WAI Guidelines WG" <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
At 1:40 PM -0700 2001/8/20, Charles F. Munat wrote: >I think that it *is* possible, to some degree, for non-cognitively-disabled >people to appreciate some of the frustrations faced by people with cognitive >disabilities. Here is how I do it: [...] >Matt May was saying something about this to me the other night (but we were >both a little buzzed, so maybe I wasn't comprehending him properly). Someone once suggested to me that getting stoned/drunk to excess might be the equivalent of "a blindfold to simulate blindness" for certain cognitive disabilities -- sure it doesn't really hit what it's like, but it might help you get a sense of context through personal experience as to what it feels like a -little- bit. I am not sure if that person was joking or not. :) I agree with your point that just closing your eyes doesn't give a true sense of what a blind person's life is like -- but I've also seen how many perspectives can be changed by something like that, too. The first exercise in my web accessibility course is a "disable your access to the web" hands-on exercise, in which students turn off images, sounds, scripting, etc, and disable their pointing device (assuming the user has no disabilities). Does this exactly or even partially duplicate what our friends with real disabilities go through? No, not at all, and it's not meant to. It doesn't represent what it's really like to have a disability at all, when using the web. However, what it -does- do is build empathy and identification -- most web authors have never really thought about what it's like to not have full access to the web. By personalizing it -- by them having to EXPERIENCE difficulties, instead of just hearing about it -- these web designers, over the rest of the course, can look back and remember how it made them feel, the frustration they had, the difficulties they encountered, and resolve that they want to remove those barriers both for themselves and for someone else. Until it's made -real- to them, it will only be an intellectual exercise; until someone suffers through web sites they can't use, web accessibility will just be one on a list of checkpoints and statutory language. "Walking a mile" is where we can bring the point home. --Kynn PS: I had an idea for an excellent project as spin-off supporting material for WCAG 2.0 -- a checkpoint-by-checkpoint multimedia experience that shows exactly what happens if you don't follow the checkpoint, expressed in ways that bring the importance home to the average web developer. -- Kynn Bartlett <kynn@reef.com> Technical Developer Liaison Reef North America Accessibility - W3C - Integrator Network Tel +1 949-567-7006 ________________________________________ BUSINESS IS DYNAMIC. TAKE CONTROL. ________________________________________ http://www.reef.com
Received on Monday, 20 August 2001 17:27:40 UTC