- From: William Loughborough <love26@gorge.net>
- Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 06:39:50 -0800
- To: Chris Maden <crism@oreilly.com>
- CC: "w3c-wai-ig@w3.org" <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Chris: "... Play up the "curb-cut" philosphy..." WL:: It is interesting that the physical curb-cuts are mainly in place because of governmental action and that it took decades and billions to make them widespread enough to make them a significant part of the lives of people using wheelchairs. In fact there was almost *no* "education" about their importance and few recognized that their main use would be for strollers, shopping carts, and skateboards (the three s's of modern society). Chris: "This message *does* work, but it takes time and effort to grind it out." WL:: The evidence that "education" works in these contexts is, on the surface, appealing since it avoids confrontational ethics considerations but in practice the civil rights movement without Charles Sims and the Deacons for Defense and Justice (look it up!) - but only with "passive resistance" (whatever that is) and resonant voices - would still be all in vain like the Disability Rights Movement before the militancy of Ed Roberts and the others who participated in the 504 sit-ins, and wheelchairs chained to bus stops thirty years ago. Because we are concerned with (mostly) the Web aspect of the subject column we haven't addressed the even more horrible aspect of his piece that deals with bus lifts and the Greyhound Company's unconscionable tactics in delaying access for people with disabilities to the transport system - which not incidentally is only possible because of tax-supported highways. In part because one of our main allies in WAI matters is the disability community we must always bear in mind that in the same sense they have spoken out for our concerns (which often don't directly affect them) we must aid their efforts at access to the built environment. -- Love. ACCESSIBILITY IS RIGHT - NOT PRIVILEGE http://dicomp.pair.com
Received on Wednesday, 18 November 1998 09:41:26 UTC