- From: (unknown charset) Kelly Ford <kford@teleport.com>
- Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 18:12:07 -0800 (PST)
- To: (unknown charset) "w3c-wai-ig@w3.org" <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
The following is forwarded with the permission of the author. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 16:10:47 -0800 From: Randy Tamez <r_tamez@pacbell.net> To: kford@mail.teleport.com Subject: Response to Editorial Hello, My name is Randy Tamez and below is my response to Mr. Raspberry's editorial about my complaint for access to the Internet. This response was sent to the editor yesterday. I am not sure if it will get printed. Thanks, Randy Response to Common Sense/Blind Surfing: Mr. Raspberry: I came across your recent editorial citing my complaint against the way most Web-sites provide access for people with disabilities. I am trying to understand your frustration and resentment of people who have disabilities. I do not resent people who can drive, see, or climb mountains. We all have differences and these should be embraced. What I do resent is being locked out of any public facility when my fellow citizens are allowed the freedom to enter and exit at will. Of course, we all enter facilities differently, some use a wheelchair, crutches, stroller, service animal, or technology. The technology is here today to provide ease of access to the Internet and Web-site design. Therefore, no reason exists to lock me and others out of this wonderful medium. Mr. Raspberry, I would ask and challenge you to become blind for one week. This can be done with special eyewear. During this challenge, all of your daily activities would be conducted as a person with a visual disability. This includes working, driving, eating, reading documents, locating facilities and locations, and surfing the Internet. Perhaps doing this may provide you with an education as to how people with disabilities conduct their daily lives. This may also change your anger toward a class of people who are not part of the power structure and must rely on the government for change. After conducting this exercise, your readers would be most anxious to read about your experience. Martin Luther King Jr. made statements in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” which applies in the situation with access. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. … Whatever effects one directly, effects all indirectly. … Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. … Individuals may see the when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people. Mr. Raspberry, have we not learned anything about segregation and the damage it does to one’s self image? By your proposal that people with disabilities use a van rather then the public bus, people use the telephone rather then the Internet, sit at predesignated seats at restaurants, this is segregation and denying citizens equal access to programs, services, and facilities that are afforded to people without disabilities. This has the sting of discrimination. Your proposal has the distinct ring of “Separate but Equal”. Prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, this was the case in society. However, separate was the reality and equal was an illusion. The technology is here today that can ensure people like me full access to the benefits and information the Internet has to offer. I ask you to reexamine your position toward people with disabilities. A disability can happen to anyone at any time. There is nothing I can do about my disability, but technology can assist with the improvement of our lives. It is obvious that the biggest obstacle to access is the attitudinal barrier. Randy Tamez
Received on Monday, 23 November 1998 21:13:25 UTC