Re: The second thing I don't like about the WAI-IG list

At 01:18 a.m. 01/03/99 -0600, Charles F. Munat wrote:
>The fallacy of your argument, Kynn, is obvious. You have
>stated that you are not disabled. Yet you obviously are a
>passionate advocate for accessibility. Is this really only a
>selfish pursuit for business gain, or are you in fact an
>ethical, moral person? My guess is the later.

I actually don't do this _just_ because of the disabled.  For the
most part, I'm interested in accessibility because when I do
something, I believe in doing it _right_.  Making an accessible
page is making an HTML page _right_.

Sure, it benefits the disabled -- but it also benefits the search
engines, the web tv users, etc etc etc.  Y'know, the list you don't
want to hear about anymore. :)

I'm a web author first and foremost.  I'm the president of the
HTML Writers Guild.  In my everyday life, I have little to no
contact with handicapped people, and I have never been involved
with any charity or organization that is dedicated to improving
things for the disabled -- outside of my activities regarding web
accessibility.

So, I think I'd say that I'm NOT doing it because it's morally and
ethically right to be nice to blind folks; I think the best you can
come up with is that I believe it's ethically right to do the best
job you can when making a web page.

[BTW, to those of you who _are_ "activists for disabled people"
or disabled yourself or whatever, this does not mean that I have
no interest in those issues; however, I am identifying my primary
motivations here and trying to explain that not everyone in this
fight automatically is here for the same reasons.  I'm not _against_
organizations that help the disabled; I simply have never devoted
my time to that.]

--
Kynn Bartlett  <kynn@idyllmtn.com>                   http://www.kynn.com/
Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain Internet      http://www.idyllmtn.com/
Design an accessible web site:                http://www.kynn.com/+fedweb
Tell your friend a celebrity wrote to you:      http://www.kynn.com/+imdb
Enroll now for my online CSS course!             http://www.kynn.com/+css

Received on Monday, 4 January 1999 02:05:09 UTC