RE: Olympics.com (was: Re: apology on "alt" tags)

> > From:	Sean Lindsay [SMTP:seanlindsay@disabilitytimes.com]
> >
> > IBM's Olympics.com infrastructure is also being provided for the
> > Paralympic
> > Games.
> 	[DJW:]  Why are you considering it acceptable for the main
> 	olympics to exclude the blind :-).  There was an article in
> 	today's paper about someone variously described as "blind"
> 	and with "90% vision loss" qualifying for the main 1500m
> 	event.

[SL]

I'm not sure why you're using a smiley icon. Surely you can't possibly
conclude, from my comments in this forum, that I would consider it
acceptable for the Olympics.com site to exclude the Blind? Do I need to put
"SOCOG Sucks" in my signature?

I was trying to make the point that SOCOG and its contractor IBM were
responsible for building an information infrastructure that would serve the
Paralympics as well as the Olympics. So they knew years ahead of time that
they would be providing information on events for Blind athletes. Surely
no-one can then argue they were ignorant that there would be Blind website
visitors as well.

I sincerely hope that Marla Runyan, the first legally blind athlete to
qualify for the Olympics, wins Gold, Gold, Gold. I'm sure that some
journalist somewhere will make the connection, and run a story on whether Ms
Runyan could even read the news of her win on the Olympics.com site.

Sean Lindsay

Received on Thursday, 28 September 2000 07:58:32 UTC