- From: Kynn Bartlett <kynn-edapta@idyllmtn.com>
- Date: Sun, 04 Nov 2001 10:02:31 -0800
- To: Demonpenta2@aol.com
- Cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
At 09:42 AM 11/4/2001 , Demonpenta2@aol.com wrote: > Undoubtedly; But at the same time, most people still have the sense of immortality (when it comes to being or becoming disabled) that society traditionally associates with people my age. "No, it won't happen to me." or "Well, I'm not disabled now; Why should I care?" > Any ideas on how to beat that one, Kynn? In all seriousness -- there's no universal arguments that win out when it comes to web access for people with disabilities. If someone is stubbornly against it, I have no magic mantras you can recite that will change their minds! I think for most people it really is an ethical decision, as Joe Clark stated, and then a legal decision after that. Numbers and facts and figures can be used to justify the decision, but in truth we actually will get farther if we say something like this: The web has the potential to be a very enabling mechanism for people with disabilities to communicate, to receive services and information, and to participate in society as equals with everyone else. We have a choice as to whether we want to help web live up to that potential for ALL members of our new digital society, or if we want to exclude certain audiences simply because we're ignorant. If you want to learn more, let's talk about web accessibility. All the benefits, all the stats, all the "good arguments" basically boil down to whether or not people will do the right thing, making a specific ethical choice to consider people with disabilities as being as important to the web as people without. If someone makes the choice that their users with disabilities are NOT as important as the users without, then the battle's basically over. Well, except for laws, which was the second motivating factor Joe mentioned -- the legal argument. Because most of the world has very clearly and definitively proven to be historically opposed to caring about the needs of people with disabilities -- and because that historical precedent continues on the web -- there is quite often a need for governmental imposition of "the right thing" for the benefits of the citizenry. I personally wish it were not so; I'd be much more comfortable if everyone would willingly do what's right because it's right -- but I realize on this issue I'm somewhat hopelessly naive for thinking that would be universally true. My answer to you, John, is that I have no answer -- if someone simply won't value all users equally regardless of ability or disability, then I actually have little I can say to them. --Kynn -- Kynn Bartlett <kynn@reef.com> Technical Developer Liaison Reef North America Accessibility - W3C - Integrator Network ________________________________________ BUSINESS IS DYNAMIC. TAKE CONTROL. ________________________________________ http://www.reef.com
Received on Sunday, 4 November 2001 13:04:21 UTC