Re: Disability statistics

> 
> When I know how to build accessible sites, I have the democratic duty to
> build them, no matter what it costs.

I think you mean "moral".  Unless a democratically elected government imposes
laws to the above effect, I think there is no democratic duty.

However, businesses don't even assume a moral duty; their duty is to do
what their shareholders want, which is generally to maximise profits;
legitimate businesses generally do this by keeping just within the law
(or at least not to far out to impose a serious risk to them) and not
doing things that discourage customers; organised crime does it by
breaking laws, as well as moral codes.

As to cost, cost is a way of quantifying priorities.  These priorities
can be between different moral duties, as well as between the moral and
the unethical.  Money spent on an accessible web site may be money not
spent on pollution control.

As shareholders are often pension funds, the moral conflict can be between
preventing poverty in the old and achieving accessibility for the
disabled.  (There is also a moral duty to honour ones word, so ingnoring
the shareholders creates a conflict.)

Received on Sunday, 16 December 2001 11:50:52 UTC