paternalistic presumptions (was Re: posted without comment)

i have to agree with DavidW -- there is a presumption -- even on sites
which are supposedly designed for use by the blind and on many of the 
sites of agencies or organizations that deal with a specific disability
-- that someone else (read: quote an able bodied individual unquote) 
other than the ultimate recipient/beneficiary of the product will be 
performing the purchasing of adaptive technology or the requesting of 
materials in an alternate format...

this is an endemic problem, and extends to the web the everyday 
reality of those who are quote perceptively unquote or quote 
obviously unquote disabled (which is a word i usually encase in 
quotes) -- when someone with obvious visual signifiers of a 
disability (be it a white cane, a guide/service dog, a wheelchair
or mechannised scooter) asks an individual a question, whether it
be in a store, a doctor's office, or at a bureaucracy, three or 
four times out of five, the person addressed directly by the 
person with a disability, responds to whomever might be 
accompanying -- or merely standing near -- the individual with a 
disability, rather than address the questioner directly...

just my 2 cents (american),
gregory.
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CYNIC, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, 
not as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians of 
plucking out a cynic's eyes to improve his vision.
                         -- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
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          Gregory J. Rosmaita, oedipus@hicom.net
UBATS - United Blind Advocates for Talking Signs: http://ubats.org/
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Received on Saturday, 28 July 2007 17:34:16 UTC