[gui-talk] The Mosen Excursion

[W. Nick Dotson]

As someonewho's worked in thefield since 1985, I agree.  However, there are whole groups who have it as an almost "theology" or part of their 
worldview/cosmology that that's part of the way the world works--in fact, I believe there's one advocacy organization which almost goes that way, although 
they've been generous to a fault with some sighted folks adopted into our community.  Other "self-defined" minority groups often think the same way.  Irving 
Goffman's book "Stigma" has many salient insights on such things.

Nick

On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 08:20:48 -0400, Hoffman, Allen wrote:

 The Mosen Excursion
 All:
 Just something to think about regarding Deborah Kendrick's article regarding the energy in the blindness community over Mr. Mosen's employer change.  
In her article she theorizes or postulates that the energy is due to the fact that Mr. Mosen is blind.  While she may be right in her theory, if so it is troubling to 
me, and should be something blind folks might consider as they move forward in their continuing love affairs with technological solutions.
   
 The assistive technology marketplace is small, with a small set of vendors, and a small set of customers.  Government purchasers are a significant portion 
of the buyers, and educational government buyers are a large portion of that.  The market is not consumer electronics and has no intention currently to 
become that.  Would we base a buying decision regarding a consumer electronics item on the fact that, company X has fifty employees who are blind, and 
company Y has two hundred? 
 So what?  If people in the blindness community are upset about one person who is blind changing alliances, then their analysis of how to select products 
for their use is flawed from the start.  Personally I don't assume that a product will be better designed by someone who is blind than someone who isn't, and 
to think so is throwing in a whole load of assumptions about both sets of people.  I think that often people who are not blind don't take the time to 
understand how items really do need to function for people who are blind, but then again, people who are blind often don't take that time for themselves 
either.  its a "roll the dice" situation really--depends on the person, not the disability! 
 Maybe the lesson learned here is that disability-centric thinking can be problematic when applied too often.
 one of my general principles I always try and promote in life is that the world should work for everyone--universal accessibility.  HumanWare has taken the 
approach of making a specialized product that does not really ride on the electronics market, as their interfaces are all proprietary, while Freedom Scientific 
has gone another path.  Both approaches produce proprietary, expensive solutions.  its a preference, but please, lets not base a preference on the 
concept that there's a person who is blind in one camp as opposed to the other.
 Just my ten cents worth--inflation ya know.