Action Blog
Viewing entries tagged with 'disability'
Freedom of speech, accessibility and responsibility
As I'm sure I have stated more times than I've had hot dinners, I love everything about design and technology, but there is a worrying trend in the digital age that requires urgent attention.
Is disability the last taboo?
As I wander through the world trying to make it that little bit better, I am forever perplexed by how awkward so many people are around us disabled types. Sure, I don't expect people to have a detailed understanding of the machinations of living with the wide range and complexity of impairments that fall under the rather big banner of disability, but I would hope that there would be a little more compassion, tolerance and sensitivity when it comes to interacting with us.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The reality of Disability
I am amazed at just how resilient us human beings are, but I certainly don't want that resilience to make us desensitised when things are clearly wrong. The other day we set off to say goodbye to our son as he ascended the stairs of the bus to sleepover camp for the very first time. When we arrived at the drop off location, we were asked to wait with our son's luggage until the bus arrived. As this is a Jewish summer camp, it is ruled by a very different time algorithm called JMT, Jewish Mean Time, so the bus was invariably late: the kids hurried off to hang out, leaving the parents standing around watching their luggage. Typical.
Will Geeks and Peeps ever dance together?
A few weeks ago I attended the DevCSI Accessibility Hackdays. When I was first asked to participate, I thought they had accidentally asked the wrong person. My idea of a hackday was getting a whole bunch of developers together, feeding them a lot of meat, carbs and beer, and letting them get on with geeking out. They would work into the wee small hours and build a whole bunch of innovative cool stuff. Well, I will now hold my hand high and say that I could not have been more wrong.
Digital Inclusion in the Big Society: you can't legislate human nature
In my mission to further social inclusion, I have been observing the interplay between the third sector, disabled activists and government: whilst everyone involved seem to be going along with happenings in a matter of fact way, I have been sitting, watching and thinking "What the.....".
Disability and Eugenic Abortion: What is the value of a human life?
In our house, we have a regular Sunday routine: we heckle the TV whilst watching the weekly social, political and moral issues being debated on The Big Questions. There is always a discussion in our living room that follows, the length of which is determined by just how irked I get by one opinion or the other. But last Sunday was very different.
Disability awareness meet ignorance and stereotypes
I have been doing some observing of late, trying to understand what it is about disabled people that make some folk treat us like we are aliens. The old excuse of a previous altercation with an "angry disabled person" is a bit long in the tooth, but I do suspect that this stereotype is alive and well.
Living with a disability: can those who don't really understand?
I think it is pretty fair to assert that you can never really understand something until you actually experience it. It matters not whether it is the thrill of becoming a parent, the grief of losing someone you love or even the trivial delight that us girls get when we find that perfect pair of shoes.
Learning to let go: how disability reformed this control freak
I have always been a self-confessed control freak. Variations on this term have long been in my vernacular, dispensed willy nilly to excuse all sorts of obstinate behaviour or as a last vestige when things weren't quite going my way. And because I am a pretty decent person overall, these little quips have broadly been ignored or tolerated by most and thrown out with the emotional trash as one of life's little trade offs. And as I am always learning and striving to be a better person, this is not a characteristic that I am particularly fond of.
The relationship between disability and accessibility
I am in a bit of a quandary about the relationship between disability and accessibility. From the disability perspective, it is perfectly reasonable for disabled folk to expect things to be accessible. It is law in the UK, designed to sit within the wider framework of equality and human rights for all citizens, and that is certainly where I'm at. In addition to this, as the term disability covers almost one fifth of the UK population and is as wide and varied as a group that size can be, it is also perfectly reasonable that people whose broad needs can be somehow grouped and identified under different sub-categories in order to facilitate access, are able to do so.
Tag cloud
accessibility, apple, assistive technology, beauty, benefits, big society, burnley, carers, christmas, coping, digital inclusion, disability, disclosing disability, discrimination, dla, dwp, employment, esa, family, fashion, grieving, happiness, holidays, human rights, ignorance, inclusive design, inclusivity, independence, iphone, life, living with sight loss, love, pension, people, registration, respect, rp, sailing, shopping, sight loss, social inclusion, stereotypes, style, technology, travel, vi people, web accessibility, welfare rights, white cane, work capability assessment,
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