Category Archives: Disability Issues

by | September 7, 2009 · 4:20 pm

Language does matter

I was saddened and felt smacked around the ears to hear Auckland lawyer Jeremy Bioletti use disability terms as a form of abuse today. He said on Radio NZ news at three o’clock “you would have to be deaf dumb and blind not to…” What he meant was that you would have to be really stupid. Why didn’t he just say that? Deaf and blind people aren’t any more stupid than anyone else. What makes it worse is that Deaf people can’t respond to abuse on radio.

It was even more unfortunate that he used the term in relation to the real and important human rights issue of human trafficking. He was obviously affronted in that particular instance, and I might well agree with him. But he probably wouldn’t use sexist or racist language in that context. And before I hear anyone accuse me of PC gone mad” I will remind them that no one likes to be gratuitously insulted. Human rights are nothing if not about respect and dignity. Please Mr Bioletti, remember it is not OK to protect the human rights of one group while slagging off another.

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Filed under Disability Issues, Disability Rights

by | August 21, 2009 · 9:53 am

Accessible software and applications

Ever since I worked as an equal employment opportunity specialist I have felt conflicted about IT in the workplace as both an enabler and a barrier for disabled people.

My concerns at that time, which was a while ago, were centred on the development of new stereotypes. A person who uses a wheelchair can be given a job where they sit at a computer and voila! ‘Problem’ solved. The other stereotype is a blind or partially sighted person just needs a computer with a screen reader and/or magnification and voila! That ‘problem’ is solved. Of course life is not that simple. A piece of technology is not an excuse to opt out of any other workplace considerations.

As time went on another barrier began to appear, and this was largely before emails and the Internet became everyday tools. Accessibility of software and applications became a more urgent consideration as they became more sophisticated, especially when the graphical user interface became the default option. It also took assistive technology a while to catch up.

Today most large organisations have their own intranets. There is an increasing amount of specialist software and applications for particular industries and sectors, contributing to a whole set of new barriers presented to a disabled job seeker.

While attention has been given to making web sites more accessible, at least in the public service where adherence to government web standards is mandatory, there is no compulsion to make internal applications and systems such as intranets more accessible.

It was interesting therefore to find a UK survey of attitudes to accessibility in both the public and private sectors

The Survey of attitudes to accessible ICT was conducted by Bloor Research in conjunction with HeadStar and Ability Magazine.  Researchers investigated current and future attitudes to ICT accessibility and the drivers and barriers to improvement.

They found that

“There appears to be a significant variation in attitudes with the bottom fifth of organisations having little or no accessibility at present and no plans to improve in the future whilst, at the top end, about 50% of organisations claim that more than 70% of their systems are accessible, and this number increases through the end of 2010. Variation was also found between internal and externally facing systems with external systems, in general, being more accessible.”

Our experience at AccEase within New Zealand would certainly support this finding.

“The survey also compared the public and private sector and found some variation. The public sector external systems were more accessible than the private sector but the opposite was true for internal systems. These differences are probably caused by the e-gov pressure for citizen access on the one side and inaccessible internal legacy systems in the public sector on the other.”

I wonder what would be the situation here. I suspect it might be similar.

It went on to say

“When looking at the drivers for accessibility improvements the clear leaders were legal directives and corporate social responsibility. On the other hand, increased revenue or cost savings were not seen as drivers. The biggest single barrier to accessibility was legacy systems; this was particular true of the public sector. This was followed, not surprisingly, by budget constraints. These were followed by lack of management support, inadequate tools and lack of training.”

Perhaps simple ignorance is part of the equation. It always surprises me that people are very reluctant to accept that 20% of the population, plus the 14% or so of people who are over sixty five might actually need access, and that the community generally might benefit from their having it!

Readers of the paper, (which is freely downloadable) are invited to please login and post a review.

It would be interesting to see similar research conducted in New Zealand.

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Filed under Disability Issues, Disability Rights, Information Accessibility, Web Accessibility

by | July 29, 2009 · 1:45 pm

Disabled Parenting

Our younger daughter is about to set off on her great OE in the footsteps of her sister.  I am a real wuss and cry each time one of them leaves home to go flatting, never mind leaving the country! I do admit to not missing the mess in the bathroom, the long hair in the shower plughole and the fussy eating. But they are very minor things in the scheme of things

I am happy to see her spread her wings and to pursue that right of passage for young Kiwis, I don’t know what it will be like to have both our daughters offshore and I dread it. Thank heavens for email, Facebook and skype. When I did my OE it was a aerogramme once a week and an occasional postcard if you were lucky. And you NEVER phoned home unless it was a life or death situation or you had completely run out of money which amounted to the same thing. But it will be hard not being able to hang out with and hug one of them at least.

Because I am thinking about them a lot more even than usual at present I have been reflecting on parenting, and for me that means reflecting on being a disabled parent. How fortunate I have been to have my girls. Unlike many disabled mothers I have had a supportive husband and family, and lovely plunket nurses. No-one ever questioned my right to be a mother, and I have never been in a position so precarious that the powers that be thought it necessary to take my children away from me simply because of my impairment and/or because I could not pay for the support I needed.

All of these things happen to disabled women everywhere. Sadly New Zealand has little support for disabled mothers beyond the services available for all women. They are not always the most supportive for disabled parents.

But our girls have been my best and most loyal supporters, even when they were little. They have never been ashamed of my impairment in front of their friends, (apart from the usual teenage stage of not wanting to be seen with their parents,) They have always accepted without question or negative comment my disabled friends, and even in the worst of teenage tantrums never showed resentment about the things I haven’t been able to do with or for them as they have grown up.

When they were little the dreaded “h” word “handicapped” was the equivalent of the dreaded “f” word, not to be uttered under any circumstances. They have even been known to rebuke their teachers for using it.

I have tried not to burden them with extra cares because of my impairment and was furious when a woman bus driver, after seeing my ‘blind’ bus pass said to one of them “now you look after your Mummy” She was only six! I wanted to say “I am the mother she is the child. I look after her!” but decided she wouldn’t get it.

So, my dear godwits fly away. Enjoy your freedom. Have fun and learn about the world but come back home before too long.

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Filed under Disability Issues, Disability Rights, Travel, Women

by | July 21, 2009 · 10:00 am

Language disables us

I am really fed up with the media’s insistence on describing people with a variety of impairments as ‘special,” “special people,” “special children.” Yuk yuk yuk! In my cynical view “special” is simply a euphemism for “second class.” We are no more “special” than any other human being. We may have particular needs because of our impairments, but others have them for other reasons also, because they are refugees, battered women, orphaned children etc. They are not generally referred to as “special” in the same patronising way disabled people are.

This morning an otherwise interesting item on Morning Report was marred by the constant gratuitous use of that word, and not by the person being interviewed either.

We have to challenge it each time it is used. It places disabled people very firmly in a ghetto. No organisation associated with disabled people should get away with using this term. Either tell it like it is or simply use everyday language. There is nothing wrong with using the term “disabled people” if it is relevant – we are disabled by society – or even, if we must, people with disabilities, or just plain ordinary people.

If we have human rights, and we most surely do, then we must expect journalists and others to use the language of rights, and give every human being the respect and dignity they deserve by using dignified, respectful and neutral language.

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Filed under Disability Issues, Disability Rights