[thelist] Is this a list?

Amanda Kuek amandakuek at gmail.com
Tue Sep 27 21:38:27 CDT 2005


Ian,

The only courtesy I would've expected from someone attempting to kick
my head in is the decency to do so in private. As you have not
extended that courtesy to me, I will reply in kind.

Firstly:

> How on earth can you "know" that two week's from now someone's
> grandma/uncle/boss/colleague is not going to also want to give the
> couple a gift, and that they do not have a relevant disability?
...
> You "know" no such thing.

How could you possibly assume my assumptions? How could you possibly
know, and so emphatically too, what *I* know, better than I do? How
could you know what the bride and groom, who are my best friends, are
intending to do better than *they* do?

> You personally know every single person in the category of personal
> acquaintance, business contact, work colleague and family member, for
> both the bride and groom, and the precise nature of or absence of
> disability for every one? And have advance knowledge of every person
> they are going to meet in the months before the wedding?

Of course I don't. But that's not the issue here. The question is
whether I know every person who will be using the register I am
building. And the answer, which I KNOW, and you have simply assumed
you know, is, quite simply, YES. It is a password-protected site for a
very small wedding, and I know everyone who is going to be given an
invitation to both the wedding and the register.

I will illustrate with an example. If I was having my mates over for
dinner, and I knew that my friend who was a phenylketonuriac was
bringing HIS friend who was allergic to peanuts, obviously I would go
out and get a drink which wasn't Coke, and provide an alternative to
the satay sauce. But knowing, as I do, that all the friends who are
invited to dinner can eat anything, I wouldn't bother catering for
things I don't *need* to cater for.

> All web sites need to be accessible. Nothing will change until people
> like us stop using self-deluding statements like your assertion, and
> just do the job right in the first place without bitching about the
> extra millisecond's thought it requires.

Not all websites need to be accessible. This one, for example. My
statement was not self-deluding; it was precise. I actually DO happen
to know that NO ONE who will be viewing this site will be using a
screen reader or have poorer motor skills, etc. Neither was I
bitching.

> As I said, sorry for being Mr Cross here, but I work with a lot of
> people with disabilities through our user testing activities, count many
> of them as friends, and I know the effect this kind of carelessness has
> on their lives.

This paragraph has the following thought of "...and you don't". Do you
think you are the only people who works or has worked with people who
have disabilities? The bride works with people who have disabilities
every day of her life. I myself worked for 4 years at an organisation
for vision-impaired people. A friend of mine who's been legally blind
since he was born (and incidentally works as a web developer)
absolutely *loathes* sentiments like "I know more about people with
disabilities than you, some of them are my best friends". "We're not
'them', we're not pawns" he used to say to me. "We're all just us".

> Horsefeathers.

Go feather your own high horse. I appreciate that you are very
passionate about this issue, and that is very admirable indeed, but in
your reply this has soured into a kind of misplaced self-righteousness
which frankly disgusts me.

> Statements like yours really make me angry.

And ill-directed sanctimonious personal attacks on a publicly
available mailing list really make me angry.


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