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Archive for October, 2007

I Don’t Care About Blind People

Friday, October 26th, 2007

That’s a provocative title but that’s the way I hear it when someone stands up and says “I don’t care about blind people!” – seriously?

Me? I actually do care about blind people AND poor people AND those with limited literacy AND people born overseas. I care first because its a moral issue. The moral issue is that everyone, to the best of my current ability, deserves to be able to access the web sites I’m involved in building.

I care second because I have a legal obligation to develop web sites which comply with WCAG 1.0, the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Anti Discrimination Act 1998. I am also aware there is a global progression toward regulations for accessibility (for example section 508 in the United States) and similar laws through Europe. Look at Bruce McGuire versus SOCOG in Australia and recently the class action against Target overseas.

Finally I care because blind people, disabled people and EVERY people are potential customers or receivers of my marketing message. My client’s marketing message! Bums on seats and hopefully sales conversions or successful dissemination of information. Oh and Google indexing is handy!

I don’t particularly care if you are making a personal blog – tiny text your wingnuts clockwise! Blink until you get arrested for actual bodily harm!

I DO CARE if you are a business, a service or a government body. If you still stand in front of me and say “I Don’t Care About Blind People” – either morally, legally or economically – then its entirely your choice. But usually your reason turns out to be either ignorance or laziness – either you don’t know how to achieve accessibility or its too difficult for you to bother.

Ethical, economical and legal are the three reasons you should provide accessibility

About the Author

Steven Clark Steven Clark - the stand up guy on this site

My name is Steven Clark and my passions are business, web development, photography and writing. My current CV [PDF 775KB] discusses relevant work history and interests. Currently I'm in the second half of a post-graduate university degree of MBA (Journalism and Media Studies) at the University of Tasmania.

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My fine art photography is available online at Steven Clark Studio. You may also enjoy my photo blog Walk a Mile in my Shoes.

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Currently Reading The Accidental Guerrilla by David Kilcullen

Late last year I watched an address to the Australian National Press Club from counter-terrorism expert and author of The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One , David Kilcullen. In that address he mentioned the period after World War 2 when, in retrospect, we had wars against colonialisation as countries pushed back against dominating forces. Similarly, when we look back at the current wars we’ll see them as wars against globalisation – people pushing back against the tide of world wide Americanisation and globalised culture. David Kilcullen is there to inform us that what the American government are group-labeling global terrorists are more often than not local insurgents with local concerns. Understanding this crucial point and unraveling the complexity of the enemy is crucial to America's success in the field.