DCS Blogs Alert for: Disability discrimination act
Website Accessibility - Need and Basic Guidelines
By webmaster(webmaster)
Many website owners know that their website is available in the internet for visitors to access information but possibly may not know whether their website is easily accessible and even be unaware about Disability Discrimination Act
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Webmaster News - http://webmasters-news.blogspot.com/
DCS News Alert for: Disability Equality Duty
MPs shocked by abuse in care of learning disabled
Yorkshire Post - Leeds,England,UK
... called for a "culture change" to meet the aspirations of the Government's Human Rights Act and the Duty to Promote Disability Equality. ...
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Equality watchdog wants 'spot checks' at work
Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom
... and replace them with a single duty on employers not to discriminate on the grounds of race, faith, gender, sexuality, age or disability. ...
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DCS Comments and Observations
I have recently come across a nice 'story' which illustrates the difference between making physical adaptations by service providers and the social model of disability. There is a nice twist to the tale as it is seen in reverse to emphasize how the disabled feel about their situation.
There was once a village in which all the inhabitants were wheelchair users. Gradually, as the years passed, they began to realise that it was unnecessary to have high ceilings and doorways, and new houses in the village came to be built with ceilings 5' 3" high and doorways 4' 9" high. In time these measurements became enshrined in the village's building regulations, and in many other respects -- height of shop counters, absence of steps -- the village became perfectly adapted for wheelchair users.
A small number of able-bodied people were obliged, by circumstances beyond their control, to come and live in the village. They found some aspects of life in the village awkward. They had to walk bent over under the low ceilings and kept bumping their heads on the doorways. The village doctor, who was of course a wheelchair user, saw a constant stream of able-bodied people complaining of backache and bruised foreheads.
Hats
On his recommendation, hard hats were issued free of charge to all able-bodied people by the village authorities. Special splints and crutches were also developed to enable able-bodied people to walk bent over at the "correct" height. These were intended to combat not only the low ceiling problem but also the difficulty able-bodied people had in communicating when their faces were so far above the level of everybody else's. Of course the helmets, splints and crutches gave rise to aches and pains of their own.
Seeing the sorry plight of the able-bodied, groups of well-meaning wheelchair users got together to help them. Soon the bar in the village pub and the counters in the village shops sported upturned hard hats bearing the legend "Help the Able-bodied" into which people put their loose change. Painted plaster models of able-bodied people with hard hats and splints, and in the characteristic bent-over posture, appeared in shop doorways with a slot in the top for money.
Matters came to a head when an able-bodied person applied for a job as a presenter on the village television channel and was turned down. The channel's bosses said that, while they recognised the need for able-bodied people to be better represented on television, an able-bodied person with a stoop, a bent head and a hard hat covering the upper part of his or her face, simply did not have the on-screen presence necessary for the job of presenter.
After this, able-bodied people got together and formed a self-help group. They realised that they were never involved in the management of their own affairs and resolved to fight exclusion from mainstream life. They felt that their problems were social ones and had social solutions. In fact, they realised that there were no problems; only solutions.
Of course the wheelchair users felt that the able-bodied were failing to accept and adjust to their disabilities; that they had chips on their shoulders. But the able-bodied said, "We have to challenge the idea that able-bodied people must adapt. What we should be aiming at is to redesign the normal world so that we can all function in it equally. This is to focus on diversity and celebrate the difference."
Andy
