Cyberspace and Abilities
John Perry
and Elizabeth Macken
The Center for the Study of Language and Information
Ventura Hall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-4115
{john@csli.Stanford.edu}
{betsy@csli.Stanford.edu}
John Perry
and Elizabeth Macken
The Center for the Study of Language and Information
Ventura Hall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-4115
{john@csli.Stanford.edu}
{betsy@csli.Stanford.edu}
Throughout history many able people with much to contribute have not been heard, because of disabilities that prevented them from communicating with the rest of the world. And the problem continues. Some people can't get to the meetings where they could be heard. Deaf and blind people may not have access to crucial information. Some people cannot speak, or cannot write rapidly enough to hold their audience. Some cannot write. And, some are just too shy to speak up in public. The cyberspace revolution has the potential to improve life for all of these people, and for the rest of society, who will benefit from the enriched pool of ideals. In cyberspace, we all depend on technology; none of us receives the information we need directly from our senses no do we produce the effects we intend directly by use of our limbs. There is no intrinsic link at all between the ordinary senses humans have and the ordinary movements people make and the informational riches of cyberspace. Email allows people with slow speech, shy people, people who live in far-off places, and people who work odd hours to participate in decision making.
In principle, then, the cyberspace revolution can "level the playing field" for individuals with disabilities, broadly conceived, with respoect to many kinds of jobs and other activities. While individuals with many types of disabilities need different input and output devices than those with which computers are standardly equipped, once these are provided, their disabilities are irrelevent to their performance.
Progress in improving access for individuals with disabilities requires that certain confusions about disability and its relation to technology be avoided. In this paper we conttrast two concepts of disability and handicap that we call the "intrinsic" and "circumstantial'. The intrinsic conception sees a tight relation between disability and handicap, the circumstantial conception emphasizes the importance of institutional and environmental factors. Untangling the confusion gives us a more flexible concept of disability and handicap. There are "thirty-second disabilities,"such as the need to take one's eyes off the road to dial a cell phone. Relatively benign conditions like shyness can be severely handicapping in certain professional situations. The circumstantial concept helps us appreciate the potential of technology to unsilences many voices that for many reasons have not been heard.