BartonComment1and2Fodness

Hi Kevin,

Bit of stream-of-consciousness here, just to warn you...

Ok, so you're clearly interested in IT generally, which makes sense. More specifically, you seem to be interested in questions of access to IT and the effects of that access (or lack of it) on individuals. Right now, you're considering looking at two groups: the disabled, and those involved in political debates. Although you don't present it this way, you're second topic could also be reframed in these terms if you focused on the question of self-regulation. Who, among IT people (and maybe gov't people), is concerned with issues of access and why?

What do you think about groups besides the disabled who have also traditionally had limited access to IT, or to appropriate IT? i.e., the poor, residents of developing countries, residents of this country whose first language isn't English, illiterates, seniors... What makes the disabled particularly interesting to you as a group rather than one of these other groups? Would some kind of comparison be productive?

I am curious to know the answers to all of the questions you pose here, but I think they might need some company. The questions you ask I would characterize as "what's the state of the world" sorts of questions, and I think you might also need to ask "why is this the state of the world" sorts of questions as well. (Or maybe, "how did the world get this way".) So, for example, why do you think designing for the disabled wasn't part of your curriculum? What are the social currents that made that lack unremarkable to most people? What are the social currents that are moving some people (and not others) to notice and question that lack? Or, if you really wanted to reach back, why are people with these particular characteristics deemed disabled, while people with other characteristics are not? Or, maybe better, how does the IT context redefine disability? If my legs didn't work, my ability to use IT wouldn't be affected, but I would characterized in most other contexts as disabled. I wonder if there are characteristics that would make me disabled in the IT context, but not in most other contexts?

What I find most intriguing about your second topic is where the standards that do exist are coming from and who follows them. To what extent are the moves towards accessible IT design responses to requests from those affected, and to what extent are they initiated by designers? And is there any overlap between those two groups?

All three of your topics are clear and straightforward, but also potentially very rich, I think.