Re: I'm kind of concerned about the culture surrounding usability
Even here there are problems. Take for example Dark's experience with an airline bringing out a wheelchair for his blindness. Instead of objecting that the wheelchair was inappropriate, Did he consider that from the airline's point of view that having someone wheel him through the airport in a wheelchair to his flight would be simpler and use less resources than guiding him through would be. Probably not, he had already decided how he wanted to get there and everyone else be damned. I recently flew across the country (United States) to attend a family reunion. I notified the airline that I was blind and would need assistance getting through the airport at both ends of the flight. Considering the problem from their side, I did not object when they asked me to have a seat in a wheelchair, it made getting to my flight a breeze, especially the part about getting through security.
Part of the problem of making products and places accessible to the handicapped, is the pr oblem that most non handicapped people don't give us a seconds thought. I'm guilty of it myself. It was only in the past three years that I became legally blind. Only then did I give blind people any consideration at all. This isn't to say that I was mean or mistreated handicapped people, it was simply not my problem so I didn't concern myself with it. To that end, I would be willing to bet money that most, if not all, assistive technology companies were started by people that suffered from the handicap their products are designed to assist with.
The saying, "You can't understand a person until you've walked a mile in his shoes." comes to mind.
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