Re: a few complaints about the blind comunity
A constitution , or at least our constitution, doesn't help all that much because it says nothing about treating disabled people equally. For those that have them, audio announcements of upcoming stops on busses are there because most people, including sighted passengers, want them. Not because there's a law that says they are required.
The FCC, similar to your BBC, though they don't operate any radio or TV stations themselves, requires that the major TV networks provide a certain amount of programming with descriptive audio for the blind and visually impaired. They must think that because wee can't see we aren't interested in being entertained, because their minimum works out to about four hours of programming a week. The networks, not the FCC, decides which programs to provide descriptive audio for, so they pick shows that don't need it, so they only have to do a very minimal amount of work to comply, and the FCC is happy with that. It's up to the FCC to decide whether the networks are in compliance, not the blind and visually impaired viewers. If it was up to the viewers, none of the networks would be in compliance.
In the early 90s, the American Disabilities Act was enacted to provide equal access opportunities to people with disabilities. Mostly it helps people with physical disabilities, like people in wheelchairs, it does almost nothing for blind or visually impaired people. I had to go to the offices of the social security administration to apply for disability benefits. I told them I was blind and asked if someone would be available to help me get to where I needed to be within their building. They said, "no", they said the law requires that their building be equally accessible to everyone, if you need help finding where you need to go, you have to provide that yourself. To me that's not equal accessibility, yet they are considered to be in full compliance with the law.
While I don't approve of it, I can't fault the entitled attitude that many of the blind and visually impaired, as well as other disabled people, and other minorities, adopt because, society in general seems bound and determined to squash them and their rights any time they get the chance.
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