Hi Norbert and All
Norbert, I am no way a specialist of universal design - I don't
design, let alone universally - so I hope others will answer your
question as to its use for fighting the discriminations you list
below. Tentatively, between your items:
On Thu, Sep 4, 2008 at 2:09 PM, Norbert Bollow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>(...)
>
> Hmmm... there are also other forms of discrimination against
> minorities which involve closely related economic mechanisms:
>
> - discrimination against developers and users of minority computer
> operating systems through use of patented or otherwise restricted
> proprietary data formats
UD probably can counter that through being in the end more
attractive/competitive than these restricted formats. See MS
acknowledging that ODF has won at the Red Hat Summit in June ("Red
Hat Summit panel: Who 'won' OOXML battle?"
<http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/06/19/red-hat-summit-panel-who-won-ooxml-battle>).
Or did I misunderstand your question.
>
> - discrimination against people who for whatever reason want or
> need to avoid indiscriminately leaking personal information
> over the internet
UD probably doesn't help there, as far as I can understand: thinking
of the various Google offers that could be described as fitting UD
definition, but bank on folks accepting to trade in part of their
privacy.
>
> - discrimination against people who for whatever reason have only
> slow and/or expensive access to the internet, or who are only
> able to conveneinetly access the internet via a device with a very
> small screen, such as a mobile phone. (In absolute numbers, this
> is probably currently actually a majority, but from the perspective
> of many websites, this is a very small minority of their users,
> therefore the same economic mechanisms apply.)
UD can help there, I believe: accessible sites made according to UD
principles also load faster and also work better on the devices you
mention - besides, Roberto Ellero, whom I mentioned as advocate of UD
in my former post, lives in a part of Italy where the only internet
access on a computer so far is 56 kb/s ("when the wind is blowing from
the right direction", adds a friend of mine who lives in a similar
area, access-wise) and is still able to manage the webmultimediale.org
site under these conditions ;-)
>
> Claude, is the "universal design" collaboration which you describe
> defined so generally as to also encompass these aspects of
> universality of design which are not directly related to disabilities
It is defined far more generally than for just access for disabled
people. But - see above - it does not, as far as I know, encompass the
privacy issue.
>
> If yes, I think I'll probably be looking into whether there'd be some
> mutually beneficial way in which I could join in into that "universal
> design" alliance... and if not, I'd be interested in discussing
> whether it would make sense to attempt to initiate a more broadly
> defined alliance.
Not sure about an existing single UD alliance: for the Web, there is
IWA iwanet.org, but you also have architects and engineers advocating
UD: see for instance Fred Tepfer, architect and planner, who works at
the University of Oregon <http://www.uoregon.edu/~ftepfer/index.html>,
whose <http://www.uoregon.edu/~ftepfer/SchlFacilities/TireSwingTable.html>
page with the "tire swing cartoon" I adapted in
<http://www.webmultimediale.org/almansi/2008/09/il_ponte_luovo_e_il_dondolo.html>.
And that was Roberto Ellero's point in his video: the coming together
of UD advocates both in the real world and the online world about the
obstacles of Calatrava's bridge. (BTW, just as inaccessible sites are
a pain for people with slow connection or handheld devices, the bridge
obstacles do not only hamper people in wheelchairs, but also parents
with a pram or carting things with something that has wheels).
So I don't know whether such a unique general alliance between
advocates of UD in all fields will come to light, but it is a good
sign that in Italy, they've started collaborating.
Best
Claude Almansi
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