Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

It's good to see you here in Austin. I really enjoyed your presentation at SXSW.

A minor fact-checking nit -- at Socialtext, anyone can add to and edit the wiki. The person who has responsibility for a particular area -- the product roadmap, or customer implementations, has special responsibility for keeping those parts of the wiki usable.

See you back at the conference center,

- Adina

As I told you yesterday, I thought your presentation was compelling and well-received... you gave 'em something to think about. And if your comment that "consciousness adheres in flesh" converted even one extropian, that alone would've made the trip worthwhile!

I'm curious about the implication of these forms of group interaction and the accommodation of people with disabilities; for example, folks who are blind or with low vision and people who are deaf or with severe hearing loss. There are other needs, but these two should highlight specific issues confronted while "integrating" disabled folks into a group context.

Are these approaches and technologies robust enough to keep disabled participants engaged and informed about what is going on and what is being decided? What are the facilitation or management issues to be confronted? Are there any resources you could point me at that would supplement any responses to my question?

This probably not the right or adequate place to deal with this; why not start with an email response to the address I've provided?

Thanks. ...edN

Ed, my email is down so I'll reply here instead. But I'm not sure if you're talking online or offline group interactions.

The mailing list woke up a lot today. David, get on it! Adina?
As for access by the disabled, I am a firm believer that textual asynchronous discussion can be as empowering for the blind and deaf as it is for those of us who are shy in person like David & me; another reason to be suspicious of 'rich media' for its own sake (and I say that as someone who has been working in computer multimedia for my entire professional life).

Replying to David's query: online or offline interaction?

One of my preoccupations is the question of how to make the workplace inclusive of people with disabilities. So much of what goes on in a services oriented workplace sites on a foundation of formal and informal communication. Leaving informal communication aside for now, I'm wondering about the formal situations and, more particularly, meetings. Meetings are important functional and ritualistic events.

Think about typical situations:
1. a deaf/hoh person attending a meeting that contains a voice-phone-speaker-based teleconference with a potential vendor
2. a blind/vision impaired person attending a powerpoint slide presentation of the division's strategic (well it is just a fer instance) plan.

I'd like to think that these technologies and a sensible amount of orientation and job redesign could be tremendously useful in helping organizations feel more comfortable about including people with disabilities. It represents a culture change and a new way of doing things; in some organizations I'm sure it would be seen as highly inconvenient. However, the kind of intervention that would happen around these technologies couldn't help but improve an organization's capabilities, even if only through the increased flexibility that should result.

So I've answered my own question to some degree. What do you think? Plus suggested reading, browsing, etc.?

Great comments guys. Peter FDA

Dear Sir,

I am Mr Musatapha Accounts supervisor with National Bank,Freetown, Sierra Leone. I have urgent and very confidential business proposition for you. On June 6, 1999, a Foreign Diamond consultant/contractor with the Sierra Leonean National Diamond Corporation, Mr.Simon Kelly made a numbered time (Fixed) Deposit for twelve calendar months, valued at SD$27,000,000.00, (Twenty-Seven Million Dollars) in my branch. Upon maturity, I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but got no reply. After a month, I sent a reminder and finally I discovered
from his contract employers, the Sierra Leanean National Diamond Corporation that Mr. Simon Kelly died from a rebel attack. On further investigation, I found out that he died without making a WILL, and all attempts to trace his next of kin was fruitless. I therefore made further investigation and discovered that Mr. Simon Kelly did not declare any kin or relations in all his official documents, including his Bank Deposit paperwork in my Bank. This sum of USD$27,000,000.00 has carefully/confidentially been moved out of my bank to a Finance security company in the Gambia for safekeeping. No one can ever come forward to claim it. According to Sierra Leonean Law, at the expiration of 8 (eight) years,the money will revert to the ownership
of the Sierra Leone Government if nobody applies to claim the fund. Consequently, my proposal is that I want you as a Foreigner to stand in as the rightful owner of the money. I deposited it in a security company in two trunk boxes though the security company does not know the contents of the boxes as I tagged them to be photographic materials for export. In the circumstance, I want to present you as the rightful owner of the boxes in the security company so that you can be able to claim them with the help of my attorney. This is simple. I would like you to provide immediately your full names and address as well as your direct telephone and fax number so that the Attorney will prepare the necessary documents which will put you in the right place as the owner of the boxes. The money will be moved out for us to your country and share in the ratio of 80% for me and 20% for you. There is no risk at all as all the paperwork for this transaction will be done by the Attorney and this will guarantees the successful execution of this transaction on your behalf, please reply immediately via my email address. Upon your response, I shall then provide you with more details and relevant documents that will help you understand the transaction and swing into the necessary action while I confide in you hoping you will not betray me at last.
Thanks and God bless
Mr Musatapha.

Dear Sir,

I am Mr Musatapha Accounts supervisor with National Bank,Freetown, Sierra Leone. I have urgent and very confidential business proposition for you. On June 6, 1999, a Foreign Diamond consultant/contractor with the Sierra Leonean National Diamond Corporation, Mr.Simon Kelly made a numbered time (Fixed) Deposit for twelve calendar months, valued at SD$27,000,000.00, (Twenty-Seven Million Dollars) in my branch. Upon maturity, I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but got no reply. After a month, I sent a reminder and finally I discovered
from his contract employers, the Sierra Leanean National Diamond Corporation that Mr. Simon Kelly died from a rebel attack. On further investigation, I found out that he died without making a WILL, and all attempts to trace his next of kin was fruitless. I therefore made further investigation and discovered that Mr. Simon Kelly did not declare any kin or relations in all his official documents, including his Bank Deposit paperwork in my Bank. This sum of USD$27,000,000.00 has carefully/confidentially been moved out of my bank to a Finance security company in the Gambia for safekeeping. No one can ever come forward to claim it. According to Sierra Leonean Law, at the expiration of 8 (eight) years,the money will revert to the ownership
of the Sierra Leone Government if nobody applies to claim the fund. Consequently, my proposal is that I want you as a Foreigner to stand in as the rightful owner of the money. I deposited it in a security company in two trunk boxes though the security company does not know the contents of the boxes as I tagged them to be photographic materials for export. In the circumstance, I want to present you as the rightful owner of the boxes in the security company so that you can be able to claim them with the help of my attorney. This is simple. I would like you to provide immediately your full names and address as well as your direct telephone and fax number so that the Attorney will prepare the necessary documents which will put you in the right place as the owner of the boxes. The money will be moved out for us to your country and share in the ratio of 80% for me and 20% for you. There is no risk at all as all the paperwork for this transaction will be done by the Attorney and this will guarantees the successful execution of this transaction on your behalf, please reply immediately via my email address. Upon your response, I shall then provide you with more details and relevant documents that will help you understand the transaction and swing into the necessary action while I confide in you hoping you will not betray me at last.
Thanks and God bless
Mr Musatapha.