I'm all for respecting differences, and choosing words carefully. And I of course mean no offense in saying that I can't see your hair color, hair length, height, facial expressions, etcetera - nor that I am blinded to innumerable aspects of your appearance and behavior. As with optical blindness, I have a significant lack of (visual) awareness of many typically (and visually) observable matters. To infer from that I'm casting aspersions upon the visually impaired, is somewhere between insulting and inane. But I nonetheless appreciate your sparking a frustrated chuckle. ;) -eg
-----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Kathy Mancuso Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 1:21 PM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] ableist language (was facebook)
In answer to Mr Cornwell's commment (and possibly Dr Goddard's--since he said it was paraphrased I don't know what wording Dr Goddard used) that we are all half-blind on the internet, it is inappropriate and ableist to use the word blind to denote what appears from this post to mean wilful ignorance. By using that term in that way, you are arguing that just because blind people cannot see they are somehow less aware of the world around them than sighted people, which isn't true: just differently aware. The sort of wilful spin on it here just makes the ableism even worse.
Perhaps we could use a term like oblivious or unaware instead. A thesaurus will provide you with many excellent options that do not cast aspersions on a particular group. Thank you in advance for your consideration in keeping AIR-L a friendly and non-discriminatory space for everyone.
Kathy
-- . . . connection in an isolating age . . . Katherine Mancuso, graduate student, Emory University
Web 2.0 research, life, and meta: http://museumfreak.livejournal.com http://del.icio.us/museumfreak
"Whenever anyone says 'You are,' they mean 'I want you to be.'" --Anais Nin _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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