DU'ers Expressing Uniformed Opinions About The Disabled Are A Lessson

[KittyWampus]

to be learned from.

Sometimes DU'ers unthinkingly attack the actions of the disabled to further their causes. They offer up opinions which rely merely on PRE-JUDGEMENTS ... and do so in a hurtful, sarcastic way.

For instance, there's a thread in LBN discussing a California student suing Target for not having it's website accessible to Text Reading programs for the blind. The article makes no mention of Plaintiff seeking monetary compensation, as far as I know.

Many DU'ers are making quips around the fact that "life isn't always fair" and THIS is the perfect example of a frivolous lawsuit.

My intent isn't to point out the merits of lawsuit but to draw attention to the latent bias some of us have toward the disabled. Maybe we can take a look at that tendency, recognize it and grow past it. We all have our blind spots and biases that we aren't yet aware of. But as Progressives, isn't it reasonable to expect us to TRY and become aware of our own prejudices and eliminate them?

There is the American Disabilities Act. It is reasonable to expect large corporations to make their facilities accessible, within limits, to the disabled.

Large corporations benefit greatly from our tax dollars and have a devastating effect on small business owners and communities. The LEAST they can do is accommodate the disabled in our midst. Especially when the means of accommodation are as easy as making their websites compatible for Text Reading programs. Yes, it may take some time and money to hire someone to write that code and implement it, but large corporations HAVE the resources to do it.

Let's take a look at the way we flippantly suggest the disabled ask too much of large corporations and perhaps see a bias that we didn't know existed... and move past that. The more the disabled are able to interact in our society the better off we all are.

Target is really stupid for:

A. Not retooling it's websites when it's relatively easy to do so
B. Trumpeting its effort to do so as a Public Relations opportunity

But Target donates its money to the GOP (I think) and like most all corporations would rather fight a lawsuit then do the right thing.