[LINK] The Disability Divide

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

The Disability Divide
by K. Daniel Glover 
http://www.intellectualcapital.com/issues/issue383/item9732.asp
Thursday, June 15, 2000

Ask most anyone to define "digital divide," one of the catchphrases of the
Information Age, and they are likely to talk about the technology haves and
have-nots -- the white, wealthy and urban Americans who own computers and
have Internet access, and the minority, poor and rural Americans who do
not.

But there is another oft-forgotten element to the digital divide: people
with disabilities. They are the "haves" who nonetheless have wont of
technologies that meet their specific needs. They are a population for whom
computers and the Internet have the potential to open new doors or to shut
them out just as they have begun to gain greater access to the
bricks-and-mortar world.

"Technology is a double-edged sword," says Cynthia Waddell, the author of a
report on the disability-related barriers to the digital economy. "It can
create the problem, but it can also solve the problem."

... lots more

-- 
A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner.
-- English proverb

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
brd@dynamite.com.au