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Geeks, Compassion, And The Mingling Of The Two
AngelHedgie
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To be honest, anytime I see a story about accessibility and technology, I always grimace because I know that the result is going to be a lot of geeks complaining about how dare the minority demand that they be included.
Case in point - Ars Technica recently posted a story about Target having a class action lawsuit certified against them due to their website not being easily accessible to the blind. And half the comments can basically be distilled to "Fuck the disabled, why should I have to suffer for them?" Or, for another example, when /. posted about Tim Berners-Lee arguing that the culture in computing was pushing women away and that it was unhealthy to do so. The fact that several commentators basically said "he's only saying that to get laid" is disheartening.
Paulina Borsook's famous article Cyberselfish (which she later expanded into a book) discusses why some of this might be true - in it, she points out that many of the modern technophiles never see how society shaped the tech industry, and as such see tech society as theirs. They also aren't exposed to the positive actions of society, and as such see society as a limiter to their own ambitions. It should come as no surprise that the various strains of libertarianism find geekdom a fertile ground to develop. With focus on the individual, it seems that looking out for others withers.
The end question is this - is this really healthy for the tech community? I don't think it is. Saying that those who are different shouldn't expect to be supported is only going to alienate, and a monoculture is not healthy. It just seems that I'm the only one who shares this view.
Case in point - Ars Technica recently posted a story about Target having a class action lawsuit certified against them due to their website not being easily accessible to the blind. And half the comments can basically be distilled to "Fuck the disabled, why should I have to suffer for them?" Or, for another example, when /. posted about Tim Berners-Lee arguing that the culture in computing was pushing women away and that it was unhealthy to do so. The fact that several commentators basically said "he's only saying that to get laid" is disheartening.
Paulina Borsook's famous article Cyberselfish (which she later expanded into a book) discusses why some of this might be true - in it, she points out that many of the modern technophiles never see how society shaped the tech industry, and as such see tech society as theirs. They also aren't exposed to the positive actions of society, and as such see society as a limiter to their own ambitions. It should come as no surprise that the various strains of libertarianism find geekdom a fertile ground to develop. With focus on the individual, it seems that looking out for others withers.
The end question is this - is this really healthy for the tech community? I don't think it is. Saying that those who are different shouldn't expect to be supported is only going to alienate, and a monoculture is not healthy. It just seems that I'm the only one who shares this view.
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The thing is, Quid - I've seen people in their 30s and better still espousing those positions. It's not something due to age, but something due to culture.
And yes, Cat, I've read about what happened to Ms. Sierra. That's one incident that showed how out of touch the geek community really is.
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I like to think this because it keeps me with a little faith in humanity.
See my game reviews at: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=strangegamer
See, age is a funny thing like that. For some people they just don't grow up, or it's so delayed it's not even funny.
lots of people in my area around their 30's are just... immature, maybe slightly less so than 18 to early 20 year olds. I think a lot of the "growing up" process is taking place later than it used to... Why is a totally different topic however.
I think that a lot of people continue being assholes once they get off the computer, though. Especially a lot of people who're now in their late teens and are now having to go out into the real world, having grown up on the intertrons.
Any sufficiently advanced Libertarian is indistinguishable from an Asshole.
This is also possible. I mean, a natural reaction after viewing, say, /b/, is to think to oneself "Well, they are a bunch of high schoolers/ losers in their parents' basements / not even human beings, so it's okay". But, I mean, I know a /b/tard in real life and she's just a completely normal person. I mean, maybe a few minor issues (anybody in CS is going to have a few minor issues) but not a crazy ADHD asshole obsessed with tentacle longcat hentai or whatever it is they do in /b/.
The thing is that the issues with geeks go deeper than that. It seems that whenever you point out that they tend to say "fuck you" to those in the minority, and that this behavior might not be all that healthy, they go nuts.
And where did pink robots come to even be remotely associated with House or Hugh Laurie?
I meant to add more, but my absent-mindedness fucked me like a dolphin. o_O
Anyhow, I think the elitism which springs from the "geek" community is absurd, and I don't even understand it. Console wars? Wtf!? They're machines, really. They're different, they have different games for the most part, and to the companies, they're all products. There are serious, concerned game designing artists on all three sides, and heartless businessmen as well.
I can understand preference for either Wii of PS360, but the fighting between them all... omg. According to some, the console hatred isn't universal, but one of my brother's friends subscribes to Nintendo Power, and treats it like his personal bible. It's horrifying.
I have to agree with you here. I don't know if it's a lack of social skills or some kind of deep-seeded hatred of mankind, but nerds/geeks just seem to be really, really mean at times. You don't have to look very hard (even here) to see this kind of behavior. It's unfortunate.
Which largish segment of society ISN'T assholes again?
Whichever one you happen to be in, of course.
Exactly.
The big difference with geeks is that they're as subtle as an elephant's ass because their usual social circle doesn't include much social deception.
1) Legally blind isn't absolute blindness. I used to chat with a guy all the time who was legally blind. He had to stick to a chat game with very large text, is all.
2) They have braile for computers. This is old news. Also there was a movie.
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I thought the exact same thing at first: Why the fuck should a website, an entirely visual representation, be asked to cater to someone who is blind?
Then I read that Target's website causes issues with screen-viewing software used specifically by blind people, and then I thought a little differently. It's not as cut and dried as "Target won't make a website for blind people", it's "Target won't modify their website so as to be viewable by blind people using specialized software".
I personally don't have any issue with adding accessibility to technology. Most of it is fascinating stuff, like using brain waves to control light switches and things like that. To me, the more people who are capable of using technology, the better. I think everyone Io know who is as much of a tech geek as I am is in agreement. I don't see Geeks being as stuck up and isolationistic as the OP suggests, but perhaps that's just my small sampling not fitting in with the norm.
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Internet fuckwad syndrome?
I'm not sure it's so much that geeks are selfish; it's that people on the Internet are fuckwads (including non-geeks), and the Internet is disproportionately geeks.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
This. Outside of some extreme semi-autistic guys I don't think geeks are any more or less selfish then other groups of people. I feel the fact that so many seem so selfish is that a sizeable number of people on the internet disassociate it from the ‘real world’ (internet serious business o lol and all that). When you’re behind a monitor in your room or what have you it’s much harder to comprehend that you’re making fun of a cripple or that person you’re calling a fucking cock sucking faggot is actually a real person on the other end.
This is it, though. Pure geek-coldness. It's impractical and efficient (on a simple level) so forget it. Not much empathy for the 'blind dude' who loved the net until he lost his sight, though.
I do think geeks are colder than average. Not more selfish exactly, but often unable to empathise well. This is a generalisation blah blah disclaimer blah.
They have screen readers. You'd be surprised at how effectively a blind person can navigate the web. If you have a Something Awful forums account, look in Ask/Tell for the 'Ask me about being blind' thread. The author manages to post more quickly and more coherently than many able-sighted forumers. He also includes a sound file of how the screen reader sounds to him - it's impossibly fast; difficult for most people to hear, but he can understand it perfectly.
It is actually very simple to put measures in the html of a page to make it accessible to blind people.
EDIT: And in case you're wondering, no, he doesn't need a monitor.
So a screen reader can read it logically and it'll make sense and you can tab through it. Or color blind people can use their own css to be able to read it.
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ok, either a) you're doing something subtle and clever here or b) you're one of the twats the OP is talking about. For the sake of my sanity, can it please be a?
I think this response sums up my issues:
What really bothered me is that people pointed out that 508 compliance is not that difficult and even has benefits for the developer (it forces them to code cleaner, which makes for more usable code), yet you continued to see people rant "how dare the blind force me to have to make things accessable for them!"
And it doesn't just happen anonymously. As Cat mentioned earlier, what happened to Kathy Sierra was public, and several other publically known commentators derided her. Or look at the minuscule number of women in open source, and then the deafening silence of the leadership about this. (Or when they do speak up, the way the community slaps them down.) There's a lack of empathy here, and it's disturbing.
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Car companies are being lobbied to add noisemakers to their cars in order to prevent pedestrian accidents...the vast majority of which (for this case) are caused by blind people walking into hybrid cars that are sneaking into crosswalks preparing to turn. I thought blind people used canes for this kind of thing?