[DISABILITY is defined to a serious extent by…]
Socialist Organiser1981 1981-10-22Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 11 →
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DISABILITY is defined to a serious extent by the sort of society we live in.
Dyslexia doesn't much matter in a non-literate culture, while short-sightedness could be a severe disability if spectacles had not been invented (or if you couldn't afford them!)
Nowadays, the explosion in computer technology has opened up immense possibliities for improving the quality of life for people with disabilities.
The government has recently been trying to decide which atype of computer would be most useful to people with severe physical handicaps - their own computer, MAVIS, developed by the National Physical Laboratory, or a cheaper commercial microcomputer, adapted for use by people with disabilities.
MAVIS can be carried around in a briefcase, could run off batteries, can be dropped without smashing, and can have purpose-designed computer programmes written for it.
Cheaper
The Government is likely to decide that the cheaper alternative is better, but whatever it decides, this technology is unlikely to affect the lives of many of those it could help.
Little government money is to go into further research and development of these aids and even less will go towards helping people pay for them. They've even turned down money from industry because it would need government money to go with it.
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