@jscholes @FreakyFwoof @MoonCat educate everybody all the time.
Justin Macleod (mastodon.social)Justin Macleod (mastodon.social)Justin Macleod (mastodon.social)Justin Macleod (mastodon.social)Justin Macleod (mastodon.social)@jscholes @FreakyFwoof @MoonCat educate everybody all the time.
@arush @jscholes @FreakyFwoof @MoonCat A lot here. Firstly, as mentioned in the thread, I missed the preamble to James’ post and was only responding, in general terms to that and I draw a distinction between company and individual culpability. If a company knowingly creates a service that isn’t fit for purpose, that can only be abelist.
@arush @jscholes @FreakyFwoof @MoonCat The problem I have with a lot of this is that it seems to judge new encounters on previous experience. I tried being polite to this and that person, it didn’t work, so I’m not going to extend the same non-prejudicial approach to this new person, whose “oh I didn’t mean to” may be completely genuine. I think that is problematic.
@arush @jscholes @FreakyFwoof @MoonCat You say it’s not our job to educate people all the time. While I agree that can be tiresome and draining, if not us, who else? My needs differ from yours. Isn’t it therefore incumbant upon us to communicate our own needs and difficulties?
@arush @jscholes @FreakyFwoof @MoonCat Someone may, proudly armed with their education on how disabled people interact with the world, steam-roller on and send printed material to those who can’t read it. The technology exists, after all for them to scan correspondence so we have an equal playing field that I don’t have to worry about.
@arush @jscholes @FreakyFwoof @MoonCat Is it abelist, therefore, taking the example that started this thread, for this more educated person to be baffled when a disabled person is angry at being sent stuff that, in the employee’s mind, they should be able to read and to suspect obstructiveness on the service user’s part, when part of their remit is to identify people trying to game the system? I would say not.
@arush @jscholes @FreakyFwoof @MoonCat What I’m trying to say is that, unlike with antisemitism, disabilities are so complex and diverse that, if disabled people adopt a judgemental way of listening, the people they interact with are likely to be damned if they do learn and damned if they don’t. I think we just have to accept there’s a lot here for an outsider to be aware of and be sensitive to that.
@JustinMac84 @jscholes @FreakyFwoof @MoonCat It’s not ableist to be baffled. It’s absolutely ableist to cross-examine someone who’s asking for a specific accommodation, as this agent seems to be doing. That’s not ignorance anymore, it’s ableism and it’s leveraging their curiosity in order to make someone’s life just a bit more difficult.
@JustinMac84 @jscholes @FreakyFwoof @MoonCat If you work for an agency that’s supposed to serve people with disabilities I don’t think you can exactly claim outsider/unaware status anymore. You might not be aware of every nuance, but you should at least be aware of the basics of accommodations people might ask for and I’m not sure you should have to be trained on that.
@JustinMac84 @jscholes @FreakyFwoof @MoonCat You might have a point generally. This isn’t a general case, it’s pretty specific, and trying to rigidly apply a great general principle to a case like this is what tends to raise hackles.
@arush @jscholes @FreakyFwoof @MoonCat As mentioned in the thread, the Government frequently contracts work out to other call centres that serve multiple companies so it can be that you just get the workload you get.