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Disability & The Ethics of Listening:

New Models for Media & Democracy

Gerard GogginJournalism & Media Research Centre

University of New South Wales, Sydneyg.goggin@unsw.edu.au; http://jmrc.arts.unsw.edu.au/

listening

• Beyond voice: listening

• Giving voice, speaking up – but who listens?

• Modes of listening – relationship to democracy

• Important role of media in this

• What then of disability & listening?

disability & ethics of listening

• ‘Us’ and ‘them’• Othering• listening with disability• A disabled Mediapolis• The Convention (CRPD) – the ‘Twitter’

treaty?• Media and disability: the case of mobiles

‘Globally, women make up three-fourths of the disabled people in low- and middle- income

countries; between 65% and 70% of those women live in rural areas.’ USAID Women in Development, 2009

‘Girls and women of all ages with any form of Disability are generally among the more

vulnerable and marginalized of society’ (‘Further actions and

initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration…’, General Assembly Resolution S23/3, 2000).

People with disabilities are estimated 10-12% worldwide; and up to 20% in some (global north) countries (World Bank, 2009; Mont, 2007)

There is an “intricate” link between disability and poverty, with people with disabilities being “among the poorest of the poor” (Mont & Loeb, 2008)

... As a person with disability, I daily know attitudes that attest to an apartheid which knows no name. The deep dark devastating knowledge … of being other rather than us, part of the moral community. Indeed, our experience of being other needs to be seen in terms of oppression. It is that oppression which is far more all encompassing and pervasive than an account of blatant discrimination. It is that sense of otherness which daily surrounds and oppresses me, and so many other people with disabilities and members of other equity groups. (Christopher Newell, 2006)

Let us suppose that those who believe in segregation could really have their way. We will imagine a thousand or more disabled people, all wheelchair-users, collected together and settled in their own village where they had full management and democratic rights … In the course of the life of the village the wheelchair-users plan their lives according to their needs. They design their own buildings to suit their physical situation … Soon it becomes standard practice to build doors to a height of 5 feet and ceiling or rooms to a height of 7 feet 4 inches. (Victor Finkelstein 1975)

Naturally, one of the first things they noticed was the heights of the doors and ceilings. They noticed this directly, by constantly knocking their heads on the door lintels … Soon special aids were designed by the wheelchair-user doctors and associated professions for the able-bodied disabled members of the village. All the able-bodied were given special toughened helmets (provided free by the village) to wear at all times ... (Victor Finkelstein 1975)

It is the year 2010. Judy, a woman in her mid-40s of Pakeha and Maori descent in a person with a speech disability compounded by physical impairment … She found it was difficult to overcome the barriers of limited thinking regarding communication technology, physical access and attitudinal stereotypes … As Judy advanced in politics, her colleagues, in including her, had been challenged not only in their ways of doing things and thinking about normality but even in the way in which they met … They learnt to respect how every time Judy communicated it was succinct and worth listening to. They learnt an economy of words … [Judy] has today been elected to the highest office in New Zealand. (Christopher Newell, 2004; cf. Newell 2006b)

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f) To undertake or promote research and development of universally designed goods, services, equipment and facilities … which should require the minimum possible adaptation and the least cost to meet the specific needs of a person with disabilities, to promote their availability and use, and to promote universal design in the development of standards and guidelines;

g) To undertake or promote research and development of, and to promote the availability and use of new technologies, including information and communications technologies, mobility aids, devices and assistive technologies, suitable for persons with disabilities, giving priority to technologies at an affordable cost;

h) To provide accessible information to persons with disabilities about mobility aids, devices and assistive technologies, including new technologies, as well as other forms of assistance, support services and facilities. (Article 4, CRPD)

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… States Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure to persons with disabilities access, on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, to transportation, to information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems, and to other facilities and services open or provided to the public, both in urban and in rural areas. (Article 9, clause 1, CRPD)

g) To promote access for persons with disabilities to new information and communications technologies and systems, including the Internet;

h) To promote the design, development, production and distribution of accessible information and communications technologies and systems at an early stage, so that these technologies and systems become accessible at minimum cost. (Article 9, clause 2, CRPD)

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States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that persons with disabilities can exercise the right to freedom of expression and opinion, including the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas on an equal basis with others and through all forms of communication of their choice, as defined in article 2 of the present Convention, including by:

a) Providing information intended for the general public to persons with disabilities in accessible formats and technologies appropriate to different kinds of disabilities in a timely manner and without additional cost …

d) Encouraging the mass media, including providers of information through the Internet, to make their services accessible to persons with disabilities;

e) Recognizing and promoting the use of sign languages. (Article 22, CRPD)

Social Programs

Many programs to address disability through mobiles, esp. ameliorating, overcoming perceived challenges

• Portable, personal support thro’ mobiles• Navigation & way finding for people with

cognitive impairments• Mobiles as memory aids & mobile learning• Sensing & sensory capability of mobiles

social programs

• Mobiles sit on cusp of many ideas of disability … health, welfare, aging, dependence vs. interdependence, social isolation, literacy, communication

• Are unhelpful (disabling) assumptions being reproduced thro’ many current social policy ideas in mobiles?