Re: Audio Described Content
As regards weird rights for disabled people. The RNIB's talking book service came into being because of the way the sighted could access books for free yet blind people couldn't. Any sighted person could go to a public library and take out any book for free. Books are where we store our knowledge, and so society thought it was a good idea if everyone had access to that resource, not just those who could afford it. But blind people couldn't access it not because of income, but because they couldn't read print books. So the RNIB, and organisations like it decided to embark on the impossible task of making every book available for free in audio format so the blind could access human knowledge just like the sighted. They believe blind people were entitled to access this resource. It's funded by organisations large and small who agree with this concept. There's an old saying that goes: judge a civilisation on how it cares for the vulnerable. Primitive societies who can't afford to care for the elderly and such just leave them out to die. They just don't have the resources to carry anyone. But first world countries do. Being disabled and wanting to live as full a life as an abled bodied person gets expensive. Books for example: I read a lot and occasionally I have to scan a paperback because that's the only way that book is available. I do it with a pearl camera and OpenBook, which together cost well over a thousand pounds. I need a PC to do it, and Jaws cost over a thousand pounds, and this scenario predates NVDA. Used paperbacks have been available online for the past 20 years for under 3 pounds including delivery. That's how much it costs a sighted person to access that info. It cost me 2 and a half grand. These are the kinds of things blind people have faced in order to just have the same quality of life as the sighted. All you need to survive is bread and water and a concrete cell to protect us from exposure, but this is the first world so let's drop this tone that seems to be creeping into the blind community that anyone who wants to be on as level a playing field as possible with the able-bodied is some kind of privileged whinger. There are certain tabloid papers in the UK that are spreading this kind of resentment towards the disabled. Presenting the idea they're living lives of luxury. The RNIB itself published a study that showed actual physical attacks on the disabled had increased since these kinds of stories started appearing in the news. These news reports are most likely acting as political propaganda during a time of financial austerity. It really makes me despair that this kind of thinking seems to have infected the disabled community itself.
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