Everyone, Thomas is totally correct below; as a sighted person, my first impression several years ago of this list was not good, and it was directly related to grammar, punctuation, and spelling problems in postings. I understand that readers don't always read out certain types of mistakes and that there's going to be different strengths and weaknesses in the writing styles of the blind, but I'm still sometimes shocked by the lack of proofreading.
The fact of the matter is that how you write matters almost as much as what you write, and that sighted people judge messages based on the overall 'look' of a message in addition to the content. Correct grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation are a critical part of that look, and can make or break your message. It may take all of two seconds for a sighted person to scan your message, decide there are too many problems, and delete it - without ever even realizing that you're blind or intelligent. Never forget that. Another polite thing to do for the sighted is breaks between paragraphs as Thomas has done below. This is pretty easy - just start a new paragraph after two to four sentences. It's important for sighted people because we have to manually scan the text with our eyes to read it; there's no reader to keep track of where we're at in the message. If a block is too big without breaks, it becomes easy to lose your place, and most of the time I'll just skip the rest of the block and go on to the next one rather than try to figure out where I got confused. Just FYI, from a sighted developer. Dennis Towne Alter Aeon MUD http://www.alteraeon.com On Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 9:49 AM, Thomas Ward <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Jeremy, > > Yes, you definitely raise some very good points in your message. As > you pointed out the biggest problem in communicating with sighted > developers and the public at large is ignorance on their part. Most > sighted people have never met a blind person before, and even if they > have there is no way of knowing what their experience was if any. Its > our job to correct their impressions through by educating them a step > at a time, and to do it in a way that makes us look like intelligent, > competent, and mature individuals who have something worthwhile to say > about their products and services. > > Its for that reason every time I see a poorly written message on > Audyssey or some other access list I inwardly cringe. I can't tell you > how many blind individuals just shoot off a message filled with poor > grammar, lack of proper punctuation, and spelling errors. Like it or > not if a sighted person reads those messages we will be judged one and > all as not very intelligent, as lacking communication skills, etc. > Bottom line, if we want the mainstream public's respect we have to > work for it, and not forgo proper language and writing skills for > convenience sake. > > Here at Audyssey we considered adding proofreading to the list > guidelines to improve the quality and clarity of the posts. > Unfortunately, there were some individuals that took serious offense > to that, and felt that the moderators were going too far. All I can > draw from their reaction is they don't care about being taken > seriously and want the rest of the sighted world to view us > negatively, because that's exactly what will happen if they send a > poorly written message to a person or company who has no experience > with the blind. In short, good communication skills will go a long > ways to bridging the gap between the blind and sighted communities. > > Cheers! > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to [email protected]. --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
