Open Letter: How the FOSS Community May Help Disabled Users

[M. Fioretti]

On Fri, Apr 28, 2006 12:35:53 PM -0400, taharka (res00vl8 at alltel.net)
wrote:

> Howdy Marco,
> 
> On Fri, 2006-04-28 at 17:53 +0200, M. Fioretti wrote:
> <snip>
> Might I suggest in the future, you use the terms physically/mentally
> challenged instead of disabled users? Here in the U.S. there is a
> never ending supply of politically correct nuts :-(( Have a nice
> day!!

A bit of on-list feedback is due here.

I am well aware of the sensibility that you mention, and of the fact
that it varies a lot (both in intensity, terminology and other things)

For this reason, when I submitted this to Newsforge:

http://software.newsforge.com/software/06/03/13/1628249.shtml?tid=150

I sent along this request to the editing staff: "since use of these
terms is a very sensible issue, each country/culture is different and
I'm Italian, do feel free/encouraged to replace any sensible term with
the best equivalent for a portal owned by a USA company (whatever
"best" means in that context)".

Since they used that term, I've sticked to the same terminology in
anything English I've written in public since then, starting from the
Open Letter.

This is it. (polite) suggestions on how to improve my English are
always welcome, thank you in advance. Complaints, comments or anything
else on the choice of terms in the article goes to NewsForge Editors
and me. What matters, of course, is to NOT pollute this list with
further messages on this issue. I will only answer off list on this.

Obviously, this is not a critique to Taharka, all the contrary: thanks
for giving me the occasion to make this issue clear.

Ciao,
	Marco


-- 
Marco Fioretti                    mfioretti, at the server mclink.it
Fedora Core 3 for low memory      http://www.rule-project.org/

We need to focus on how to be productive, not just active.
        Scott McNealy, chairman, CEO, and cofounders, Sun Microsystems.