Empathy Falters, and Ebbs

"She has been denied equal access to, and benefit from, government information and services provided online to the public on the Internet, and that this constitutes discrimination against her on the basis of her physical disability, namely that she is blind." Federal Court Justice Michael Kelen

The plight of the disempowered who are beset by the reality of physical impairment or mental impairment is one that all societies face. We generally regret, as a society, and as caring individuals, that many people face life disadvantaged. With congenital illnesses that impose many strictures upon life satisfaction and attainment of aspirations and life-goals. Those who face life with far more complications standing in the way of their achievements than those of the majority who are healthfully fully-functional and capable.

And advanced societies, particularly those that are wealthy with high educational standards like Canada, are mindful of the needs of those with special needs. We generally agree and take steps to ensure that people who are in any way handicapped are given special advances in opportunities to equalize as much as possible, their futures. Hearing-impaired and sight-impaired people can attend institutes of higher learning to enhance their future opportunities, and physical assists are generally built into structures to assist the physically impaired.

To do all of this is costly but meaningful, in asserting and competently assuring that all residents of a country are exposed to equal opportunities as a right, not a privilege. Disadvantages that can compromise equality are matched with initiatives that serve to alleviate those perceived barriers to equality. The majority makes an effort to accommodate the minority requiring additional assistance, and this is fair enough.

But, like the over-accommodation seen in many minority-rights efforts, such as favouring lesser-qualified women for posts over their more qualified male counterparts, situations can arise that simply exacerbate social conditions by creating victims out of the majority. One such questionable instance is represented by a woman, blind from birth, who brought suit against the federal government, claiming a "system-wide failure" to provide her with the opportunity to apply on line for government positions, and to fill out forms on line.

Specialized software that would accommodate the blind demographic in Canada who wish to access the identical type of services that their sighted counterparts can and may do, is now to be installed to service the visually impaired. Governments in Canada have long since made an effort to ensure that all minorities are represented in government hiring, and quotas representing visual minorities, women, and the physically impaired have long been put in place.

That federal services are available through other channels, such as by telephone, by appearing in person at a site, and by regular mail means that not being able to conduct business on the Internet through government web sites does not shut applicants out fully. But these traditional and alternate methods of useful application were of no interest to one particular applicant, a Toronto resident, blind from birth, who works as an accessibility consultant and is computer-proficient.

"I went to court to catch the government's attention because they were not paying attention to any of us when we said we could not access their websites, we could not apply for jobs, we can't do anything. I think it's sad that the government fought this for four years and a lot of taxpayers' money was wasted", complained the applicant, Donna Jodhan, after winning her legal battle.

On the other hand, the government cannot and should not be all things to all people all the time. There exist other, alternate methods of communication, either and any of which could be conveniently used. If Ms. Jodhan was so concerned about the use and misuse of taxpayers' funding, she might wish to give a thought to the installation of a new protocol to service this limited demographic and its associated costs in adaptive technology.

The design and implementation, the hiring of professionals to see it through to completion, to service the new program to the satisfaction of those, like her, who demand their equal rights absolutely equally at whatever the cost. Including tax-funded $150,000 to cover the legal costs which she incurred, and which the government has been ordered to refund to her.

There are Canadians who are not computer-literate. They cannot use the on-line services available to Canadians through federal Internet sites. Do they now have reason to complain that the federal government has shut them out of a convenient alternate method of completing forms, of applying for government positions?

Would a court assume their equal rights to be needful of an outreach by government to teach those with no computer-related knowledge how to be computer-literate and -capable?