Re: [atlarge-discuss] Report to the ERC from the ALAC-AG (2/2)

[espresso@e-scape.net]

At 00:41 -0400 2002/08/23, Sotiris Sotiropoulos wrote:
>eric@hi-tek.com wrote:
>>  I am sorry but but people must read to use the internet,
>> except here in the US where for free we offer services for blind and
>> illiterate. I doubt they do elsewhere unless it is someone like me in a >> remote Internet cafe with an interpreter writing messages to children for
>> grandparents.
>
>Obviously you know very little about Canada and what living here is all about.
>America may have the reputation, but Canada is truly the best country in >the world to live in!

Without in any way disagreeing with Sotiris (I'm a proud Canadian, too), I should mention that services for the blind and illiterate are priorities for NGOs in many parts of the world. Obviously, increasing literacy is one of the things the Internet can do for people; however, there are ways to present information graphically for those who read little or not at all. There are also text-to-speech and speech-to-text applications to help the visually impaired, touchscreen applications that can be used with a mouthstick by the armless or paralyzed, and even some experimental work involving input by eye-movement alone. 

Most of these things require that somebody with deeper pockets make the necessary equipment and software available to people whose financial resources are limited. Apple Computer has been actively involved in making applications to assist the disabled since it was founded. Its basic operating system has, for many years, included utilities for people with low vision or physical disabilities. Development of other types of accommodations by other companies have resulted in specialized hardware and software that many people use today. Cost is the single biggest obstacle, with lack of knowledge of what can be done a close second.

As for the literacy question, obviously the goal of spreading literacy (and computer literacy) is a big one. Initiatives in this area tend to be local or regional rather than national, and are usually left to NGOs (often without funding) to carry out as best they can. 

But only a few years ago, I was constantly hearing that the only way to use the Internet was to learn to read and write English because everything on the 'Net was going to be in English. I'm hearing that a lot less often these days, thank heaven, and millions of Internet users are coming online as they realize they can use the 'Net in their own language -- not only those with Roman alphabets but also languages like Russian, Arabic, Korean and even Tamil! 

Promoting literacy in a region where there is no public school and no money for books and conventional teaching is extremely difficult. The Internet can play a major role in those settings once some form of access is provided and a suitable distance education program developed for the language needed. There is no technical reason why computer-assisted teaching (with words spoken as well as displayed) can't be as effective for literacy teaching as it already is for teaching foreign languages to well-equipped westerners. Nobody is going to make a lot of money providing these things to the poor in the developing world, though. 

Therefore, the people involved in these efforts tend to be employed on temporary contracts with development agencies or to be unpaid altruists. 
They are probably too busy to get involved with DNS issues or ICANN's derelictions of duty. Those they help are even less likely to become involved at this stage of our efforts. But in the long run what happens to all of them will be affected by how the Internet is managed by whoever is placed in authority over it. Frankly, that's why I care so much about this effort -- there is no way in h**l that the people now claiming total control even think about these issues, let alone plan to make sure that the Internet reaches its full potential as a force for good.

<pontification mode off for the day>

Judyth

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Judyth Mermelstein     "cogito ergo lego ergo cogito..."
Montreal, QC           <espresso@e-scape.net>
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My apologies if you are receiving this late - I've been
exceptionally busy this week and fell behind with e-mail.
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