1. This document uses the GNU Free Documentation License (v1.2 or newer). Different people, digital world PSI 2007 Kaido Kikkas

2. People are different Differences vs stereotypes Minorities based on race, ethnicity, worldview etc Different stereotypes by location Yet some groups face almost universal stereotyping – perhaps the most visible example is people with disabilities (PwD) The litmus effect – PwD as an indicator

3. The circle Low level of education Low level of employment Low social status Limited role in society, neglect Limited access to different parts of society

4. Back to the society People with disabilities: from Sparta to today Segregation vs integration Former Eastern bloc – 'society of universal happiness', no sub-standard people Gradual return to society during the nineties NB! At first, both sides were unprepared The road goes on

5. The Circle revisited Low level of education Low level of employment Low social status Limited role in society, neglect Limited access to different parts of society @ Extra means of access Distance education Telework Means of politics and PR Powerful, accessible medium

6. Some notable initiatives http://www.empowermentzone.org (1996-2000) – the first widely used all-round online resource for disability activists The Access symbol campaign and others leading to accessibility becoming an integral part of W3C activities Web validating – W3C, Bobby and others

7. Example: Estonia 1992 – first computer courses at TUT 1995-2001 – first Estonian server especially targetted towards people with disabilities; community emerges The Old Town talker (chatroom) 1995 – hosted by a man with a profound impairment 1995 – Rehabilitation Technology Lab at TUT around 2000 - E- and M-services make many formerly inaccessible services usable; the broadband and WiFi breakthrough 2000-2003 – the THINK FP6 project 2006 - http://liikumisvabadus.invainfo.ee

8. Communication? side A channel side B hello! hi, man!

9. Example: small talk or scandal? A sentence “Man, you suck hard!” is used in an informal conversion between buddies in a sauna after a sixpack said in a phone conversation said in instant messenger sent by E-mail sent by fax bearing a corporate letterhead sent as an official post with all requisites by the President of Estonia

10. Differences time direction capacity filtering The secret of Internet: a mixture of very different communication measures

11. We become our messages On the Internet, height, weight, race, and gender may be unknown. Beauty doesn't impress us, nor does ugliness appall. We become our messages, purely and simply Barrett & Wallace 1994 But works only when people are honest!

12. Hackers again No record about MIT hackers with disability Yet, had they existed, they would have likely been treated as equals (see also the case of 12-yo Peter Deutsch). Levy's Hacker Ethic, rule 4: Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position. Similar views are also seen at the writings of Raymond and Himanen

13. Other features of the Net A bit skewed from day one (not many “normal” people among the founders) Filtering of prejudices the dreaded First Impression: verbal rather than visual Allows “playing out the hand” Accelerates deepening of personal contact DANGER: does not say when to stop beating

14. What if a girl meets a guy... who is using a wheelchair in 'real life', it takes some courage to even think about any closer relations in the cyberspace, it is up to him: can start 'playing out' with the disability fact and get the same results as offline can try to hide it – will get busted on real contact can 'play other cards' first – the perceivedly negative feature will lose a lot of its meaning

15. Vox populi, vox Dei Citizen participation has grown much easier with networks – especially for those unheard before All those social software tools – from community portals to blogs and wikis Examples from Estonia: The picket of Estonian PwD in November 2006 was largely coordinated online and was quite successful the apartment scandal in February 2007 – reversed due to large publicity

16. Conclusions Digital world has its threats, but it has given lots of new tools for minority groups Internet is “different” by nature the Net as a form of rehabilitation? again the place for the Hacker Ethic

17. Homework Find a good example of inclusion / empowerment from the web and write a review to your blog