Dear List Members:

I am not at all surprised that PEOPLE who happen to have
disABILITIES are being left out of the digital revolution.

Why would anyone care to include THE DISABLED and THE HANDICAPPED
(the terms used in the article "The Disabled are the Digital
Divide" just forwarded to this list) in anything???

After all, dictionary definitions of "disabled" are:

"incapacitated," "incapable" "inoperable"

Why waste and throw money at and be inclusive of people who can't
do anything [by definition] and who are seemingly as good as dead?

We aren't dead yet! But you would not know it from the negative
labels even we use to describe ourselves.

We won't be included in the digital revolution (or anything else)
until we change society's perception of who we are (PEOPLE
first) and what we can and enjoy doing (everything, though perhaps
doing it differently).

We cannot change society's attitudes unless we change the
language with which we describe ourselves and with which we must
insist society describes us.

We must erase from our vocabulary the negative labels - the
"disabled", "handicapped", -  and describe ourselves

POSITIVELY. We are PEOPLE / AN INDIVIDUAL with a disABILITY,
PEOPLE who do things differently; always PEOPLE; an INDIVIDUAL
FIRST, and members of group everyone joins sooner or later during
his or her lifetime.

POSITIVE language sells and wins EVERY time. Madison Avenue knows
it. All successful industries and companies know it.  We ought to
know it too and PRACTICE POSITIVE LANGUAGE .. NOW!

Saying it right - POSITIVELY - is cost-free, but worth millions.

To echo the theme and motto of the American Library Association's
Century Scholarship, the purpose of which is to help students who
"do it differently" become successful library and information
science professionals (please see:
http://www.ala.org/ascla/centuryscholarship.html):

Let us Celebrate a New Century that Celebrates Diversity, the
beautiful diversity of doing things differently.

--------------------

Ellen Perlow
Someone proud to have been doing things differently from Day 1
Member, American Library Association Century Scholarship Committee
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