CSC207 - Ethics

disability statistics

WHO estimates 15% of users

what do disabilities have in common?

a disability is a physical or mental impairment that is associated with a personal or social limitation on the activities one can perform

types of physical or mental impairment

• biological (based on a theory of human function)

• statistical (based on deviation from some defined average)

personal or social limitation

a limit on the set of activities that a person can perform:

• basic movements

• complex actions

• social activities

cause

a specific event that occurred before another event

background conditions

all other factors that are required for the event to happen but not part of the cause

the medical model of disability

physical or mental impairment CAUSES personal/social limitation, and human world is a BACKGROUND CONDITION

the social model of disability

human world CAUSES personal/social limitation, physical or mental impairment is a BACKGROUND CONDITION

address disability through medical model

remove the trait that causes it

address disability through social model

modifying the environment around it

principles of universal design

1. equitable use

2. flexibility in use

3. simple and intuitive use

4. perceptible information

5. tolerance for error

6. low physical effort

7. size and space for approach and use

software and the medical model examples

• braille translation software

• simplified phone interface

• sip-and-puff systems

• voice recognition software that allows people to create text by speaking

software and the social model examples

• automatic captioning

• zooming in + larger text

• unlocking a device with a face ID or fingerprint

• dark mode

• text to speech

reasonable accommodation

most people would say that there is an obligation to offer this to people with disabilities

impacts of your application

your application will CREATE some things and REDISTRIBUTE some things both to your users and to other stakeholders

distributive justice

• efficiency

• rights to a minimum

• equity/equality

• luck egalitarianism

efficiency

making sure resources are allocated to where they are used most effectively

rights to a minimum

making sure everyone has a bare minimum of something

equality / equity

making sure everyone gets the same amount of resources/capabilities

luck egalitarianism

making sure that no one is deprived of resources for reasons they are not responsible for

morality

• not necessarily enforced

• not everyone follows their moral reasons

• there is substantial disagreement about it

legal obligations to accommodate people with disabilities

• legal requirements are backed by some kind of legal penalty

• legal requirements are usually contained in a legal code

• morality and law overlap, but they are not identical