Technology and Disabilities.

In class we briefly learned about how people with disabilities can still use technology and how technology can help them and improve their quality of life. Since we didn't really get very detailed in the class discussion, I wanted to do a little bit of research on my own to find out more about it.

I think this topic is particularly interesting because it something that is actually using technology to better the world. Most of the technology we have looked at with new media is just something to benefit our lives, make things more convenient, and save time. However, this is an idea that actually helps others. It's unfair to just let the internet, email, games, social networking, etc. be just for people who were gifted and blessed in their abilities. This is something that, if possible, should be given to everyone, regardless of your physical condition. Another reason I am interested in this topic is because I am amazed that it is even possible for us to create technology that has the ability to do these things and help disabled people. It is hard for me to fathom. I am always amazed by technology and what we have been able to do with it, but this takes the cake for sure. The final reason is because this is something that impacts interpersonal relationships very heavily for disabled people, so this ties in very nicely to my overall theme of my blog.

In Tech Talk 4, we learned a little about Section 508 which was "enacted to eliminate barriers in information technology, to make available new opportunities for people with disabilities, and to encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals" (Wikipedia.com). Essentially Section 508 enables disabled people to interpret and use public websites, chats, emails, etc. It does not require private websites to do so, but all public ones need to follow to guidelines. It can be given the "Bobby" test to see if it is accessable meets the guidelines. I think this is great. Sheryl Burgstahler from the University of Washington wrote in an article Working Together: People with Disabilities and Computer Technology "People with disabilities meet barriers of all types. However, technology is helping to lower many of these barriers. By using computing technology for tasks such as reading and writing documents, communicating with others, and searching for information on the Internet, students and employees with disabilities are capable of handling a wider range of activities independently. Still, people with disabilities face a variety of barriers to computer use. These barriers can be grouped into three functional categories: barriers to providing computer input, interpreting output, and reading supporting documentation. Hardware and software tools (known as adaptive or assistive technologies) have been developed to provide functional alternatives to these standard operations."It includes people with disabilities rather than excluding them, which we so often do. This is something that can and has dramatically changed people's lives and has especially changed their ability to communicate, have a social life, and interpersonal relationships in general. I can honestly say that I see basically no down sides to helping the disabled communities use this technology. The only problem is cost. Much of the supplies and programs needed to operate these things is very expensive.

Now--what exactly does it do? There are several different types of software you can get. It can be adapted in so many ways to accomodate different disabilities. You can use only your mouth, only your feet, your hands (without reaching), or even your eyes. The adaptive technology can be used by blind, deaf, speech impaired, mobile impaired, or even disabilities such as dyslexia. The technology is unbelievable. Some of the programs that are pretty common, especially in schools, are JAWS, Dragon Naturally Speaking, ZoomText, OpenBook and Kurzweil Reader.

The use of these technologies can also be related to Jenkins article of convergence. With these adaptive softwares and hardwares, we can see many different technologies converging for one thing. Through different media convergences we are able to see the technology grow and build on each other to create something new and easier.

I know I have said it many times before, but this adaptive technology is amazing for anyone with a disability. Through the ability to communicate online they can have more of a social life than they do in the physical world. They can chat with groups of people, email, maintain an online social networking site, etc. They can even find groups on Facebook or other sites of people with similar problems and they can talk to each other and relate. It is great progress to be making and is something that is going to change interpersonal relationships for the better, I believe. Hopefully in future generations we will find a way to make the technology programs cheaper and more available to the disabled community.

Facebook.

In the last few years, Facebook has become a very popular social networking site. It is growing very rapidly and people all over the world use it now. In class we discussed several effects that Facebook has had on society. I personally think that there are positive things and negative things about facebook.

First of all, it effects our identity. The way people view us is something almost everyone cares about. On your facebook, you can choose which picture is your default or your information says what you want it to say. However, you cannot change what other people write on your page, pictures they post of you, or any other material they put online. Even if you untag yourself, it is still there. This changes so much about other aspects of our lives--applying for jobs, people running for public office, etc. When you apply for a job, almost all people hiring will look you up on google and/or facebook. If you have inappropriate things on your page, they will judge you for it. An article entitled "Social Networking Goes Proffessional" published in the Wall Street Journal says, "Millions of professionals already turn to broad-based networking sites like LinkedIn to swap job details and contact information, often for recruiting purposes. Business executives also have turned to online forums, email lists and message boards to sound off on information related to their industries". Many questions they want to ask you, but cannot because it is illegal, can be answered by them looking at your facebook page. If you run for public office in twenty years it is almost guaranteed that Facebook will be to thank when someone happens to find a picture of you from your more wild days. Also when talking about identity, Bugeja brings up a point of whether or not our identity is divided between physical and online. Bugeja believes that the blurring of identity occurs when technology places an individual in two or more places at ones. When identity and time are blurred, so is our sense of place. Does this cause us to have "dual consciousness"? Personally, I do think we are in "two places at once". Cyberspace is not a tangible place, however when I am online, even when I am very emerged in whatever I am doing, I am still aware of what is going on in my physical environment. I can be involved in something on my computer during class and still be paying attention to what my teacher is talking about (contrary to most teacher's beliefs...). I believe this goes back to how technology in general is affecting our lives. Children today get impatient with tasks and want to be multitasking at all times. We think everything needs to be done in seconds and can't stand it when our internet takes more than 5 seconds, literally, to open.

The next point that is important to discuss when talking about Facebook, or any other social networking sites is the change of interpersonal relationships. You can meet people online, become better friends with your acquaintances, stay in touch with older friends, and have a "social life" online. It is crazy. Okay, first of all meeting people online. I have always been very not okay with meeting people online and think that it is generally a very creepy thing. I still think that it is generally very creepy. However, I have realized also that there are some instances when meeting people online is okay. If you are moving to another area and are involved in a group or organization, then you could meet someone from that organization online and when you move there you will know someone. If you are looking for a job and find someone online that has a connection to someone that is also beneficial. Basically, any form of networking is great. I just don't think you can meet someone online and then become great friends. You need to have physical interaction, in my opinion, to be friends. If you never meet, you have no idea whether this person is making up everything they say to you and lieing to you all the time, or if they are telling the truth. Some people think that it doesn't matter, but if they are being a "fake" person online, then the relationship you have with this fake person is not real because they do not actually exist. It sounds complicated and weird, but bottom line is that I do not think being strictly online friends is legit. Secondly, people socialize with their friends through Facebook. I think this is fine as long as people are not basing their entire relationship with people on their online interaction. When your online social life becomes your main social life, you have a problem. It is hard to draw a line where that is, but that is my philosophy. I think it is great for people who are out of the country, or have moved away from friends to be able to quickly stay in touch with their friends without having to call them all the time. People nowadays are determining everything by Facebook, and I feel like it is not for the better. If people are in a relationship it doesn't matter until it is on Facebook, then it becomes real. If someone writes on your wall and says "Last night was so fun! I'm glad we went to that party together!" but you told your other friends you had to stay home and do homework, then you are screwed. If a girl writes on a guys wall and the guy's girlfriend see's it, she will most likely get mad. All of these interpersonal problems could be avoided if Facebook didn't exist.

We depend on it to make us feel satisfied with our lives. If we don't have comments on our wall, pokes, etc. we feel like no one cares about us. In the article "The Benefits of Facebook Friends" they talk about how many people use Facebook as a means of boosting their self-esteem. More people on Facebook are self-concious with low self-esteems than not. We pick our best pictures for our profile, untag ugly ones, put witty things in our status or about me, etc. Everything we put on our profile we do to make us look good and show how we want to be seen. This video shows how we let social networking consume our lives. We forget what it's like to actually be part of the real world.


I have had a facebook since my senior year of high school. I was really into it when I first got it, as well as my freshman year. At the end of my freshman year I deleted my account for about a month. It was amazing the relief I felt. I had SO much more free time! I initially did it because of the time factor. It was finals week and I wanted to be able to study without a distraction. It worked. I got it back about a month later and didn't really care about it when I got it back. It seemed boring to me and a waste of time. This is when I realized all the problems that Facebook was creating for people. I do still have my facebook and I use it, however I am not nearly as into it as I was before I had my break from it. I think everyone should delete theirs for a while and see how it changes their life--more time, more real socializing, and real communication. The way things are going, in 10 years people can be "in a relationship" and have never met...it will all be online. Mull over that one.

Gold Farming.

Gold farming is basically buying virtual money, armor, weapons, etc. for your online gaming. This is obviously a really great idea and is great for making money or getting ahead in your game if you are an intense gamer. It is crazy how virtual graphics can be worth a real dollar amount. People will pay to receive something that is not even tangible. However, I do not think this is the best idea for a couple reasons. It is cheating, confuses the gamer using it if they aren't experienced, should be illegal, and are a type of sweatshop.

First, I believe it is cheating. This is unfair to users who legitimately spend their time trying to earn the exact same things while others just buy their way through the game. I understand that people cheat in games, I have before. When I used to play Sims I knew some of the cheat codes so that I could get thousands and thousands of dollars so that I could just buy anything I wanted. It was fun when you create the house you live in and stuff like that, but it essentially defeats the purpose of the game. If you cheat your way through like that, there is nothing to work for. When I had all that money on my Sims account, it was useless for me to try and get my characters better jobs and things like that. Everything was worthless.

Here is a clip from BBC News about Goldfarming and cheating.


The second point I wanted to make was that when you use these people to get ahead, more in Power Level rather than gold farming, you get so far ahead in the game by not doing anything that when you get the game account back and are suddenly at a much higher level, you don't have the practice and experience that is needed for you to be at that level and don't know how to do the things you need to do. Part of going through games and different challenges is that you gain experience and find little tricks along the way to help you in the future and to prepare you. This makes it so you get there and aren't ready for the challenges they set up. This, too, defeats the purpose of levels and essentially the game. I know that most people in this class will disagree with me, but I don't think it is fair at all. If you are a gamer, then I think you should DO YOUR OWN GAMING. Even if it is just tedious work that you just don't want to spend the time doing, then that shouldn't be a reason for you to cheat your way through. If the game companies, like Blizzard, say that it is goes against their terms of agreement then I think gamers should respect that. It isn't fair the the companies creating the game.

Finally, the controversy on the working environment. Many of the places that gold farmers work can be considered sweat shops. In an article by James Lee on 1up.com says, "It isn't too difficult from there to make the leap into creating your own sweatshop. All you need is the ability to write game macros or the money to purchase them. That's right, if you know where to look, they are on the open market. A macro that uses a teleportation exploit in WOW is currently going for $3,000. Then just hire cheap labor to monitor the bots". The people working there are in close quarters, dark areas, long shifts, and paid very low wages. However you also have to consider that the people working there would probably be getting paid the same low wage at any other place they would work. Also, they are choosing to work there. Some of them had law degrees and have graduated from Universities, but they still choose to work as a Gold Farmer. They love what they do. They are provided with a place to live and food. Also, when they are off from their shift they are STILL playing the game. So is it a sweatshop? From first glance, yes. However these people are okay with it. They don't mind how they are working.

In my opinion Gold Farming is not something that benefits interpersonal relationships. Although MMOG's can be a benfefit, and enhance your ability to communicate with people around the world, I don't think Gold Farming is one of them, especially for the farmers. Since they are just gathering coins or boosting someone's levels all day and all night they are not really communicating with other people. They are working, not playing, so they have no time to waste on communication with others. When they make transactions with other players who buy their gold, they are not communicating with them either. They hand off the gold and go their separate ways. You can purchase it on a website collect the coins from someone and the whole thing is over with no communication. So again, this is not benefiting interpersonal relationships with others at all.