intellectual confusion

I thought this was an interesting, thoughtfully written paper. It made me think about the price of "intellectual confusion". And about the problem of presenting graphical infomation in a non-graphic display and conveying the full meaning of the message independent of its delivery medium.

"Too often the designer focuses on the standard mix of sensory and motor abilities, with at most some vague plan to later retrofit solutions for individuals with disabilities." p.2

"intellectual confusion can lead to practices that create and perpetuate handicaps. We list three.
1. Inadvertent Over-restricting . . .
2. Confusing a task with a particular way of performing it . . .
3. Confusing information with a particular form it takes the exact nature of information is subject to philosophical debate, but on any reasonable conception, information is distinguished from the particular forms in which it is expressed, carried or stored in various situations. . ." pp. 21-23

"The distinction between information and the form in which it is presented must be preserved in all electronic representations of information to allow the same information to be presented in a variety of ways." p.29
Disability, Inability and Cyberspace


Path:
Went to the Information School of the University of Washington scanned this article: Gaps and Bits: Conceptualizing Measurements for Digital Divides found a reference to Disability, Inability and Cyberspace buried in the bibliography.