Forgive me for sounding devisive. I have known organizations where blind people took a back seat just because we are a minority numerically. Numbers are important. So are other criteria. RFBD cut itself off from official consumer feedback when it disbanded the Consumer Council in the early nineties. Bookshare is our organization to the extent that it listens to user feedback. I agree polarizing is a poor idea. On the other hand, I know what can come from growing too fast, reaching out in a multitude of directions and spreading too thin as an organization.
The influx of money will test bookshare in many ways. E. At 08:26 PM 2/23/2009, you wrote:
Elizabeth, I knew you had RFB&D in mind. You're right that we need to learn from that mess. One of the lessons I took from the experience is that polarizing the users doesn't work. RFB&D did it the wrong way, and as a user, I wasn't very supportive of them at the time because I saw it as losing services to a bunch of sighted people who didn't need "our stuff." I didn't know what dyslexia was and was annoyed that they had to change their name. They didn't present it very well, and I didn't have any sympathy to spare back then because I thought I had to lose for the other people to win. I didn't do anything to help the project succeed. I just stayed quiet and dealt with my objections by refusing to put the D on their name whenever I wrote about them. I was around 22 and behaved like I was 12. I was wrong back then, and I can see that clearly now. I do think Bookshare needs to make some improvements on its site layout, and some of our sighted users agree. I think that is a separate issue from accommodating our current and future members in terms of adding books to the collection. I don't want us to lose services. I don't want our sighted users to be shut out either. I believe that with some honest give and take, we can do things better with Bookshare. We can win, and they can win too because they and we are the same when it comes down to it. If we're willing to keep working at it, there doesn't have to be a loser here. If we take the time to look for it, there are things we can do to help each other, teach each other, and become a community that historians will right about one day. The staff can't do this, even though they want to. Only the users and volunteers can do this. We don't have to do it. We can though. We get to choose. Monica Willyard "The best way to predict the future is to create it." -- Peter Drucker To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.__________ NOD32 3882 (20090223) Information __________ This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.eset.com
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