4 ms·
Ask HN: Should it be illegal to discriminate against poor writers/speakers?
Should it be illegal to discriminate against people who are poor writers/speakers but who are good enough to be clearly understood?
Why should society penalize people who have not mastered a messy natural language?
- jambo 16y agohowud u complish tht? [That was a serious question with an illuminating response. How would you know whether those who downvoted me were doing so because of my comprehensible but poor writing style, or out of disagreement?]
- JoeCortopassi 16y agoI'll upvote, just cause I think you were trying to make a point
- rmah 16y agoI submit that not only should it be legal, but that it is good to do so! More seriously... You write "but who are good enough to be clearly understood". Have you considered that perhaps they are only clearly understood in their own minds? By definition poor communicators (speakers/writers) have trouble getting their point across. If they get their point across well, they are not poor communicators.
- JoeCortopassi 16y agoIf I'm reading this correctly, you aren't actually asking if it should be illegal to discriminate against people with poor communication skills, but rather people with foreign accents that make people difficult to understand. Either way it's a tricky subject, because people are super sensitive to these kind of things. But if a teammate on a project can't be understood, than they won't be effective, tasks will get confused and messed up, and the project will eventually suffer because of it. In this avenue, it's perfectly understandable to list communication skills alongside education and work experience But if you mean just rejecting people because they have a unique accent, but can be understood, than I would agree that is wrong.
- amichail 16y agoI'm referring more to the use of unsophisticated language and occasional grammar errors.