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It can be difficult to communicate this way but I think there is a social benefit to making the extra effort for people with disabilities. Often you don’t choos

It can be difficult to communicate this way but I think there is a social benefit to making the extra effort for people with disabilities. Often you don’t choose to be disabled. What if you were unlucky to be disabled? Would you like your opportunities to be thoroughly reduced in life? I try to make an effort because I could have been in that employee’s shoes. I am lucky… this is the least I can do.

Wowfunhappy 5y ago
When I go to a store, I'm not doing it out of charity for the employees. I'm doing it because I want to buy something, in the most efficient and/or pleasant way possible. I'd much rather fund social programs which just outright support people with disabilities (and I'd like such programs to be more robust and empathetic than they are today). Frankly, if you're not going to be able to do your job well in the first place, this works out better for everyone.
- technothrasher 5y ago
  Huh, I'm exactly the opposite. While I do donate money to social programs, any time I have the opportunity to help others I'd much rather it be with my time and efforts than with simply handing over cash for somebody else to deal with people who need assistance. It is much more fulfilling for me to be able to interact with people I'm helping, and who may help me some day. If this is as simple as taking a few more minutes to interact with a retail clerk that needs extra time communicating, that seems like an almost no effort opportunity.
  - Wowfunhappy 5y ago
    It depends on the extent of the disability, but if your job is to stand in a store and answer verbal questions, and you can't speak, there are probably better things to be doing with your life. Consider the other perspective here: I'd posit that all else being equal, most people would rather not have to go to work every day, particularly if "work" is a crappy retail job. We force most people to work because their jobs benefit the rest of society, but if someone can't work in a way that helps others, why force them to do it? Because it's not fair to everyone else? Because hard work is good for the soul? Screw that! Go read books, raise your children, live your life as best you can, and let the rest of us take care of you. If the situation were reversed, I'd expect you to do the same for us.
  - nicolas_t 5y ago
    Agreed, donating money to social programs is helpful but isn't it much better to allow people to have a richer social life and to feel respected? It's not much more work to write on an ipad when asking a deaf employee and it allows him to have a much more fulfilling life.
    - t-3 5y ago
      Why is employment equal to fulfillment? This feels like a backwards approach to making a better society. We should be trying to reduce the amount of work that needs to be done, so that people can interact with others on their own terms, rather than expecting workplaces to provide for a person's emotional, social, as well as economic needs.
- ms4720 5y ago
  I like the idea of people having a life and not a warehouse to be put into
- mynegation 5y ago
  Nothing wrong with this point of view, there are definitely times when I want to be out of the store as fast as humanly possible. Couple of times I have been served by a deaf employee in my local Apple store, we typed sentences on the iPad. It was slower a bit but otherwise perfectly fine. If this person wanted just money from social programs they would do that. But you could tell it was important for them to work, to communicate with other people, and have a sense of purpose. And it was my pleasure and privilege to participate in this, for these brief several minutes. It might not have been the fastest way but it was definitely pleasant (2nd part of your criteria), for both of us.
rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago
Further, most people will have some sort of temporary or permanent disability at some point in their life. People break their legs, get older and become deaf, or blind, etc. Interacting with people with disabilities gives us an opportunity to think about how we can make society a little better not just for them, but for ourselves in the case that we become sick, or injured, or just live to be elderly enough that parts of our bodies have fulfilled their expected useful life and stop working.
- cmsj 5y ago
  Yep. This is literally the lesson that is demonstrated extremely clearly by the software of, ironically, Apple. Really good accessibility support ends up being really useful to all sorts of people in all sorts of ways. I have near perfect vision/hearing/speech and no motor difficulties, but there are several accessibility features that I enable on my Mac and iPhone because they make it easier for me to do certain things. Even outside the software realm, examples like adding ramps to entrances instantly makes life a little bit easier for people pushing carts/strollers, which at various times is a pretty huge part of the population.
ddingus 5y ago
I agree. My reasons are more selfish and basic: Any of us could be disabled or our person may be a target for discrimination or worse. Could be me. And I make sure while it is not me I can increase the net happiness in the world.
nevermindiguess 5y ago
How about ugly people? Certainly they don’t like to be limited in their opportunities to attract attractive people. Should the government pass laws to compensate them for this shortcoming? I stutter. Most of you people made fun of me or made me feel inadequate. The government didn’t do anything for me. Should some law be passed to compensate me for years of humiliation. How about women discarding me as a potential mate? Should I start a “Stutters Lives Matters” movement? What other human shortcomings that nature bestows upon us would you like the government to fix?

Wowfunhappy 5y ago

When I go to a store, I'm not doing it out of charity for the employees. I'm doing it because I want to buy something, in the most efficient and/or pleasant way possible. I'd much rather fund social programs which just outright support people with disabilities (and I'd like such programs to be more robust and empathetic than they are today). Frankly, if you're not going to be able to do your job well in the first place, this works out better for everyone.

technothrasher 5y ago
Huh, I'm exactly the opposite. While I do donate money to social programs, any time I have the opportunity to help others I'd much rather it be with my time and efforts than with simply handing over cash for somebody else to deal with people who need assistance. It is much more fulfilling for me to be able to interact with people I'm helping, and who may help me some day. If this is as simple as taking a few more minutes to interact with a retail clerk that needs extra time communicating, that seems like an almost no effort opportunity.
- Wowfunhappy 5y ago
  It depends on the extent of the disability, but if your job is to stand in a store and answer verbal questions, and you can't speak, there are probably better things to be doing with your life. Consider the other perspective here: I'd posit that all else being equal, most people would rather not have to go to work every day, particularly if "work" is a crappy retail job. We force most people to work because their jobs benefit the rest of society, but if someone can't work in a way that helps others, why force them to do it? Because it's not fair to everyone else? Because hard work is good for the soul? Screw that! Go read books, raise your children, live your life as best you can, and let the rest of us take care of you. If the situation were reversed, I'd expect you to do the same for us.
- nicolas_t 5y ago
  Agreed, donating money to social programs is helpful but isn't it much better to allow people to have a richer social life and to feel respected? It's not much more work to write on an ipad when asking a deaf employee and it allows him to have a much more fulfilling life.
  - t-3 5y ago
    Why is employment equal to fulfillment? This feels like a backwards approach to making a better society. We should be trying to reduce the amount of work that needs to be done, so that people can interact with others on their own terms, rather than expecting workplaces to provide for a person's emotional, social, as well as economic needs.
ms4720 5y ago
I like the idea of people having a life and not a warehouse to be put into
mynegation 5y ago
Nothing wrong with this point of view, there are definitely times when I want to be out of the store as fast as humanly possible. Couple of times I have been served by a deaf employee in my local Apple store, we typed sentences on the iPad. It was slower a bit but otherwise perfectly fine. If this person wanted just money from social programs they would do that. But you could tell it was important for them to work, to communicate with other people, and have a sense of purpose. And it was my pleasure and privilege to participate in this, for these brief several minutes. It might not have been the fastest way but it was definitely pleasant (2nd part of your criteria), for both of us.

rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago

Further, most people will have some sort of temporary or permanent disability at some point in their life. People break their legs, get older and become deaf, or blind, etc. Interacting with people with disabilities gives us an opportunity to think about how we can make society a little better not just for them, but for ourselves in the case that we become sick, or injured, or just live to be elderly enough that parts of our bodies have fulfilled their expected useful life and stop working.

cmsj 5y ago
Yep. This is literally the lesson that is demonstrated extremely clearly by the software of, ironically, Apple. Really good accessibility support ends up being really useful to all sorts of people in all sorts of ways. I have near perfect vision/hearing/speech and no motor difficulties, but there are several accessibility features that I enable on my Mac and iPhone because they make it easier for me to do certain things. Even outside the software realm, examples like adding ramps to entrances instantly makes life a little bit easier for people pushing carts/strollers, which at various times is a pretty huge part of the population.

ddingus 5y ago

I agree. My reasons are more selfish and basic: Any of us could be disabled or our person may be a target for discrimination or worse. Could be me. And I make sure while it is not me I can increase the net happiness in the world.

nevermindiguess 5y ago

How about ugly people? Certainly they don’t like to be limited in their opportunities to attract attractive people. Should the government pass laws to compensate them for this shortcoming? I stutter. Most of you people made fun of me or made me feel inadequate. The government didn’t do anything for me. Should some law be passed to compensate me for years of humiliation. How about women discarding me as a potential mate? Should I start a “Stutters Lives Matters” movement? What other human shortcomings that nature bestows upon us would you like the government to fix?