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Re:I feel hopeless, rejected, and a burden on society-one we... by josephg on Sunday July 30, 2023 @12:46PM (#36933114)
> Until the financial incentives of investors, employees and customers align this will never be a priority

In some parts of the world, disabled people can sue businesses over accessibility issues. People complain about the “disability mafia” shaking down businesses, but I think it might be the only way to align incentives to actually get these problems reliably addressed.

Re:I feel hopeless, rejected, and a burden on society-one we... by Wowfunhappy on Sunday July 30, 2023 @12:58PM (#36933244)
> People complain about the “disability mafia” shaking down businesses, but I think it might be the only way to align incentives to actually get these problems reliably addressed.

But IMO the other side of this is also tricky, because you don't want companies to respond by removing services for everyone.

There was an article on here the other day about how a town had a non-ADA-compliant crosswalk. Fearing a lawsuit, the town addressed the issue... by removing the crosswalk. (You could still cross the street—with a wheelchair, even—but you had to walk much further to do so.)

I also remember the article about the California university—was it Berkley?—where some professors posted their lectures freely online for members of the public. Of course, they didn't have the resources to go through and add subtitles—these lectures were for non-students, they didn't generate any revenue—and the university got sued. Obviously, they responded by pulling down the lectures.

Situations like these just make everything worse for everyone. How do we write regulations which avoid that?

Re:I feel hopeless, rejected, and a burden on society-one we... by zo1 on Monday July 31, 2023 @01:54AM (#36939239)
You make it illegal for people to profit off of the regulation? Make it so the only "money" they get is in the form of paying doctors, psychiatrists and counselors. Raise the bar to prove that monetary compensation is needed. Also, stop using this mechanism to "punish" companies. Punish them by forcing them to comply, not by taking money from them and giving it to victims. That part is the one that creates a perverse incentive for people to take advantage.

Edit. Make it so it's legal to sue people that profit (money) off of this, at least the lawyers involved or ones that advertise these kinds of services.

So many ways to solve it. Too bad we as a society are stuck in a rut and can't undo bad choices or change direction easily. If you go down this path, be prepared for the onslaught of "you hate the disabled" from the entrenched interests. Some of which will be plain old disability advocacy groups that generally do good but also got stuck in this path and are captured by profit-seekers.