Political Correctness Gone MadFreddy Woo writes: "I once worked on an animation to help highlight the issues homeless people face in winter. The client was happy with the work, then a note came back that the ethnic mix of the characters were wrong. These were cartoon characters. They weren't meant to be ethnically anything, but we were forced to make one of them brown, at the cost of about 10k to the charity. This is how your donations are spent. Wisely as you can see."
How has PC affected you? (Please add your own tales - not five-year-old news stories cut-and-pasted from other websites)
(, Thu 22 Nov 2007, 10:20)
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Oh transit...thats my bag baby. Yeah, I work for NYC Transit. We have the bendy buses too (we call them artiks, short for articulated). Our entire city bus fleet has lifts for those in wheelchairs, and the newer "hybrid- low floor buses" have a ramp that slides out. I have no problem with this. However, the city does provide a service called "access-a-ride" where you prove to a doctor at the Authority (and if you really are disabled, then its cake), and they give you a pass, that enables you to ride this literal door-to-door service anywhere in the city for the same price as the regular bus and Subway (which is $2). Now the only thing with this service, is that you need to schedule your pick up I believe at least 36 hours in advance. Works great when know you have to go to your doctor and all, but that sudden desire to get groceries, makes it a bit inconvienent. Our subway has about 65 stations that are accessable. We need to have 100 done by 2020. We should actually surpass that goal by 3 or 4 stations, but we will continue to make stations accessible. Mind you I have in all my years riding the subway, I have seen just TWO people in wheelchairs on the subway. One was a beggar.
I remember seeing a program about inventions, and someone created a wheelchair that could actually climb steps. IF this is in fact true, the city could buy everyone who needed a wheelchair in the city so they didnt have to upgrade the stations. This would probably be cheaper in the long run.
It is in my experience about escalators and elevators, most of the people using them, are women with strollers (prams is that what they are called in the UK?), those with lots of packages, and the eldery.
All in all - we are doing our best, however some handicapped advocacy groups feel it isnt enough. Fitting in an elevator into a subway station that is 80 years old isnt easy (relocate utilities, sidewalks, many items), and can be very expensive very fast.
(, Sat 24 Nov 2007, 2:58, Reply)
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