![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prusikOne of the accidental side-effects of International Blog Against Racism Week is that I've gotten an overload of wonderfully written entries about the accidental beneficiaries of societal bias. These entries all make the point that it's difficult for these accidental beneficiaries to understand how systemic the bias is. The result is that, unless they make a specific effort, it's easy for their reactions to come off to people's valid concerns as dismissive. Now, typically, this comes up in the context of race or gender. This makes the accidental beneficiaries feel like they're being called racists or sexists. People get defensive. No one gets their point across. I've found an example which, I hope, doesn't stir up any of those emotions.
I've been looking for a handheld PC type device for a while now. The idea is that this would replace my moleskine notebook. I could keep it in my pocket, jot notes, write some fiction or whatever and it would immediately be in electronic form, so that I don't have to type it over again. Given the cost of these devices, it would also have to double as my laptop. Now the current contender is the OQO Model 02. There's a lot to like about the machine. However, it's a tad expensive. The reviews have complained about it's high pitched fan. The processor it uses is a bit wimpy. And, its layout is clearly bias towards right-handed people. The trackstick is way to the right and two mouse buttons are way to the left. I am not the only one who thinks there is a bias.
Now, unfortunately, the blogger I linked to above demands a specific (and, unfortunately, unworkable) solution when, I think, all she wanted was a solution. At least, all I'd like is for them to get rid of the bias, I don't actually care how they do it as long as it's ergonomic, easy to use, and doesn't screw anyone over.
What struck me though is a reaction to this blog I read at UltraMobileLife. (Incidentally, I think UltraMobileLife is a fine blog, as long as one never forgets that VIA sponsors the blog. There tends to be a focus on products which use VIA chips, like the OQO Model 02, for example.) He admits, that, as a right handed person, this is something that he's never thought about. He points out that the layout works fine for him and that the proposed solution is unworkable.
He continues, writing "Unlike notebooks, the OQO is held with your hands wrapped around the edges of the device while your thumbs poke, prod and nudge the buttons below the screen." Just to reiterate, because it's important, the intended way to use the OQO is to treat grab the sides of the device, then operate the keyboard, trackstick, left and right buttons with your thumbs.
This makes his next paragraph bizarre. It starts: "My suggestion for left-handers wondering what to do about the OQO is to give it a try yourself and keep in mind that you can always use a wireless (or wired) mouse or use a stylus to control the mouse." The first half of the sentence is in effect, "hey, doing everything with your off-hand might work well for you." The second half of the sentence proposes something which makes it impossible to use the OQO the way it was intended.
It's hard for me to read that sentence to mean anything besides "Either you have to learn to pass, or you have resign to being a second class citizen." It's hard for me to read that paragraph as being anything besides dismissive of the entire situation. Note that after he, correctly, pronounces the proposed solution as unworkable, he doesn't even consider the possibility that perhaps OQO might be able to find some other way of eliminating the bias. All he has to say in his blog entry boils down to "Left handed people must learn to accomodate machines, because it's not going to occur to us to design machines to accomodate them, even when they have directly proposed this."
(Incidentally, if I were to buy an OQO Model 02, I'd probably use it almost always as a tablet PC. This gets rid of the right handed bias with the thumbboard as an issue, but raises Microsoft's right-hand biased user interface as an issue. Scroll bars aren't a great idea in a pen based interface to being with, but they're worse if they're only on a window's right hand side and the pen is in your left hand.)
Is Bjorn Stromberg, the blogger who writes UltraMobileLife, some horrible bigot against left-handed people? No, of course not. It just doesn't occur to him that, for some people, the OQO's thumbboard layout poses a real user interface problem. After all, as he says, "It definitely fits perfectly into my hands and the controls all feel great." I doubt he actually means to be dismissive. It's just that despite being told that this is something that can cost OQO money, it is simply not within his experience that this is something people make a substantive complaint about. After all, how hard can it be to do everything with your off-hand? I mean, right handed people do this all the time... Oh, wait. They don't because all the interfaces in the world are designed to be operated by right handed people. Why should it ever occur to a right handed person that the interfaces which suit them so well may be problematic for others?
(If we go back to the source blog which complained about the layout, there is a comment by Jan Peter which is the equivalent of "some of my best friends are black, so now don't you be uppity. Hush up and stay in your place." He also misses the point. I mean, of course we can pass. The question is why should we have to? I'm ignoring the bit about being uppity. Fortunately, he doesn't actually use that word. He, undoubtedly, also would think that I've seriously misinterpreted his words. However, that's part of my point. What I've gotten out of his words is undoubtedly very different from what he has intended to say because he has underestimated the importance of the issue.)
Now, to get back on topic, I'm not seriously suggesting an equivalence between handedness and race. (However, I know I'm not the first to use handedness as a non-inflammatory proxy to discuss discrimination issues.) But I think this does point out that it's possible for something to be so far outside your experience that, unless you make a conscious effort, you're just going to miss it. If someone tells you that you've missed it, that doesn't make you an evil or terrible person. It just makes you a person who will have to try harder, lest you inadvertently misunderstand, or hurt people. (Yes, we could just accommodate you instead, but that doesn't seem like the path to the bright and shiny future.)
I've been looking for a handheld PC type device for a while now. The idea is that this would replace my moleskine notebook. I could keep it in my pocket, jot notes, write some fiction or whatever and it would immediately be in electronic form, so that I don't have to type it over again. Given the cost of these devices, it would also have to double as my laptop. Now the current contender is the OQO Model 02. There's a lot to like about the machine. However, it's a tad expensive. The reviews have complained about it's high pitched fan. The processor it uses is a bit wimpy. And, its layout is clearly bias towards right-handed people. The trackstick is way to the right and two mouse buttons are way to the left. I am not the only one who thinks there is a bias.
Now, unfortunately, the blogger I linked to above demands a specific (and, unfortunately, unworkable) solution when, I think, all she wanted was a solution. At least, all I'd like is for them to get rid of the bias, I don't actually care how they do it as long as it's ergonomic, easy to use, and doesn't screw anyone over.
What struck me though is a reaction to this blog I read at UltraMobileLife. (Incidentally, I think UltraMobileLife is a fine blog, as long as one never forgets that VIA sponsors the blog. There tends to be a focus on products which use VIA chips, like the OQO Model 02, for example.) He admits, that, as a right handed person, this is something that he's never thought about. He points out that the layout works fine for him and that the proposed solution is unworkable.
He continues, writing "Unlike notebooks, the OQO is held with your hands wrapped around the edges of the device while your thumbs poke, prod and nudge the buttons below the screen." Just to reiterate, because it's important, the intended way to use the OQO is to treat grab the sides of the device, then operate the keyboard, trackstick, left and right buttons with your thumbs.
This makes his next paragraph bizarre. It starts: "My suggestion for left-handers wondering what to do about the OQO is to give it a try yourself and keep in mind that you can always use a wireless (or wired) mouse or use a stylus to control the mouse." The first half of the sentence is in effect, "hey, doing everything with your off-hand might work well for you." The second half of the sentence proposes something which makes it impossible to use the OQO the way it was intended.
It's hard for me to read that sentence to mean anything besides "Either you have to learn to pass, or you have resign to being a second class citizen." It's hard for me to read that paragraph as being anything besides dismissive of the entire situation. Note that after he, correctly, pronounces the proposed solution as unworkable, he doesn't even consider the possibility that perhaps OQO might be able to find some other way of eliminating the bias. All he has to say in his blog entry boils down to "Left handed people must learn to accomodate machines, because it's not going to occur to us to design machines to accomodate them, even when they have directly proposed this."
(Incidentally, if I were to buy an OQO Model 02, I'd probably use it almost always as a tablet PC. This gets rid of the right handed bias with the thumbboard as an issue, but raises Microsoft's right-hand biased user interface as an issue. Scroll bars aren't a great idea in a pen based interface to being with, but they're worse if they're only on a window's right hand side and the pen is in your left hand.)
Is Bjorn Stromberg, the blogger who writes UltraMobileLife, some horrible bigot against left-handed people? No, of course not. It just doesn't occur to him that, for some people, the OQO's thumbboard layout poses a real user interface problem. After all, as he says, "It definitely fits perfectly into my hands and the controls all feel great." I doubt he actually means to be dismissive. It's just that despite being told that this is something that can cost OQO money, it is simply not within his experience that this is something people make a substantive complaint about. After all, how hard can it be to do everything with your off-hand? I mean, right handed people do this all the time... Oh, wait. They don't because all the interfaces in the world are designed to be operated by right handed people. Why should it ever occur to a right handed person that the interfaces which suit them so well may be problematic for others?
(If we go back to the source blog which complained about the layout, there is a comment by Jan Peter which is the equivalent of "some of my best friends are black, so now don't you be uppity. Hush up and stay in your place." He also misses the point. I mean, of course we can pass. The question is why should we have to? I'm ignoring the bit about being uppity. Fortunately, he doesn't actually use that word. He, undoubtedly, also would think that I've seriously misinterpreted his words. However, that's part of my point. What I've gotten out of his words is undoubtedly very different from what he has intended to say because he has underestimated the importance of the issue.)
Now, to get back on topic, I'm not seriously suggesting an equivalence between handedness and race. (However, I know I'm not the first to use handedness as a non-inflammatory proxy to discuss discrimination issues.) But I think this does point out that it's possible for something to be so far outside your experience that, unless you make a conscious effort, you're just going to miss it. If someone tells you that you've missed it, that doesn't make you an evil or terrible person. It just makes you a person who will have to try harder, lest you inadvertently misunderstand, or hurt people. (Yes, we could just accommodate you instead, but that doesn't seem like the path to the bright and shiny future.)
