2019-06-08 11:50:33

Hi,
I would like to read Dark's Ph.D thesis on disability. However, the Durham university website's pdf link does not function at all on any browser  Could Dark or someone assist in this? Posting here is the e-mail and pm system is broken.
the link I found is:
http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12704/

A learning experience is one of those things that say, "You know that thing you just did? Don't do that."

2019-06-08 16:59:59

Hi.

that is indeed my thesis. The stupidity was that Durham demanded it be submitted as a pdf, and a bloody huge one. Most browsers like Chrome will try to open Pdfs by default, and since its a huge pdf it will take quite a while to open, so your best off using the applications key on the pdf and selecting "save as"

Since pdfs are a pain in the neck, if you'd prefer a copy as a bog standard docx file let me know and I can send you one via email/

Hth.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-06-08 21:04:55

Hi Dark,
The issue isn't the browser, but when I click on the file, even if I right click, the download stays at 0 bytes.

A learning experience is one of those things that say, "You know that thing you just did? Don't do that."

2019-06-09 00:34:52

I would love it if you could email me your thesis as a DOCX please

Is this the real life?
Or is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide,
No escape from reality

2019-06-09 16:00:25 (edited by Ghost 2020-10-13 03:15:34)

Hi Dark,
Could you also e-mail me the thesis? I would prefer PDF, due to NVDA's bad word support, but any format will do. I am really interested in your model of disability, and the problems you see the current social model. My e-mail is  removed.

A learning experience is one of those things that say, "You know that thing you just did? Don't do that."

2019-06-09 20:45:58

Yup, server's down. I just tried the download myself and it timed out. I guess we can try another day.

2019-06-09 21:26:13

I would also like to read your thesis, as I have seen many writings from you, and I'm sure those were just summaries in your eyes even if they were 2 pages long, lol. Can you please send a docx copy over to [email protected]. PS, I sent you a pm earlier this morning

2019-06-10 02:21:50

I am also interested in reading your thesis.  If you could send it as a docx, that would be great!  [email protected]

Hi there, if you wanna find me on twitch, you can do so at Twitch.tv/LeonianUniverse and on YouTube at the same channel name. I stream Hearthstone and other games and love to chat with people, so if you like my content, feel free to subscribe or follow me.

2019-06-10 09:45:37

quite interested to read it myself.
can you email it to me at
[email protected]
thanks and regards

Abay chal.

2019-06-10 12:54:48 (edited by LordLundin 2019-06-10 12:55:04)

Can you mail me your feces!
Okay enough with the silly jokes for today ...

Follow me on twitch
And
Subscribe to my youtube
Leave a thumbs up if you like what I write.

2019-06-10 19:00:37

Lol besides for enes how many of us would actually be able to understand dark's thesis?

2019-06-11 17:17:34 (edited by Dark 2019-06-11 17:21:00)

Okay as so many people are interested in reading this, I'll bang copies on sendspace.
I was going to send private emails since this is essentially a published work, but as this topic obviously has a link to the publication in the first post that shouldn't be a problem, just bare in mind if anyone wants to site references to this thesis anywhere they need to be done correctly.

Okay that's the boring legal bit over Here is a sendspace link for the pdf version

And Here is the sendspace link for the docx version

Don't know what people mean about NVdA and word, since most of the final book review was written that way, personally I hate Pdfs, but hay people are welcome to their preferences.

I'll urge anyone wanting to read this to bare in mind this is a piece of academic ethics, so not really intended to be the worlds' most accessible or entertaining piece of writing. . Tom Ward found it okay when he read the first submitted draft of it back in 2013, but he had read at least some philosophy himself, since philosophy pretty much has its own writing style and the first chapter here is pretty theoretical, and of course there are lots of references and foot notes and what not.

I confess I'm personally rather sick of the hole damn thing  these days am fairly jaded on the entire subject, but working on the same bloody piece of writing for over 10 years will do that, especially when the idiots required to mark the thing tell you a pack of lies about corrections so that you wind up spending an extra few years going through the hole mess with a fine tooth comb!

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-06-12 00:02:13

Hi Dark,
I just now finished reading it. I can say thatI had absolutely no issue understanding the language, such language seems very understandable after reading Grice's theories of pragmatics.
You perfectly described the issues I voiced about the social  model of disability, that it ignores the increased efort as well as the elimination of some choices disability causes. In essence, these problems, compounded by how society views the disabled, especially blind people as alien  perpetuates a state of suffering.
You also elaborated on how accessibility doesn't result in equal access, as such workarounds often require more efort. For example, while skype's latest version might be identical for many sighted people in regards to usability,  it is much more cumbersome to use with a screen reader, with actions taking much longer.
This was a very short post, but I just wanted to say that it is a beautifully written thesis, and I  really enjoyed reading it.

A learning experience is one of those things that say, "You know that thing you just did? Don't do that."

2019-06-12 10:57:21 (edited by Dark 2019-06-12 11:00:23)

Hi Enes.

Glad you actually thought there was some point to this, I confess as I said I'm mildly jaded on the hole thing.
In terms of the language, its more that people have mentioned to me that they found it a bit impenetrable. After Spinoza or some of the stuff I had to study on metaphysics its not too bad, indeed the ones I find worse are those who I mentioned in the book review who have such giant axes to grind they've fallen off the planet, I even once remember one lecture from someone who honestly claimed that nobody with a disability suffered any issues at all, and disability was just a "different way  experiencing the world", quite an amusing statement, especially from a woman who was not herself disabled but apparently new lots of deaf people big_smile.

Glad you liked the effort idea though, it sort of amazes me nobody has ever looked at disability in terms of quality of life previously, even though a lot of legal definitions and literature mention it without any sort of formal understanding behind it.

i will admit I have now come to the conclusion that talk about disability is pretty damn pointless, because the world is intrinsically run by bastards who don't give a rat's rear about making any access changes unless it  might make their own  political gang look good, but hay at least I got the chance to say something vaguely sensible even if nobody really cares about listening.

Btw if your interested in blindness generally, Simon Hayho who was my final invigilator did write a pretty good book on the subject, I mentioned it in the final book review section.

That's why now I'm actually working on writing fiction instead, since at least people read fiction, and if I make any points about ethics or experience in stories, people are far more likely to actually take a bit of notice, that and of course writing fiction is a lot more fun big_smile.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-06-12 23:38:56

Hi Dark,
Well I definitely  think you made a valuable and unique contribution to disability studies, which is dominated by the social model. Every single person  that I meet almost, mainly bind people say blindness is simply a different experience of the world, and how technology removes the disability, and how today is the best time ever to be blind etc etc. I particularly find the last statement echoed  alot.
Another issue with the social model is if you accept disability as a neutral or even desirable state, then you can conclude that specificly using reproductive technologies to specificly select for a disabled embryo is acceptable. Alot of deaf and dwarf couples apparently  are using IVGF to select embryos with deafness or dwarfism over healthy embryos, which I find problematic. What I find even more problamatic is the governments allowing this to happen.

A learning experience is one of those things that say, "You know that thing you just did? Don't do that."