{"id":3458,"date":"2016-09-26T01:09:22","date_gmt":"2016-09-26T00:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marvel7077.wpengine.com\/?p=3458"},"modified":"2020-09-03T12:01:35","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T11:01:35","slug":"the-veil-of-ignorance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marvelapp.com\/blog\/the-veil-of-ignorance\/","title":{"rendered":"The Veil of Ignorance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine<\/strong><\/p>\n

You are in your mid-twenties and your vision is 20\/20 or better. You are not color blind and all the devices you own have a \u2018retina\u2019 screen. You are standing in a major city and your internet is fast.<\/p>\n

Imagine<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your vision isn't 20\/20 anymore, just like 65% of the population, it\u2019s worse than that. Like 4.25% of people on the planet you are color blind. You are now 1 in 10. You are dyslexic. Your phone is 3 years old. You can't afford a new one. Your data plan caps out at 3g and 1 gigabyte a month. The internet connection where you spend most of your time is not what you'd like it to be.<\/p>\n

Imagine<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can't see at all. You use a computer with a screen reader. A mouse is mostly useless to you. You use your keyboard to navigate around interfaces and sites.<\/p>\n

If you woke up tomorrow without knowing what your life would be like - and you needed to build a new internet for everyone. What would you think about? What would your priorities be? What problems would you try to solve?<\/p>\n

American philosopher John Rawls (1921\u20132002) had a lot of mind-crushing ideas, but perhaps the most significant was his concept of \u201cthe veil of ignorance.\u201d It best applies to the creation of social contracts. At risk of oversimplification, Rawls\u2019s scenario was basically this: Let\u2019s pretend you were instantly able to re-create American society in totality, and you could do it in whatever way you wanted. You could make (or eliminate) whatever laws you desired, and you could implement whatever financial and judicial structures you believed would work best. However, you must do this under a magical \u201cveil of ignorance.\u201d The moment after you create this system, you\u2019ll no longer be yourself (and you don\u2019t have any idea what your new role in this society shall be). You might be a rough facsimile of your current self, or you might be someone entirely new. Your gender might be different, or your race. It\u2019s possible you will be extremely destitute and appallingly ugly. You\u2019ll have a different level of intelligence and a different work ethic. You might suddenly be disabled, or super athletic, or homosexual, or criminally insane. As such, you will (probably) want to create a society that is as fair and complete as possible, since you have no idea what station you\u2019ll inherit within your own new, self-constructed boundaries. You need to think outside of your current self, because tomorrow you\u2019ll be someone else entirely.
\n- Chuck Klosterman - 'I Wear the Black Hat'<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

John Rawls mostly philosophized about theories of justice but I think he would have been a pretty great designer.<\/p>\n

Imagine<\/strong><\/p>\n

You drive to a job interview. Before you get out you look in the mirror and straighten your tie. Both of your legs work so you open the door and climb out. Earlier that day you ran 6 miles and did 20 minutes of stretching afterwards. Your legs feel great! You walk across the parking lot and bound up a set of stairs. You don't think twice about it.<\/p>\n

Imagine<\/strong><\/p>\n

You don't have two working legs. You arrive at a building for a job interview. You exit your automobile and roll across the parking lot. There is no ramp. Your wheelchair can't climb stairs. You don't know what to do.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act this doesn't happen as much as it used to. Most people don\u2019t view a set of stairs as a barrier to a building. We don't observe whether or not there is a ramp. We don't notice if a doorway is wide enough for a wheelchair. Or if a hallway is wide enough to make a 180 degree turn. We most likely don't think about this because our life doesn't necessitate it.<\/p>\n

When we build things - we must think of the things our life doesn't necessitate. Because someones life does.<\/p>\n

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\"When we build things - we must think of the things our life doesn't necessitate. Because someones life does.\"<\/p><\/span><\/blockquote>\n

Imagine the frustration of people who use things designed by people who don't take their basic needs into consideration. I think it is dehumanizing.<\/p>\n

\"The ADA is one of America's most comprehensive pieces of civil rights legislation that prohibits discrimination and guarantees that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else to participate in the mainstream of American life -- to enjoy employment opportunities, to purchase goods and services, and to participate in State and local government programs and services.\"<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Think about the current state of the website\/application\/digital product you were working on. Can everyone use it with the same opportunity to participate in 'mainstream American life?' Statistically speaking, probably not. But you are providing a service.<\/p>\n

Facts<\/strong><\/p>\n