Sorry Twitterati, long status ahead. I just read the farewell post on the Freedom Scientific blog for Jonathan Mosen. First of all, the amount of ass-kissing going on there is stunning. Second, it’s yet more evidence of the “Good Old Boys” network effect that goes on all the time in the assistive technology business, and I think maybe it’s time we have a discussion about that in this community. How many average blind people working in the assistive technology field do you think would receive a fawning farewell like that? How many people working for Freedom Scientific support? And all of this says nothing about all the questionable choices Jonathan’s made in a professional capacity over the years. I think maybe we need to have some discussions about those too, specifically about the kind of public behavior we expect from our community leaders. In short, this whole thing feels very wrong to me and it pisses me off that, as long as you kiss the right ass in the assistive technology business, you can expect your employer, even former ones, to handle your publicity for you.
hmm, what sort of public behavior?
Also do you notice that it’s a male dominated space. Total sausage party in the AT industry. Especially the high ups.
Yeah, there’s that too.
Kind of a sad state of affairs when a minority doesn’t have diversity within our companies. I’d guess that the majority of the AT field is filled with white men.
Amanda, I have much respect for the contributions you continue to make. Sadly, I’m not perfect, but I’ll continue to do the best I can to make a difference as I’m sure will you. I’m grateful to FS for the generous post, which I didn’t see until it was published. Take care.
I think generous is an understatement. And nobody else, not even the people who have died while in their employ over the last few years, got a send-off like that. Also there’s the bit about how if you’re an underling when you work there you get slapped with a non-compete clause+
which means you can’t work anywhere in the industry for a year to two years. So yeah there’s quite the double standard going on here.
I’ve never understood why blind people are so into him.
Very interesting, and valid, points.
She forgot to include me too and yes the one with the #
What is this referring to? I think Twitter has broken the thread.