Kelton writes:
<< I have yet to read where compassion was the hallmark of a virtual
group. >>
Listserves for various diseases, esp. cancer, are great examples worth
study. There are ongoing mailing lists for many. I set up my
"father-in-law" on a hydrocephalus mailing list group. He took to it
like a fish in the water. (No pun intended). I understand that ICU
software chats abound for survivor groups who want to remain private and
control who has access.
When I was a SysOp for AOL, my boss was blind. AOL had many contract
employees working out of their homes who were handicapped. They paid
squat, got lots and lots of slave labor committment and that is one
MAJOR reason they developed so much online content EARLY on in the
service. (It was systematically squandered beginning in 1998, when young
management embraced everything commercial and revenue generating and
lost perhaps 100,000 volunteers providing online content and support).
The online support among such contract employees was impressive, with
private message boards and imprompto chats dedicated to supporting each
other overcome handicaps, health set backs, periodic starvation (AOL
called them paperwork mix-ups), etc. There were even live "get well
soon" chats with hospitalized staffers who were in bed but on their lap
tops. I was paid to go to San Francisco and meet many of these people. A
real highlight of my life and a paradox like all get out when I found
myself leading my blind web design wiz boss across the downtown
streets. She was one of the best page designers in all of AOL, yet
could only see from one eye and everything was a cloudy black and white.
Gary Reese
Las Vegas, NV
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