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SN board and disability accessibility compromise

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amber32002 · 07/05/2009 07:38

Dear lovely Mumsnet leaders,

Please can you help?

On the SN support thread, we're trying to find ways in which we can warn people with an autism spectrum disability that a mum is about to rant about autism in what is to us perhaps a scary way that we're not able to cope with because of the disability. (which wires the brain directly into the panic centre). Not all people with an ASD react as uncontrollably to sudden fear as I do, but some do, and it's a problem for me if I can't care for my family because my brain has suddenly panicked and shut itself down, if you see what I mean? I want to join in because it's such a support for me, and I don't want to make a complete berk of myself by getting my brain overloaded and then coming out with things that end up not explaining or making it worse .

I don't think we want to stop mums from saying anything they need to about their feelings about each disability (well, as long as it's within the law, of course) - it's a support forum for SN parents after all. But I need to be able to stay safe on there whilst respecting their need to rant.

I suggested a WARNING line in the message subject, and maybe there could be a tiny bit of guidance from mumsnet to remind people that all they have to do is put that warning at the top? But I don't know if you have any better ideas? I want to be able to join in in a safe way, and I don't want to ruin the rights of others to express themselves.

Any ideas?

Thanks muchly
Amber (mum of an SN child, and I have Asperger syndrome)

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MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 07/05/2009 20:14

Hi Amber,
Sorry for the delayed response - lots of meetings today and I've only just looked in.

In general we take the view that it would be impossible to moderate/control posts on the basis of whether offense is likely to be caused. We are never going to be able to account for every individual's soft spot and wherever we drew the line (we'd have to somewhere) we'd be guilty of judging that someone's feelings were less valid than another's.

So the way we've landed on doing things on Talk is to allow pretty much most things to stand (even the sometimes objectionable opinion) and to intervene in the case of personal attacks (or if things are illegal/obscene). Very often, we've found, the ensuing discussion/ debate is enlightening and people's opinions are changed.

Obviously we hope that members will post sensitively and in line with our general philosophy - to make parents' lives easier - but to be honest a pre-warning on every post wouldn't guarantee it and would feel a bit heavy handed to us. We don't want to discourage exchange of opinion after all - that's what's Mumsnet's all about - discussion, communication, pooling of knowledge/ideas.

We are, though, as mentioned previously, looking at creating private support groups to allow more sensitive/private discussion of particular subjects or by particular groups, which I think may be helpful for you - the aim is to get these up and running in the next few months. We'll keep you posted - in the meantime please do post any further thoughts/suggestions here in site stuff. Thanks for your input.

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