Serious Work

I’ve been thinking this morning that serious work requires a check list. We might think of this as the kind of diagnostic list they use at the doctor’s office. We know that matters of life and death are serious. We like it when the medical technician has a check list. Of course we do.

And so perhaps the Iowa Department of the Blind which recently denied access to an educational program by a woman who uses a guide dog needs to have a diagnostic list because, after all, these are serious times. The list would look something like this:

1. Is the person asking for assistance a human being?

2. Does this human being experience blindness or substantial vision loss?

3. Do they live in the state of Iowa?

4. Does the state of Iowa meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act in the provision of state services?

5. Is it or is it not true that service animals are guaranteed rights of access to all venues that are open to the public?

6. If a guide dog user cannot take a computer class sponsored by the state of Iowa what reasonable accommodations are being made so she can take the class elsewhere at public expense?

 

We expect to have much more to say about these matters but of course there’s not much more to be said about seriousness.

 

S.K. 

This is a simple check list. The aim of all serious lists is to promote a good outcome. We believe that other kinds of lists can be constructed but they are not designed for good outcomes. We believe that serious individuals unilaterally reject  facile and anti-social lists, which are, as we’ve suggested, not serious at all.