A return to community: Flintstones or Jetsons?

Abstract

The Conference theme is "Automation for Accessibility". What I want to look at today is the effect of automation on the lives of people living with disability. In this vein, as a member of the 'Baby Boomer' generation, I reflected on a couple of different cartoons from my youth - The Flintstones and The Jetsons. Both of these cartoons were created in the 1960's by Hanna-Barbera. There were some remarkable similarities, with episodes of each involving concepts such as transportation, home conveniences, work environment, and family life. I don't know if you noticed it or not, but neither of these cartoon shows ever had a person with a disability in the show. I know that is changing, and there is much debate about how that is done. It does show that our social conscience is becoming more attuned to the need for inclusion and diversity in all areas of life - work, homelife, sports and entertainment. While we certainly are not living as the Jetsons yet (still waiting for my jet-pack), we are not Flintstones either. We are developing yet more means of automating our lives, improving the lives of people with disabilities, and streamlining some of our work processes. However, I don't think anyone here would say we have arrived, and they probably won't ever say that - there is always more to be done. Perhaps we are ready for a new cartoon, showing an exciting view of what the future could hold, but including characters with a broad range of abilities.