Introduction
Situational disability is often described as a context-dependent limitation that affects someone’s ability to perform a task or activity. It is not a permanent disability nor is it chronic, nevertheless, it can be risky if the context does not warrant the person to access such a device or means of communication.
Why do we bring in the concept of risk while describing situational disability? Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) defines risk as ‘one or more uncertain events that can either have a positive or negative impact on a business process.’
From the above definition of risk, the terms ‘uncertain’, ‘positive’, and ‘negative’ are important to understanding the adversarial implications of situational disabilities. Because we tend to associate risk with everything we do; hence there is a need for proper risk assessment of every activity. An uncertain event that has a positive outcome is regarded as an ‘opportunity’ while that with a ‘negative’ outcome is considered a ‘threat.’
In the description of the three adverse situational disabilities, you will see the interplay of events that could lead to uncertain events that may be viewed as opportunities or threats to the individual or organization, a young mother or her child, a CEO, or a John or Jane Doe.
Adverse Situational Disability
Adverse situational disability is an unfavourable condition or effect which happens upon an individual or is brought upon by an individual himself/herself. Three examples are introduced using different modal verbs to describe various degrees of possibility, permission, ability, obligation, or request that is expected from an individual.
- He should have access but could not.
- She could do all three but should not.
- He must not use his mobile phone while driving and should not even try.
A White Text on a White Background
An online customer who is entering his credit card details to purchase at an online grocery store. He entered his full name, the card’s 16-digit number, the expiry date, and the Card
Verification Value (CVV). He clicked Submit. Nothing happened. He clicked to submit the second and third times. Nothing happened. He re-entered his card details and submitted them to the company, but nothing happened. He gave up and logged out of the system.
All along, the website flagged off an error message that he missed a number while entering the 16-digit numbers of his credit card. Nevertheless, he did not see that because the text of the error notification was in white and the web page’s background colour was white too. Thus, the contrast ratio of white text on a white background is 1.
The company of the online grocery store should check the accessibility conformance of their website to ensure that the expected outcome is what visitors to their site get. He should be able to make his purchase but couldn’t.
The implications of his inability to purchase from the online grocery store:
- He may not visit the website again.
- The company loses a customer.
- He can sue the company.
- The reputation of the company is at stake.
His visit to the company’s online grocery store could mean either an opportunity for the company to gain new customers or a threat of a lawsuit.
A Young Mother with a Child, a Mobile Phone, and a Ladle
This is an age where the definition of multitasking includes everything and anything; whereby the performance of more than one task is entitled to the definition of multitasking. So true!
A young mother was making breakfast for her children. The youngest, about less than a year old was crying. She picked her up on her left hand while she fried egg and bacon on the hotplate. As she was doing all that, her mobile phone rang. She picked it up, answered, and placed that between her left shoulder and ear; and listened and spoke back to the caller.
You must give her some credit for doing all three tasks at the same time. She was doing three acts at a time that could be described as necessary, useful, and important. She needed to hold her baby. She needed to stop her from crying and perhaps lull her to sleep. Her hand was quite practical in turning, lifting, and spacing both the egg and slices of bacon. The call that came in might be very significant and ignoring it may pose a great danger.
The uncertainty of her actions might have saved her some time or led to awkward situations.
The implications of her actions:
- Her attention was divided into three different tasks.
- She has saved time by doing three things at a time.
- She could drop her child or mobile phone or even the ladle if there was a sudden or surprise event.
Perhaps, the opportunity here was greater than the threat because she could handle the situation, but should she?
Eyes moving between a Mobile Phone and Windscreen, Right Hand Texting, and Left Hand on the Wheels
Different means of transportation are meant to take us from point A to point B and vice versa if you are lucky. I added, if you are lucky because some have left point A and never arrived at point B and some others have left point B and never made it to point A.
He is the CEO of a tech company and is in a hurry for a board meeting while racing to his office in his car. His mobile phone beeped. He picked it up and looked at it. He dropped it and continued. Again, another Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) came. He ignored it as well. Then, the third beep arouses his curiosity. He picked it up with his right hand. He started to read the message and kept his eyes on the road. His head was moving up as he looked at the windscreen and down as he read the message. With his thumb, he started to reply to the message.
Suddenly, the next place he woke up was in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). He mustn’t have read the message while driving and shouldn’t have dared to reply to it.
In project management, a ‘no-no’ is a thing that should not be done to avoid a project failure. In driving, one ‘no-no’ that stands out when it comes to technology is: ‘Do not use your mobile phone while driving.’ The term ‘use’ here means for some countries drivers must not leave their mobile phones in clear view while driving. This tells you how strict the law is about using mobile phones while driving.
With Bluetooth, drivers are allowed to answer their mobile phones which means they are not holding their mobile phones in their hands while answering the calls.
The implications of the CEO’s action are unimaginable.
- He could kill himself.
- He could kill an innocent bystander(s).
- He could run into a roadside superstore.
- He could collide with an oncoming vehicle: a car, a highly inflammable truck, a motorbike, a cyclist, or pedestrians.
From the moment he left his mobile phone within clear view was a threat. Then, when he picked it up and read the message, it was
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