Conference focuses
on racial borders
Panel offers a new
perspective and reviews
affirmative action
byG. Jaros
Oregon Daily Emerald
The violent conquest of Ameri
ca, anti-affirmative action legisla
tion and welfare “schemes” to un
dermine black women are just a
few of the topics to be discussed
during a Friday conference.
“Border Lies: Race, Identity,
and Citizenship” will examine
theories of race, immigration poli
cies that exclude minorities, ways
in which women and minorities
continue to struggle for equal
rights and reproductive health
policies affecting black women.
“What we are trying to do is
look at the issues of race and get a
new perspective on the issues
around race by looking at what
scholarship has to offer on affir
mative action,” said Sandra Mor
gen, director of the Center for the
Study of Women in Society.
She said she believes people
have “knee-jerk” reactions to affir
mative action but seldom dig
deeper to discover the facts.
“You hardly ever hear about the
research,” Morgen said. “Let’s
look at why we need affirmative
action. Do we have continuing
racial and gender discrimination?
And if we do, we need to solve it.”
The conference will have three
keynote speakers and will bring
together 13 research interest
groups. The groups will comprise
University faculty, graduate stu
dents and community members
who are engaged in interdiscipli
nary research and collaboration
on diverse topics related to the
‘Bonier Lies: Race,
Identity, and Citizen
ship’
■ Who: Presented by the Center
for the Study of Women in Society
■ When: Friday, Feb. 12,8:30 a.m.
to 5:30 p.m.
■ Where: Alumni Lounge in Ger
linger Hall
study of women, ethnicity and
gender.
Speaker Dorothy Roberts, a law
professor at Northwestern Univer
sity, is the author of “Killing the
Black Body: Race, Reproduction
and the Meaning of Liberty.”
“Today, we’re seeing a resur
gence of policies that degrade
black women’s reproductive deci
sion making,” Roberts said.
Some of the topics that she will
be discussing include: the use of
Norplant, the long-acting contra
ceptive, in poor black communi
ties; welfare schemes that seek to
deter mothers receiving public aid
from having more babies and the
disproportionate punishment of
black women who use drugs dur
ing pregnancy.
The second speaker is Patricia
Penn Hilden, a professor of ethics
at Berkeley and author of “When
Nickels Were Indians: An Urban,
Mixed-Blood Story.”
“What I’m speaking about is
‘how borders lie,’ playing on the
ambiguity of that formulation and
discussing all the ways in which
borders have been shifted, quite
blithely, throughout the history of
the United States in order both to
obscure the real violent history of
the U.S. and to preserve the over
Whit.e Winter Weather
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Custodial service workers salt and clear the wattcway leading to Carson Hall. The weather forecast for the Eugene/Springfield area
said no snow is expected today.
culture’s interests,” Hilden said.
She also will be talking about
the borders “in minds and hearts”
as well as in geography.
Lydia Chavez is an associate
professor of journalism at Berke
ley, author of “The Color Bind:
California’s Battle to End Affirma
tive Action” and the third keynote
speaker.
She will discuss the role of
women and the impact of immi
gration on the affirmative action
debate.
Students who expressed inter
est in attending the conference
talked about the need to be in
formed.
“As a child who grew up on the
border in L.A. and San Diego, I’m
interested in what’s going on
now,” said undeclared sopho
more Gerardo Ochoa. “I’m a mem
ber of MEChA, and we have a lot
of people coming in that want to
know what’s going on. ”
After the morning keynote ad
dresses, there will be four separate
round table discussions that in
clude: “Affirmative Action and
Beyond”; “Border Crossings: Sub
jectivity and Identity"; “Open
ing/Closing Borders: Immigration,
Globalization, and Capitalism”;
and “Decoding Citizenship and
the Reproduction of Whiteness.”
A panel discussion will be held
later that afternoon called, “The
(re) Imagined Community: Re
search and Policy Directions.”
Panelists will be: Robin Morris
Collin, law professor; Shari Huhn
dorf, assistant English professor;
Lynn Stephen, anthropology and
international studies professor;
and MiaTuan, assistant sociology
professor.
“We’d like to see really interest
ing speakers presenting what they
have to say and then talking with
each other and the audience,”
Morgen said. “So this isn’t, ‘Go
hear a big long speech,’ but ‘Come,
hear various people in dialogue
and be part of that dialogue.’”
The conference begins with reg
istration at 8:30 a.m. in the Alum
ni Lounge of Gerlinger Hall and
will run until 4:30 p.m.
The conference will be fol
lowed by a book signing.
Conference schedules can be
picked up at the Center for the
Study of Women in Society on the
third floor of Hendricks Hall and
in the Black Student Union, EMU
Room 25.
Many campus Web sites remain inaccessible to the blind
Software that converts
text to voice often can't
read Web-site graphics
By G. Jaros
Oregon Daily Emerald
Wheelchair ramps, automatic
doors and special parking places
come to mind when thinking
about disability access. Web site
access, however, is often ignored.
James Bailey, the University’s
adaptive technology adviser, is
working to change that reality.
“What we are trying to do in
this office is encourage Web de
signs that work very seamlessly
with the screen readers and also
the Links users,” Bailey said.
Links is a special type of browser
that is text-only and doesn’t carry
graphics.
The trouble with Web site
graphics is that they are often un
readable to blind users who rely
on special software at home to
convert text-based information to
spoken words. When they come
across a graphic that hasn’t been
made text-reader friendly, they get
no information.
When staff at the Student
Health Center were made aware of
possible problems, health center
Web master Dr. James Jackson be
gan updating the 70-page Web site
immediately.
“When visually impaired stu
dents come across a graphic, they
don’t know if it gives them infor
mation or not,” Jackson said. “It
could be a map or something that
you need to click to go some
where, so any graphic would have
to have alternative information.”
Jackson heard about a Web site
named Bobby that is used to check
Web page accessibility for blind
users.
“What you do is go to the Bobby
site with your Web page address
and type it in,” Jackson said. “The
Bobby site then does an analysis
of your page and tells you whether
or not it meets the standards.”
If a Web site’s graphics are not
accessible to visually impaired
users, the Bobby site gives step-by
step instructions on how to bring
the site up to par. Bobby is just one
of many public service programs
designed for this purpose.
Jackson wants more University
Web masters to know about the
Bobby site.
“I think this is not very well
known, i.e., it’s not something a lot
of people think about," Jackson
said. “But on campus, these offi
cial Web pages that give informa
tion should be accessible to all stu
dents."
Blind students agree that having
access to the Web is important and
should be required of all official
campus Web sites.
“Hell yeah, it's a good idea," said
senior anthropology major Freder
ic Gauble, who is blind. “I haven’t
used the Web at all lately because
of problems with my own comput
er, but if I’m paying a $50-a-term
access fee, I better have access.”
Designing University Web sites
to be accessible to students with
disabilities is not required, ac
cording to Bailey.
“I doubt that most Web sites on
campus are accessible,” Bailey
said. “It is not a policy require
ment — not at all. I think that we
want to encourage all official Web
pages to be accessible, but it isn't
policy.”
The ASUO, Student Senate, Ad
vocacy/Conflict Resolution and
Oregon Daily Emerald Web sites
all have accessibility problems,
according to the Bobby system.
Web sites that were trouble-free
included the University home
page, the health center and the
Knight library.
“I’ve never even heard of the In
ternet being accessible to blind
people,” said Student Senator Au
tumn DePoe, who made the Web
site for the Student Senate.
The ASUO also was in the dark
about access for the blind.
“I didn’t know the Internet
could be accessed by blind people,
and I don’t know how to make our
site accessible,” said ASUO Vice
President Morgan Cowling.
Direct access to the Bobby site
can be found at: http://
www.cast.org/bobby
For more information, visit Aca
demic Advising and Student Ser
vices at 164 Oregon Hall, or visit
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/
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