Wednesday, October 21, 2015

UGA Survey


UGA has this survey, called Count Me In, that's running. Yes, it's 20 minutes of your life you'll never get back. Yes, it's full of all kinds of questions about whether you've been mistreated, or seen other people mistreated, based on pretty much every possible reason you can think of. For example, are you an Ableist? That's "discrimination or prejudice against people with disabilities."

I am not making this up.  If a student every uses that term in a news story, except in a quote, I'll fail that student. Stupid, ugly word. And yes, I heard a faculty member use it in University Council meeting once. Sheesh. I swear to God I think it was when we were asked for a show of hands for a vote. "That's ableist," she said. No, really. She said that. In public.

I filled the survey out as a faculty member and, a few moments later, tried again. Yup, I could do it again. And maybe again and again, rinse and repeat, as often as I liked.

Let me clear as a guy who teaches graduate level public opinion -- that's a problem. They've not set up the survey in such a way as to keep a band of radical ableists (or radical disabilists?) from skewing the results. It's not hard to set it up in such a way that at least you'd have to use a different device to complete multiple surveys.

So you radical ableists out there, now's your chance. Able away.



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