Non-Deaf Douchebags and AT&T
stonedeafpilots has an article this morning about AT&T offering, then retracting a data-only plan for deaf customers, saying that hearing customers complained that deaf customers were getting “special treatment.”
Most articles I've seen seem to be criticizing the "Non-Deaf Douchebags" who, according to AT&T, are complaining about giving deaf people "special treatment". As a non-deaf douchebag I think these articles are giving non-deaf douchebags an unfair shake and I'd like to clarify the issue.
The issue is not that AT&T is giving deaf people "special rights". Customers don’t actually care that deaf people are allowed to purchase a data-only plans, customers just care that hearing people aren’t allowed to purchase the same plan. The issue is that AT&T is depriving all consumers of a product which shouldn’t be special at all. Deaf people shouldn’t be required to purchase minutes that they aren’t able to use, and hearing people shouldn’t be required to purchase minutes that they don’t intend to use either. But AT&T doesn't like this, because AT&T makes a lot of money selling hearing customers minutes they won’t use. They’d rather continue to screw everyone. It's AT&T's decision to withdraw their data-only plan, not their customers' decision. By retracting the data-only plan while calling it “special treatment” AT&T is not just throwing the baby out with the bathwater, they’re pointing the blame at deaf people. It's an innacurate and sleazy rhetorical shift of Rovian proportions.
To be completely libertarian about this, AT&T has the right to offer whatever service they want and charge whatever price they want to charge for it. What AT&T does not have the right to do is misrepresent the nature of their customers' complaints or blame their disabled customers for AT&T's failure to offer a competitive product to anyone who is willing to buy it.
Most articles I've seen seem to be criticizing the "Non-Deaf Douchebags" who, according to AT&T, are complaining about giving deaf people "special treatment". As a non-deaf douchebag I think these articles are giving non-deaf douchebags an unfair shake and I'd like to clarify the issue.
The issue is not that AT&T is giving deaf people "special rights". Customers don’t actually care that deaf people are allowed to purchase a data-only plans, customers just care that hearing people aren’t allowed to purchase the same plan. The issue is that AT&T is depriving all consumers of a product which shouldn’t be special at all. Deaf people shouldn’t be required to purchase minutes that they aren’t able to use, and hearing people shouldn’t be required to purchase minutes that they don’t intend to use either. But AT&T doesn't like this, because AT&T makes a lot of money selling hearing customers minutes they won’t use. They’d rather continue to screw everyone. It's AT&T's decision to withdraw their data-only plan, not their customers' decision. By retracting the data-only plan while calling it “special treatment” AT&T is not just throwing the baby out with the bathwater, they’re pointing the blame at deaf people. It's an innacurate and sleazy rhetorical shift of Rovian proportions.
To be completely libertarian about this, AT&T has the right to offer whatever service they want and charge whatever price they want to charge for it. What AT&T does not have the right to do is misrepresent the nature of their customers' complaints or blame their disabled customers for AT&T's failure to offer a competitive product to anyone who is willing to buy it.