Foundation-l list admin wrote:
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Virgilio A. P. Machado vam@fct.unl.pt Date: Thu, May 14, 2009 at 11:29 AM Subject: pt:wiki policies To: foundation-l-owner@lists.wikimedia.org
Dear Sirs,
Yesterday ( http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Pedidos_a_administradores/Discuss%C3%... ), while discussing a private case, whose full details are confidential I described a strict hypothetical case as follows:
Suppose a tetraplegic girl learns how to use a computer and finds out about Wikipedia. After registering as a user she does all sort of trampling. Would there be any administrator willing to block her from editing Wikipedia?
So far, three administrators, one of them a bureaucrat and member of arbitration committee have answered YES.
The administrator bureaucrat later quoted Wikimedia:Non discrimination policy, explaining that that policy did NOT allow them to treat editors differently, based on their [...] medical condition. Wikimedia:Code of Conduct Policy was also quoted.
I wonder if you would care to comment on all of the above.
Sincerely,
Virgilio A. P. Machado
I don't think it's a case of discrimination; presumably her physical disability does not impair her mental faculty, and she is aware of what she is doing- and certainly should be after a number of warnings. If it's just a case of being unable to communicate effectively, we do have users on en:wiki with similar issues, and have persuaded them to be adopted by willing mentors. However, the bottom line to me is whether the harm to the encyclopedia (willed or not) outweighs the benefit of having that person editing.