bca-l is a list for BCA members to discuss and debate issues of relevance to blind and vision impaired people in their day-to-day lives. The BCA board is committed to providing members with an opportunity to have their say.
If you wish to join the list, please send an email to
bca@bca.org.au.
State your name and the email address you will be using for the list in the
Body of the message. You may like to take this opportunity to include all
your contact details and your preferred format for receiving correspondence
and publications from BCA so that we can ensure our membership database is
up to date.
This is another free member service offered by BCA.
Before you start posting to bca-l, please read the following general guidelines. It is recommended that you keep a copy of them for reference.
These guidelines are based on past experience and on conventions adopted by other successful discussion lists. The guidelines are not set in stone, and may be revised from time-to-time.
As a general guideline, a message is appropriate for bca-l if it is more likely to interest someone with a vision impairment, or a BCA member, than someone without a vision impairment, or who is not a member of BCA. Discussion of issues relevant to people who are blind or vision impaired, their families and friends, as well as others working in this field is the focus of this list.
Use a brief subject that accurately describes the contents of your message. When you reply to a post, make sure the subject line is still appropriate to your reply and do not hesitate to change it if needed.
It is hoped that each message sent to bca-l will contribute to the discussion, but short messages like "Thank you", "I agree", etc often only clutter up the inboxes of all list members.
If you wish to make a comment on a message which has been sent to the list, always insert your comments *before* and not after the message text you are replying to. This allows people to find your views quickly, and, if they know what your comment is about, they can skip immediately to the next message. If, on the other hand, they aren't sure what your comments relate to, then they can read on to find the text you are responding to.
Alternatively, you may prefer to paraphrase the message you are replying to, leave a blank line, delete the original text, and then make your comments e.g.
"In response to John's comments about braille displays being expensive,
I think that ..."
None of us like to be made uncomfortable by list messages, so please exercise caution in phrasing your posts to the list, to minimize offence to other individuals or groups. If you have strong feelings about what you are writing, consider re-reading your message an hour after you write it, to be sure it is what you want to say.
Remember that when you post a message to bca-l, from a legal viewpoint, the message is "in writing". Libelous or slanderous messages could be used by an offended list member to consider taking legal action against you as the writer of that message.
When you reply to a message, consider whether it is of interest to the whole list or just to the individual who posted the original message. If the discussion is now between you and one list member, please email that person privately.
This is important because not all email readers can read messages if they are in formats other than plain text.
Try to avoid discussion on the list about what is or is not appropriate for bca-l. Although such discussions can be useful, experience shows that they often tend to go on forever and generate more heat than light. In the first instance, you should contact the list administrator to get his/her perspective on the matter.
On behalf of the Board of BCA, we thank you for your participation on this list, and appreciate your consideration of these guidelines when you post.
BCA's aim is to make this list a constructive, enriching and enjoyable discussion forum for all list members.