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Subject:"Disable the User" From:"Jim Morgan" <Jim -dot- Morgan -at- jdsu -dot- com> To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 28 Jun 2007 10:16:31 -0700
An application I am documenting offers a feature by which an
administrator can suspend a user's privileges, and this must be done
before the user account can be removed from the system.
The button for this feature says "Disable." This leads to the following
confirmation prompt: "Are you sure you want to Disable the User(s)?"
If I follow my standard format for section headings, I also have to have
a heading that says "Disable a User." And at some point, again if
following my standard style, I would enter a warning that said, "You can
only delete a disabled user."
I take a moderate approach to political correctness, but as someone with
friends who are disabled (the term they prefer), I'm having a bad
gut-level reaction to this. So I am curious:
1) Am I overreacting?
2) How would you reword my heading and warning?
3) I'm inclined to suggest in a UI bug that the button and prompt be
changed. The term "suspend" I used earlier is a possibility, although in
my twisted mind it raises images of dungeons and thumb shackles. What
alternatives would you suggest?
Regards,
Jim
Jim Morgan
Seattle, WA
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