"Disable the User"

[Chris Vickery]

We use:

- "disable the user account"
- "disable the user's access"

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+cvickery=arenasolutions.com at lists.techwr-l.com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+cvickery=arenasolutions.com at lists.techwr-l.com]
On Behalf Of Jim Morgan
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2007 10:17 AM
To: techwr-l at lists.techwr-l.com
Subject: "Disable the User"

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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