Greetings:
Can the average blind person really perform the average job in the
average place of business, given the state of technology today? I
have been minded to raise this question in light of the many
inquiries I receive from blind people who are interested in
obtaining employment--who are then confronted with the need to use
a computer (with unfamiliar or incompatible software) on the job.
I have been forced to confront this issue head on partly because of
a dramatic lack of technical expertise evident in the field of work
with the blind today. (Well, I shouldn't say "dramatic," actually.
"Inconsistent" might be a better term to use in this context.)
Consider the case of a blind person who is interested in working as
a customer service representative, an order taker, a collections
agent or a typist. Inevitably, during the interview, questions
will come up about the blind person's ability to use the computer
in the office. But before the blind person can respond with an
unequivocal "YES!" there is a virtual mine field of issues which
must be traversed. What kind of computers are we talking about
here? PC compatibles? Macintosh computers? DEC (Digital
Equipment Corporation) equipment? Sun workstations? Even if the
workstation is a PC compatible (something which we as blind people
have used quite a bit), one has to consider what operating system
and application software will need to be used on the job. Will the
customer service representative, secretary, or order taker be
required to run DOS, Windows, OS/2, Windows 95, Windows/NT, or some
other new operating system? What specific application software
(the software that does the "real" work) needs to be used on the
job? Is that software compatible with the technology that the
blind person must use to operate the computer without sighted
assistance? Then there is the question of the access technology
(screen reader, if you will) that the blind person will use. Does
such technology exist for the computer that will be used on the
job? Even if it does, will the blind person be able to use the
screen reader that he has been trained to use or will compatibility
issues force him or her to switch to another screen reading system
which will need to be learned from scratch?
In some situations, rehabilitation technology specialists have
spent alot of time and effort customizing screen reading systems to
deal with complicated screen formats to maximize the blind person's
productivity. Although, initially, this would appear to have a
large payoff (the blind person gets the job), what will happen when
the company decides to change its screen formats or (even worse)
convert everybody to the latest and greatest graphical platform?
Where will the blind person's job be then? Who will perform the
technical research and the customization so that the blind person
can continue to work?
In days gone by, a blind secretary who could type quickly and
accurately was a highly valued commodity. Today, this is simply
not the case. Typing a document in plain text, using only one type
font, renders it unattractive and unappealing to sighted coworkers
who too often believe that a document is useless unless it contains
many different fonts that are used at strategic points throughout
the text. Moreover, the electronic documents produced in the
workplace today are more likely to contain pictures, diagrams, and
other non-textual representations in order to make the material
more "understandable." The technology we use to read the screen is
not mature enough at this stage to enable us to function
competitively in this context.
Even the blind computer programmer is not unaffected. A growing
number of programming tools are moving away from text-based source
code. Some of them force you to "drag" objects from one box and
"drop" them into another. Our text-based access technology does
not enable us to perform this kind of work with speed and
efficiency. If the graphical trend in programming continues, blind
programmers may be relegated to working on so-called "legacy"
systems simply to keep their jobs.
It would seem that the average blind person today, in order to
obtain and retain the average job in the average place of business,
must have access to some sophisticated technological expertise.
Where does this expertise come from? The rehabilitation system?
And even if technological expertise is consistently available in
all parts of the country, will this be enough to help us to compete
in the workplace on a basis of equality with our sighted peers? I
for one simply don't know. What I do know is that the
technological challenges we must confront are formidable and real.
Unless they are overcome, it will be even more difficult for the
blind to secure employment in the offices of today.
Regards,
Curtis Chong
chong99@concentric.net
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