[blindlaw] courtesy and JAWS (and other talking office products)

[Susan Kelly]

Like many governmental offices, my agency is a fairly noisy one - thin walls, folks who would yell between offices and cubicles rather than sending an e-mail or message, playing of audio disclosure at high volume, use of speaker phones at equally high volumes...all sorts of thing that conflict with being able to hear my computer.  I have relatively sensitive hearing, and thus hate to turn it up to overpower the other audio distractions.  Past attempts at using an earbud weren't helpful, especially since that made it even more likely that a co-worker would come I and start asking for my legal opinion on something before I could silence the narration.  Is there a non-offensive list or statement of courtesy considerations towards assistive technology users somewhere that I could print and post near my office?  How does everyone else deal with this on a daily basis?