[humanser] organizing information, more work-related questions

Sat Apr 23 05:45:38 UTC 2016

Merry,

I'm just getting around to reading email messages. May I call you Sunday
afternoon or Sunday evening? Today was my week-day off. As you may know all
too well, I spent the bulk of the day hoofing it; riding the bus and getting
life done.

I've started a Word document where I've been copying suggestions from the HS
list. I wish that I had thought to do this from the get-go. 

When I started working I was relieved to know that DOR purchased me a
laptop, however, my employer doesn't want me, or any other employee, using
personal equipment in the office or in the field. Initially, the Hiring
Manager thought that she could assign a laptop to me to use. I learned
yesterday that I will use a desktop computer in the office and I'm without
any accommodation in the field. 

After watching a recent 60 Minutes segment about how easy it is to hack into
smart devices I'm not convinced that using my cell phone is a wise idea to
"write" down participant's contact information. I'm really at a loss now how
to handle paperwork in the field. Paperwork means confidential forms
including sign-in sheets and participant feedback forms. My co-workers carry
around monster-sized binders of resources to share with participants. How am
I supposed to rapid locate and read information from a digital binder on my
phone or on a laptop? 

I am paying someone to come to the house and pretty much stand over me for a
bit while I use my Pearl Camera to scan; store and somehow organize
information; or at least start the process. Yes, that brings me to another
stressful point. I can't transfer stuff from my personal laptop to the work
computer. I am concerned about bringing my Pearl Camera into work because I
can't replace it if it's damaged. What do you think? 

I purchased four small binders and heavy sleeves to put print resources
into. Even so my ideas are half thought out. I wish I had a blind Human
Services mentor  in my area.

By the way, San Diego now has Uber Pool. I realize you don't share my
inclination to use Uber. Something is changing, for the good. I haven't been
denied a ride since early March. Also, I had big problems with the Uber app
and the short version is that I was given a $25.00 credit. That's nice,
however, when I asked for credit after being denied multiple times in one
day the woman told me she wouldn't put a price on my experience or something
stupid like that. Essentially, she wouldn't credit me because that might
mean she acknowledged discrimination. Lol. I'll try Uber Pool on Tuesday as
I'm coming quite a distance from work to home. 

I'll end this message on a Aint it a Pain in the Ass Being Blind note. I met
a friend for lunch. I trotted off to the restroom. I picked a bad time to
reverse directions; I ended up entering the men's bathroom. I told the guy
that I didn't see anything and we laughed as I exited. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Humanser [mailto:humanser-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Merry
Schoch via Humanser
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2016 11:09 AM
To: 'Human Services Division Mailing List' <humanser at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Merry Schoch <merrys at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [humanser] organizing information, more work-related questions

Hi Lisa,

It appears you have received a great deal of responses from the list.  I am
happy to see this.  I have not read through them all to see if I can provide
any additional information.  I will be pretty much tied up at work for the
rest of the afternoon; however, if you would like to call me this evening I
am in hopes of being available around 8 pm - 5 pm your time.  Feel free to
call if you would like to talk.

I am happy to hear you will be getting JFW on your desktop; however, it
sounds like you are in great need of a laptop.

With warmest regards,
Merry
 .  
-----Original Message-----
From: Humanser [mailto:humanser-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Lisa Irving
via Humanser
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2016 9:43 PM
To: 'Human Services Division Mailing List'
Cc: Lisa Irving
Subject: [humanser] organizing information, more work-related questions

Hi All,

I'm pretty excited to share that my employer purchased JAWS. I'm a bit
nervous that, for the most part, I've been left out of the loop. I've done
my best to provide resources and support. I hope to tell you sometime next
week that all is well with JAWS on the workplace desktop. 

I've learned a little bit more about some of my job responsibilities and, of
course, that brings up additional questions. Here are my questions. I
apologize if they're not clear. 

At this point I will not have the option to take a company laptop into the
community and I'm not supposed to use my personal laptop for work purposes.
This poses challenges at a number of levels. One concern I have has to do
with paperwork that I pass out to participants at the end of a meeting. The
group is asked to fill out the form. I'm supposed to collect the completed
forms; take them back to the office; look over the form to see if any
participant has requested information or  phone contact. I'm also supposed
to do something with tallying information I'm supposed to photocopy each
form and put it into a particular hard-copy file.. I'm not too clear about
that task. I don't know how to pull all of this together and do my job
without a laptop. Ideas? 

I know that JD and others shared how they organize resources. I'm still a
little lost. I've got a bag of print brochures; flyers and other papers that
I've collected at a couple of resource fairs and at Earth Day. I understand
that I can use the Pearl Camera to scan each item. I don't know how to
organize the information from that point. I don't know how I'm supposed to
retrieve a resource without the use of a laptop. Ideas? 

Last week I was tasked with finding faith-based organizations. I worked from
home; used the internet and tried editing some of the lists I found.
Subsequently while at work, and without internet access, I used my cell
phone to get phone numbers for some of the places; there's over 500 places
of worship listed. At work I've called some of these places to  introduce
faith-based leaders and their members to our organization and our approach
to living with a mental health challenge; wellness education and other tools
as defined by the participant, including meaning and purpose/spirituality.
Some of these organizations asked to have information emailed. I've got
their email information and it's not well organized. For example, I have a
list of places of faith that begins with the letter "A". There's probably 30
places. I've started to create headings; that's tedious and maybe not the
most effective way to list these places. I've been inserting phone numbers
and email addresses into a word document. There's got to be a more effective
way to do all of this. What is it? 

I've been permitted to use my laptop and work from home for the past few
weeks. Now I have saved work emails; the faith-based project and a few
resources. I don't know how to finish the faith-based project if I can't
transfer it from my laptop to the company's desktop. (We can't use thumb
drives). 

Thanks so much to JD, Carli and so many of you for doing a little
hand-holding and sharing tips-n-tricks. 

From,

Lisa Irving 

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