[nabop] call center jobs

[Lisa Hall]

Hi Ashley,

When I worked for Qwest Communications the state of Louisiana purchased the Braille display for me but did not get it until after a month or two on the job. I had to use someone's Braille display for the time being. The Braille display showed 40 cells expandable to 80. It was a large unit having plenty of room for a standard size full keyboard to set on it. The Braille display was closer to me and all the controls were on the front of the unit that can be reached with the thumbs if needed. I used the same Braille display when working for Sears.
When I was at Qwest, there were some downtime when one of the system was down. I also had some of that happened at Sears but not often. 
When working on a call, I listened to the speech on one ear and the caller on the other ear. Because of my hearing impairment, it was very challenging. Scripts had to be written at Sears to read specific promts that appears on the screen. Their software was proprietary.
When working in a call center, you will be retrieving information from multiple screens. One of the problems I had in both call centers is the call handling time. This was not an easy time to do since most sighted people can glance at the screen when retrieving information. The blind person I think takes more time in gathering information.
In both call centers, there were times when a relay center for the deaf that calls us when a deaf person is using a TTY. This took a lot of time for both sighted and blind because the operator was relaying information to us and they had to wait for a response on the other end who is deaf. 
In both call centers there were times when I had a caller speaking Spanish and calls had to be rerouted to another person who can speak Spanish. I unfortunately did not take any Spanish courses in preparation for that and any other job I had in the past.
I hope this helps.


-----Original Message-----
From: nabop-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabop-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Ashley Bramlett
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 1:38 PM
To: National Association of Blind Office Professionals
Subject: [nabop] call center jobs

Hi Lisa and everyone,

When you had the call center job with Sears who supplied accomodations?
In your note on 9/30 you said
I used Alva braille display with JAWS for Windows using Windows NT. 

Ashley says, braille displays are soo helpful especially for writing and reading when you’re on the phone. 
What is the Alva braille display like? How many cells? They’re expensive so you are fortunate to have them.

In call centers, do you have to enter in data and use the database at the same time as you’re on the phone?
What is the training like? I know some centers for the blind train you in call center work such as Cleveland sight center or lions world, But IMO, you could probably be trained just as well by your employer.
Did you have lots of calls a day? Or maybe there were down times of the day. And what do the call centers take? 
Sales orders?
Ashley
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