[nabs-l] interacting with the public in a customer service type role

[Elizabeth]

Hello Patricia,
 
Personally, I do not see anything wrong with you bringing your Braille display up to the front of the office when you are working there. If other members of the office have access to those computers on a temporary basis, then I do not see any reason why you cannot have temporary access to those computers as well. Also, if your computer is a laptop rather than a desktop, you could just bring your computer with you when you are working in the front of the office. I do not know what kind of computer you have, so I do not know if this would work in your particular situation. Perhaps some more technically minded people on the list could give you a few more suggestions if these ones do not work out for you.
 
As far as interacting with people in the front part of the office, does the door make some kind of noise when people come into the office? Sometimes there is a chime that goes off when someone opens the door, or sometimes there are bells hanging from the doorknob that jingle when someone opens the door. In either case, if you take note of what kind of noise the door makes, you can just simply greet people as they walk through the door. You could either get up and physically meet them at the door, or you could simply look up towards the door and say hello. Again, I do not know what your office environment looks like, so this may or may not work for your particular situation. But hopefully it will give you a few things to think about as you figure out what works best for you.  
 
Elizabeth 

 
> Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:13:57 -0700
> From: bcsarah.fan at gmail.com
> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [nabs-l] interacting with the public in a customer service type role
> 
> Hi everyone:
> 
> Recently I began a new summer position within a government
> organization where I am now employed for my fourth summer. In this
> particular job I am trying to help youth find employment, which is
> accomplished by promoting our services at events , as well as help
> youth and employers when they come into our office. I am part of a
> team, my other colleagues being sighted.
> 
> Up until this coming week I have done most of my work in the back of
> the office, and this has mainly been administrative things (phone
> calls/e-mails to contact employers, posting jobs on the online job
> bank, etc.) But I have never actually been out helping youth yet in
> the front. This coming week I will be exploring how I might fit in in
> that capacity, but have a few questions, and thought some of you may
> have some experience and best practices regarding this.
> 
> 1. How have you dealt with clients coming in and out of the office in
> terms of knowing when someone approaches you without seeing them
> especially if you are doing other work than just sitting at a desk?
> While I wait for youth I will be doing a lot of the duties that I
> would normally take on in the back.
> 2. Have any of you had to deal with information that changes quickly?
> and How have you dealt with that? For example, we have a list of jobs
> that are available for youth through our casual labour program, and
> that changes rather quickly. I have a braille display hooked up to my
> computer in the back office but don't want to bring it to the front as
> that will not be my permanent location - I will switch off with my
> colleagues frequently. I am considering brailling these jobs out each
> day on my brailler, but that's the only solution I have thus far.
> 
> I think those are the main things I can think of for the moment. Any
> suggestions/advice would be great. I see no wrong answer.
> 
> Patricia
> 
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