[nabs-l] Efficiency and Productivity

Mon Aug 25 23:58:47 UTC 2014

I'm not convinced that sighted persons  have the advantage in  reading the written word because of their ability to skim. To the best of my ability, I will try to explain why.

Skimming is a sensually the ability to glance over a page and get the general jist  of it without having to read every word. Skimming is also the ability to quickly look for the information you're searching for. Just like us, sighted people need something that jumps out at them in order to help make the search go more quickly. That's why text books and websites use larger and bolder texts. Color can also make text stand out better. While it's true that a sighted person can get more of a page with in their field of view then we can, that doesn't necessarily mean that the nervous system is able to process all of that data fast enough to be useful. They still have to jump from heading to heading visually just like we do. Their ability to skim partially depends upon the quickness at which they can recognize symbols. This is true for braille meters as well. Same for people using text to speech. For some people, it takes a moment to recognize symbols and their context. For others, it's rather quick. There is a lot of variability among sighted persons just like us. Then, there is the issue of skimming intelligence. Skimming takes a certain degree of skill. For one thing, you have to know is sensually what you're looking for and have the pattern of the thing stowed in your mind priming your nervous system to recognize it. If you don't know what you're looking for, that task is made much more difficult regardless of what medium you are using to read. Text book writers and website developers already know this. That's why they make headings, subheadings, and the like. Ask a sighted person to skim a chapter book with no such headings and they will find it as difficult as we sometimes do. We are finally getting an equivalent with screen reader headings and navigation levels in digital material. For those of us who have read braille long enough to get these skills, we learn the tricks of the trade that make our searches much easier. For example, I scan an entire page with my whole hand to get a sense of its layout. When I feel breaks in the text, that's when I start looking for specific text. Again, I know generally what I'm looking for. So my nervous system is primed to find it. It also helps to know something about contents is and indexes. Excellent searchers, be they blind or cited,  already have the skills in place. As a screen reader user, I find it useful to know all of the various hot keys in the program I use. I have also become good friends with the find command. I often discover that I can find things faster than my cited peers who are presumably skimming. To tell you the truth, I think this issue of skimming is a myth that has been developed to explain the greater myth that braille and text to speech are  less efficient than print.

To this issue of work speed. I have personally found that I can work as efficiently as sighted people and most tasks, more efficiently in some tasks, and less efficiently in  other tasks. I find this to be true of my sided colleagues as well. I think it comes down to knowing what tools you have and how to use them.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 24, 2014, at 11:51 PM, Ashley Bramlett via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Arielle,
> Right. I agree. We are definitely generalizing here.
> Sighted people certainly do not perform all at the same speed.
> I think my point is I do perform some tasks faster than other sighted people while some tasks are slower.
> 
> Its an argument that never can be won. However, I still maintain my strong point that many computer tasks are slower because we cannot skim the screen. You all mention navigation keys for screen readers and windows. Well, I've been in many situations where that does not work. This only works if the web designer has it marked well with html codes like headings and lists.
> In this case, use the letter h for heading or l for next
> list.
> 
> I also have found most  databases have some accessibility issues;  same with
> other academic journals, encyclopedias and magazines.
> Rahul,
> you mentioned needing
> footnotes. Although, I do not have the command offhand,
> there is a jaws command for footnotes and endnotes. If you need it, I can probably find that.
> 
> Ashley
> -----Original Message----- From: Arielle Silverman
> Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2014 7:53 PM
> To: Ashley Bramlett ; National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Efficiency and Productivity
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I always thought it was a little silly to talk about whether blind
> people work slower or faster than sighted people. The truth is that I
> don't time myself nor do I time my colleagues. And, any such argument
> assumes that all sighted people work at some uniform speed--which is
> not true. I might work slower on the Internet than a Web-savvy sighted
> person, but I can probably work faster than a sighted person with no
> computer traning. I can almost definitely write a research report
> faster than a sighted 18-year-old who's neverwritten an APA-style
> research report before. And finally, speed isn't the only metric of
> success. Accuracy and thoroughness are equally important. I may not be
> able to skim a textbook easily, but by reading every sentence of a
> chapter, I am probably studying the information more deeply than
> somebody who quickly skims.
> Instead of trying to work as fast as some idealized sighted person, I
> think it's more important to focus on meeting the demands of a job and
> performing as well as possible. Some job tasks require adherence to
> deadlines, in which case efficiency does matter. But then the goal
> should be to adhere to the deadline, not to race an idealized sighted
> employee to the finish.
> 
> Arielle
> 
>> On 8/24/14, Ashley Bramlett via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> Rahul,
>> Ah, I understand now with specifics. I have issues with powerpoint.
>> unfortunately, there is just more steps for us in that program. use a reader
>> 
>> for the graphics if possible. For pdf files here are a few commands to
>> help.
>> 
>> Go to page: control shiftN
>> Next page: right arrow
>> Prior page: left arrow.
>> 
>> Ashley
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Rahul Bajaj via nabs-l
>> Sent: Friday, August 22, 2014 4:55 PM
>> To: Cindy Bennett ; National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Efficiency and Productivity
>> 
>> Thanks for the suggestions and the encouragement, everyone. I am sure
>> most of the suggestions that you guys have given will be immensely
>> helpful.
>> I'm pasting below the text of the mail that I sent in response to
>> Arielle's query which, unfortunately, only went to her:
>> Arielle, I am using JAWS 15 on a Windows 7 machine, so the technology
>> is fairly up to date. Some problems are with regard to specific
>> features such as
>> reading comments, footnotes and using track changes in Word; finding
>> text and reading comments in PDF documents; preparing long PPT
>> presentations with
>> graphs and charts; using the internal applications designed by my firm
>> which are almost always partly inaccessible, etc.
>> Even otherwise, I take a lot more time than my sighted  colleagues for
>> reading long 50-100 page documents.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Rahul
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On 23/08/2014, Cindy Bennett via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>> Hi Rahul,
>>> 
>>> I think your list of challenges may have just gone to Arielle. Would
>>> you mind sending them to the list? I think she gave some great
>>> solutions though. As for speed of JAWS, I gradually increased mine 5
>>> points and then waited a couple of weeks and then increased it again.
>>> I do slow it down 10 points when I am reading textbooks or other heavy
>>> material.
>>> 
>>> Cindy
>>> 
>>>> On 8/22/14, Arielle Silverman via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>> Also, if you use Gmail, you can send a PDF to yourself as an
>>>> attachment, then click "view attachment as HTML". You'll get an HTML
>>>> version that is very easy to navigate with JAWS.
>>>> Arielle
>>>> 
>>>>> On 8/22/14, Arielle Silverman <arielle71 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> Hi Rahul,
>>>>> Thanks for clarifying. I have a few quick suggestions and others may
>>>>> have
>>>>> more.
>>>>> 1. Try increasing the speech rate of JAWS by opening the JAWS program
>>>>> and pressing Alt to get into the basic menus. Increasing the speed
>>>>> should make reading line by line go faster. You don't want it to be so
>>>>> fast that you can't understand, but just try increasing by 5 or 10%.
>>>>> 2. I suggest partnering with a sighted colleague, if possible, to work
>>>>> on the PowerPoint charts and any inaccessible software. You can still
>>>>> do the majority of the thinking, but just utilize the sighted person's
>>>>> efficiency with the mouse-clicking in those situations. There is
>>>>> nothing wrong with using a reader, hired or otherwise.
>>>>> 3. To quickly read Track Changes comments, use
>>>>> control-shift-apostrophe.
>>>>> 4. Sometimes it's necessary to ask your employer if you can use a
>>>>> different program to do the work; for example reading a file in Word
>>>>> instead of in PDF format.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Good luck and congrats on the internship!
>>>>> Arielle
>>>>> 
>>>>>> On 8/22/14, Derek Manners via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>>>> Hello, I can definitely understand how you feel. I think there are
>>>>>> three
>>>>>> things I'd keep in mind.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 1. Any new job takes time to get in a rhythm where you are getting
>>>>>> things
>>>>>> done quickly.
>>>>>> 2. Practice makes perfect, just as any job takes time to learn, so
>>>>>> does
>>>>>> using assistive tech.
>>>>>> 3. It's perfectly fine work at your own pace. Your goal should be to
>>>>>> do
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> best you can under the circumstances and just look for ways to do
>>>>>> better.
>>>>>> I
>>>>>> work faster/hard than some of my sighted colleagues and I work
>>>>>> slower/less
>>>>>> hard than others.  The main thing employers want to see is improvement
>>>>>> and
>>>>>> a
>>>>>> good attitude.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Best
>>>>>> Derek
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> On Aug 22, 2014, at 3:19 PM, Rahul Bajaj via nabs-l
>>>>>>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> I often find it hard to maintain the same level of productivity as my
>>>>>>> sighted colleagues. I guess this can primarily be attributed to the
>>>>>>> fact
>>>>>>> that I have so far been merely a casual user of assistive technology
>>>>>>> which
>>>>>>> is perhaps why I am not able to use it as expeditiously as I should
>>>>>>> be
>>>>>>> able to in a professional setting.
>>>>>>> That being said, my uniform experience has taught me that jaws is
>>>>>>> often
>>>>>>> unresponsive and unreliable. This makes it virtually impossible to
>>>>>>> work
>>>>>>> with the same level of efficiency as a sighted person.
>>>>>>> Most blind students get double the time that their sighted
>>>>>>> counterparts
>>>>>>> get for writing exams. However, this is not really a feasible option
>>>>>>> in
>>>>>>> the private sector where you are not only required to do your work
>>>>>>> well
>>>>>>> but are also expected to complete your tasks expeditiously.
>>>>>>> My inability to meet the latter requirement has often been a source
>>>>>>> of
>>>>>>> frustration for me during my internships. My employers have never
>>>>>>> raised
>>>>>>> any objections about my inability to complete the same amount of work
>>>>>>> as
>>>>>>> my sighted counterparts within a given time period. I guess this is
>>>>>>> reflective of the low expectations that society has from blind
>>>>>>> people.
>>>>>>> Be that as it may, this has greatly reduced my job satisfaction and
>>>>>>> has
>>>>>>> been a major cause of concern.
>>>>>>> I'd like to know what you guys think about this. Has anyone here had
>>>>>>> a
>>>>>>> similar experience?
>>>>>>> What strategies would you recommend for effectively grappling with
>>>>>>> this
>>>>>>> challenge?
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Best,
>>>>>>> Rahul
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Sent from my iPhone
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>>>>> 
>>>> 
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>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Cindy Bennett
>>> Treasurer of the Greater Seattle Chapter and of the National
>>> Federation of the Blind of Washington
>>> Affiliates of the National Federation of the Blind
>>> 
>>> clb5590 at gmail.com
>>> 
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