[Nfbc-info] Laws Concerning People With Disabilities In The Workplace Do's And Don'ts

[Chela Robles]

Hello everyone who has studied the laws concerning people with
Disabilities and the ADA.
I need a crash course before January 8th 2018 in this subject matter.
I was recently employed on November 3rd 2017 as a Braille Transcriber
for a public school in San Jose, not going to say the names of people
and school due to the utmost respect and sincerity and loyalty to my
first employer for my first job.
I've run into a dilemma in which I feel like I'm being discriminated
against for leveraging a certain technology called Aira for
independently traveling safely throughout the campus which has lots of
twists and turns and buildings are placed at random not to mentioned I
almost got injured a few times at that campus just walking around, and
other people not watching out where they are going, so in order to
avoid being injured while traveling, I utilize Aira for safely
navigating me and I've not been injured since starting to use this
wonderful technology service to make independence happen for the
blind, knowing fully well that it doesn't replace any mobility skills
I have with the cane and I always use the cane along with Aira which
only enhances the experience to not allow unfortunate circumstances to
happen.
My problem is this:
My boss, who is not the principal, tells me I should not have to use
Aira on the campus and when I asked her why not, she told me that none
of the other blind students use it and that I should not use it as
well, well I'm her employee, not her student, big difference there and
I pay for this service myself and can use it as I see fit to use it if
I feel like I'm lost and noone else is around to straighten me out
most of the time I go out of the office to go somewhere on the campus,
yet she wanted me to learn the whole campus, then changed her mind and
just told me to learn how to get to every student's room number for
their respective classes and keep in mined there are 16 of them that
are blind in different grades in high school, then recently she just
wants me to know where each building is, and that doesn't help that I
don't have a tactile map yet, and even if I did, a tactile map is
still scaled down, yes? So, the next best thing is to take Aira to
keep finding out which building is 1000, which building is 100, 200
400 300, ETC, no room numbers now, but she wants me to find these
buildings, and know how far they are and where they are in relation to
one another but the problem is that the campus is laid out in a funky
way and I cannot fully explain, but I know the O&M trainer I work with
at that campus could describe it well, so all in all, I feel
discriminated against for using something that will leverage my being
able to travel independently at this huge campus where anyone, sighted
and blind can get lost in minutes, and what I have counts as a
reasonable accommodation. I've already emailed my DOR counselor about
this and carbon-copied the O&M trainer who works with me there to be
aware of the situation. My counselor wants a meeting with me after the
holiday/winter break and I get back the 8th of January to work, just
recently started O&M training at that campus and my trainer tells me
to still utilize Aira when I get lost. I think that my boss thinks
using Aira is not making me be independent, when the fact is that is
truly is making me independent.
Thoughts, suggestions, anyone want to teach me the necessary laws
concerning workers with disabilities? I'll have you know I'm her first
employee ever and a totally blind one at that that travels
3 hours each way from Concord, California to San Jose, California and
back, utilizing my parents to take me to and from the Mitchel Park and
Ride in Walnut Creek, where I either meet the 92x bus to go to the
Pleasanton Ace Train station, then at Diridon San Jose Station, I hail
an Uber Pool, and go to the school to work for 6 hours a day five days
a week keeping in mind no benefits package, there and back, I reverse
the route going home, I wake up at 4AM those days and go to bed around
9PM and get home sometimes at 7PM sometimes 6:15PM give or take
traffic.
Thanks for any assistance you can offer. I was told that the NFB can
fight for people's individual rights if their rights are not being met
so that is why I'm coming to you guys.
Thanks and have a great day and I look forward to talking with you soon.
Sincerely,
Chela Robles
Braille Transcriber