[nfbcs] Helping a software engineer keep his job

[Aaron Cannon]

Hi.

Your message was quite long and detailed, which is great, as it helps
us know exactly what you're struggling with.  My reply is not so long,
but hopefully it will be of some use.

I think your top priority, before anything else, should be to learn
Jaws.  You'll be happy to know that there are folks successfully using
Jaws with Eclipse.  I also use git, SVN, Trac, PuTTY, and other
similar tools on a regular basis with no problems (I am totally blind,
and use Jaws), so it absolutely can be done.

Best of luck with everything, and if I can ever be of assistance,
please don't hesitate to ask.

Sincerely

Aaron

On 11/12/14, Graham Mehl via nfbcs <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi Fellow NFBCS listers,
>
> As Gary Wunder indicated I was monitoring the various posts in this thread.
> There has been a lot of good information discussed. I would have posted
> sooner, but I had a couple personal matters to drew my attention like
> trying
> to find a new job position before getting laid off.  Now that I have
> secured
> employment I can provide my post.  Thank you for your patience and
> understanding.
>
> I have been trying to rack my brain on what is performance and how I can
> change or improve my performance at work.
>
>
>
> Medical background:
>
> - anaridia since birth; causes extreme sensitivity to light (think bright
> white computer screens)
>
> - functional sight until 2006
>
> - right eye has light perception only due to retina detachments
>
> - left eye has 20/200 vision on good days; averages 20/400
>
> - left eye has a k-pro (artificial cornea)
>
> - high contrast screen needed to read; 10x handheld magnifier sometimes but
> barely helps
>
> - I can see some shades of colors but am not color blind
>
> Personality background:
>
> - strong willed,
>
> - hard worker,
>
> - perfectionist,
>
> - detail oriented,
>
> - meticulous,
>
> - relentless in activities I am passionate about,
>
> - have perseverance,
>
> - analytical,
>
> - strong faith in God,
>
> - does not like [major] change,
>
> - enjoys performing community service,
>
> - received the Boy Scout Eagle Scout award,
>
> - earned a masters degree in computer science specializing in software
> engineering,
>
> - was an avid hiker when I had more time, enjoy doing genealogy,
>
> - am married and have two young (kindergarten and preschool) children,
>
> - have been employed by the same company for the last 17 years.
>
>
>
> My Technological environment and challenges:
>
> I am primarily a java application developer, and have done 5 years of C
> programming. I feel my area of expertise is in J2EE applications
> development, a variety of databases, and a mastery of shell scripting. And
> as a means to an end, I have done some web development. I also have
> maintained, configured, deployed apache and tomcat web servers. For a short
> period of time I developed Weblogic applications too. I have programmed on
> Solaris, Linux (Typically Red Hat or CentOS), and windows platforms where
> the applications were deployed to the same set of platforms.
>
>
>
> What tools do I use?
>
> - With doing java development the preferred tool by peers is the IDE
> Eclipse. Eclipse has a few plug-ins that help with coding standards and
> software build and CM tools.
>
> - text editors vi and emacs - both not very screen reader friendly.
>
> - notepad as a scratch pad for things usually with performing email tasks
> and status reports and not necessarily for coding.
>
> - build tools ANT and Maven and the old fashion manual way with java
> commands.
>
> - CM tools are SCCS, CVS, subversion (SVN), git.
>
> - Software ticket tracking tools include Track, VersionOne, and Jira. I
> have
> used HTML, wiki and confluence for documentation .
>
> - IE and Firefox web browsers depending on what platform I was developing
> on
> and application restrictions.
>
> - Some projects have used IM chat tools, like Microsoft Lync, heavily for
> team communication and user support.
>
> - Pageant to load my PKI certificates for single sign in.
>
> - Putty and SSH and remote desktop Console (to connect with RFPs and VDIs)
> tools to remote connect to remote VMs.
>
> - Some experimentation with cygwin.
>
>
>
> My job position requires me to use Microsoft Office products like Outlook,
> Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, and to be able to read PDF files usually with
> Adobe Reader. These tools, except for cygwin, are tools my peers and I use
> on a regular basis if not daily.
>
>
>
> I more often then not use my vision and a mouse with a magnified screen.
>
>
>
> More and more development is being done in VM (virtual Machines). The
> machine on my desk is a windows machine and I have to remote to a Linux
> machine. In order to connect to remote systems, a secure connection is
> required, typically using SSH technology and PKI certificates.
>
>
>
> A number of projects I have worked on are moving to a thin client
> environment. The IT group providing the VMs in the thin client environment
> do not want to put the JAWS software on the image load due to the increased
> size of the image load. JAWS supports the ability to have two JAWS
> instances
> to communicate between each other such that screen on the remote system can
> have its screen read to an individual. Unfortunately, the remote system
> needs to be persistent with JAWS running. Having a persistent VM sort of
> defeats the purpose of a thin client environment. So the IT group does not
> want to support VMs that are persistent.
>
>
>
> Because of what I work with and where I work, closed networks and can only
> be connected to at work locations. Work / files cannot be taken home and
> worked on and brought back. Any work performed for the purposes of the
> contract has to be billed to the customer. I mention this only because
> there
> were a few posts that indicated putting in a few extra hours to compensate
> for our disability accommodations. There was a sub-thread about how much
> time should a person with a disability put in. I too find myself falling
> back to my limited vision.
>
>
>
> I am a salary employee and get paid for my 40 hour work week, and any time
> I
> put in above the 40 hours I personally do not get paid for, but customer
> gets billed all the hours. The customer wants the task / job done and does
> not care if the person working the task is disabled or not. At some point
> the customer will care how much they are paying for stuff.
>
>
>
> Earlier I mentioned closed network systems, which supports general users,
> developers,  and operational teams. More often than not I also have a
> second
> system at my desk that allows me to access  the Internet which, to be
> clear,
> this system does not have connectivity to the closed network.
>
> To date my company has purchased or provided
>
> - a 30 inch Dell monitor,
>
> - a CCTV for reading hardcopy material,
>
> - Zoomtext 9.1 Magnifier / Reader software,
>
> - 3 user licenses of JAWS software (which I am not very proficient at
> using),
>
> - Kurzweil 1000,
>
> - a Cannon flat bed scanner that will eventually replace the CCTV when my
> vision is completely gone
>
> - a company owned laptop, so I can go home and do other company required
> activities and still get company IT support when needed,
>
> - a second scanner to use with the laptop,
>
> -a  standard keyboard with a smart card reader to connect with the laptop.
>
> My company uses RSA id tokens to authenticate, which of course is digital.
> The only alternative solution for this is to use a company issued smart
> card, hence the card reader keyboard.
>
>
>
> There is no training mentioned for these tools, so I have had to figure it
> out on my own. To my knowledge there is no organization within my company
> that solely supports disabilities. The customer does have such a
> organization, but due to legal and contractual reasons as a contractor I
> have limited access and support from them. Generally I am on my own unless
> I
> I can personally find someone else that is disabled that can help me.
>
> So now I circle back to how do I perform better and remain competitive with
> my sighted peers? I am struggling to keep up with peers because of the time
> I spend figuring out things on my own, using systems that are not
> completely
> compatible with accessibility tools, and time needed to learn accessible
> tools and shortcuts.  I just don't seem to have enough hours in a day on
> the
> job or at home.
>
>
>
> --
>
> Graham Mehl
>
> blind at trailstone.com
>
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