[NFBCS] The Fine Line Between Reasonable Versus Unreasonable Accommodations

[Tracy Carcione]

Hi Curtis.
I agree, and I've done the same, as I'm sure we all have.  
One improvement now is that, last time I got training a couple years ago, I
was able to ask for the training material in an accessible format, like
Word,  before the training started, so I was able to study it and work along
with the class, instead of catching up later. 

But I firmly believe that it shouldn't take a huge effort for a blind person
to figure out how to make things accessible.  They shouldn't have to
reinvent the wheel.  They should at least be able to Google and find out if
someone else has already figured out a solution.  
I've found this list to be an invaluable resource for solving some
accessibility issues, and I've seen us discuss in-depth how to access
software I don't know about.  I think it would be great if someone who does
need to know could find the discussion, even if they're not part of the
listserve. 
I suspect that struggling with accessibility, trying to find the answers you
need, is part of why the unemployment rate is so high for blind people.
People just get worn out by the struggle.  
Tracy

-----Original Message-----
From: NFBCS [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Curtis Chong via
NFBCS
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2022 4:09 PM
To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List'
Cc: Curtis Chong
Subject: [NFBCS] The Fine Line Between Reasonable Versus Unreasonable
Accommodations

Greetings everyone:

 

I would like to second what Brian Buhrow said in his recent email.

 

"If one is going to hold a job as a blind person, whether it be in
technology or something else, it is necessary to become an expert on how to
make things accessible for yourself."

 

While some of you might assert that we cannot all be experts in making
things accessible to ourselves, the reality is that as individual blind
people working in an organization where we might be the only blind person
employed, we must take responsibility for hunting down the solutions we need
so that we can do our jobs in a way that encourages our employers to want to
keep us. It is a rare thing indeed for technology training classes (not to
mention other corporate training venues) to be nonvisually-accessible to us
by default. In fact, I maintain that if we insist that these classes need to
be 100% accessible nonvisually in order for us to keep our jobs, our value
to the employer will be reduced to the point where we are no longer useful
to have around. When email first became a reality in the large corporation
for which I was working (this would have been back in the early 1990's), I
took the same courses on how to use the email system that my sighted
colleagues took. Then, when I needed to figure out how a mouse click could
be activated from the keyboard, I spent extra time with the trainer to try
to figure out if, indeed, there were keyboard equivalents to the mouse that
would work for me. During my time in mainstream information technology, I
was oftentimes required to travel to distant cities to attend week-long
trainings where the material was presented for people who could see and
where readers were nowhere to be found. Sometimes, I attended these classes
with sighted colleagues who were willing and able to provide some
assistance. At other times, I attended these classes by myself and figured
out what I needed to know later when I got back to my office.

 

All of this is to make the point that there is a limit to how much we as
blind employees can expect to receive in the way of "reasonable"
accommodations. When the level of accommodation provided to us reaches a
certain point (a point, by the way, which differs from one organization to
another), the positive support we have garnered tends to wane as the effort
required to provide that support increases.

 

I hope I am making some kind of logical sense here. If not, I appreciate
hearing from folks to help to clarify my thinking on this issue.

 

Best wishes,

 

Curtis Chong

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Brian Buhrow via NFBCS
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2022 1:32 PM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Brian Buhrow <buhrow at nfbcal.org>
Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Feedback Request

 

          hello peter.  As a long time IT person who has worked on networks,
large computer

installations, and a variety of technical projects, I am going to echo wha
others have said

here about on-line resources.  It is usually the case that when one is
learning a new API or

programming technique, or any new skill for that matter, what one needs to
know about is the

skill itself, not about the blindness adaptations necessary to become an
expert at that skill.

Because everyone's blindness skills are different, it makes the most sense
for the individual

learning the new thing to figure out the way that works best for them.

So, for example, Bookshare.  Yes, the books in Bookshare may not discuss
ways to peform the

skills those books teach as they might be performed by a blind person, but
the fact that the

books are accessible on Bookshare makes them extremely useful to blind folks
just by virtue of

the fact that they're there.

 

Now, having read those books, one can then ask specific questions about how
a specific API or

development environment might be used in an accessible manner.  

 

          If one is going to hold a job as a blind person, whether it be in
technology or something

else, it is necessary to become an expert on how to make things accessible
for yourself.  As

part of that, building a network, as exists on this list, becomes one of the
tools you use to

gain the knowledge you need to do the things you want.

 

Blindness specific training is wonderful, but it is mostly a general
training in the sense that it

teaches you how to teach yourself to use tools or create techniques which
make things

accessible to you.  Those tools and techniques might not work for anyone
else in the world, but

if they work for you, then you're good.  For example, for me, half the
battle of learning to do

something is just knowing another blind person has done that thing.  If I
know they have, then

I can turn the question of "can I do something?" to "How do I do something?"
Once I've have

how, then I can go about setting up the task of figuring it out.

 

          Part of the reason we've not set up an NFB CS web site is that it
would be out of date

before we finished building it.  If we said, for example, that something was
inaccessible,

someone would prove us wrong.  Or, if we said, if you follow these
instructions for making

something work, the thing would change and our instructions would be
rendered inoperative.  

In other words, what we offer you here, and in our training centers, are a
lot of fishing

poles.  We leave it to you, the fisherman to go out and catch your fish.

 

-Brian

 

 

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