[NFBCS] CompTIA Certification

Fri Jan 27 19:28:40 UTC 2023

Hello John,

I appreciate it that you would like me to do technical support for you. I do
help people in my local NFB chapter with problems they have using their
computers and iPhones. I don't always succeed though. I have found that
everyone has their own learning style. Becoming employable is a complicated
issue and there are no easy answers.

I hadn't thought of your consideration of remoting into another computer but
that should have been obvious to me. The only options I'm aware of are using
Teamviewer which isn't great for accessibility and using the Windows Quick
Assist option. I'm not sure if a JAWS tandem connection would help someone
with problems not related to JAWS. I think there is something called Remote
Incident Manager, but I don't know how much it costs. I'm amazed at how
quickly Apple can do diagnostics while you are using an iPhone or Apple
watch. No doubt doing tech support would be a high-pressure environment. I
would need to react quickly and deal with irate customers. I'm not sure
about job security. At my last job, all support desk functions were
outsourced to Infosys. Dealing with Infosys was trying due to not
understanding Indian accents, poor phone call quality, and getting a
technician to understand an issue.

I'm not sure that being a software engineer is realistic. I was enrolled in
a technical school last year and things didn't work out. The situation was
rather complicated. I feel guilty that things didn't work out considering
that I put a considerable amount of time and effort in learning the material
and completing assignments. I don't know anything about Linux. I have tried
Orca on a Linux computer but couldn't get BRLTTY to work. Recently I did get
it to work on an Android phone. I didn't want to use BrailleBack or the
native Braille support in Android 13.

I'm not sure what to do now. I guess everyone has successes and failures.
The point is not giving up. I like my parttime job though I wish I could
work more hours.

Dan

From: John Miller <johnmillerphd at hotmail.com> 
Sent: Friday, January 27, 2023 12:43 PM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: dan.tevelde at comcast.net
Subject: RE: [NFBCS] CompTIA Certification

Hello Dan,

I would love to hear from others on this question.

Personally, I would encourage you to be a software developer before being an
IT support person.

As part of my work I develop software.

The longer the duration of the task I am assigned, the better I perform.

I was just assigned a software developer task with a due date in two weeks.

I know I will be successful in this task.

The sighted IT workers who are remoting into my machine are completing a
task in roughly 15 minutes typically.

I have seen the task take as long as an hour but that is when they are
trouble-shooting.

So on the negative side, IT desk support jobs for Windows users often ask
you to complete a task in a quite small chunk of time.

I do not believe that there exists many IT solutions for a blind person to
remote in to another computer and provide solutions.

While there may be such solutions, I would like to hear which of these
solutions are being used by the fortune 500 companies, universities, and
so-on.

The work-arounds that I use as a blind engineer take a little bit of time to
configure.

I see the sighted IT workers using the tools provided them with all the
default settings.

I observe the sighted IT workers that I interact with entering information
on each IT case using a homegrown web application, likely in Microsoft Edge.

There is a lot of copy-and-paste going on in complicated dialog boxes or web
forms.

I am slower than my sighted peers in filling out these webpage dialog boxes.

But I am just as fast or faster than my sighted peers when working at the
command line to commit a piece of software into a software repo.

So at the command line I would say the playing field is level between
sighted and blind computer users.

For the webpage interface I believe the sighted computer user has an
advantage.

This may be the typical reason of the sighted being able to take in at a
glance all the information displayed on the entire screen at once.

It may be because the webpage was not designed with accessibility for the
blind in mind.

As the blind community, I think we have to reimagine how to quickly fill out
and how to quickly reference information in web forms.

I see many blind individuals working as system administrators and providing
support at work in Linux rather than Windows.

I observe a number of blind individuals working as access technology
trainers helping other blind users.

I know of a number of blind software developers who enjoy their jobs.

In summary, I would love it if you personally were the IT tech person
providing me desktop support at my company. This would confirm that the
software applications used by my company are sufficiently accessible. On the
other hand, I believe that there are other roles at work that may be easier
to show case your talents at.

However, many of these roles benefit from a strong foundational knowledge of
IT technology.

So strengthening your IT technology knowledge can absolutely open up doors
at work.

Very best,

John

From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org <mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> > On
Behalf Of dan TeVelde via NFBCS
Sent: Friday, January 27, 2023 9:00 AM
To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List' <nfbcs at nfbnet.org
<mailto:nfbcs at nfbnet.org> >
Cc: dan.tevelde at comcast.net <mailto:dan.tevelde at comcast.net> 
Subject: [NFBCS] CompTIA Certification

My current contract position is not working out as expected. I haven't had
any contract work this year. National Industries for the Blind has a
short-term information assurance training program leading to CompTIA
certification. I don't know any blind people who have this certification and
use it in their jobs. Is the CompTIA exam administered by Pearson
accessible? Is support desk work realistic?

Thanks,

Dan

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