[NFBCS] CompTIA Certification

[Ed Barnes]

Hi list.

I respectfully disagree with a couple of John's points as someone who
has worked as a computer support specialist doing desktop support for
approximately 20 years, the first couple of years in the private
sector and the last 17 as an employee of Office Of The Chief
Information Officer, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, located
in St John's NL Canada where I live.

As far as I am concerned, the key point here is that Dr. Miller is
speculating because he is a software developper so has no actual
hands-on experience working in my field, just like I have no
experience working in his.

Do I agree that some things take us longer as blind people to
accomplish, of course I do, however, do I think we should receive
modified work tasks taking this into account, I say no, do I end up
spending a few extra hours a week working on items outside of my 35
hour work week because I want to meet the same targets as my sighted
counterparts, yes. Do I have a problem with that, no.

When it comes to windows tech support, is there room for improving
remote access, of course there is, on windows 7, 8 and 10 I have found
nvda and narrator to be my best friend considering that both do not
require that any components are installed on the machine which you are
connecting too.

If you choose your career based upon the all-mighty dollar, I'd say do
software development, there's greater demand and the pay across the
board is likely greater in my opinion.

 Do I think windows tech support is doable by a blind person, of
course I say yes. I think I my own success proves it can be done, in
my 17 years with my current employer I have twice been nominated for
the public service award of excellence which is the highest honor a
government employee in my province can receive in recognition of
his/her work.

Regards to all, happy Friday - Ed


On 1/27/23, John Miller via NFBCS <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 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> 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>
> Cc: 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
>