[Ohio-talk] Workplace Accessibility/Assistive Tecch; Looking for input, possibly legality of an issue

[rchpay7 at gmail.com]

I would like to talk to you about this off list. Please call me at
937/829/3368


Richard Payne,  President
National Federation of the Blind of Ohio
937-396-5573or 937/829/3368
Rchpay7 at gmail.com
The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back

-----Original Message-----
From: Ohio-Talk [mailto:ohio-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Wes Derby
via Ohio-Talk
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2017 9:38 PM
To: NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Wes Derby <ufofanatic at gmail.com>
Subject: [Ohio-talk] Workplace Accessibility/Assistive Tecch; Looking for
input, possibly legality of an issue

Good Evening, Fellow Federationists.

First, I want to say thanks for accepting me into NFB of Ohio. It was great
to meet those I met at convention, and I look forward to many more to come.

I apologize in advance as this will get long and may ruffle a few feathers.
To try and sum it up, I'll provide a link to a blog post I wrote a few
months ago on the topic for a more in-depth read. it's regarding a piece of
software to which our sighted peers have access, but the JAWS users do not.

Basically, my employer, Red Roof Inn Contact Center, hires several of us who
are blind. Most of us work from home. Thanks to the company hiring a JAWS
scripter,  most systems we use are pretty JAWS-friendly...Though we're still
running on JAWS 14 with Internet Explorer 9. Most of us are also using our
personal JAWS licenses as the company does provide the computer, but
requires each employee's JAWS serial number...But, I digress.

The one system that is fairly inacccessible with the systems we have is
WFO/WFM (Work Force Optimization, sometimes called Work Force Management).
This is the system used to check your PTO balance, request time off, and
request VTO (Voluntary Time Off when it's slow/dead). Our sighted colleagues
can do this themselves, no problem.
If you are a JAWS user, you have to have someone from staffing or from your
escalation department enter the requests for you...This is great, as long as
someone sees your email quickly. Due to them not always being see timely, I
know it's caused me one unexcused absence as there was time available when I
sent the request, but because a sighted colleague entered her request an
hour before someone got around to mine, I got the UA for a sick day.

>From what we've been told by the Good Will Easter Seals of Miami Valley job
coach provided for the JAWS users, the system is not JAWS--friendly. Later,
we were told the requests CAN be made with JAWS, but the GWESMV worker
decided that based on her experience, it would be too complicated for a JAWS
user. Though it IS web-based, the request system does not behave normally
with JAWS and the version of IE we're running. This is the same person who
told me the same about the previous system, which I mastered in about ten
minutes, though she swore it would take hours.

So, what I'm wondering is, is the way the company is handling this system
acceptable from an accessibility standpoint, or am I right to be irritated
by it? I'll be the first to admit I could be making something out of
nothing...But I also like to do as much as I can independently.

There are two camps of blind employees at the center, I've noticed...Some of
the older folks are perfectly content to not learn the system, and to let
staffing or Escalation enter requests for them.
There are a few of us, however, who'd like the ability to do it ourselves
with JAWS as our sighted counterparts can. The GWESMV worker in question
finally told us in July, 14 months after this system was implemented, that
though it was complicated, it may be able to be done with JAWS...However,
she has not written up the instructions because she'd have to do so on her
own time as she doesn't have a Red Roof client in training currently. My
thought is, as soon as she determined it was maybe possible, she should've
given that information to us and let us decide for ourselves if we were
capable of figuring it out or not. The company has provided no response to
the email exchanges on our JAWS list about fixing the system or hiring the
scripter if necessary to do so...They tend to defer to the GWESMV worker's
judgment when it comes to accessibility. Honestly, if I'd deferred to her
judgment, I would not have the position I have now because at the time, the
software wasn't scripted for JAWS. But, since I knew I was qualified for the
job, I went for it anyway against her advice, got it, and am doing pretty
well.

Anyway, sorry this was so long. Here's the blog article I wrote for some
more detail. If anyone has questions or opinions, please feel free to reply
here or send me a message privately.

Thanks!

http://wesderby.net/dont-make-acccessibility-decisions-for-us-without-consul
ting-us-when-our-advocates-try-to-be-our-decision-makers-and-get-it-wrong/

--
Need to book travel? Flights, cars, hotels, cruises! They're all here!
http://wesleyderby.inteletravel.com. Contact information is on the page if
you need personal assistance booking anything.

Need tickets to that sporting event, concert, or theatre performance?
I've got you covered. Visit http://wesleyderby.goldentickets.com

Find me on Social Media:
Facebook: http://facebook.com/wderby
Twitter: http://twitter.com/wesderby

_______________________________________________
Ohio-Talk mailing list
Ohio-Talk at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/ohio-talk_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
Ohio-Talk:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/ohio-talk_nfbnet.org/rchpay7%40gmail.com