[nabs-l] Efficiency and Productivity
Karl Martin Adam
kmaent1 at gmail.com
Tue Aug 26 00:56:54 UTC 2014
Hi Jedi,
I definitely agree that if you know what you're looking for a
blind person using a digital book and the find command will find
it much quicker than a sited person with a print book. I also
find that I read faster with my text to speech set to maximum
than sited people do when I'm trying to absorb the entire content
of what I'm reading. I do think that sited people have an
advantage, though, when it comes to quickly getting the gist of
an article or chapter. Authors and publishers design with sited
people in mind, so important words are bolded or otherwise stand
out, which means that the sited person glancing at a page gets
the general idea of what is going on without actually reading it.
Of course this depends on the genre of the work in question.
Like you say, blind people can do some things faster than sited
people and vice versa.
Best,
Karl
----- Original Message -----
From: Jedi Moerke via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 18:58:47 -0500
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Efficiency and Productivity
I'm not convinced that sighted persons have the advantage in
reading the written word because of their ability to skim. To the
best of my ability, I will try to explain why.
Skimming is a sensually the ability to glance over a page and get
the general jist of it without having to read every word.
Skimming is also the ability to quickly look for the information
you're searching for. Just like us, sighted people need something
that jumps out at them in order to help make the search go more
quickly. That's why text books and websites use larger and bolder
texts. Color can also make text stand out better. While it's true
that a sighted person can get more of a page with in their field
of view then we can, that doesn't necessarily mean that the
nervous system is able to process all of that data fast enough to
be useful. They still have to jump from heading to heading
visually just like we do. Their ability to skim partially depends
upon the quickness at which they can recognize symbols. This is
true for braille meters as well. Same for people using text to
speech. For some people, it takes a moment to recognize symbols
and their context. For others, it's rather quick. There is a lot
of variability among sighted persons just like us. Then, there is
the issue of skimming intelligence. Skimming takes a certain
degree of skill. For one thing, you have to know is sensually
what you're looking for and have the pattern of the thing stowed
in your mind priming your nervous system to recognize it. If you
don't know what you're looking for, that task is made much more
difficult regardless of what medium you are using to read. Text
book writers and website developers already know this. That's why
they make headings, subheadings, and the like. Ask a sighted
person to skim a chapter book with no such headings and they will
find it as difficult as we sometimes do. We are finally getting
an equivalent with screen reader headings and navigation levels
in digital material. For those of us who have read braille long
enough to get these skills, we learn the tricks of the trade that
make our searches much easier. For example, I scan an entire page
with my whole hand to get a sense of its layout. When I feel
breaks in the text, that's when I start looking for specific
text. Again, I know generally what I'm looking for. So my nervous
system is primed to find it. It also helps to know something
about contents is and indexes. Excellent searchers, be they blind
or cited, already have the skills in place. As a screen reader
user, I find it useful to know all of the various hot keys in the
program I use. I have also become good friends with the find
command. I often discover that I can find things faster than my
cited peers who are presumably skimming. To tell you the truth, I
think this issue of skimming is a myth that has been developed to
explain the greater myth that braille and text to speech are
less efficient than print.
To this issue of work speed. I have personally found that I can
work as efficiently as sighted people and most tasks, more
efficiently in some tasks, and less efficiently in other tasks.
I find this to be true of my sided colleagues as well. I think it
comes down to knowing what tools you have and how to use them.
Sent from my iPhone
On Aug 24, 2014, at 11:51 PM, Ashley Bramlett via nabs-l
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
Arielle,
Right. I agree. We are definitely generalizing here.
Sighted people certainly do not perform all at the same speed.
I think my point is I do perform some tasks faster than other
sighted people while some tasks are slower.
Its an argument that never can be won. However, I still maintain
my strong point that many computer tasks are slower because we
cannot skim the screen. You all mention navigation keys for
screen readers and windows. Well, I've been in many situations
where that does not work. This only works if the web designer has
it marked well with html codes like headings and lists.
In this case, use the letter h for heading or l for next
list.
I also have found most databases have some accessibility
issues; same with
other academic journals, encyclopedias and magazines.
Rahul,
you mentioned needing
footnotes. Although, I do not have the command offhand,
there is a jaws command for footnotes and endnotes. If you need
it, I can probably find that.
Ashley
-----Original Message----- From: Arielle Silverman
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2014 7:53 PM
To: Ashley Bramlett ; National Association of Blind Students
mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Efficiency and Productivity
Hi all,
I always thought it was a little silly to talk about whether
blind
people work slower or faster than sighted people. The truth is
that I
don't time myself nor do I time my colleagues. And, any such
argument
assumes that all sighted people work at some uniform
speed--which is
not true. I might work slower on the Internet than a Web-savvy
sighted
person, but I can probably work faster than a sighted person
with no
computer traning. I can almost definitely write a research
report
faster than a sighted 18-year-old who's neverwritten an
APA-style
research report before. And finally, speed isn't the only metric
of
success. Accuracy and thoroughness are equally important. I may
not be
able to skim a textbook easily, but by reading every sentence of
a
chapter, I am probably studying the information more deeply than
somebody who quickly skims.
Instead of trying to work as fast as some idealized sighted
person, I
think it's more important to focus on meeting the demands of a
job and
performing as well as possible. Some job tasks require adherence
to
deadlines, in which case efficiency does matter. But then the
goal
should be to adhere to the deadline, not to race an idealized
sighted
employee to the finish.
Arielle
On 8/24/14, Ashley Bramlett via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
wrote:
Rahul,
Ah, I understand now with specifics. I have issues with
powerpoint.
unfortunately, there is just more steps for us in that program.
use a reader
for the graphics if possible. For pdf files here are a few
commands to
help.
Go to page: control shiftN
Next page: right arrow
Prior page: left arrow.
Ashley
-----Original Message-----
From: Rahul Bajaj via nabs-l
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2014 4:55 PM
To: Cindy Bennett ; National Association of Blind Students
mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Efficiency and Productivity
Thanks for the suggestions and the encouragement, everyone. I am
sure
most of the suggestions that you guys have given will be
immensely
helpful.
I'm pasting below the text of the mail that I sent in response
to
Arielle's query which, unfortunately, only went to her:
Arielle, I am using JAWS 15 on a Windows 7 machine, so the
technology
is fairly up to date. Some problems are with regard to specific
features such as
reading comments, footnotes and using track changes in Word;
finding
text and reading comments in PDF documents; preparing long PPT
presentations with
graphs and charts; using the internal applications designed by
my firm
which are almost always partly inaccessible, etc.
Even otherwise, I take a lot more time than my sighted
colleagues for
reading long 50-100 page documents.
Cheers,
Rahul
On 23/08/2014, Cindy Bennett via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
wrote:
Hi Rahul,
I think your list of challenges may have just gone to Arielle.
Would
you mind sending them to the list? I think she gave some great
solutions though. As for speed of JAWS, I gradually increased
mine 5
points and then waited a couple of weeks and then increased it
again.
I do slow it down 10 points when I am reading textbooks or other
heavy
material.
Cindy
On 8/22/14, Arielle Silverman via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
wrote:
Also, if you use Gmail, you can send a PDF to yourself as an
attachment, then click "view attachment as HTML". You'll get an
HTML
version that is very easy to navigate with JAWS.
Arielle
On 8/22/14, Arielle Silverman <arielle71 at gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Rahul,
Thanks for clarifying. I have a few quick suggestions and others
may
have
more.
1. Try increasing the speech rate of JAWS by opening the JAWS
program
and pressing Alt to get into the basic menus. Increasing the
speed
should make reading line by line go faster. You don't want it to
be so
fast that you can't understand, but just try increasing by 5 or
10%.
2. I suggest partnering with a sighted colleague, if possible,
to work
on the PowerPoint charts and any inaccessible software. You can
still
do the majority of the thinking, but just utilize the sighted
person's
efficiency with the mouse-clicking in those situations. There is
nothing wrong with using a reader, hired or otherwise.
3. To quickly read Track Changes comments, use
control-shift-apostrophe.
4. Sometimes it's necessary to ask your employer if you can use
a
different program to do the work; for example reading a file in
Word
instead of in PDF format.
Good luck and congrats on the internship!
Arielle
On 8/22/14, Derek Manners via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
Hello, I can definitely understand how you feel. I think there
are
three
things I'd keep in mind.
1. Any new job takes time to get in a rhythm where you are
getting
things
done quickly.
2. Practice makes perfect, just as any job takes time to learn,
so
does
using assistive tech.
3. It's perfectly fine work at your own pace. Your goal should
be to
do
the
best you can under the circumstances and just look for ways to
do
better.
I
work faster/hard than some of my sighted colleagues and I work
slower/less
hard than others. The main thing employers want to see is
improvement
and
a
good attitude.
Best
Derek
Sent from my iPhone
On Aug 22, 2014, at 3:19 PM, Rahul Bajaj via nabs-l
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
wrote:
Hi all,
I often find it hard to maintain the same level of productivity
as my
sighted colleagues. I guess this can primarily be attributed to
the
fact
that I have so far been merely a casual user of assistive
technology
which
is perhaps why I am not able to use it as expeditiously as I
should
be
able to in a professional setting.
That being said, my uniform experience has taught me that jaws
is
often
unresponsive and unreliable. This makes it virtually impossible
to
work
with the same level of efficiency as a sighted person.
Most blind students get double the time that their sighted
counterparts
get for writing exams. However, this is not really a feasible
option
in
the private sector where you are not only required to do your
work
well
but are also expected to complete your tasks expeditiously.
My inability to meet the latter requirement has often been a
source
of
frustration for me during my internships. My employers have
never
raised
any objections about my inability to complete the same amount of
work
as
my sighted counterparts within a given time period. I guess this
is
reflective of the low expectations that society has from blind
people.
Be that as it may, this has greatly reduced my job satisfaction
and
has
been a major cause of concern.
I'd like to know what you guys think about this. Has anyone here
had
a
similar experience?
What strategies would you recommend for effectively grappling
with
this
challenge?
Best,
Rahul
Sent from my iPhone
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--
Cindy Bennett
Treasurer of the Greater Seattle Chapter and of the National
Federation of the Blind of Washington
Affiliates of the National Federation of the Blind
clb5590 at gmail.com
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