Yeah, it’s sort of funny when I thinka bout it,
but the amount of surprise and bemusement when I explain to
someone about a screen-reader is still about the same as it
was in the early 90s. Maybe ther’es a somewhat increased
likelihood that someone might have a basic understanding of
such things, but it is a tiny increase, if anything. Suppose
it also depends on where you are in the world, too. But it’s
definitely an extreme novelty to most people and utterly
incomprehensible, sometimes even after you attempt to
explain it, unless they see it in action.
On Tue, Jan 31, 2023 at 04:12 AM, Brian's
Mail list account wrote:
Oh, is this still a thing.
-
Of it's "still a thing." There are many people who do not
know, personally, a single blind person, let alone know the
technologies that they might use. You're a tiny minority and
could very well be the first person the "explainee" has ever
encountered that uses a screen reader. That is a novelty, and
in the context of employment (and you could be the first blind
employee) a reasonable accommodation.
The explanation to a sighted person can be very brief: The
screen reader allows me to use the computer in the same way
you do, but by ear rather than by eye.
More can be offered if curiosity is shown, but you're not
trying to give a training class in screen reader use, you're
just trying to give a "quick and comprehensible" explanation
of how that technology fits into your world.
I do not know how you can say, "we are or should be so far
into the online digital world, that these adaptations should
be commonplace." There just aren't that many of you to begin
with, relative to the population as a whole. No one is going
to spend money on adaptations that are not needed by their
current employees when those adaptations are expensive, no
matter what those happen to be.
When it comes to adaptations that focus on a single employee
or a very, very small cadre of employees, it's always going to
be a "case by case" basis because that's the only thing that
makes sense. I worked in state agencies that specialized in
disability services, where accommodations of all sorts were
common, but they were obtained for employee X or Y when they
were on-boarded, and most often because that individual could
(and did) clearly understand what they needed to do the job
and communicated that.
There is never coming a time where niche needs are going to be
consistently and always available when the actual instance of
an actual instance of that need is very seldom occurring.
It's not cost effective, nor is it useful - to anyone - when
assistive tech is just lying about gathering dust and no one
even knows what it's about or why it's there.
Self-advocacy is something you are saddled with whether you
like it or not. Get good at it.
--
Brian - Virginia, USA - Windows 11 Pro, 64-Bit, Version 22H2,
Build 22621; Office 2016, Version 16.0.15726.20188,
32-bit; Android 12 (MIUI 13)
The
modern era has not eliminated faith--you could no more
eliminate faith than love. Even atheists believe in
atheism. The modern era has simply replaced spiritual faith
in God with secular faith in man.
~ Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, Archbishop of
Constantinople (1997)
