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)
