[nfb-talk] issue with job and philosophy

[ANTONIO GUIMARAES]

Hi Chriss,

I don't agree 100 percent with the notion that blindness is a mere nuisence. 
That to me is understating the fact.

I have been nuisenced out of 2 grand for the purchase of a screen reader, 
and a scanning package, $450 for a fully talking dictionary, 5 grand for a 
note-taker/PDA, and I have been nuicenced out of possibilities for 
promotions at my job.

I am nuisenced all the time when going out to a club, as I can not see 
others, and know if they are members of the opposit sex, and weather they 
are acompanied.

Blind people are often nuisenced for having to leave everything behind to go 
away for guide dog training for about a month every 10 years.

I can cite several other instances of nuicences, but this meticulous 
exercize wouln't do me much good, at least for now.

NFB philosophy is changing, and federationists of all tipes are giving more 
waight to access issues. Any person reading through our current Convention 
resolutions will note this fact.

Blind students wishing to take AP exams are nuisenced by the inadequate 
availability of brailled training materials, (Res2006-03)-

Blind pupils are nuisenced by the lack of braille instruction, and often 
fall into illiteracy, (Res2006-01)

Blind workers are frequently nuisenced in their jobs, because they can earn 
less than minimal wage, (Res2006-04).

These are just some examples of how our philosophy has been flexible, due to 
technological, and socio-economic barriers.

And what about the dictionary definition of nuicence?

Acording to my Franklin Master, nuisance is an anoying or troublesome person 
or thing.

Is blindness simply an anoying fact, or is it troublesome at times? Is it a 
tragedy, or something that can be overcome?

Sincerely yours
Antonio M. Guimaraes Jr.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Westbrook" <westbc at clw19.com>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 11:38 PM
Subject: [nfb-talk] issue with job and philosophy


I am having an issue with my new job and I was wondering if any of you had 
suggestions.  There are a lot of things I can do well, but sometimes I am 
put on lower priority projects because of my inability to affectively create 
reports in Microsoft access.  I find Jaws and Window Eye' support for Access 
sorely lacking for anyone who wants to do anything useful with it.  I know 
some of you are saying well use a reader, and I have certainly thought about 
that, but I do not have enough work to keep a reader busy for eight or even 
four hours a day, and many times these projects come up suddenly and need to 
be done yesterday so I can't just recruit a reader whenever I need one or 
push my work to a certain time when a reader could be scheduled.  Other 
coworkers can't be of much help either because they are working on other 
tasks.  I think this issue brings up two points.  One, have you found any 
techniques for dealing with this problem, but I think this also raises a 
philosophical question which I think is probably more appropriate for this 
list.  I have always grown up with the idea that blindness can really be 
reduced to the level of a physical nuisance given the proper training and 
opportunity.  I feel that I have pretty decent blindness skills, especially 
related to computers, and I am given all the opportunity in the world.  I 
have the latest version of Jaws and Window Eyes at my disposal as well as a 
70 cell Braille display and good Braille literacy  skills.  Yet there are 
certain things I just can't do not because of my lack of intelligence but 
due to accessibility.  Sometimes I fear Federationists don't really 
understand how important accessibility is.  It's easy to say "use a reader" 
when you're dealing with reading the occasional mail or using the occasional 
visual verification or identifying the occasional bit of paper money, etc. 
but if Jaws went away tomorrow and you were told to just use a reader to 
access your computer would you do it?  I know some of you will probably say 
"oh well we could make our own solutions if Jaws were to disappear" but I'm 
not sure if you realize how much cooperation is required from Microsoft and 
other companies to have what little accessibility we do have and how easily 
it could be taken away.  I've been thinking of this issue a lot because it 
really frustrates me when I am not able to help with a problem at work due 
to inaccessible Microsoft software that probably cannot be scripted for. 
What is sometimes even more frustrating is when I mention my concerns to my 
friend who is also pretty much my boss and the one who brought me to the 
company, he turns my  Federationist philosophy right back on me by 
commenting that I have said repeatedly that I don't want to be treated 
differently from other people, which is of course true.  I don't really have 
a good response for that one.  While there is still plenty of stuff I can do 
and I am not in danger of losing my job, and I realize I might not have been 
able to do all those things fully sighted, it really bugs me that I can't 
contribute as much as I feel I could.  IF I were sighted I would be expected 
to learn to do these things if I had a gap in my skill set.  Frankly I 
consider that more than just a nuisance.  I'm curious to hear what you guys 
think.


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