[nfb-talk] issue with job and philosophy

Wed Nov 29 11:18:50 CST 2006

Chris;
As Yasmin said, I also do many low priority jobs.  Low priority jobs are
just as important as high priority ones.  If it were not for those doing
the low priority jobs, there would be much greater pressure on the
higher up secretaries in the office.  I started out plaster to the
phones.  All I did was answer the phones and get my 2 breaks and lunch.
Now I have proved to the government that there are many more things that
a low partial can do.  I shred, recycle, Xerox, escort and  maintain 7
xerox machines on my floor.  I pick up and drop off visas and passports
and posters for framing on main campus.  I keep a log of my dailly
tasks.  I keep a leave folder of who is on leave and a reference book of
imfo about each employee such as their title and degree.  I have done
this for 20 years and am willing to advise anyone entering the
secretarial field.  I have had a few students from Bism come to my
office and I have showed them how I handle on the job tasks.

Terry Powers
powerst at mail.nih.gov

-----Original Message-----
From: Reyazuddin, Yasmin
[mailto:Yasmin.Reyazuddin at montgomerycountymd.gov] 
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 8:27 AM
To: NFB Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] issue with job and philosophy

Hi Chris, 
You have brought up a very important issue. However, I can agree with
you on some things and would like to give you some advise. 
One does not need to feel bad if they are given low priority assignment.
Here in my job I am not doing all that the others are doing. I am good
at something's than others. 
At first, my supervisor did not think that I was any good. I was treated
like dirt. However, I have shown to her that I am just as capable of
doing and better in some things than others. I have shared with her my
ways of doing things such as getting all print materials as email
attachments. After 2 years, she has learned that all print materials may
have first started as a word document on someone's computer. 

Keep up the good work and you will be successful. 

Yasmin Reyazuddin 
Information & Referral unit 
Department of Health & human services 
401 Hungerford Drive (1st floor) 
Rockville MD 20850 
Phone 240-777-1245 (info line) 
240-777-1556 (personal line) 
Fax: 240-777-4636 
TTY: 240-777-1295 

Office hours 8:30 am to 5:00 pm 

Languages English, Hindi, Urdu 

-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Chris Westbrook
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 11:39 PM
To: NFB Talk Mailing List
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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