Hi Lisa E. If that were the case, no blind person would ever get hired. Employers don't hire blind people as it is because they fear the expense. If a blind employer needed a screen reader, scanner with OCR, and note taker with Braille display, and they had to buy two of each, I can pretty much state with authority that very, very few blind people would be hired, except, perhaps by the Federal Government.
Andy At 03:16 PM 4/11/04 +1000, you wrote: >Hi Listers, >Lisa has a good point about whose users who are deafblind. My next question would be aren't employers supposed to be responsible for providing accomodations for people who are blind or deafblind or regardless of the disability? Employers need to understand how important how vital technology is to people who are blind or visually impaired. In my opinion employers need to provide two pieces of technology in case one devices breaks down. If they'd think about it they'd realize there other employees have different ways of communicating they can write handwritten notes, my can email something to the boss, they have different ways of communicating. Why should the blind or visually impaired person be reduced to only one way of communicating written language? I know I'm a big baby out here in the tropics where getting technology for my job wasn't a problem since my boss who is blind is in charge of the program where I work and we work with kids who are blind. So having to f! > ight for accommodations was not an issue for me. I just think employers and employees need to sit down and come up with strategies to address how the employee will handle the job if the technology is in need of repair or something. It should not have to be the employee's responsibility to figure out how he/she will survive without having the Braillenote. I think often employers think if I buy this one device for thousands of dollars I will have accommodated this person. They don't stop to think that people who are blind can communicate in other ways through writing without just using one piece of technology. It would be nice if PDI would establish a loaner program but in the meantime Braillenote users and employers and state agencies and schools everyone need to seriously think about how and what they will do when the piece of technology isn't working. I think this needs to be addressed before the device is even purchased. I didn't mean to get off topic here I just w! > ant to encourage people to think and it shouldn't be just us the Brail >lenote users and the PDI staff having to think about this problem. It would be nice if everyone could work together on this problem to help form a solution. >Thanks for reading. I'm not trying to start any major discussions or anything I just wanted to share my thoughts. >Lisa > > >___ >To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit >http://list.pulsedata.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote > > >
