Hello friend.
Systems that provide government funding for disability related
equipment and services are almost universally corupt and problematic
in other ways as well. When you talk to people about the structure of
the funding in a serious and considered way, you will be told that the
easiest way to fix the waste and coruption is to simply pull the plug
on the system. I think I know the company you are talking about and
if it's the one I'm thinking of, they sertainly do provide window-
eyes, the braille sense, and any other non freedom scientific
equipment you care to ask for. The trick is to know what to ask for
and make a case for something other than the universally accepted
norm. This takes research on the part of the user... Research which
many users are unwilling to do, or research which users are
discouraged from doing not only by funding providers, but by friends
and family who have said equipment and advise on their experience
there-by supposedly saving the new user time and frustration trying
different packages. That especially when assessment sentres don't
have equipment to demonstrate. In this case, they will invariably
recomend the most expensive, and most popular solution for all
ensundary. That's not to say that the recomendation is always right,
that the system is fair, or that it shouldn't be changed.
Now I have to tell you something you are not going to want to hear,
but if you plan to be an assistive technology trainer, then you had
better reconsile yourself to this. The system is what it is. The
products are what they are. Your job as a trainer will not be to
crusade and wage war against the funding providers, much as their
approach is obviously and completely rong.
Your job as a trainer will be to take some person. That person has
most likely recently lost their site. They will not necessarily but
most likely be old and impatient. If they are young they will more
than likely be angry at the loss of their site and all the things they
used to have along with sight that they now don't. Now they have been
thrust through a whirlwind of funding, doctor visits,, assessments,
paperwork, and opinions from who knows how many people, only to have a
huge ammount of new equipment dumped on them. You will have a set
number of hours in which to teach this person what they need to know.
You will have to do your best to incourage and inspire this person.
You will have to assess their needs. There's no point thrusting them
into internet searches when all they want to do is get email from the
grand kids. You'll have to listen to them, hear about their gripes
and anxieties, find out what they want to get out of life, and do your
best to make the computer they have been given fit their life style.
None of this will be possible if you allow yourself to be angry at the
funding system for providing over-priced and under performing products
to people who live in the dark ages and don't bother to question for
themselves. You're young, and you're putting yourself through the
schooling and doing all your own thing now. That's great, but you
won't meet many people like you in your chosen profession. You'll be
responsible for putting your own thoughts, feelings, opinions and such
asside and making the equipment some one has work for them.
Eventually, maybe you will be in a position to advise people before
they go for funding to ask for things that meet their needs better
than the standard fair, but not if you round on the system like a bull
in a china shop.
I'm doing this training gig now, working in Ontario where things are
happless in the extreme. I know a lot of people aren't getting the
equipment that best sutes their needs, but if I discourage them in the
slightest, then they won't get any use out of it at all, which is just
an even bigger waste. Between us, it's OK to think things are wrong,
corupt, half-baked, and screwey, but it's not OK to represent that to
your training clients in any way.
So, I hope you come to terms with this, and if there's anything I can
do to help you out, go ahead and give me a call.
Best,
erik burggraaf
A+ sertified technician and user support consultant.
Phone: 888-255-5194
Email: [email protected]
On 31-Jul-09, at 6:52 PM, Sky Taylor wrote:
Hello List, I was thinking about something early. You know how some
governments and agencies provide just one choice and that is Jaws?
The reason they do this is because they're neither interested nor do
they want to here about Window-Eyes, and I doubt that if Doug or
anyone from GW Micro tries to market we to the powers to be in any
governments, it wouldn't even work. For example, I am in BC, Canada,
and I am still in high school, i am starting transition year next
year. The company from Vancouver supplies all the tech stuff to the
schooldistricts , these include: Jaws. Magic, PacMate, and
Kurzweil1000. However, I must tell you guys that when I was at a
tech camp on an island, one of the ladies from the company went to
CSum, and she tried Window-Eyes, and she found it to be very very
responceive, and in her oppinion, better. I was shocked to find
somebody from the company that supplied Jaws give that comments.
Furthermore, i'm going to be an assistive technology instructor but
i'm primary going to be teaching Jaws, and I don't want to teach We,
as the company that asked me to teach just wants me to teach jaws,
and nothing else, maybe the PacMate, but no gw Micro products. I
might be able to teach Window-Eyes on the internet, but not in person.
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