Job Employer's Bulletin 1998

Job Employer's Bulletin 1998

[PHOTO DESCRIPTION: Accompanying this article are several graphics representing

businessmen and women.]

JOB Employer's Bulletin 1998

From the Editor: Each year the Job Opportunities for the Blind (JOB) Program

produces useful publications to educate employers about the abilities of blind workers.

These are available upon request from JOB Director Lorraine Rovig at the National Center

for the Blind. The materials are packed with useful information and a positive philosophy

about blindness. The Cleveland office of the Ohio Bureau of Services for the Visually

Impaired recently circulated a number of copies of this publication to area employers, who

expressed their interest and gratitude. In case Braille Monitor readers are not familiar

with this resource, we are reprinting the most recent of these publications. Here it is:

The Blind Secretary-Receptionist:

An Office Guide to Non-Visual Techniques

Are you looking for one of these?

Secretary/receptionist: A motivated self-starter with a pleasant phone voice;

demonstrated success in working on multiple tasks to meet deadlines. Duties include

general secretarial tasks (sort mail, file, dictation), extensive travel arranging, and

scheduling. Must type 50+ wpm, present a good appearance, and deal well with a sometimes

difficult public. Must be proficient in ____ [name your computer system]. Occasional

evenings/weekends.

Would you hire a blind secretary for this job? How about a blind receptionist or office

clerk?

Businessman: Wait a minute. That doesn't make sense! There's no way a blind person can

do this job. This is one of those foolish `everybody's-equal' things that goes overboard.

I know this job, and I couldn't do it if I were blind!

Of course you couldn't. You haven't had training in blind techniques. However, an

executive secretary we know, a woman who is totally blind, has worked very successfully

for several different companies in Colorado, Maryland, and Missouri. She is consistently

rated "outstanding" on her performance reviews. Currently she is working as a

medical transcriptionist for a firm which has a standing offer to her to locate more blind

persons with her skills. Here is what she and others like her told JOB about a few of

their non-visual techniques:

Airline Tickets

Mrs. H: I call our travel agency to order tickets and set up the car rentals. When the

tickets arrive by messenger, if there are only one or two, I ask the messenger to read the

important data to me while I compare it to my Braille notes. If there are multiple tickets

or complications, I go over the data with my reader.

For UPS, Postal Express, flower shop deliveries, or such, I'll usually ask the

messenger to identify the recipient of the package before I'll sign any receipt form. Then

I use common sense and company policy to decide how fast to deliver the package to the

correct staff member.

Typing Letters, Memos, and Reports

Mrs. H: It varies. I can work from direct dictation using my portable notetaker

keyboard or type directly on my office computer or take down Braille shorthand or—my

favorite method— work from dictaphone tapes. With dictaphone tapes, my boss's

thinking time and revisions won't slow me down.

I have no problem filling out pre-printed forms after I make myself a Braille template,

but it's more efficient to fill out forms on the computer.

Proofreading

Mrs. H: I'm a good typist, so I usually know when I've hit a wrong key. Spellcheck

helps, of course. Then, with my voice-output device attached to my office computer, I can

listen to it read back to me what I have typed: either word-by-word or letter-by-letter.

If I type "The" it can say, "Capital-T-h-e-space" and so on. Beyond

that, my office has always required that a second person proofread whatever the first

person types before the material leaves our office. In every office I've worked in, my

boss proofreads my copy before signing it. I expect my bosses to be just as hard on my

errors as they would with any other staff person; and, I am glad to say, I miss very few

errors.

Filing Papers

Miss L: I always preserve the print marking systems used in my office because others in

the office are print-dependent. For myself I keep looking for techniques that work to

maximize my liberation from print.

Remember the "80-20 Rule"? It generally works out that only 20 percent of

something is the essential part that is used most often. For example, in most offices only

20 percent of your files at any one time are in constant use. Those are the files I, as

the secretary, will label. If my boss asks me to retrieve the letter she received from

John Smith on May 8 last year, I can retrieve it in less than four minutes. If the file is

from before I began work here, I will ask the other secretary to retrieve it. We often

help each other out.

For the files I keep in my office, I Braille the folder's name on 3-by-5 cards, then

staple the card upside down on the back of the folder label area (or consistently on some

other chosen spot on the back of the folder).

Mrs. G: The card is upside down because fingers will easily curl over the top of the

file to the back of the label. It just doesn't work to staple the Braille label to the

front.

Mr. B: I put Braille labels on the front tab of file folders, but only 2 or 3 words

will fit. Occasionally I Braille words on a product called Dymotape, which is a clear,

plastic, half-inch-wide tape with a sticky back. Print labels can be read underneath the

plastic Braille dots. The tape sticks on metal cabinets, paper folders, and plastic report

covers. I place Braille Dymotape labels on the vertical file drawers too.

I like to open a file in my computer which lists the names and contents of each folder.

For "hot" files that I use a lot, I may place a sheet inside at the front of

each folder which lists the folder's contents in Braille.

[Sidebar] It is our belief that equal opportunity is the opportunity to succeed or to

fail based on one's own efforts, not society's preconceptions. This applies to the hiring

process and the job itself. Equality is supported by the flexibility of the employer and

of the employee to use reasonable accommodation for some of the tasks that would otherwise

be done with a sighted technique. [End sidebar]

Businesswoman: How will he know what the print says so that he can Braille the label

correctly?

When Is a Sighted Reader Needed?

Mrs. H: Good question! Sometimes there is no cheap substitute or any substitute for

sight. A blind friend of mine calls mystery print items "UPOs" for Unidentified

Print Objects. We will need some print read to us by what we call a reader before we can

apply these blind techniques, but less often than the sighted would think.

Mrs. G: What a lot of employers don't grasp when blind persons apply for office jobs is

that this is not always and necessarily a monstrous, time-consuming, and expensive

proposition. Where there is a will, there is often a way. My alternative techniques for a

variety of office jobs have not led to more expense for my company than is received back

in value from my work.

Dr. A: (This blind university professor uses the same practical method for dealing with

"UPOs" that is used by many blind secretaries.) Usually our first task is

sorting what needs to be attended to quickly, what can wait, and what is junk and is going

to be thrown out summarily. Anything I'm not going to attend to immediately or anything

that I think I'll need to find myself, I try to label in Braille.

Miss L: I Braille and type locator numbers on 3-by-5 cards. My reader takes them, a

tape recorder, and a stack of print documents (letters, airplane tickets, incoming mail,

staff memos, reports) to the conference room each morning. As she reads into the tape

recorder the information I need off each document, she will affix one card to each item

and use that number as the key to each of her descriptions.

Mrs. G: It's different when I start a new job than it is later when I have it set up.

At first I will likely use some additional time outside of regular office hours, in the

evenings or on weekends, to label files I inherit and to work out my systems. Once I have

my plan in place, I batch my reading tasks. It's best to schedule my reader at the same

time each day. The goal is to function more independently but also to make efficient use

of my time. This means that occasionally I will need more reading help, and sometimes I

will need less.

If the boss wants a file that I cannot find, I have her permission to request help from

a sighted co-worker. This same co-worker will read any mystery print messages that I find

dropped on my desk after lunch or breaks. This takes very little of her time. There is no

resentment because I often take messages for her and assist her in other ways.

Who Hires the Reader? For How Many Hours of Work?

JOB: This is not set in stone (or in law). In many cases a sighted clerk in the office

is assigned a set number of hours for the provision of reading assistance to the blind

secretary. In others a part-time worker is hired by the employer for minimum wage and no

benefits. In other cases the blind office worker will pay for her own readers. Generally,

the higher on the pay scale a blind person works, the more reader time will be supplied by

the company. Blind adults who use readers know how to train someone to do this job. In

general it is best to give the blind person veto power over who the reader will be,

because not everyone who can read will do a good, efficient job reading aloud.

The Blind Receptionist, A True Story

Last summer, as part of her training while learning to handle her blindness at a

special summer camp, a totally blind high school girl was placed as a part-time (unpaid,

work-study) receptionist on the front desk for a large retirement center and nursing home.

As a reader read the print, she Brailled the complete list of telephone extensions the

night before she started her job. She memorized the names and extension numbers of nearly

all twenty staff persons as she Brailled them. In her first four-hour shift, she learned

to run the five-line switchboard plus the fax machine.

By Brailling incoming messages, she always read the right message to the correct

person. She kept track of who was in or out with Braille notes. She used a typewriter to

type print copies of messages when necessary and delivered them to the correct staff

mailboxes thanks to her Braille nameplates. When she heard the fax machine delivering a

message, she'd retrieve it. She'd ask the first staff person passing the switchboard to

read whose name was on the fax; then she'd deliver the fax.

Her excellent telephone manners, promptness, and efficiency in getting messages to

staff and residents (through paging, voice mail, or paper messages) were joined to her

blind techniques, her common sense, and her positive, pleasant personality. She did so

well that when one of the home's sighted receptionists quit, the home hired her at the

standard salary through the rest of the summer.

What Else Can Your Blind Secretary Do?

Create flowcharts

Greet important visitors

Straighten and clean reception areas

Maintain the office calendar

Set appointments

Make coffee and serve refreshments to guests

Set up a booth at a trade fair and hawk the products

Write copy for a newsletter, and include pictures or

illustrations

Teach office routines to new staff

Give directions to meeting rooms and offices

Use a computer to create good layout for a newsletter

Follow-up on supply orders with sellers

Set up conference rooms for meetings

Handle petty cash

Supervise volunteers

Use high-speed copiers

Use the fax machine

Be enthusiastic about working

Be reliable, dependable, and prompt

Much, much more

What Can Your Blind Secretary Not Do?

Drive, but non-drivers can hire drivers or use public transportation.

Transcribe handwritten material, but typed or printed material can be scanned into a

computer which is accessible to your secretary.

All of us have areas of greater strength and of weakness. In addition to this

variation, some blind persons have no sight, while others have enough sight that they will

use it for some office tasks. Do all of your sighted secretaries do all of your tasks

equally well?

The Bottom Line

Why is hiring a competent blind secretary a logical way to do business? The best

secretaries are able to think. Office skills are only part of what's needed. Beyond that,

you surely hope to find common sense, a talent for efficiency, some physical endurance, a

pleasant personality, a sense of humor, flexibility, and ingenuity. These abilities are

independent of sight or lack of sight. If the best candidate to apply for your position is

blind while the other less-well-trained candidates are sighted, you will still have the

best deal for your money, even after you include the cost of a reader and any other

adaptations. (Other adaptations may include a voice-output device to make the office

computer system accessible.) Any boss who has hired secretaries knows a good one is worth

a degree of flexibility on the part of the business. We encourage you to apply that

flexibility to the consideration of blind candidates.

For specific questions related to work and blindness, call JOB at 800-638-7518 (12:30

to 5:00 p.m., ET). Job Opportunities for the Blind (JOB) is a joint project of the

National Federation of the Blind and the U.S. Department of Labor.