This is being provided in a rough-draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.
NIKKI: Welcome, everyone, to our "Where the Blind Work" webinar where we highlight blind professionals working in a variety of fields. And tonight we have the opportunity to speak with some folks working in government, advocacy and policy, and those who provide front line services for the federal government. Just a few housekeeping rules before we get started. For those who want to access captions, they are available in Zoom. There is also the 1capapp link put in the chat, so feel free to access that, and you can engage the captions at your own pace.
Also, questions there will be a questions and answers portion at the end, if there is time. But if there is not, we encourage that you send all of your questions to [email protected] . We will review your questions and get the answers back to you. So with that being said, let's jump right into our webinar and get to know our panelists. So our first panelist today is Chris Kuczynski, who works for the Access Board as general counsel in Washington, D.C. And I'm going to turn it over to you, Chris.
CHRIS: Thank you very much. Good evening, everyone. It's great to be here and to talk about the kind I love talking about the work that I do. It's very rewarding work and I think that's one of the great things about working in government service, in public service, is how mission focused many of the agencies are and many of the people who work in those agencies are. And we certainly have a very unique and important mission at the Access Board. I want to tell you a little bit about what we do, because I feel like a lot of people do not know about our agency and the important work that we do. And then I want to talk about the role that the Office of General Counsel, my office, plays in the work of the Access Board. The Access Board is what one would refer to as a microagency within the federal government. It's a very small independent agency. At most it has about 30 full time employees. So I remember being at my previous agency, worked for over 22 years at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission where we had nearly 3,000 employees, and people would refer to that as a small agency. But there is no comparison in terms of the size of the EEOC at 3,000 employees to our agency of only 30 full time employees.
We also have a governing board of 25 members. Thirteen of those members are what are called special government employees. They're members of the public who are appointed to the board by the president, who serve four year terms on the Access Board, and the other 12 members of the governing board are representatives of cabinet level agencies, as well as the U.S. Postal Service and the General Services Administration. We were established in 1973. Initially our role was to enforce the Architectural Barriers Act, and the Architectural Barriers Act is a law that requires that federal facilities and other facilities constructed with federal funds be readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities. So this was the first law passed in 1968 that required physical accessibility of federal facilities and certain federally funded facilities. But at the time, 1968, there was really no enforcement. There was no way of making sure that agencies complied with accessibility standards, and there really wasn't much as well in the way of accessibility standards. So the Access Board was established under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Many of you may know Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and maybe Section 508 that deals with information and communication technology. You might not know about Section 502, which is what established the Access Board and established its membership. Both the federal members and the public members.
And originally it was designed as a coordinating body initially for to make sure that federal agencies were complying with their obligations to make their facilities accessible. We were given enforcement authority. So under the Architectural Barriers Act, people, whether they are federal employees or members of the public, whether they have disabilities or whether they don't, and whether they tell us who they are or they don't, can file complaints with us about architectural barriers in federal facilities and certain federally funded facilities. We take those complaints and we process them and determine whether we have jurisdiction under the Architectural Barriers Act, and if we do, we have an investigation, contact the agency, and have the agency remediate the barriers. We usually do that through a process of voluntary compliance, working with agencies, many of whom are our federal partners on the Access Board itself. So many of the agencies that we encounter in our ABA complaints have representatives on the Access Board.
But over time we had other responsibilities given to us that are equally important and in many respects are more visible than the ABA enforcement work that we do. We issue standards and guidelines for the accessibility of the built environment. So facilities that are covered by not only the Architectural Barriers Act, but we also issue guidelines most importantly probably under the Americans with Disabilities Act, under Title II that applies to state and local governments and under Title 3 that applies to private places of public accommodation. So those guidelines on physical accessibility of those facilities are then adopted by agencies like the Department of Justice and the Department of Transportation, because we also cover transit certain transit vehicles, accessibility of certain transit vehicles, and our ABA standards are adopted for federal agencies, the postal service, the General Services Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Defense. So in order to become enforceable standards, our guidelines for physical accessibility have to be adopted as enforceable standards by other federal agencies. But they have to adopt standards that are at least as accessible as what the Access Board issues. So our guidelines are very important, because they basically set the standards that enforcement agencies have to comply with.
The other thing we do is issue standards for the accessibility of information and communication technology under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. We have a robust and those 508 standards are enforceable standards when we adopt them. They are not required to be adopted by enforcement agencies in order to be binding standards. And we most recently updated those standards in 2017.
So enforcement of the Architectural Barriers Act, issuance of guidelines for the accessibility of the physical environment, buildings and facilities, and adopting standards for online accessibility and information and communication technology that the federal government uses under Section 508. So any information communication technology that the federal government purchases, maintains or uses is subject to Section 508, and our standards determine what is accessible.
What my office does, the Office of General Counsel, and I'm sort of the lead attorney for the agency in charge of all the legal matters that we deal with. We are responsible for working with technical experts within the Access Board to write the standards and guidelines that the Access Board issues. Our office is responsible for enforcing the Architectural Barriers Act. We also do a number of things in the Office of General Counsel that a general counsel's office does in any kind of federal agency. For example, we deal with Privacy Act issues, Freedom of Information Act requests. We deal with ethics issues. So issues that come up where conflicts of interest might possibly be presented by work that other employees or board members are doing outside of the Access Board. Sometimes they raise issues, you know, can I be working on this project? Does this conflict with something that I have an obligation to do as an employee or as a board member for the Access Board. So we handle lots of questions about ethics issues. We hand a lot of questions about just handle a lot of questions just how the board operates, how it conducts meetings, how it you know, managing is bylaws of the organization, which we have recently revised. So we provide advice on fiscal issues, legal advice on fiscal issues, can we purchase this, can we enter into this type of agreement. So any kind of legal advice. We deal with EEO matters, and we do have some. We have very few employees, and we hope that those kind of matters don't come up, but they do present themselves sometimes. So we deal with EEO and HR matters. We deal with all the policies, reviewing them for legal sufficiency and often drafting them, operational policies for the agency.
So we do everything that a general counsel's office would do, except we do it with about three or four people, because we're such a tiny agency. This is great, great work. It is, like I said, very mission focused, the work that we do. I first and foremost consider myself a civil rights lawyer and always have. I worked with the Access Board, I have previously worked with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on EEO issues, particularly under Title I of the ADA, and I've worked on issues involving access to places of public accommodation and government services and activities for over three years when I first came to the federal government, when I worked for the Department of Justice. So in a way, this job is coming almost full circle from what I did at DOJ, and it's really wonderful work in an environment with great colleagues and work that we can really be proud of and that has always been the kind of work I grew up when the Rehabilitation Act was just passed, and it was the first time that even as a nine or ten year old kid, 1973, '74, I realized that whatever it meant, I had rights as a person with a disability that I never had before. And that has really driven a lot of my work and what I have wanted to do in my work on issues affecting people with disabilities and their access to employment and to all aspects of social and economic life. So, it's important work, it's great work, it's work I love to talk about. And I will hand it off to our moderator or to our next speaker, whichever is appropriate. And I look forward to the questions.
NIKKI: Thank you so much, Chris. And now we'll move over to our next panelist, Ronza Othman, who works as the director of EEO compliance for Medicaid and Medicare services for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. And that is a mouthful. Passing it over to you, Ronza.
RONZA: Awesome, thank you. Hello, everybody! It's lovely to be here with you today. There is a saying in government that the more important you are, the shorter your title. You know... ha, president, secretary... right? And then when you get to those of us who are embedded, we have these long titles with lots of different things. So Nikki just read my title and that tells you where I sit. I'm at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is one of the larger federal agencies. We have about 90,000 employees, another 100 or so thousand federal contractors. My sub agency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has about 7,000 employees and about 30,000 contractors, so we're smaller, but still pretty big. The federal government is the largest employer in the world, and so it's a great place to work. My particular agency, CMS, we manage Medicare, Medicaid, the children's health insurance program, and the marketplace, which many people call Obamacare. We're responsible for roughly 30% of the U.S. economy. Literally.
These are huge programs. We regulate all hospitals, long term care, nursing and long term care facilities, pharmacies, rehabilitation facilities, etc., etc. So anything in the healthcare field that accepts Medicare, Medicaid, or CHIP, our agency is going to be overseeing and regulating those entities and making sure that they are safe and making sure they are abiding by the laws that apply to them so that you are safe. I serve as the employment discrimination and civil rights programs manager. Essentially I'm an attorney. I supervise attorneys and others who work on implementing these programs, both in the internal employment discrimination or EEO arena, and the external civil rights space. We deal with both employees of our agency and members of the public. Our employee base, I told you, roughly 7,000, plus contractor cadre, but members of the public, the community we serve is about 150 million people in the United States. Beneficiaries, recipients and consumers. Medicare beneficiaries, Medicaid recipients, and Marketplace consumers.
In my job I also manage our agency's language access program that is to ensure that individuals who are interacting with our agency, and those who receive federal funds, so entities that receive federal funds, are able to access information and provide information in native languages other than English, for those who are limited English proficient. Also, in that same vein, we are responsible for managing the civil rights programs and overseeing discrimination when an individual fails to communicate effectively with individuals with disabilities using the communication mechanisms and our platform that is accessible to them.
And then, of course, I manage the anti discrimination program for employees, which Chris referenced. He referenced EEO and it's my job to manage that program as well for my agency. In my job, I am writing and reviewing policies, final rules and other materials. I get to work on things like the 504 regulations, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act regulations and things like that that maybe come out of EEOC or other agencies, or some come out of our own agency, I have a hand in getting to write some of the stuff, and also having to review and revise with work teams, some of the stuff. If you like it, then we're responsible for it. If you don't like it, then somebody else wrote it. Just so you know.
I personally supervise about 50 people. Some of whom supervise other people. I report to a manager who reports to the head of my agency, who reports to the president of the United States. And so I am three degrees of separation from the president of the United States. Which is not all it's cracked up to be... (chuckling), because there are a lot of us in this role, in this spot. I also manage as a collateral duty in government. There's a lieutenant of people who work on a particular job, they hire us to be attorneys and they give us other stuff in our portfolio and say, hey, do this too. And it might not be directly related to what you're doing, but it's a collateral duty, so some of your time you're going to spend on it. I manage some reasonable accommodation programs. For example, I oversee and supervise the Reader Scribe Program for my agency and the program that provides direct services to employees with disabilities, such as notetakers, reader scribes, and those who provide assistance for mobility, ambulation, manual dexterity challenges, among other things.
I manage contracts for my agency. Like the ones I just talked about. But I also manage language access programs. I also manage job and organizational career coaching and manage anti harassment contracts, database contracts, you know, I currently am directly responsible for seven contracts as the person who manages them day to day and then I also oversee everybody in my office who manages contracts. So this is roughly a budget of 30 million annually. So I am responsible for your tax dollars to the extent of roughly 30 million annually. I promise, I'm spending it wisely.
I've been in my agency for 14 years. I've been working for the government for 16. And in this current role for 8 years. I've gotten to do some really interest things. I've gotten to work on refugee resettlement work. I've gotten to work on helping hurricane preparedness and response efforts. I've gotten to interact with the public. I've gotten to set up hospitals. I've gotten to, you know, do all kinds of things oh, the pandemic. My agency I got to work on pandemic policy, you know, figuring out, what are we doing? You know, how are we going to stop the spread? Do it in a way that is safe but also keeps the economy moving and running.
There are a lot of things that we do in government that people don't know that we're doing behind the scenes. The perception is that government is incredibly slow. Government moves at a slow pace because it's really big, but it also moves at a slow pace because it has to be really careful. There are a lot of consequences and downstream impacts to the things that government does. And so sometimes it takes a while for decisions to be made or decisions to be effectuated as a result.
In my job, my staff and I, we do legal research, writing. We conduct investigations. We set and implement policies. We draft decisions that have the full force and effect of a court. Our decisions are appealable. We negotiate settlements. We conduct mediations. And in general I like to say that I'm the lost luggage department. People come to me when they are unhappy. They come to me when they're having a really bad day. In the civil rights arena, you don't initiate a complaint, you don't file an EEO complaint or external civil rights complaint when things are going well. You go when you are really struggling, and particularly when talking about the disability community, but all other communities, when talking about protected communities, when, you know, race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability.
Most of the individuals who bring complaints have been problem solving for a long time and trying to fix it themselves, or they don't want to rock the boat. If they come to me, it's their worst day in EEO arena, it's the worst day of their career. And so I am lucky enough to be able to be part of that journey for them, and hopefully, if they come to me and they interact with my staff and me, then we get to help make tomorrow a better day than today. We are essentially conflict managers. People come to us when they're really unhappy and angry, and hopefully if all goes well, we can get them through a process that will adjudicate their concerns, and if we're lucky and successful, resolve their concerns before it has to become litigation.
My job also focuses on access and equity for those with whom we interact. I love what I do. Because I get to help people engage with their government. And as I said, today might be the worst day of their career or might be one of the worst days in their interaction with their government, if they're a member of the public, but hopefully my staff and I, we're table to get them access we're able to get them access or help them get what they need or help them understand what they need what they're asking for isn't possible. Whatever the case may be. So that tomorrow they're able to interact with their government or their employer, depending on, you know, whether they're public or private whether they're employees or not, they can have a better day and they can move on and do the things they need to do.
In my spare time... right? So this is my paid job. In my spare time I serve as the president of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland, which is a fabulous affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind. And I'm also the president of the National Association of Blind Lawyers, but for your purposes, I am also the president of the National Association of Blind Government Employees, and since tonight is about where the blind work in government, I would urge any of you here who would be interested in learning more about government work after today or interacting with other government employees to join the division, join our listserv, you can search for blind gov on Google and we would be happy to have you. Thank you so much, and I'm handing it back over to Nikki.
NIKKI: Thank you so much, Ronza, for sharing about all of the important work that you are doing. And now we're going to move to our final panelist... Tracey Hall Hennigan, who works as a Braille technician for Social Security Administration. Handing it over to you, Tracey.
TRACEY: Good evening, everyone. As Nikki said, I'm a Braille technician for the Social Security Administration. I have been with the agency since 2003. So I just came up on my 21st year. I work under the component of budget, finance and management, and the publishing and alternative media services team. I am one of two Braille technicians for SSA nationwide. I am responsible for processing, reviewing, and approving all final Braille, large print, and audio CD print requisition orders for the agency.
We advise SSA employees on guidelines for converting print to Braille.
To perform my job on a daily basis, I operate a laptop computer with Duxbury Braille translation software, a program that converts print material into Braille. I use Microsoft Office suite and Adobe Acrobat. I use a focus Braille display, two Braille embossers 450, and the 450 represent it Brailles out 450 characters per second. Excuse me. And these embossers are used because we do high volume Braille embossing, and I use a burster that separates the pages after embossing. We translate a variety of publications, pamphlets, materials, legal letters, instructional materials from various formats into Braille for blind and visually impaired beneficiaries, and SSA employees, with the exception of Braille notices that is sent to beneficiaries. That particular job is done through a different office.
We review and edit the government publishing office contract for alternative media services team for outside vendors. We proofread over 20 contracted publications and provide approval for the vendor to move forward with production for embossing and printing alternative media these publications are contracted outside due to their complexity, graphic tables and charts and high volume. We receive calls concerning the process of publishing publications request orders from beneficiaries, advocacy groups, and SSA offices nationwide. We advise callers on issues concerning document process and alternative media as well as submitting pinpoint requests from in house, converting and translating PowerPoint and PDF presentations for SSA components. We create Braille overlays for awards and certificates, Braille programs and agendas for special projects and programs for SSA components, SSA regions, and field offices, and advisory councils.
We review and translate legal forms, letters, to Braille or large print for the Office of the General Counsel and the Office for Civil Rights and equal opportunity. We fulfill requested orders that is received through On Track. On Track is our workflow management system used to process and track all of the agency's printing requisitions. Before COVID, we embossed over 10,000 Braille overlays for the SSA field offices and regions for the kiosk machines. We coordinated and presented cross component workshops to over 100 employees from our component, introduced them to the process for alternative media services. In the past several years, we have conducted over 10 training workshops. We review the Social Security Express Self help personal computer assistance technology user guide home screen document for Braille and large print clarification and approval on the format.
We embossed over 5,000 copies of this document for the field offices and the regions. In 2019, I had the opportunity to participate in a in the branch out program, which was sponsored by the budget finance and management. It's a staff development program which provides three to four developmental assignments to help participants sharpen existing skills and develop new ones. The program lasts up to 18 months, depending on the rotational assignment selected. Employees must be in career status and full time work schedule. My first rotational program was with the Office of Hearings Operation, which started in May of 2019. I provided legal and technical support to all administrative staff, legal administrative specialists, and hearing customer service specialists in processing of entitlement cases, according to Title II and Title 16 of the Social Security Act.
I selected pertinent exhibits and included them in the appropriate sections of clients' electronic files, the eFile, EF file. Assisted with front desk duties that entail answering the phone, directing calls to the appropriate staff, reviewed incoming faxes and placing them in the appropriate boxes. Collected medical and non medical evidence, and distribute to the designated legal administrative staff. On a daily basis, I process at least 100 medical records, legal documents received through the mail and scan them into each individual electronic file.
I worked on the SSA Office of Hearings Operations case control system, applying the policies and provisions of Title II and title XVI of the social security disability process. And during this time I was also able to assist my home component with excuse me with assisting my home component and processing over 2,000 alternative media requests orders, and how we did that, after work we went back to our home location and sometimes we worked weekends in order to get the job done, because there was only two of us in the office at the time, so there was no other Braille technician at that particular time. And the orders had to go out.
My second rotation assignment was with the Office of Civil Rights and equal opportunity, center of claims, resolutions team. My position there was a management analyst, responsible for the receipt of approximately 100 incoming reports of investigations, ROI, from contractors. We uploaded the documents to the image drive and updated the iComplaint system with the ROI received events. We forward the cases to the appropriate EEO specialist to process. We ensured timely processing within one to two days to adhere to strict deadlines. Responsible for checking the ROI receipt mailbox for UPS receipts daily pup uploaded iComplaint systems with the proper events ROI received, and cleared the mailbox of all process received. And there are a few other things that we have done there, but for time consideration, I'm just going to move to the next rotation.
My next rotation, which was my last rotation was with the Office of Strategic Learning and Workforce Development Center for Career and Professional Development, SSA Mentoring Program. My position there was a human resource specialist. SSA national mentoring program review, monitored and maintained the SSA mentoring outlook mailbox, respond to inquiries from mentees, mentors, and professional coordinators; withdrew mentors and mentees from the SMP program. And the reason for withdrawing them, either they decided they didn't want to be in the program or they did not fulfill the requirements for the program.
Responsible for at least 50 mentees to assist with mentor matching in a timely manner. And what I mean by that is that there was a database of mentors, and mentees, and according to what the mentee was asking for or had in their action plan, it would coincide with a mentor. And once you put their name in, a list of mentors will come up. They have about 10 choices to choose from. So that's what I mean by matching them up with a mentor.
NIKKI: Thank you so much, Ms. Tracey, and just in the interest of time, because everything that you all are sharing is so interesting, but I really want to get into some questions, so that way we can dig into what you do just a bit more.
TRACEY: Uh huh.
NIKKI: So with that being said, I have some questions for you all. And, Tracey, it's a great transition, because you actually spoke to some of the tools that you used to do your job, and you all all three of you all do so much, but how do you do your job? Like what access tech and what alternative techniques are each of you all using to do your job on an everyday basis? And whoever wants to take that question first. You can go ahead and answer.
CHRIS: I'm happy to jump in. This is Chris. I use primarily JAWS for as a screen reader program. And Focus 80 Braille display. I do not use a reader. I have had a reader in the past when I was in my first federal well, when I was working in the private sector at a law firm initially, and then when I worked at the Department of Justice, I did have a reader. At that time I started the practice of law in 1989. To give you a sense of my age. Which I don't care if anybody knows. And at that time you know, things there were we were transitioning to a much more electronic environment and online environment, but the bulk of what you handled was still in paper form. It's not like that anymore. There are research databases for lawyers that are online, most lawyers do their research, most if not all of it, online.
Documents are now, you know, exchanged in electronic format, be they Word documents, which is typically what we're working with, or PDF documents. PDF documents are not always accessible, but I will tell you that we are very sensitive at the Access Board to this issue of accessibility of documents because of our mission, because we are the agency that promulgates the Section 508 standards. So all of the PDFs that the government is using are supposed to, in theory, be accessible. And when we have something that comes across the Access Board that is not accessible, someone is able to remediate and make those documents usually accessible. So including, by the way, one of my attorneys, who has become something of an expert at remediating PDFs. So it's really mostly JAWS and a Braille display are my primary tools.
NIKKI: Thank you, Chris.
RONZA: This is Ronza. I am a JAWS user primarily. So I would say that that's probably the most powerful tool I have. But I also have a Braille embosser in my office. I don't have a Braille display, because my Braille is I'm a functional Braille user, I'm not a literary Braille user. But I also use I do use a human reader and a visual interpreter for my work, both sort of to help me with keyboarding and mousing when I'm dealing with inaccessible technology, because it is there. It exists. And as much as we would love for it to be to go away, it seems like it's getting worse, not better, in terms of inaccessible systems. So I do use a human reader. I also use IRA as a reasonable accommodation, so I have a portable pocket way for visual interpreting and support with keyboarding and mousing when I can't myself. My agency has also given me a wayfinding app as a reasonable accommodation. So I use a Victor Trek I'm sorry, the Breeze. And I have to travel a lot. So I go to parts you know, my agency is all over the country. Medicaid is all over the country, so I go all over the country sometimes. And so I have reasonable accommodations related to travel. I can take a reader with me if I want, or I can use IRA in airports and so forth. But I also have probably one of the most useful accommodations is I have transportation support as a reasonable accommodation.
Because how hard is it to get to where you need to go when you're trying to go somewhere rural and you are a blind person and you can't just jump in a car and drive yourself. And so my agency provides sedan service where they will pick me up and the company we use will take me where I need to go and then bring me back. I do have a CCTV. I use it on occasion. I do have some other technology and software that I use, for example, we are still required to accept things on paper, so there is an application that we use that when a document is scanned and it's not accessible, it will remediate it. There is an application we use that, believe it or not, when people are sharing their PowerPoint presentations in Zoom and you can't read it if you are just using the screen reader, but there is technology now that it will translate it for you, so you can read it.
So a lot of technology, a lot of equipment. And then some policy modifications, you know, particularly during you know, when you're dealing with the pandemic situations, because I have to be in close proximity to my human reader and things along those lines. How do we make sure that we are both safe?
CHRIS: I just want to jump in really quickly because there were two things you mentioned that I forgot. One is less critical, but one is absolutely critical. And that is the thing that maybe is less critical is that I also use a CCTV. I don't use it much, because I handle a lot of documents electronically, but I might throw a piece of paper under there and, you know, get if it's something that is a short thing to read and for some reason it's in paper format, and maybe it's something I need to sign, that might be a situation where we have to sign something a wet signature for something.
The other thing that you mentioned is the Braille embosser, and I use it less now, because I do far less in the way of presentations than I used to do, but when I did maybe 25 or 30 presentations annually, when I was with EEOC, and did that for over 20 years, Braille was absolutely critical to me, and I could not imagine being able to do the job I did at EEOC, that was a very public facing job in which I did a lot of presentations, without the use of a Braille embosser. I've been a Braille reader since age 6 and I could not have imagined doing that job in any other way. I wouldn't have been able to do it. And so, you know, a big shout out to Braille and to the people who taught me and who knew from an early age that I needed it, even though I had, you know, some sight. So just wanted to mention that.
TRACEY: Totally forgot to mention JAWS. I use JAWS on a daily basis. As I said in my presentation, I use a Braille display. I use two Braille embossers. Sometimes just one. But if it's a large job and the document is pretty long, I use two embossers, so I don't put wear and tear on one embosser. Also, I have a reader assistant that I use for when we receive mail that comes in for requesting publications, and we have to put it into On Track, which is our workload workflow system. And also I use Kurzweil, and as I mentioned in my presentation, too, I use the Duxbury translation program. Did I leave anything out?
And also my reader, we use my reader assistant, when we do large print information, when we are enlarging the publications, we use the human reader. And other things they do as well. Sometimes when publications come in, the person that created that publication might have put in some hidden codes. Other things that is not picked up by JAWS, so I use the reader for that as well. And that's it.
NIKKI: Thank you, all, for sharing about all of the access tech and alternative technique that is you use to do your job every day, especially all the love and celebration for Braille. And January is all about World Braille Month. So that's it's fitting that, you know, we're having this conversation during this month and highlighting Braille as an important tool to use on the job. So I have one more question for you all, just because we are running up on our time, but if you had to address one misconception around blind people in the employment space, so blind people working, what would it be? And anyone can answer that.
CHRIS: I have not run into this in the positions that I have had in the federal government, because in each of them, having a disability, because of the focus of the job, was actually an asset. And so maybe that's one thing I would say, is that whatever job you are in, whether it's focused on issues related to disability or not, you know, to state it positively, the disability is a value. The disability does not blindness does not, specifically, stand outside of the model of diversity that we have, and it's not something just to be accommodated. It's something to be valued for its own sake because we as individuals who are blind contribute to our workplace in the same kind of positive ways that other diverse groups do. And so I would say maybe that's one misconception, is that I don't think it's always articulated this way, but the disability is somehow different and that blindness is somehow different from other kinds of factors that make for a diverse work you know, make for a positive factors that make for a diverse workforce, that it should be part of this model of equity and inclusion.
TRACEY: I wanted to say that some of the misconceptions that I have seen since I have been at the agency, especially when I first started, there were other blind individuals that were working in my component prior to me coming. So my supervisor and other employees only had one thought about blind people, and it was it was negative. But when I came on board and they saw different, they actually said to me, oh, I thought all blind people did that. And one of the things was, is the way you carry yourself, how you dress, how you keep yourself up to par. Even as far as when you are eating your lunch, you know, people watch you and see what you do, and this one particular person, something dropped on the floor and I hate to say this, but it dropped on the floor and they picked it up and put it in their mouth. So prior to me coming, they thought that's what all blind people did. And I assured them that that was not true. You cannot judge all blind people that way. So it's how you carry yourself, how you present yourself, how you dress. I'm a stickler on dressing. I always like to dress as if each day I was being promoted to another job, to another position. And that's the way you want to be. You don't want to leave no negative thoughts in people's mind when you do negative things.
RONZA: So this is Ronza, and I think there are two misconceptions that I think that exists that I would address. First is that accommodating a person with a disability is expensive and that an employer couldn't afford it. That's not true. There is a fabulous resource called the Job Accommodation Network that provides free advice to employers and employees on reasonable accommodations, and the average reasonable accommodation most reasonable accommodations are no cost or low cost. Most reasonable accommodations are free. But the average reasonable accommodation read this, for a blind or low vision employee is less than 800 dollars, to get them what they need. We talked about embossers and we talked about other types of technology that is expensive, right? And, yes, sometimes the technology is expensive, but most times it won't be, what a person needs as a reasonable accommodation, if they're a person with a disability, it isn't very expensive. And the government can't make a decision about whether thou are going to provide a particular accommodation because of the cost, because you're looking at the overall budget of the agency. In my agency's case, 40% of the economy, so they're not going to be able to say "no" to my little JAWS program that is however much when they buy it for me.
The other misconception is around lowering production standards for people with disabilities, that an employer should expect that an employee with a disability, blindness or otherwise, can perform can only perform at a percentage of the speed or quality or volume of somebody without a disability. That is absolutely untrue. I don't know about Chris and Tracey, but I suspect they are right there with me. I read 800 words per minute, okay? The average sighted person reads between 2 and 300. And so there are and most blind people, when you speed up JAWS and things along those lines, you're reading at a faster rate than others, same with the Braille readers. And so it is absolutely a misconception that employers should expect a lower production standard for their employees with disabilities, and that is a misconception that I wish would just go away. Nikki.
NIKKI: Thank you for that. And thank you for providing entities such as the job access network and things of that nature, that employers can go to. Sometimes it's about knowing what is out there, and many times employers don't know. So, you know, leaving that piece of information I think is really important. And everything that you all address in regards to misconceptions and shattering those are important. So thank you all for the work that you are doing, and thank you all for joining us this evening for the webinar. Chris, Ronza, Tracey, we have learned a lot from you. Everything that you have given us has been super valuable, and I know folks are going to take this information and really start to dig in and work towards the employment goals that they have in front of them.
So, for folks who have questions, because, unfortunately, we do not have time for questions this webinar, but if you have a question that you just would like an answer to, you can email [email protected] and we will make sure that your question is answered.
And we definitely look forward to seeing you all for our next webinar, which will be held in April. Date and topic will be announced in the near future. So please, please stay tuned. We hope everyone has a great night and, again, thank you to our panelists and thank you to everyone for joining us for this webinar. Everyone have a great night!