Using the Skills of Blindness on the Job

Using the Skills of Blindness on the Job

Future Reflections Special Issue1989, Vol. 8 No. 4
(back) (contents) (next)
USING THE SKILLS OF BLINDNESS ON THE JOB
by Mrs. Mary Ellen Gabias
The following presentation was made at the joint
Parents of Blind Children and Job Opportunities
for the Blind (JOB) seminar held July 3,1989, at
the National Convention of the National Federation
of the Blind. Mrs. Gabias (formerly Miss
Reihing) was, at that time, the Assistant Director
of the JOB program.
Despite competition from three other fine
workshops also conducted at the NFB National
Convention on July third --a seminar for computer
beginners, a workshop for writers, and a
seminar on communication skills --over 200
people attended the "Butcher, Baker, Candlestick
Maker" Joint Confererence sponsored by the Parents Division and JOB. This was the first
such joint seminar, and it was well received by
parents, blind youth, and blind adults seeking
employment. The seminar speakers did an excellent
job of meshing the interests and concerns of
parents with those of blind job seekers.
The individuals described in the following
presentation are actually composites of several different
blind people which Mrs. Gabias had worked
with in her many years as Assistant Director of JOB.
Although the individuals are not real, the work
situations and the ways in which each individual
handles his or her duties are quite real and typical
of how competent blind people perform on the job.
JAMES DONAHUE, MACHINIST
Jim rises each morning at five. At six-thirty he
takes his white cane from a hook beside the door
and walks to the bus stop. During the ten minute
ride to work, he scans several articles in his
Braille edition of the "New York Times Weekly."
Since it's the beginning of a new pay period, a
coworker helps Jim find his time card. Jim quickly
puts one Braille cell at the top of the card. Now
he will locate his card in the rack independently.
Sometimes, if his slate isn't handy, Jim tears a
small V at the top of the card. This works well
most of the time, but the card gets more dogeared,
so he prefers marking it with the slate.
The morning whistle blows. Jim drops his
styrofoam coffee cup in the trash and hurries
from the lunch room, through a factory crowded
with machines, flats of material, and coworkers,
to his work station. There he leans his cane
against his work bench and picks up his Braille
micrometer.
Tolerances for machined parts must often be less
than one thousandths of an inch. A Braille
micrometer makes this sort of accuracy possible.
Talking calipers also help for some jobs. Earphones
make it easier to hear the synthesized
voice of the calipers over the din of the machine
shop.
Like all good machinists, Jim is extremely careful
of safety procedures. His turret lathe has safety
shut off switches like the ones on every other
electric device in the factory. He has not built any
special jigs because of blindness, but he does use
the jigs which have been created to speed production
for everyone in the plant.
The shop foreman comes over to read Jim the
spec sheets for the morning's work. Much of what
is to be done is familiar--no notes required. That
new part for the large aerospace company is different.
The foreman brings it over for Jim to
inspect. Jim jots quick notes as his foreman reads
to him from the spec sheet. After he's made a few
of the new parts, he will be able to toss those
notes, but there's no point in winging it without
a crib sheet when he doesn't have to.
It's lunch time, "Hey, Joe," Jim says to the
foreman, "I'm going to the corner for lunch. You
want anything?"
"Sounds good. My wife sent a sandwich, but I
think I'd rather have a Philly cheese steak with lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. By the time
tuna salad sits in a lunch box all morning it smells
like cat food. I'll pay you when you get back."
On his way out the door Jim falls in step with Dick
Johnston, another machinist. They talk about the
Detroit Pistons and Dick takes great pleasure in
reminding Jim just who bet on the Lakers. Jim is
glad he'd brought a twenty dollar bill with him this morning. Dick had bet him a chicken dinner
on that basketball championship.
The man behind the counter at the deli hands Jim
a five, a one, and some change. Jim quickly folds
the bills so that he can distinguish between them
later. "Dick, how much do you want to bet that
the Orioles fold in August?"
The afternoon's work is interrupted when the
plant manager calls a meeting to demonstrate the
new computerized equipment the company has
just received. Specifications for parts are entered
into the system; the computer automatically
repositions the machine. In effect, the computer
creates automated jigs. Potentially, fewer people
will be needed to do the same amount of work.
On the other hand, the company will be able to
increase the number of parts it produces. The
skills of the machinists will have to be upgraded
to make full use of the technology.
Jim looks at the new computer with some
trepidation. It appears to be a keyboard with a
computer screen. Jim wonders what it will take
to get voice output. If the basic computer is compatible
with MS-DOS, providing speech access
should be fairly straightforward. If not, it may be
necessary for an engineer to go into the system to
wire a speech synthesizer and to write a program
to make the speech function efficiently. Jim is
glad he can call on Job Opportunities for the
Blind. JOB can help him locate expert assistance
if he needs it.
JOAN JAHOOSKI, ADMINISTRATOR
Joan's work day begins officially at 8:30, but in
reality she starts working when her boss picks her
up in the morning. They've discovered that the
car ride to work is just about the only uninterrupted
planning session of the day.
At nine o'clock Joan's secretary brings in several
stacks of presorted incoming mail. They sit down
together and the secretary begins to read.
After each letter, Joan dictates instructions. She
has written "canned" responses to frequently
asked questions, but she tries to vary her opening
and closing paragraphs enough to personalize
each letter. Often she is confronted with new
questions. If she can, she dictates immediately to
the secretary.
If her response requires her to do research, she
takes notes on a Perkins Brailler and dictates her
answer later on a dictaphone.
Some of her mail is newsletters and some of it is
"junk" mail. She instructs her secretary to begin
by reading the table of contents. Once she has
picked articles she wants to read more closely,
Joan skims them by interrupting the reading to
say "skip." Her secretary jumps immediately to
the next paragraph. Joan sometimes instructs her
secretary to read only those items which are in
bold type, italics, or some other print style
designed to give emphasis.
By eleven, Joan has read through fifty pieces of
mail. Some will take more work; she has finished
with most.
With a sigh, she turns her attention to the
proposal for the new day care program for the
children of employees. Union contract negotiations
will begin soon, and she must have something
to present to the Board of Trustees so
management can offer a coherent benefits package.
She's
been gathering data for weeks now. She's
attended numerous employee relations meetings,
read dozens of reproofs of research on the
topic, and analyzed cost-benefit statistical
projections on her computer. Now she must synthesize mounds of data and condense it into a one
page summary for the Board.
She turns to her computer, grabs the rough
Braille outline she's developed, and begins
typing. Thank goodness for word processors. The
final document which emerges after an hour's
effort is clear and concise, but it bears little
resemblance to the original outline. The Speaqualizer
connected to Joan's computer makes it
easy for her to review her work and to locate spots
where revisions are needed. She could certainly
work with her secretary to draft this one-page
synopsis, but Joan has discovered that it is more
efficient to craft precisely worded documents on
the computer.
Though it's possible for her to use the Speaqualizer
to proofread her own work, it is faster to
read it through for content and run a quick spell
check before taking the disk to her secretary to
be printed.
Joan's boss does all the proofreading for
everyone in the office. In fact, one of the few
unbreakable organizational rules is that final
proofing of any document must be done by someone
who had no hand in its creation. It's simply
too easy for someone who has helped write or
type a work to overlook errors in grammar, syntax,
spelling, or punctuation.
It's time for Joan to leave for the airport. She's
flying to Seattle to deliver a paper at a Business
and Professional Women's Conference. Her
Braille 'n Speak and four-track cassette recorder/player
fit neatly into a camera bag. Her
notes on the conference and on pending correspondence
nearly fill her briefcase. She will
have plenty of work to occupy her on the flight.
The taxi drops her at the terminal entrance where
she checks her suitcases. The nervous skycap
finally gives her directions, though he would have
preferred to take her to her gate in a wheelchair.
Joan is a frequent traveler, so she is familiar with the general layout of the airport. Since this flight
is one she has never taken before, she stops fellow
passengers to ask for directions.
"We'll preboard you," the gate agent informs
Joan.
"No, thanks, I'll board when my row's called."
Joan settles into her assigned seat and prepares
to go to work. Perhaps she can finish one section
of the budget justification she's submitting as
back-up data for her child care proposal.
"Honey, have you flown before?" The flight attendant
interrupts Joan's concentration.
"Innumerable times."
"I have to give you a special briefing. Do you
know how to fasten your seatbelt?"
"Yes, ma'am. I need you to tell me the row number
of the overwing emergency exit. That's the
only thing not covered in your standard briefing."
"Just a minute honey, I don't know. I'll have to go
check."
Before the flight attendant's return, Joan turns
on the Braille 'n Speak and begins work on the
budget document.
"The exits are at row nine and row eleven. What
is that you're holding?"
"A Braille laptop computer. I'm on a business trip
and have a deadline to meet, so I thought I'd work
on the plane. Thanks for the information."
The business women's conference is large
enough to fill several hotels. Joan strikes up a conversation with Cynthia, an insurance company
executive from Connecticut, while waiting
in a registration line. They take the conference
agenda into the coffee shop. Cynthia reads
descriptions of the concurrent workshops and the
two women discuss the relative merits of each
option.
The workshop at which Joan is giving her presentation
is well attended. She walks to the podium,
greets the audience, and begins speaking. The
podium has a small shelf which is perfect for
concealing Joan's 3X5 index cards with her
Braille notes on them. At the end of her talk,
several people congratulate Joan for her ability
to make such an organized presentation without
using notes.
TED STONESMAN, KINDERGARTEN
TEACHER
Ted rises each morning in time to make breakfast
for himself and to feed his golden retriever guide
dog. He packs today's class materials, which he
prepared last night, into a large satchel and walks
the five blocks to the elementary school where he
teaches.
He stops along the way to relieve his dog. From
the rounded position of the animal's back, Ted
knows he must pick up after the dog. He slips his
hand into a baggie and checks the ground where
the dog had been until he finds what he's looking
for. He picks it up in his covered hand, turns the
baggie inside out so that what it contains is completely
enclosed, and ties the mouth of the baggie
closed. Now it can be dropped in the nearest
public trash barrel.
Ted has twenty minutes to set up the classroom
before his students arrive. He arranges twenty
chairs in a circle. The first activity of the morning
is always a quiet game to get the children settled
down.
Ted says good morning to each child coming into
the room. When everyone is seated, Ted gives
each student a picture of a piece of fruit which he
has labeled in Braille on the back.
"Tony," he says as he hands a little boy a picture
of an apple, "What is the thing in this picture
called? Can you tell me what you do with it?"
"It's a apple, Mr. Stonesman. I eat the inside, but
the outside is yucky. My Mom peels it for me."
"Good. It's an apple, and some people like the
peel. Can any of the rest of you think of other
ways people eat apples?"
Each child says his or her own name to attract
Ted's attention. Ted calls on the volunteers to
start things off, but then he turns to the quieter
children and makes sure they get a chance, too.
After about ten minutes, Ted collects the pictures
and tells the children to gather around the
big work table in the back of the room. He's laid
out ingredients for making cupcakes. Each child
takes a turn adding an ingredient or stirring the
batter. Ted decides to handle filling the cupcake
papers himself; five- year- olds only believe they
can do all things. Ted dips a one eighth cup
measure into the batter and moves it carefully to
the lined muffin tin. This method minimizes
mess. The children have already done enough
with their vigorous stirring.
Once the cupcakes are in the oven in the home
economics room, Ted distributes pencils and
paper to the class. He goes to the blackboard and
prints a large letter M. He calls on each child by
name and asks for a word that begins with the
"mmm" sound. Then each child takes a few
minutes to write a line or two of M's.
After five or ten minutes of quiet writing, the
children begin to get restless. It's time for more
physical activity.
The kindergarten room has its own tiny
playground area which is separate from the space
used by the other grades. Ted lines the children
up and they walk to the playground. Ted uses his
white cane during recess. His dog is splendidly
trained, but golden retrievers find it practically
impossible to witness a ball being thrown without
wanting to fetch it.
Ted's guide dog will not be able to stay quietly
under the teacher's desk during the afternoon
session as it does in the morning. The animal is
endlessly patient with children and endures
sticky-fingered caresses stoically. However, one
child in the afternoon class seems to think that
dog ears and tails were meant to be pulled. For
several weeks Ted tried to keep naughty child
and patient dog separated, but now he simply
takes the animal to the teacher's lounge and
attaches its leash to the leg of a sofa there.
On the playground, Ted and the children bounce
balls and play "follow the leader."
It's time to retrieve the cupcakes from the home
economics room. Ted whistles for the children's
attention and calls roll as they line up to go back
into the building.
Ted has picked two class helpers for the day.
Each child gets a chance to be helper about once
every two weeks. The children know who has
been helper because each name is on a chart on
the wall. If a child does a good job helping, he or
she gets a gold star on the chart.
The helpers pass out the cupcakes which Ted has
taken from the oven. They also bring the milk
cartons from the machine down the hall.
The children line up at the sink and wash their
hands before eating their snack. After a trip to
the bathroom, the children get their quiet time
mats and spread out on the floor.
Ted picks a Twin Vision book from the bookshelf
and begins reading to the class. Every once in a
while he passes the book around so the children
can examine the pictures more closely.
Sometimes, during the lessons on letters, Ted
shows his students both the Braille and the print
letter. A few children have tried writing letters in
Braille on Ted's slate.
When quiet time is over, the children take
smocks from the cupboard and go bring their
chairs to the large work table. Ted distributes clay
to each child. Christmas is coming and the
children are making clay candy dishes with their
hand prints to give to their mothers.
Ted checks his Braille watch and ends the work
with the clay fifteen minutes before the bell rings
to end the morning session. The children need
time to get cleaned up to go home. Tomorrow
the children will paint the gifts they've made with
water colors.
As Ted says good-bye to each of his morning
students, his mind is racing ahead to the afternoon
session-twenty new children with twenty
entirely unique personalities.
DONNA BLAKE, STATE EMPLOYMENT
AGENCY COUNSELOR
Donna takes the subway to work each morning.
Fellow commuters are visibly shaken as she uses
her cane to find the edge of the platform. They're
even more nervous when she walks along the
platform near the edge. Her reasoning is simple.
If she stays near one edge of the platform, she can avoid benches, other obstacles and fellow passengers
in the middle. She has discovered this is
the quickest and the safest way to walk down a
crowded platform.
When the train pulls into the station, Donna
follows the side of the car until her cane finds an
opening. A quick sweep of the opening assures
her that it's a door, not the open space between
two cars.
The conductor calls stops, but Donna is sure that
muffled voice could not be saying English words.
It's a good thing she can recognize her stop by the
turn the train makes just before getting there.
Donna's "office" is divided from the work space
of her colleagues by four foot high partitions. The
state planners who built the building thought
such an arrangement would contribute to
flexibility and economy. It certainly doesn't contribute
to privacy.
This is Tuesday, so Donna will be spending her
morning interviewing clients and her afternoon
answering telephone inquiries from the public.
Each job seeker is handed registration forms by
the receptionist. When those forms are complete,
the applicant is assigned a number and
asked to wait to be called by a counselor. This
means that all the counselors get a random
caseload. In any given day, Donna may see
would-be janitors, secretaries, factory workers,
or sales representatives. A few clients are seeking
entry-level professional jobs.
The receptionist hands Donna the paperwork for
the first client of the morning. Donna takes the
forms back to her desk and looks them over using
her closed circuit TV magnifier. The applicant is
a woman who graduated from high school twelve
years ago, worked four years as a clerk/typist, and
has been without paid employment for eight
years. Donna can see that the handwriting is neat
and the spelling accurate. Donna takes her dymo
slate and labels the folder. This client will be her
responsibility, along with approximately one
hundred fifty others. It is quicker to find the right
folders by checking Braille labels than by taking
each folder and looking at it under the CCTV.
The applicant is personable, neat, and almost
totally lacking in word processing and other
modern office skills. She's trying to re-enter the
work force now that her youngest child is in
school, just as Donna had guessed. After they talk
for fifteen minutes, Donna remembers a job listing
for a file clerk position with a large company.
The job does not pay well, but the company has
an excellent employee training program. If this
job applicant is going to have a chance at a really
good job, she'll need to upgrade her skills.
Donna looks through her Braille index file of job
listings and finds the card with the summary of
this position, including its job number. She
switches her CCTV to computer mode and calls
up the job number on her terminal. She learns
that the vacancy is still open and that a basic
clerical test is required. Since the state employment
agency administers screening tests, Donna
sends the applicant to testing. If results are good,
as she suspects they will be, Donna will call the
employer and set up an interview for the applicant.
Donna
meets with five applicants this morning.
She is able to refer two to jobs. (One of the two
is hired. The other will call Donna daily for referrals
and will get a job within the week.) Donna
refers two applicants for job training programs.
The fifth applicant has no skills and only knows
that he wants to be paid at least twenty thousand
dollars a year. He will need more counseling than
Donna has the time to give him.
Armed with skills and confidence, these
blind people know they can compete on
basis of equality...
[PICTURE] in the factory...

[PICTURE] in the office...
[PICTURE] and in the classroom.

Donna and a friend from the office decide to
spend the lunch hour shopping. Donna carries a
set of swatches of material with her. These are
her colors. She will buy nothing which is not the
color of one of the swatches.
They browse through racks of blouses. Donna
can see colors fairly well, but she asks her friend
to back up her judgment.
Donna returns to the office with two new blouses
and a slightly blown budget. She doesn't have
much time to lament her extravagance. The
phone begins ringing as soon as she reaches her
desk.
Calls are varied. She handles general information
requests immediately. Job orders from
employers take a little more time. She must fill
out a computerized agency job order form. Her
CCTV enlarger helps, but she is glad that her
computer also has speech access. Sometimes it's
more accurate to use both. By the end of the day, when Donna's eyes are tired, the speech output
is a godsend.
Ah! four-thirty, Donna logs in her last call, picks
up her purse, cane, and new blouses, and heads
for the subway. Just as she's almost out the door,
the phone rings.
"Leave it, Donna," a coworker says as Donna
begins to answer. "The work day's over."
"I know, but I'm compulsive. Employment service,
may I help you?"
Donna's smile broadens as she listens. "Sounds
terrific! I'll meet you at 'Joseppi's'. After all, it's
not every night that a lady's husband offers to
take her to dinner AND a movie."
(back) (contents) (next)