[nabs] Employment and Technology Affordability (Philip So)

[Olivia Norman]

Thanks for the Apple Love, Joe!
Merry Christmas :)
"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower" Steve Jobs

On Dec 24, 2010, at 10:01 PM, Joe Orozco wrote:

> Vincent,
>  
> Excellent post.  I'm not sure that the Pedestrian Safety Act solved a problem that did not exist.  I've heard some of those quiet cars, or rather, I haven't heard them.  I rather appreciate some type of regulation to help us continue to be able to make out a vehicle while crossing intersections.  Otherwise, I think you raise some well-thought out ideas.  I myself drifted away from being active in any consumer group.  Some people have a passion to be advocates.  I have a passion to follow my own ambitions, but this isn't to say that I would not return to the front lines if it meant we were doing something concrete to understand and work on this issue of perpetual unemployment among blind individuals.  I think getting people into jobs will help us make a stronger statement to the adaptive venders with our dollars.  I give mad props to Apple for what they're doing with their products, but I should hope we are not confined to a single company.  I personally relish the opportunity to benefit from open source and hope that Apple will continue to serve as an excellent example of what can be done if the platforms naturally take blindness and other disabilities into consideration.
>  
> Best,
>  
> Joe
>  
> “Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all.”--Sam Ewing
>  
> 
> From: nabs-bounces at acb.org [mailto:nabs-bounces at acb.org] On Behalf Of Vincent Martin
> Sent: Friday, December 24, 2010 1:42 PM
> To: nabs at acb.org
> Subject: Re: [nabs] Employment and Technology Affordability (Philip So)
> 
> Hello:
> I have a friend that has just completed an initial study into this very subject as her senior research thesis for her Undergraduate degree in Sociology.  She presented it at the CSUN conference last year in San Diego It is her goal to continue with this research as a longitudinal study all the way towards receiving her Ph. D.  This has been an ongoing question, but never has truly been studied to the extent that some conclusions can be made.  What correlations can be defined and are the correlations significant enough to warrant calling them a "cause" or not? 
>  
> I am a retired Paralympian and we encountered the same question on a regular basis with developmental athletes.  Elite athletes could make the determination very quickly when we were evaluating new recruits, but the coaches could not.  We just knew if they had "it" or not.  We don't know exactly what "it" is, but we knew it when we saw it.  Was it drive, talent, a combination of both, or other factors.  I know Dr. James Mastro's Ph. D. dissertation was on the personalities of elite blind athletes, but that was a small sample.  There were similarities in almost everyone of the athletes that were surveyed though.
>  
> Although I work as rehabilitation research engineer/scientist and am pursuing a Ph. D. in Human Computer Interaction and Engineering psychology, I have been a teacher of assistive technology and have made modifications for twenty years now.  I have evaluated, trained, and setup and modified job sites for over 850 people.  Of the fifty or so, that I had to modify and set-up, there were similarities of the ones that made it.  Of the approximately 800 that I evaluated and trained in thirteen years of working in the classroom as well, I was almost 100 percent correct on who I thought would be successful.  This was normally determined before I did any evaluation using technology.  Just talking to the person during the intake, usually gave me enough insight into whether they were up to the challenge or not.  Of all my former students, there were only seven that surprised me.  Everything that was thrown at them and what was asked of them, they were able to master.  I even had one woman take my advice and quit smoking.  She used the money that was used on cigarettes to purchase her copy of JAWS.  I had a trio of three women, pool their money together to purchase a copy of JAWS.  As they saved more money, each was able to purchase their own copy and quite sharing authorization keys.  I have one former student that has competed his degree in Mathematics and is in graduate school.  he accepted my challenge, learned Braille, and has never looked back.
>  
> What are the relevant variable that make a person successful when they have something like a severe visual impairment holding them back?  Blindness is such a unique disability in our society, that overcoming the public stigma is a part of dealing with your own disability.  Do you do better in the society if you were born with some form of visual impairment or do you have a better chance if you lose it later in life?  I have seen very successful people who fit either description.
>  
> Do you do better as a low-vision person, who is able to "fake" it and not let people know that your vision is impaired, or do you embrace it and make the most of assistive technology and the ability to use that residual vision?
>  
> How much does your ability to interact with tee public effect your ability to be successful in your chosen profession?  Would you do better being educated in a segregated or mainstreamed school system?  Do you do better or have a better statistical chance of employment if you choose a traditional profession that blind people have chosen, or do you blaze your own trail and pursue whatever you are interested in?
>  
> All of this needs to be studied, and it needs to be scientifically studied.  These are just some of the variables that affect us.  When we don't evaluate the variables scientifically, we let our biases and ideology interfere.  The easiest example of this is what just occurred in congress.  We now have passed a pedestrian safety bill that effectively fixes a problem that did not exist!  The problem of "quiet" cars was only passed because the "poor little blind person" persona was portrayed.  The lab that I work in on my college campus does research into Sonification and human behavior.  No person that we asked could provide any data supporting any of the claims and we could not find any literature that supported it either.
>  
> My undergraduate degrees are in engineering and Psychology.  I have dealt with all types of work standards and methods that define all types of jobs.  In most cases, for a blind person to effectively compete in most job settings, they have to overcome all types of barriers set forth by the way the job has been designed.  In many cases, the blind person has to basically work faster and do more things, to be on the same work level.  Most people that I evaluated and attempted to train did not have the cognitive ability or dexterity necessary to do all the things necessary to compete.  I routinely got in trouble for saying that the person needed a better skill set in order to compete. 
>  
> So, as we continue to discuss these matters, we should think about what it actually entails to compete a task, because most people that I know that do their jobs that are sighted only can do it because they are sighted.  If they had to even remotely do it using our skills they would end up at home and depressed.
>  
>  
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