Dear Paul,
Thank you for your incisive and comprehensive editorial, entitled, “The Tyranny of Technology,” which appeared in a recent issue of “The Braille Forum.” We at the American Foundation for the Blind and many others in the field of visual impairment and blindness agree that precious little has been done by our field to ensure the continued growth of the number of qualified individuals who work as access technology specialists. We also agree that, nationally, there is no set of minimum training standards for a curriculum that can be used to instruct blind and visually impaired persons in the use of access technology and applications software. Finally, we agree that there is an evident and immediate need to develop a set of minimum competencies which access technology specialists must possess or acquire to effectively provide assessment, training, and job-site modifications.
The American Foundation for the Blind, in concert with many partners in the field of blindness and visual impairment, is currently endeavoring to find solutions to the problems you so eloquently outlined in your editorial. We believe that the problems we face today will only get worse as the labor market demand for technologically literate persons is growing and the demand for thorough training by blind and visually impaired consumers is increasing proportionately.
As we go around the country speaking to consumers, a consensus is growing about the kinds of training that are needed by blind and visually impaired persons who attend academic or job-training programs, work at a variety of jobs, or who are out there, currently job hunting. Similarly, although not as widely agreed upon, a defined set of competencies for access technology specialists is emerging from meetings and conversations with large numbers of professionals in our field.
Also emerging is the fact that most access technology specialists enter the “field” without formal training in their craft. Many possess competencies obtained from academic or professional training programs in mainstream technology; others through apprenticeship and self-study; or some combination of these two methods.
There is emerging a set of “sub-specialties” within the access technology field as some workers possess only sufficient competency to provide basic access hardware and software training and instruction in the most popular mainstream applications software while others have developed their skills in programming. Still other access technology specialists have accrued a world of experience and skill in systems interface and job-site modification, and it is this latter group that you have correctly identified as most in demand.
“Technology access expediters,” for lack of a better name, require a great deal of expertise and need to possess a set of meta-skills that differs from in-classroom or center-based trainers.
Access technology job-site intervention professionals require excellent social skills that will enable them to work closely and cooperatively with employers. Often, the on-site technician must negotiate entry to a work site and ameliorate employer concerns about the perceived “invasiveness” of their interventions.
Similarly, in-class or center-based trainers must possess a set of meta-skills that relate directly to the art and science of teaching. Consumers appear to be clamoring for instructors who can adjust their teaching style to match consumer learning styles and to be able to provide learning tools that will prepare consumers to know more than just enough “to be dangerous.” Further, there is growing consensus that consumers are dissatisfied with a perhaps inadvertent but real dependency on the rehabilitation system that has been forced upon them by inadequate training in problem-solving and help-getting skills. Unexpected problems and (more predictable) software upgrades are inevitable. Consumers need to be provided with the variety of tools they will need to handle these inevitabilities as they proceed with their working lives and they need to be able to secure human assistance on a real-time basis.
If these events do not transpire, we will continue to be mired in the high and continually disturbing unemployment rates blind and visually impaired persons face. “A good job is a horrible thing to lose!”
Sincerely,
Gil Johnson
Director, Anthony R. Candela National Program Associate
AFB West
San Francisco, Calif.