National Disability Employment Awareness Month: Making It Work – How I Do My Job Living with My Disability

Written By Guest Blogger Nina, WeCoLead Certified Test Consultant

As a working individual living with a sight-related disability, I’ve encountered a variety of challenges at the workplace. Fortunately, with the help of modern and assistive technology, those challenges have become fewer and far between.

I rely heavily on assistive technology screen reader programs JAWS(Job Access with Speech) and VoiceOver to successfully complete my day-to-day job responsibilities at WeCo. I can perform tasks such as creating and maintaining documents and spreadsheets, managing calendars and emails, and browsing the web. However, as helpful as JAWS is, there are still functions that I am unable to perform due to inaccessible software and web design. In these instances, I use my iPhone with VoiceOver in conjunction with my computer to help troubleshoot some of the problems I run into.

I use a task management program called Asanaat work to help track, organize and prioritize tasks assigned to me. I am unable to access many of the components and features of the program using my computer, but with my smartphone , I actually have more access to the features, allowing me to make use and benefit from the tools offered in the program. For example, when using my computer, I can only read through the list of tasks. However, when using my smartphone, I have access to additional actions such as marking a task complete or adding comments to a task.

Using the combination of assistive technology, my smartphone and computer has worked out very well for me. The only down side is that it typically takes me longer to complete a task when using my smartphone, but I don’t mind because it works, and to me, that’s worth the time and effort. I may not always do things the traditional way, but I make it work, and that’s what’s most important to me.

Come visit our community on LinkedIn: Disability Employment Connection (DEC)!