Category: Jobs and Employment
Hi,
I'm applying for a job in the emergency communications center of a small to mid sized
town and am wondering if anyone has experience in this realm they'd be willing to share.
I am particularly wondering about accessibility of software I might have to use, and any
barriers that might exist in the setup or tech that this kind of job would require me to use.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
I've tried it.
It is difficult depending on the setup.
Ask for a tour of the place and that will give you an idea of your challenges.
One I couldn't resolve was the moving screens.
What I mean by this, is the cars are all the time moving around the city. You have to be able to keep track of them, and that is on a revolving map.
If you've got some sight, it could be done.
Totally blind, I have no idea.
Go for it though. It can only turn out positive.
Smile.
I am totally blind. I have office experience, and in fact am currently employed and seeking
another job.
I was wondering how much of it was computerized on inaccessible systems.
I believe you have to see the cars moving, so might be impossible.
Are you merely looking for a new job, or does the emergency response sector interest you?
When I was volunteering for the U.S. Coast Guard -- granted I had a day job -- I considered studying to stand watch at a communications center. My background being electronics and not communications, there was a severe deficit in my understanding of things.
Two things work against us now: Access, as you said, and speed. For Coast Guard, there were two aspects of access where I could not in good conscience try to surmount. There is a digital system using aerial images called Rescue21. This is entirely inaccessible to us. But as a pledged Coast Guardsman, I was far more interested in its being responsible for a far greater number of lives being saved than ever could have been done before via position beacons and triangulation, concepts easy for an electronics guy albeit hard on communicators.
But it is in fact communicators they really need, which is where the imagery from Rescue21 has in large part been so successful.
The second area we all know as blind people is speed. What lifelong blind person has not grown up being told they were slow, or bumbling, or any number of other terms? It's a physics problem, and no matter how some of us have attempted to solve it, it's insolvable in some situations. Light, and its companion images, travels and is processed far more quickly than the relatively sluggish and one-dimensional sound, and even more sluggish medium of tactile representation. Where seconds count, You will probably find yourself at a disadvantage, provided to you by the physical laws of the universe.
Now, in the opening of this post I asked you to consider whether you are interested in the emergency response industry, or were you merely looking for another job? Neither answer is good or bad objectively, but how you approach this depends on your answer.
After all, if you're merely looking for another job, perhaps something within a call center type environment, I would say the 9/11 or other emergency dispatch doesn't sound physically or technically feasible.
To that end, if you are interested in emergency response work perhaps you can find another way to do so. A crisis hotline, perhaps, or some other work at a police station.
I had said I was a volunteer with the Coast Guard, and presented the challenges it posed. I joined my local Community Emergency Response team instead, we being dedicated to post-disaster first response. There are things, of course that I cannot do. Triage being one. But you need no eyes to shut off gas valves, pry open a door or a window, work on a lift / cribbing team provided you are one of the lifters. And I do have my radio electronics training from the Coast Guard. Since during a disaster, we will not be dealing with the digital interconnected beautiful digital systems that society luxuriates in right now, I need not worry in those things.
In short, I have found things that work in my interest area. Not just with me being blind, but my more concrete or physical nature. Someone else who was blind might well be a team leader or perhaps maybe some form of medical, I don't know. I'm as weak as they get on those two fronts, save my ability to backpack-carry someone.
These are things you find out as you go.
But anyhow, I present all this as an example for you. If what you want is to be in emergency response, you'll have to do as I did and find something that isn't going to require you to do what isn't feasible. It is all well and good for people now to claim something must be accessible, but that may or may not be possible.
One example in my own volunteering is that some people who are radio operators sit inside centers, take messages brought to them written on ICS forms, translate that into a radiogram, and transmit the message.
Nevermind that to one such as I am, doing so would be positively boring ... i'd much rather be outside as a rover or something. But, more to the point here, there is no way that my demand to make such things accessible would be of any value. Not when it counts, not when the power's out.
If the 911 job is in a field that you want, try and look around for things in that field which will provide you the best possible means with least possible accommodation to make a go of it. Otherwise, you might want to find something else entirely. I have presented for your consideration what I've personally dealt with over the past five years. Not my job, my extracurricular activities in this case. But nonetheless relevant. .
My x-husband is in Human Resources for a large municipality. He is in charge of accommodations, etc. He has done this tye of work for the past 13 years and has said that 911 dispatching is inaccessible for us because of the software, and the need to be able to locate and see where units are on the gps system. He had a worker who used 2 42-inch monitors and she was still not able to effectively do the job. Sorry.
If you are in a small town, you might have better luck.
Some still use just the radio and the dispatchers mental information of the city.
In a larger town, I agree, it just isn't possible for a totally blind person.
Go however and find out what is being used.
Thhhhanks to everyone who has responded. I'm glad that I found out some good info
before I went down the rabbit hole too far.
The town is a medium sized town, but there is a college there and so the dispatch center
is known to be busy.
To answer Leo's question, I have been interested in emergency communication before I
applied for this job. I actually got involved with emcom through ham radio several years
ago.
I was hoping my experience with radio nets and protocols would be useful, but I can
definitely see how the visual display of car locations would be a problem.
Paradoxically, it sounds to me like technology has made this particular job less accessible
as opposed to more accessible.
I really appreciate the balanced and well thought out responses to my post. The zone has
always had good advice for me when it comes to these kinds of things.
I did a work site evaluation for a person looking to get a job with the Local 911 center about three years ago. Besides everything else stated here, the most modern systems have gone to a multiple computer setup, meaning, some of the data you access or enter is on one computer while other information is on a second, and some times even third computer. These secondary systems were accessed via touch screen monitors which at the time there was no access at all via a screen reader so imagine using a keyboard switch to actively switch and obtain information from secondary computers. The time spent alone doing that and often refocusing jaws or alt tabbing between application to quickly move from screen to screen and system to system was well above the time allotted to take and assist callers. In this particular center even the system to enter and dispatch was fairly unaccessible to both Jaws and NVDA and would have needed considerable scripting done. This is always a last resort approach IMHO, scripting is great but in 2016 actual access would be much better. With updates and system changes always in place, I end up rewriting scripts so often that it's not funny!
Tech is a blessing and a curse for us.
Years ago back in high school there was a lady in NY who was blind and worked for 911. She was able to do it but it was about 10 years ago.
Some police departments are private, so maybe she worked with one like that.
I'm glad someone else posted about this. After several months in a high-volume call center I've been exploring other options, and 911 dispatching was one of them. I appreciate all of the insight. Seeing as I struggle to meet the metrics and standards in my call center--I handle claims while on the phone, and to put it in perspective, my sighted peers use two monitors with several windows tiled across them--I can definitely say that speed can be an issue with us. We might think really fast, but sound only travels so fast. It can be so discouraging! But I ramble. I was starting to get into this funk of feeling like I was the only one, which is totally stupid and not the case. I hope you find a job that works out for you!
Hello this may be off-topic, but how do you navigate two monitors working in customer service? This is a practical field I'd consider if need be. I'd like any input from others who have worked customer service. I'd be interested in working for a hospital, medical facility, or Medicaid. as I'm interested in health informatics. How do you take calls, and input or read information.
For a blind person, how many monitors is not the problem.
The problem is if the information is constantly refreshing, or moving on the monitors.
We can’t keep up with refreshing material.
For that reason, but not only, we are not able to do 911 dispatch.
You’ve got to work with a moving map, and that requires seeing it, because the map is the total screen.
In the fields you’re speaking, this won’t be an issue.
Your thing will be opening windows, and moving from one to another.
That is doable for a blind person, provided the system is screen reader compliant.
To take a call, you simply use a headset that has both your customer and Jaws in it.
Plantronics makes one that is stereo I liked best, because both audio sources are in both ears.
Sort of like listening to music and Jaws at the same time, and that I do all the time.
I know someone that used a braille display, so in that case, you’re reading your information not listening to it along with your customer.
If now, when you use your computer you shop, do the Zone, keep your email open, listen to music, all at once, then you understand how working in several windows would be.
That is about it.
Most jobs offer the headsets that have Jaws in one ear, and the customer in the other. I used one like that for over 15 years, but I swear, the stereo devices are just supreme if you’re going to do it that way.
That is my thoughts on your question.
Good luck finding something like you’ve described.
Thanks, do you think the customer service field is hard to break into for a blind person? I would think not. I wonder what companies hire the most blind people. Does anyone know of a blind person working at a bank? I always thought this'd be fun, but could be hard due having to handle personal checks, and the fact that scanners (of any sort) don't like handwriting.
I had a nice message about this, but then the Zone logged me out. To paraphrase my own post, I work at the Royal bank in Canada and I am mostly blind. I do not do teller services, but I do work publicly at a branch and have many duties both client facing and behind the scenes. access tech support and knowledge is great here, and equipment is accomidating. Lots of support in that way. There are a good handful of fully blind employees working at the call centers as well. I can elaborate if anyone cares to read it.
It isn't being blind that is the problem. It is the technology not being compatible.
As the poster aboves says, he works at a bank, but behind the scenes.
You're not going to be a teller, but if your technology worked, why notother task?
I do my personal banking online all the time, and seems to me, it just be the same in the work place. Moving cash, I can deposit, just many things and never go to the bank at all.
He's in Canada, so America will be different, but it be the same deal.
Apply, and see what happens is all you can do.
Also, I should add this, because it is the one thing people tend to overlook,
Can you do the job.
Even if you were fully sighted, do you have the skill, patients, or ability?
Let say we put you in a job where you are the customer service rep for UPS.
Okay, all you technically must do is answer the phone, check to see if packages are where they should be, or set them up for delivery.
When I use UPS services, I do my side of this at home, right?
Seems easy enough.
But, when you are on the line, and need to look at several windows at once, can you deal with that kind of stress?
Are you even able to do your own private UPS things at home when you're not being asked questions, and can concentrate on one task at once?
I do lots of shopping online, and bill paying, and my life generally is run from my seat at my desk.
I happen to think it is easy, even though some sights require some fiddling to work, and aren't always as they should be, or don't work as you'd expect them too.
On a job site, will that give you a pain?
I know several smart and able blind persons that find what I do difficult, or just not possible.
Now, all this is provided the company's situation is accessible.
Even if you can use the company website at home won't mean the workplace will be accessible.
Accessibility is the main stumbling block.
Next is skill level, or ability.
It won't be that your dumb, and can't learn, when I say ability, it will be that you simply can't keep up with the pace, or the stress of dealing with people just isn't your cup of tea.
Maybe the program situation is difficult for you to grasp.
Because many jobs aren't accessible, we don't have the luxury of finding what we can do, no matter how many degrees we've got.
So, sure, it will be hard. Expect this from the start, then you’ll not be disappointed you don’t have that customer service job, or work at that bank other blind people claim they have.
Maybe a company only takes 3 blind employees.
You aren’t one of the three, because you didn’t know about the job, nor are you able to even do the job.
It just isn’t for you, nothing more, nothing less.
Forereal, just for context, I mentioned I have a lot of client-facing duties as well. For me, the biggest issue is usually the handwriting. I have a very hard time with cursive writing, even when enlarged. Otherwise though, my main stumbling blocks aren't really blindness related, but knowledge and memory related.
You do have some vision, right?
That seems to be a factor too.
Some jobs, even a small amount of vittion makes the grade over no vision at all.
Coo for you, however.
The bank sound progressive.
Hi,
I am good at multi-tasking and switching between windows, so don't think this would be a problem.
For Real, you touched upon a great point, technology is just so key. Also, I have found websites where one page is inaccessible, and the rest is fine. Skill and ability are also key, and with so many blind people unemployed, I know how hard it is to gain a transferable skill set.
I can get tasks done very quickly, and love working with databases and forms. I have been fortunate to work with individuals face-to-face, and also work behind the scenes.
Fine. Your hired. When can you start?
Smile.
I do have some vision, yes, and it absolutely does help in my line of work. althrough there are a lot of people with no vision working at the contact centers.