A lot of my hearing friends have been watching TV shows online, especially if they missed the show the day before. If you go to the network website, usually you can view the entire episode for free. That is a sweet deal.
The only shortcoming? They aren’t captioned. If I have my loop on and switch my hearing aids over to T, then I can understand what is going on. Or I read the episode summary to get the gist of what the show’s about. But I still want the network to caption the online shows.
In a way, I feel as if it is too much to ask for. Can the networks caption the shows that they put online? But then again, why can’t we have the same privileges as a hearing person? Ha… now I am starting to sound spoiled.
Although there are shows I want to watch that I know I will miss, I tend to set my VCR to record those shows (Yes, I still have a VCR, and no, I don’t want TIVO or DVR… then I would watch way more TV than I need to). I am content with two or three hours of TV every night. On the weekends I hardly watch anything.
Then there’s the Instant Messaging (IM) situation here at work. They’ve blocked every link known to any form of IM. Hmm, I’m fine with that. It is just that I tend to use IM to make my phone calls because I have been known to press apple quit on the web browser all the time and there goes my phone call. I’m getting used to emailing and texting with my friends on a more regular basis, so it is doable, but now I actually have to call my mom to talk to her, otherwise I’d never talk to her.
But really, I was talking with the tech guy who is trying to figure out a solution for our Creative Services department because I almost always have to get up and walk over to my boss’s office to ask her a question. Half the time she is on the phone, so I always feel bad that I am interrupting her while my coworkers can easily just pick up the phone and call her and leave a message.
Granted there’s email but the tech guy was saying IM just makes everything faster and doesn’t eat up space in your inbox (we have a limited amount of memory in our inbox, it fills up fast). You don’t have to pick up the phone and dial, and then leave a message if they don’t answer the phone. Then the person has to pick up the phone, checks their voice mail. It’s like phone tag. With IM, all you do is send a message and it’s on their computer. It uses almost no memory. Granted I totally understand why they block it, mostly for security reasons.
So they are working on having an in office system where only the people in this company can IM each other. Okay, that will place less need on using the phone (they want me to use the phone here, which isn’t happening because I have the instructions on my desk and it looks way too complicated. I’m not too keen on the idea). I just stick to emailing the people I need to communicate with and have my co-workers call whoever I need to talk with quickly. It’s working, so far.
Corporations — I understand have a reason to be very concerned about security issues especially with the holes on the Internet, and I have no qualms about it.
Can they just tweak things a little bit to make things easier for me (and everyone else)?
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My company has an internal message system, but it’s part of a larger application so nobody ever uses it. I wish they’d let the deaf employees use it to communicate with me, their onsite interpreter. It would save a lot of running around the building, because employees often have to physically fetch me from my desk when they need me.
Ur tech dept can install jabber (open-source) which can be set up as internal IM system only. That should remove any security worries about sensitive information being sent to external parties via IMs.
NetMeeting does work that way for internal communication within departments. It does have IM format and also can use whiteboard that you can show your project or file to your coworker.
NetMeeting isn’t Mac-compatible (morons at Micro$oft!), so it won’t work for Erin and for many of us, since Erin mentioned using apple-quit which is a Mac thing and since many of us have no desire to touch a Windoze machine.
My office uses Skype to communicate with each other and the outside offices. Maybe your company would be interested in this? It helps me a lot with communicating with my hearing coworkers.
It is very common nowadays to block IM for internet security reasons. I think that is to be expected. As such, I don’t believe having IM has been found to be a reasonable accomodation. (Please note, the law only requires reasonable, not the perfect accommodation.) If the employer opts for in-house IM, that’s great and you are lucky.
As for the telephone, I strongly recommend you get used to using it no matter how complicated it is. Getting co-workers to do YOUR work is a really BAD idea. Sets a bad precedent and if you ever want to move up they are going to remember - “oh, she’s the one who wouldn’t do the telephone calls.” It is always a bad idea to hoist YOUR responsibilities on co-workers no matter how nice they are about it. Reasonable accommodation can be provided to help you use the phone - TTYs, VRS, amplifiers, whatever you need. Plus, you are setting a poor example for other deaf people.
I view the telephone issue as a bigger problem than the IM problem.
Ironic. Which costs more, the IM or the phone/tty accomodations? Which takes longer? Which is much more of trouble for everyone? Which technology is increasingly becoming more accepted nowadays in public usage? Which technology is everyone familiar with?
than ask yourself, what does “reasonable accomodation” mean?
I suggest you ask yourself those questions….
I have to agree with wildstarryskies— It is cheaper to do the IM as opposed to phone/tty accomodations. Even the IT people here at my corporation think so.
Once they set up an in-company IM system, I think communication would by far be a lot easier and smoother.
So really, if I want to talk to someone on the floor above me, basically i should pick up the phone, call the relay, and ask them a question which only takes 15 seconds. When it’d be 10x easier to just walk up there (especially since I’m still not familiar with everything that goes on here, and I always have tons of questions, i should waste 5-10 minutes of my time and theirs everytime i have a question?) When setting up an interoffice IM system would be fairly easy. I know they’re working on it. (I think it just needs to be compatible with MACs….which tends to be the problem more often than not)
As for having my co workers do my work, they do NOT do my work. Often times I cannot get ahold of our sales executives via email because they are constantly on the road, so they call them for me & check to make sure they have received my emails, etc. They don’t do my work. As my supervisor says, we are a team, we help each other when needed.
also for BG’s comment—Email would suffice, but we have such a limited memory for our mailbox that it’s constantly filling up (since we send a lot of attachments.)
When a co-worker is making a telephone call for you, he or she is doing YOUR work. Why can’t you use the relay to call that executive? It sounds like a 2 minute call. How do you think it sounds to the executive to get a call that goes “Hi! This is John. I am calling for Erin. She wants to know if you got her email.” Doesn’t sound too professional to me.
I supervise. And rather than calling people, I walk over and talk to them in person. Yes indeedy. It is a little more effort, it does take more time, but I am doing my job. I walk upstairs and downstairs as well. It is no big deal. Also, walking around and talking to people increases your visibility and lets people know that hey, you can communicate and are approachable.
I would also like to point out that for YEARS deaf people have been trying to overcome the perception that they can’t handle the telephone responsibilities that come with many jobs. For years employers got away with not hiring deaf people based on this perception, but with the advent of technology and relays, things have changed. Almost every upper level job I know of still requires some telephone use. And unless you can demonstrate your ability as well as your willingness to handle such, those jobs may well stay out of your reach. Email is great and we are all dependent on it, but there are still others who prefer NOT to put things in email for one reason or another. There are certain things that I will discuss only in person and refuse to put in an email.
Last, are you seeking this IM stuff as a reasonable accommodation or a matter of personal preference?
Isn’t Email enough? :) If not, then it’s just a matter of opening a port. The IT person can EASILY assign an IP address to your computer and allow IM access via IM. There are websites that offer online IM access as well. Either that or your company thought that people would work more effeciently without distractions. Better yet, use your pager. :) There are several IP relay services that can be used via AIM. :)
-me
By the way, you weren’t implying that you and your friends watch online TV shows at work as well, were you?
Um. If you utilized your reading comprehension skills, you would have noticed that there is no implication of that.
It is implied in the title’s heading?
I wasn’t implying at work. I was speaking of 2 wholly different subjects.