How They Did It

Hotel:
Reservation Agent

BACKGROUND: Irene has dealt with decreasing vision since she started out her career. Now she uses a cane when she travels, and has devised a number of tricks to help her remember spatial relationships. She's determined to maintain her independence, and that means coming up with ways to ensure her commute is safe, and that she can maintain the downtown apartment she shares with a long-time friend. One of the reasons she decided to go to work for Southern Hospitality is the company's policy of promoting from within; she's especially interested in a possible promotion to the human resources division. Although she doesn't know it yet, the director is considering creating a new job which will initially include responsibilities for a complete review of the company's accommodation procedures and policies. Given the current job situation, Southern feels actively pursuing more individuals with disabilities as employees may be in its best interest.

SOLUTION: When Irene first applied for the reservation agent opening, she could still see faces pretty clearly. Now, four years later, she's learned to also rely on vocal cues, and more and more, she finds herself using the speech synthesis device ($200) and screen reader ($600) to access the reservation database. With her dual headset monitor ($200), she can hear the callers on the phone in one ear, with speech output from the computer in the other.

For some applications, she finds the screen magnification program ($200-700), which offers high magnification, very helpful. Although she doesn't yet really need it, Irene's boss decided to get a phone light probe that tells which line is ringing. The $45 device makes different sounds, providing auditory cues as to which line is on hold and which ones are ringing..

When Irene went through the training program, Southern Hospitality had already taken steps to ensure the accessibility of its new-employee materials, including a video-based interactive training program that included a descriptive track. She pointed out that for many people with limited vision, the printed materials could be made accessible by simply printing them in larger type. The company did that--and has subsequently heard from many older employees who much prefer the new version since it's so much easier for them to read, too.

All along they way, Irene has caused SH to reconsider how things are done: for example, rather than rely on handwritten telephone messages, the time-saving policy now in effect is to connect callers directly with employees' voice mail so that they may leave a message. A personnel assistant now reads company memos into the voice mail system; the memos are also available on the company's intranet, where Irene can access them either through her screen reader or screen magnifier software. Like the unexpected benefits of larger-print materials, the company has found this new system offers a better solution for communicating with many employees for whom English is not a first language.