Raising accessibility awareness

I have very low vision. I’m a ZoomText user (mostly use magnifier but occasionally screen reader if I have a lot of narrative to read). I use ZoomText in “Primary with 7x” mode. This means I have two screens (one I use for main and the other shows a 7x magnified image of whatever is under the cursor).

My story is about Microsoft Teams – and in particular sharing screens. While Teams has been a big help to me (in that I can see what people are sharing without recourse to binoculars in a meeting room etc.), it is usually impossible (without a lot of help from the presenter) to see detail.

For example, we often share team pages about progress across various strands of work. I know that I can zoom in or out on a shared screen in Teams with Ctrl++ or Ctrl+- respectively, but

• this resizes the whole screen making the leave or mute buttons too small to see, and/or
• I cannot zoom in closely enough to read any sort of detail on the presenter’s screen. Not so bad in a presentation where fonts are large and detail is usually minimised but for any sort of technical presentation, even with the highest magnification on Teams, I can’t see enough. I know I can use a combination of ZoomText and Teams but this simply makes things “jagged”. The only workaround I’ve found is to have the presenter drop their resolution or zoom in themselves.

To improve the experience for me I would ask for teams not to resize the whole screen but just the part of it showing the presenter’s screen – so at least the leave and mute buttons are still visible even when zoomed in.

In the last 13 years my employer has been really great in making reasonable adjustments to help me carry out my work. In my workplace I have a permanent workstation: with dual, high definition monitors, one with a swivel arm, a CCTV magnifier, uplighter, EPSON Scanner and Supernova 14.5 v software.

These adjustments make a tremendous difference to my working life: magnifying spreadsheets and other applications; the larger LCD monitors offered brightness and screen clarity; the split screen CCTV magnifier facilitates the viewing of scanned and printed documents in full, with different colour contrasts and displays. An EPSON scanner helps me immensely in the preparation of reading and appending documents and enhances efficiency.

The larger monitor with swivel arm adjusts for whole screen view and closeness, preventing eye strain; Supernova software combined magnification and speech in one program, with an adjustable, Large Cursor kit to help pinpoint text, tables and other displays. The high definition keyboard I use assists easier word processing, again minimising eye strain.

However, the onset of the pandemic and prolonged homeworking presented me with considerable challenges to my daily work-life which I am very pleased to say have almost totally been overcome.

Managers and colleagues who listen and support their colleagues make a really big difference. There is an embedded culture of this within our team; and believe me, that makes all the difference.

For the early period of lockdown I was offline and could have felt isolated and a rather forlorn figure. It is also very easy for me to see how some colleagues may have found it difficult to cope last year, and how their mental health declined.

Thankfully, that wasn’t my experience. Right from the outset I was included in an increased number of team dial-ins and had a continued, high level of management support throughout the period.

A thorough IT Home-working assessment was jointly carried out by both my manager and a TUS Health and Safety colleague: this then resulted in my receiving a specialist IT Homeworking kit with assistive technology specific for my needs; and to enable me to work safely and confidently. Both my GP and manager were closely involved in this and any required modifications were fully discussed and agreed.

My manager and colleagues brought about this small miracle for me because they cared about me and my working life and felt strongly that I should be able to have as much of my reasonable adjustment equipment supplied at home. It was never a question of just “getting on with it”, but how much help, support and encouragement I needed in order to adapt to the dramatically changed circumstances.

This has made an enormous difference at a time when the department itself was, and is, going through so much change and pressure. I feel very productive and motivated as a result. I am generally like that normally, but the pandemic and lockdowns did make me wonder how I could remain positive about work. I needn’t have worried – my manager and team had it sorted!

In the help given to me, I feel they are the kind of team that is a shining example of what Respect at Work is really all about.

I have no eye sight at all. Light and dark perception is non-existent.

I use a variety of assistive technologies which go a long way to enriching my home and working life. They include JAWS, NVDA and Windows Narrator screen readers for PC and devices include a Braille display, an iPhone, Braille notetaker and an Amazon Echo. Within the last 12 months, I have made enormous strides forward in using my existing and newly acquired technology in a more flexible way.

For the purposes of this story, I am going to talk about my work iPhone which was delivered to my front door in August 2020.

At that time, I was working from home as a case worker. Despite having been involved in accessibility pilot testing of some Office 365 products, I found it hard to find information in SharePoint, Teams and Yammer. My exceedingly slow network meant that transaction and/or response times were slow, even when accessing messages and files from Outlook and OneDrive.

Enter the work iPhone. All the Office 365 apps are on there. Access is quickly achieved by face recognition and 4-digit access codes. It has revolutionised my access to communication.

By means of straightforward gestures and with onboard voice recognition, navigation and communication is less complicated and time-consuming. I can effectively see things at a glance and be a good deal more up-to-date with what is happening around the patch.

The iPhone has encouraged me to diversify my use of my home mobile phone. Accessibility specialists in HMRC have offered up tips for a more effective use of Voiceover, the phones built in screen reader. Notably, we have been sign posted to online tutorials which talk you through how to use the iPhone with assistive software in a more flexible and productive way. They have suggested useful Apps which have been approved for our use by HMRC.

Seeing AI is one such App which I primarily use as a scanner but is capable of reading labels on food and drinks products and handwriting. As my salary statement is not easily accessible HMRC sends a hard copy to my home address which I scan into Seeing AI on my work mobile. I can also use the phone to scan on screen content when JAWS assistive software goes silent. This mobile has undoubtedly helped me communicate more confidently and led to me using my home mobile to do online TESCO shopping and indeed, make more incursions into social media.

I am waiting for an App which will allow me to more easily access internal services such as ERP, the appraisal system and of course, my salary statement. I live in hope. The phone can only offer greater autonomy to sight impaired people.

Using Microsoft Teams – during the current home working period, our team has been having a twice weekly catch up via Teams. As an autistic person I find Teams difficult for a couple of reasons.

I can’t use a headset, as my brain interprets the sounds as pain, so had to obtain a wireless handset. This improved my experience from a purely sensory perspective, but there are other barriers to overcome.

We don’t use cameras. I can understand people’s reluctance, however for me, it’s a nightmare. If you are just listening, it’s difficult to work out when someone has finished saying their bit – autistic people struggle with conversation and knowing when it’s our turn to speak. This is exacerbated when all you are looking at is a grey circle! There are no visual clues to pick up on, and what’s more my colleagues don’t know from looking at me, whether I have something to say. With the result that sometimes two or more of us end up speaking at the same time!

Think I’m going to have to persuade my colleagues to use cameras, lockdown hair or not…

My boys do karate twice a week, and until lockdown this was in a local high school. The night of lockdown they did their purple belt grading in a local hotel, as the school had closed. The staff were literally locking up the hotel as they left!

We were unsure how the club was going to continue, as much for the people who run it and is their livelihood, as for our boys. They are both autistic and our eldest has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as well. Karate has improved their self-esteem, social skills and in the case of our eldest, his focus and concentration.

So how did we overcome this? Zoom!

It's been both amazing and at times hilarious, especially at the start with people trying to connect and failing – there was a lot of “Rosie, are you there?” “No, she’s gone…oh wait, she’s back!”, but it’s been a lifeline for our boys. It’s a continuation of their normal life, and although they haven’t physically seen their friends, they all see and talk to each other over Zoom twice a week.

We even managed to connect our laptop to the TV so they are working from a large screen instead of Dad’s mobile phone! That was something of a challenge…. Their next grading is in the first week of July and given that our youngest has done more classes as he is at home, both of them should be ready to go for their next belt…it might even be over Zoom!

I know we grumble about technology and how it can present barriers, but in this case, it has enabled the club owners to keep their business alive and our boys to retain some semblance of a normal life.

About 5 years ago I developed inflammatory arthritis and I take regular meds and have reduced my working hours to 30 per week to help my body to rest.

I have a Plantronics headset, small keyboard and a Roller Mouse Classic 2. I also use Dragon but only when the pain in my hands is bad, so it is hard to remember everything from the last time I used it as the gaps between use can be quite long. I am also lift reliant on anything over two floors which worries me in the current climate even though I have got a mask.

Since my diagnosis I’ve been lucky with the managers that I’ve had. They’ve all been understanding and helped me get the right kit.

The arthritis is worse in my fingers and wrists so on some days I find surfing either the web or Intranet hard if my joints are aching. Also, jumping from one site to another is hard along with typing one thing after another to try and find an answer to a question.

It can be hard speaking to someone in IT if you’ve got an issue with your specific kit as your query has to be answered by someone else and then there’s more delay. I know this happens to a lot of people but to me it can exaggerate what could be a simple problem.

It becomes frustrating being in constant pain when you’re looking for something that was easy to find the other day. Depending on the pain level will dictate what painkillers I use and this can affect my vision along with making me tired.

Asking how your team could support you depends on how much you want to divulge and for me personally it’s all about independence and being self-reliant.

Search engines being better would help as this would lessen keying time. Also having an A-Z for dragon so you could use it as a refresher would be good.

I started to notice a deterioration in my eyesight and was diagnosed with a permanent and progressive eye condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) and was registered severely sight impaired in 2012. I am unable to see at night, in poor lighting conditions and I experience difficulties in bright daylight too. I have limited central vision such that I am unable to recognise people, see detail, read print and differentiate colours.

My role involves mainly working on the computer and I have a desktop PC in the office which has a magnification software called ZoomText and screen reader software called JAWS, speech software which talks back to me from my computer into my headset, both assist me to do my work effectively. For remote working I have a Surface Pro tablet which has the same software and enables me to work from home and other locations.

Additionally, I use an iPad as my personal device with VoiceOver, which is an accessibility screen reading feature built into the device, which allows me to access my emails, browse the internet, connect with people using Facebook and Zoom and watch Netflix.

Online shopping

One thing I’ve never had to do, up to now is online shopping because I enjoy going out to the shops. I just love shopping, exploring different things and talking to staff about new offers and latest trends. Since my sight loss began deteriorating I’ve started to get help, from shop assistants, finding items, reading labels, ingredients and prices which worked really well as I could maintain my independence.

Then my lifestyle suddenly changed with the COVID-19 outbreak and the lock down pressured me into online shopping for the first time. I was reluctant to try online grocery shopping in the past because I never had to use it.

Living with sight loss brings its own challenges but trying something I’ve never had to do in my life was worrying. I was feeling anxious being in lock down and on top of that how will online shopping work for me. I was concerned about the accessibility of the website and if it would work with VoiceOver, and having no sighted help at home also added to the pressure. So I treated this as my biggest challenge during lock down and got the ball rolling.

I began the process by accessing the Sainsbury’s website, only to find I couldn’t register because they were only accepting existing customers. Then I tried the Tesco website and couldn’t register again for the same reason. After all that I was really disappointed but didn’t give up. My friend then told me about Asda customer helpline so I gave them a call. After figuring out the different telephone options I finally got through to the right person who was able to help with my query. The adviser was very helpful and patient as she talked me through how to register online which I completed successfully and thank goodness for VoiceOver which worked and helped me achieve this.

I found that most supermarkets were only offering priority delivery slots to people who were registered as a vulnerable person on GOV.UK. This caused some confusion for people like me who have a sight impairment because I didn’t meet the criteria listed. However the Asda adviser acknowledged my health condition and manually added me to their priority customer list and was given a priority pass to access a regular delivery slot. I now have set up a recurring slot every 2 weeks till October. I was very relieved to have this in place and it gave me peace of mind.

My overall user experience online was good, it was simple and easy to follow, quick to search for items and the checkout process was straightforward. The product descriptions were clear and accessible with VoiceOver. I’ve used the website again and have received a few deliveries. I’m really pleased with the outcome and will continue shopping online where possible.

This good experience gave me the confidence to try online banking for the first time. I’ve never had to use online banking before, I always used telephone banking or visited the bank. With COVID-19 the telephone lines were extremely busy so it pushed me to try.

Online banking

I managed to register but I couldn’t complete the security questions which were ambiguous and difficult to follow with VoiceOver. For example the information on the website wasn’t clear on what memorable information needed to be entered. I contacted the Internet Banking helpline where I was passed to a technical adviser who tried to help but didn’t fully understand my needs even though I told him I couldn’t see the screen and RELIED on Voiceover, nor did he provide clarity on the information required.

After a few trial and error attempts entering information I still couldn’t proceed so I gave up. I’d spent a lot of time on this which was frustrating. Reflecting later I figured out that the memorable information wasn’t actually asking for an answer to a question, but in fact required a word which I managed to enter without any guidance.

I feel the website NEEDS TO BE improved by making the information less ambiguous and more accessible so it’s EASIER to follow and complete the TASK. Unfortunately this experience didn’t end as well as my online shopping experience but I am hopeful that I can get SOME support to make this work for me going forward.

I’ve lived with chronic migraine for over 30 years. “Chronic” means I suffer for over 15 days in every 30—way over. As well as the classic migraine attack, where I feel like there’s a white hot ice pick jammed into my temple, I also get vestibular migraine attacks where additionally I’m really dizzy and fall over a lot, and hemiplegic migraine attacks, which have too many symptoms in common with a stroke. As if I wasn’t already lucky enough to have won those prizes, I also get cluster headaches, which are said to be among the top five most painful experiences a human endures.

My assistive technology ranges from reactive lenses in my glasses, through to being able to control all of my home audio, lighting and heating from my phone; because some days are just far too bright for me, or I need a specific colour of light around the house (usually red).

Occasionally, I need to use VoiceOver to read out documents to me, just as an extra level of input checking. This is due to my brain being really foggy and coherence levels plummeting.

Because my condition is invisible, and most people think it’s “just a headache”, I’ve had a really tough time trying to sell it over the years. Mainly to HR departments and people who deal with timesheets. They don’t understand (or refuse to) that I can be fit for working at home, but not fit to leave the house to work in the office. Those conversations usually go like this:

My system of managing my illness didn’t suit them. I was never given reasons, other than “We don’t allow that”; no goodwill, no compassion, or a discretionary workaround—just… no. In fact, I got written warnings and told off for it.

With the recent revelation that everyone can actually work from home without many changes at all (I know, right?), I’m hoping those conversations are now a thing of the past. Not just for me, but for people who can’t even get hired in the first place because of their health.

Remote work is going to open up avenues of employment for people who have been housebound for years, with no hope in sight. Now, thanks to a pesky virus, they get to listen to perfectly healthy people whining on and on about how they’ve had to stay indoors for a couple of weeks. They’ll have eye strain from rolling their eyes, I’m sure.

But the old “normal” was broken anyway, so let’s define the new one to include everyone—not just those who are privileged enough to complain about having to keep their fully working bodies indoors.