TECHNOLOGY AND THE JOB 
                             by Curtis Chong 

As Monitor readers know, Curtis Chong is the President of the National
Federation of the Blind in Computer Science (the NFB's computer science
division) and an active member of the NFB Research and Development
Committee. In recent months he has been asked to address groups of
potential employers of the blind in conjunction with Job Opportunities for
the Blind seminars sponsored by several state affiliates. 

The following article is drawn from these speeches. Mr. Chong's expertise 
and solid common sense make his remarks valuable to everyone who is 
interested in the subject of technology and the blind. Here is what 
he has been saying to employers about technology and the blind: 
 
There is no question that with the advent of so-called high technology,
more jobs have been opened up to blind people. What kind of jobs are we
talking about? Consider these for starters: electrical engineer, computer
programmer, systems analyst, software developer and marketer, airline
reservationist, customer service representative, technical consultant--the
list could go on and on. Just as technology has created jobs for the
sighted and eliminated others, so it is with the blind. It seems, however,
that in the latter case technology has come to be regarded with an almost
unhealthy fascination. Part of the reason for this lies in the lack of
information about what technology can really do for a blind person. The
other part is closely related to society's basic notions about blindness
and what we believe blind people are capable of doing. 

Here are some of the more useful devices that technology has spawned: 
the talking clock; the talking calculator; the talking scale; the 
talking cash register; the Braille 'n Speak; the VersaBraille; the 
Braille Blazer; the Speaqualizer; the Kurzweil Personal Reader; the 
Optacon; the Romeo Brailler; the Thiel Braille embosser; the speech 
synthesizer; talking programs for the Apple computer; Grade 2 Braille 
translation systems; optical character recognition systems; and a 
tremendous variety of speech, Braille, and large print screen reading 
systems for the IBM Personal Computer (PC). In fact, when viewed in 
perspective, technology can also be said to have brought us the slate 
and stylus, the long white cane, the Braille writer, the Braille watch, 
the cassette recorder, and every other mechanical or electronic device 
that blind people have found useful. 

You may be surprised to know that two of the most valuable assets 
in my job as a systems programmer are my Perkins Braille Writer and 
my sighted reader, and they have nothing to do with technology. Yes, I have
access to a variety of talking computers and a Braille embosser. 
I can even connect to my employer's mainframe from anywhere in the 
country to access my electronic mail and diagnose some network problems. 
However, my Braille writer enables me to take notes without electricity, 
and my sighted reader allows me to visit any office in the company 
to assist users who are having trouble with one or more of their terminals 
or PC's. 

Let's examine some of the technology that has resulted from the so-called 
computer age. The Braille 'n Speak, a portable talking note taker, 
has captured the imagination of a lot of blind people. It is the one 
piece of technology that appeals even to the person who classifies 
him or herself as a computer illiterate. For about a thousand dollars 
a blind person can purchase his or her very own Braille 'n Speak, 
including clock, stopwatch, and four-function calculator. 

What can a user do with it? It's easy to take notes; store names and 
addresses; perform some basic text editing functions; transmit data 
to and receive it from a computer; and carry around the equivalent 
of 180 Braille pages of information in a single portable unit. The 
Braille 'n Speak can be attached to a Braille embosser; and if the 
notes have been entered in Grade 2 Braille, they can be embossed that 
way. The Braille 'n Speak can even be hooked up to a standard printer 
in order to print the material entered. 

What are some of this device's limitations? For those of us who have 
used commercial, off-the-shelf word processors such as WordPerfect 
or WordStar, the Braille 'n Speak simply cannot compete--nor is 
it meant to. The Braille 'n Speak cannot run commercial programs written 
for other computers. Proficient Braille readers might well have difficulty 
studying for final exams with their notes stored only in the Braille 
'n Speak. Without a Braille printer, the only way of reviewing what 
has been entered is to use the built-in synthetic speech. The Braille 
'n Speak has a limited amount of storage: about 180 Braille pages. 
A typical college student will fill that up in less than a week. 
How does the Braille 'n Speak compare to the good old slate and stylus? 

To put some perspective on the matter, let me say that I still carry 
around a slate and stylus everywhere I go. Although I find that the 
Braille 'n Speak is much more convenient for taking notes in bulk, 
I also find that I cannot do without the slate and stylus for communicating
information to other blind people and for providing a backup system 
for note-taking when the Braille 'n Speak fails, as any piece of technology
will. I firmly believe that, before anyone acquires a Braille 'n Speak, 
he or she should be a competent slate and stylus user--not to mention 
being proficient in the reading and writing of Braille. 

The Apple computer is an interesting and useful piece of technology 
for those blind people who can't be bothered with screen layouts and 
disk operating systems but who still require the power of a full-fledged 
computer. A whole series of talking programs for the blind have been 
developed to run on the Apple II series of computers. These programs 
are significant in that one need not learn anything about a screen 
review system. They are designed to talk when they are supposed to. 
The user doesn't have to move a review cursor around the screen to 
hear what the computer has to say. If the goal is to acquire a working 
system that will bring the user into the computer age and if there 
is no need to run software that sighted people use, check out the 
Apple computer. Particularly, check out Raised Dot Computing, located 
in Madison, Wisconsin, and Computer Aids Corporation, located in Fort
Wayne, Indiana, to see what kind of talking programs they market. 
Speaking of the microcomputer, I think we can safely say that no one 
type of computer has played as significant a role in our entrance 
into the computer age as has the IBM PC and related compatibles. A 
tremendous variety of speech, Braille, and large print mechanisms 
now exist which permit blind people to have independent access to 
most text-based programs that a PC can run--programs such as word 
processors, spreadsheets, database systems, and terminal emulators. 
Consider these popular software packages: WordPerfect, WordStar, Lotus 
1-2-3, DBASE III, PROCOMM, QMODEM, Attachmate Extra!, IBM 3270 Entry 
Level Program, and Novell. With the proper combination of hardware 
and software, every single one of these packages can be used by the 
blind without the assistance of a sighted reader, and this list is 
far from complete. 

Beyond the programs themselves, there are the systems and networks 
to which they provide access. Using PROCOMM, for example, a blind 
person can dial into a variety of mainframe systems and, using the 
proper terminal emulation facilities of PROCOMM, can work with just 
about any mainframe online application. Even more exciting to blind 
people is the very real ability to have that information converted 
into Braille, simply by attaching a Braille embosser to one of the 
computer's communication ports. 

Using the Novell network operating system, a blind person can share 
information over a local area network with colleagues in the office 
and can do so with the same programs that everybody else uses. 
With a 3270 emulation system a blind person can independently access 
text applications on just about any IBM mainframe. This hitherto impossible
task has tremendous potential benefit for the blind when one considers 
the widespread use of IBM equipment in this country. 

What impact does this have on the world of work? Consider that, with 
the IBM PC and the proper screen reading mechanisms, chances are very 
high that the blind person will be able to use the same software as 
his or her sighted co-workers. The blind secretary is now in an excellent 
position to use the same word processor as others in the office. The 
blind programmer or engineer has access to most of the mainframe
applications, even to the point of putting up with the annoying flood of
notes, messages, and documents occasioned by electronic mail systems.
Consider the blind executive whose sighted secretary regularly uses a word 
processor to type memos and reports. Technology now exists that enables 
the secretary to convert those memos and reports into Braille without 
having to know anything about the Braille code itself. Or consider 
the blind secretary who is required to proofread documents before 
printing them in final form. With a word processor, a Braille translation 
program, and a Braille embosser, this task is a snap. 

In my office everyone uses IBM's Display Write 4 word processors to 
produce memos and reports that are eventually printed on paper. I 
sometimes ask my coworkers to furnish me with a diskette containing 
their documents. I can then feed them into the PC on my desk. From 
there it is a simple matter to convert the document into Braille or 
to read it using synthetic speech. Let me hasten to point out, however, 
that in most cases I find that a sighted reader is far more efficient 
to handle the mountain of paperwork that comes across my desk. I find 
the technology useful when it is necessary for me to lift passages 
from someone else's work for inclusion in a report that I am preparing. 

The blind themselves, through the National Federation of the Blind, are
taking a hand in helping to shape the technology that is being 
developed. When it became clear that the IBM PC would play a significant 
role in today's industry, the Federation embarked upon the development 
of a hardware-based screen-reading speech-output system for the IBM 
PC and compatibles. We searched long and hard to come up with a name 
for this system, and it was our own Rami Rabby who proposed the name 
Speaqualizer. The Speaqualizer can be obtained from the American Printing 
House for the Blind for about $800 and works with more programs than 
any software- based screen reading system for the PC. 

Recently the National Federation of the Blind, in cooperation with 
officials from the Discover Card Company, developed a talking
card-verification system that can be used by blind retail clerks to check
on credit cards. The actual development consisted of attaching a speech
synthesizer to an already-existing credit card checking computer and
slightly modifying the system software in order to send verbal prompts to
the synthesizer. It is important to note that the Discover Card Company 
wisely chose to discuss the project with the people whom it was designed 
to benefit--namely, the blind, themselves. Consequently, the system 
that has emerged is one that is truly useful to blind people across 
the country.
 
Any time one considers applying technology to solve a problem involving 
a blind person, it is important to keep in mind that the technological 
solution may represent a long and painful road fraught with many obstacles 
and problems. Not all screen reading systems for the IBM PC are equally 
flexible, and not all screen reading systems for the IBM PC work with 
all programs that need to be used in the office. In other words, one 
must consider the issue of compatibility. For example, I know from 
personal experience that if a blind person needs to use a 3270 emulation 
system, a great deal of care needs to be exercised in the selection 
of a screen reading system for the PC. I also happen to know that 
people wishing to use Microsoft Word as their word processor are likely 
to experience problems with its relationship to their screen-reading 
software. Consider, too, that only recently has the Apple Macintosh 
computer become accessible, even partially, to the blind. The problem 
is to find the right person who has all of the information about what 
works with what--all in all, a rather difficult task. 

Some of you may have heard about optical character recognition systems 
and reading machines that supposedly convert printed information into 
speech or electronic digital media that can be processed by a computer. 
It is true that equipment (costing anywhere from five to ten thousand 
dollars) is available to convert print into a form that can be used 
by a blind person. However, this technology still has a number of 
significant limitations. For one thing, although it can read a lot 
of printed information, it can't handle handwriting or poor-quality 
print. For another, reading machines and optical character recognition 
systems lend themselves to sequential reading--that is, reading 
a document from cover to cover. They are not at all useful to a blind 
person who has to read small amounts of information scattered across 
a large number of pages that are not arranged in sequence. In my job, 
I am often placed in a position where I have to glean information 
from three or four computer manuals at a time. I am often forced to 
scan each manual repeatedly, lifting a bit of information from, say, 
page 150, going back to page 50 to look at something else, and then 
turning to another book to page 45 to round out my research. This 
task would be extremely cumbersome and time-consuming with an optical
character recognition system. 

We must be careful, I think, not to fall into the trap of trying to 
solve every problem with a piece of technology. Recently, in my home 
state of Minnesota, I heard a story about a blind person who, after 
four months, was in danger of losing his position as a programmer 
because some technology had failed to arrive. Simply put, the problem 
was that the blind programmer did not have independent access to the 
company's mainframe system. Further investigation revealed that no 
one--not even the blind person--had considered the possibility 
of hiring a sighted reader while waiting for the technology to arrive. 
In other words, the blind person did virtually nothing for four months. 
If the programmer, the employer, and the rehabilitation agency had 
not been lulled into a false sense of security because of the availability 
of technology, the short- term solution for the problem would have 
been apparent early on. 

Many employers do not really believe that the blind can be just as 
productive, mobile, and competent as their sighted peers. They are 
too quick to accept the notion that the technology is the determining 
factor when it comes to productivity. For example, it never occurs 
to many of them that in order for a writer to use a word processor 
effectively, that person must, first and foremost, be a decent writer. 
It never occurs to some of them that a fancy computer terminal does 
not a programmer make. And I would bet you that a lot of employers 
never even knew that thousands of blind people held professional, 
high-paying jobs long before the Braille or talking microcomputer 
was invented. 

Is technology the total answer when we are considering the employment 
of the blind? I don't believe so. Although technology can help a lot 
of blind people to better their lives and has done so and although 
technology has opened up some jobs for the blind, it can in no way 
be viewed as the total answer to the problem of the seventy-percent 
unemployment rate that now plagues blind Americans of working age. 
Employers still require information and education about the competence 
and innate normality of the blind. Rehabilitation officials need to 
stop regarding technology as a panacea for the blind and recognize 
it for the tool that it is. Sure, technology can be a tremendous help. 
But more important than any technology are acceptance; equal treatment; 
a positive attitude toward blindness and blind people; and a belief 
on everyone's part that we, the blind, are just as capable as the 
sighted of living normal productive lives and getting the job done.