Archive for the ‘Success Stories’ Category

Assistive Technology Allows Anu to Focus on Clients

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011

Anu Pala has been a Career Coach with the Neil Squire Society (new window)’s Burnaby (new window) office for almost 3 years. Her job requires her to develop curriculum, facilitate online workshops, and provide one-on-one coaching to clients. Anu is blind (new window) and, as such, she relies on assistive technology to access print materials and certain websites.

To access print materials, Anu uses a scanner and Optical Character Recognition (new window) (OCR) software. She simply scans paper documents to her computer and the program interprets the scanned document, translates it and provides speech output enabling her to hear the information. To navigate her computer and create her own documents, Anu uses JAWS (Job Access With Speech) (new window). This program enables her to access the computer through sound and a key board. Keyboard commands replace the mouse, thus enabling Anu to access various applications and websites. Anu also makes use of her iPhone (new window) to stay on top of meetings and access contacts when she’s out on the road.

Anu is very happy with her work and says that “opening clients to new ideas, concepts and opportunities and watching them reach their goals” confirms why she chose this career. “I feel honored to have the opportunity to work with an organization that is proactive in helping to change the lives of persons with disabilities.”

The Neil Squire Society (new window) is honored to have great people like Anu on our team!

A Shoulder Injury Doesn’t Slow Chad Down at Work

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

Using assistive technology (new window) doesn’t have to be expensive. “It can be as simple as putting your monitor on a couple of phone books” according the Neil Squire Society (new window)’s e-Learning Manager, Chad Leaman. And he should know. He recently injured his right shoulder, for the third time, playing softball. But he was using assistive technology (new window) and ergonomic (new window) techniques even before this recent injury to help him deal with neck pain he suffers from a car accident several years ago.

Prior to his injury, Chad used a vertical mouse (new window) to keep his wrist at a 45 degree angle in order to avoid strain. He also has always made sure that his monitor sits high enough so that he doesn’t have to look up or down to use it. While recovering from his shoulder injury, Chad was reduced to one working arm. During that time, he went from using the vertical mouse with his left hand to using a trackball (new window) mouse with his left. He also used the free Dragon Naturally Speaking app (new window) on his iPhone (new window). This allowed him to verbally dictate documents to his phone then easily copy and paste them to his email and send it to his computer. (This app is also available on BlackBerry (new window) and Android (new window)) Though Chad is “by no means an expert” with this program, he has sat in on a couple of Dragon teaching workshops and was able to learn to use the dictation feature fairly easily.

Chad optimistically sees this experience as “a chance to learn some of the tools our clients are learning.” He jokes: “My family thinks this is part of my ongoing empathy training, a sort of ‘walk a mile in someone else’s shoes’ thing.”

Years Spent on Computers Catches up with Suzanne

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

Suzanne Cross has been the Neil Squire Society (new window)’s Manager of Development and Communications for almost 3 years. She has been with the Society, however, for over 6 years, beginning as a volunteer tutor in the Computer Comfort program and later working as the Executive Assistant and Coordinator of Business Development.

Suzanne’s many duties include writing grant applications, reports, and press releases; working with spreadsheets and databases, and designing brochures and ads. She also does a fair amount of social networking. These tasks require her to spend long periods of time in front of a computer. Add to this the fact that Suzanne is a self-described “life-long gamer” and its no surprise that she suffers from repetitive strain injury (new window). “All of the years I’ve spent on the computer have finally caught up to me and I can really feel it in my fingers and wrists,” she explains.

A few simple changes to her workstation have helped lessen the pain Suzanne feels and have allowed her to concentrate more fully on her work. At her desk, she now uses a smaller than average keyboard which requires less pressure to hit the keys than a normal keyboard. She also employs a trackball (new window) instead of a regular mouse which she finds lessens her wrist pain. On the suggestion of Katrina, the Occupational Therapist (new window) at the Neil Squire Society (new window) in Burnaby (new window), Suzanne also uses a moveable laptop tray and a highly adjustable office chair that fits her. As well, her desk was recently moved to the opposite side of her office and away from a glary window in an effort to cut down on the daily strain to her eyes.

These small changes were all that was need to allow Suzanne to accomplish all the hard work she does without pain.