The problem with finding accessible support

The problem is this: if you approach any company and ask them to put you in touch with staff who can assist with providing accessible support, you will probably end up being extremely frustrated and disappointed.

What do I mean when I say accessible support?  This may or may not be the correct terminology but here is my explanation.

To me, accessible support means that when I interact with any technician or customer service rep, I hope or expect them to be able to work with me as follows:

  • To understand how access technology interacts with mainstream hardware and software that is installed on my hardware.
  • To understand how I as someone who is visually impaired navigate and interact with websites.
  • To understand how I interact with my iDevices.

This may sound demanding and daunting but I truly believe that any good technician or customer service rep would be able to understand, and if they are not familiar, that they have the necessary research skills to help them learn, understand, and assist.  Too many companies carelessly claim that they can provide accessible support but in reality this is sadly not the case.

We see evidence of this on an almost daily basis when companies ask employees to use new software and guess what?  The software fails miserably when it comes to enabling persons with vision impairments to do their jobs adequately.  Then there is the case where employees who are visually impaired are unable to access websites because said websites have not been either developed or retrofitted to include accessibility.

Then the problem mushrooms dramatically when these employees go in search of those within their companies to help them and alas!  There is no one with any sort of skill or expertise to provide said accessible support. This is the sobering reality and add to this when I as an external customer tries to find similar types of support.

How can this be solved?  I do not believe that it is as difficult as people may think.  What we need is some sort of partnership between the mainstream technicians and users with disabilities.  I do not believe that this is an unreasonable request.

This is food for thought and I am hoping that someone out there will read my editorial and write to me with their suggestions and ideas.

You can contact me by writing to me at info@sterlingcreations.ca and I’ll respond to you.

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