June 2014 - Blind-sysadmins - lists.hodgsonfamily.org

Pro xpn vpn
by David Mehler 10 Jun '14

10 Jun '14

Hello, Does anyone use Pro xpn with a screen reader? If so, how well does it work for remote network/system access? Thanks. Dave.

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Pro xpn vpn
by David Mehler 10 Jun '14

10 Jun '14

Hello, Does anyone use Pro xpn with a screen reader? If so, how well does it work for remote network/system access? Thanks. Dave.

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Looking for admins to talk about accessibility
by Ben Mustill-Rose 09 Jun '14

09 Jun '14

Hi all, Dolphin (www.yourdolphin.com) are interested in the challenges that blind system administrators are facing in the workplace with the aim of investigating how feasible it would be to increase the accessibility of some widely used applications with their SuperNova suite of products. If you are an admin and are interested in starting an email dialog with Dolphin, please make yourself known either on or off list and I will send you the contact information for the relevant person. Initially, it would probably just be a case of a few emails going back & forth with you telling them what applications you are required to / would like to use & talking about some of the problems that are preventing you from being as productive as you'd like. With all due respect, the people that I'm really hoping will reach out are the people who are actually doing this as their 9 to 5, purely so that we can make sure that all information that Dolphin receive is completely accurate - this is one of the reasons why I as a hobbyist am not providing any information to them myself. I feel it is also important to stress that at the moment Dolphin are only performing information gathering. My contact would genuinely like to help blind admins and is well placed internally to allocate developer time towards increasing accessibility of specific products, but as I'm sure you're all aware, time is money and any time spent making program x accessible would need to be justifiable. Having said this, I don't anticipate initial discussions taking overly long so hopefully some of you will agree that it's worth a shot. As per above, if you're interested in getting involved, please let me know on or off list & I'll get the ball rolling. Cheers, Ben.

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Looking for admins to talk about accessibility
by Ben Mustill-Rose 06 Jun '14

06 Jun '14

Hi all, Dolphin (www.yourdolphin.com) are interested in the challenges that blind system administrators are facing in the workplace with the aim of investigating how feasible it would be to increase the accessibility of some widely used applications with their SuperNova suite of products. If you are an admin and are interested in starting an email dialog with Dolphin, please make yourself known either on or off list and I will send you the contact information for the relevant person. Initially, it would probably just be a case of a few emails going back & forth with you telling them what applications you are required to / would like to use & talking about some of the problems that are preventing you from being as productive as you'd like. With all due respect, the people that I'm really hoping will reach out are the people who are actually doing this as their 9 to 5, purely so that we can make sure that all information that Dolphin receive is completely accurate - this is one of the reasons why I as a hobbyist am not providing any information to them myself. I feel it is also important to stress that at the moment Dolphin are only performing information gathering. My contact would genuinely like to help blind admins and is well placed internally to allocate developer time towards increasing accessibility of specific products, but as I'm sure you're all aware, time is money and any time spent making program x accessible would need to be justifiable. Having said this, I don't anticipate initial discussions taking overly long so hopefully some of you will agree that it's worth a shot. As per above, if you're interested in getting involved, please let me know on or off list & I'll get the ball rolling. Cheers, Ben.

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Career path, desktop, server?
by chris 05 Jun '14

05 Jun '14

HI guys. I hope this is OK to ask here. I'm a would-be IT professional who's interests lie particularly in servers and networking. Currently volunteering, gaining experience with Linux, wireless networking, troubleshooting. I use VMs to teach myself some system admin using Linux and Windows Server 2012. In trying to gain employment in IT I've been applying for first line / help desk type jobs. Now obviously a lot of these are asking for hands on, break and rebuild skills, managing printers, etc. Basically stuff I'm not too good at, you only have so much hardware to practise on, and can't really see me doing as a major function of a role, as a blind person. I've been turned down for such roles in the past basically on H and S considerations. I know, there may be many of you with severe sight impairment who have done this sort of work, if so, feel free to tell me I'm wrong, how it went etc. But what I'm wondering is. Is it worth me struggling to study desktop support stuff, given the difficulties I see in gaining those hands on roles. Should I devote my efforts to servers, infrastructure, web application support stuff instead, which I find more interesting anyway? Is the only way in through the desktop support positions? For what it's worth I apply for junior Linux, networking positions and more phone based help desk roles where I see them of course. Regards Chris Turner

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