Apologies. I registered the same domain as the list name accidently without checking to see if it was a duplicate. I'm hoping it doesn't stand on anyones tows but if it does. I'll register something else. Hello, I would like to introduce you to an exciting and potentially beneficial idea that I‘m mulling over at the moment. Like you, I am a system administrator. I continue to struggle with this job on two fronts. Firstly, I need to battle to work through challenges to software and hardware accessibility and secondly, I need to continually prove that the fact that I am blind has no impact on my ability to work at the same level of any other system administrator. What if we could significantly help with both of these issues at the same time? I think we can. The number of blind system administrators is very small but between us we have a huge amount of technical, procedural and operational knowledge and experience. Each of us has had to overcome barriers to accessibility in order to effectively and independently rise to meet the responsibilities of our chosen roles. Each obstacle to accessibility actually creates three potential benefits. Firstly and of course obviously, we have gained access to the system we are working on. Secondly, we have demonstrated flexibility and resourcefulness and finally, we can use the tools we have found or developed to resolve future issues we encounter. I believe that it is this continued struggle that doesn’t just make us effective system administrators, it makes us better system administrators. Recognising, analysing and solving problems are the most important abilities of a system administrator. When it comes to problem solving we’ve got it nailed! With the right communication tools with each solution we find that enables us to surmount an accessibility related barrier we provide a little more proof to employers that: Yes, we can do this, yes we can work independently and yes we can bring highly developed problem solving skills to your company. Let me introduce you to www.BlindSysAdmins.com This site is an idea I had yesterday that I strongly believe has massive potential. It could help you and me as people already in work and even people aiming to get into the area of system administration. Even more importantly, it could be a practical demonstration of how resourceful and adaptive blind system administrators need to be. Companies considering employing a blind system administrator would instantly see from the site that the applicant would be an effective, resourceful and independent addition to their work force. Accomplishing these objectives is actually not as difficult as it may seem. This is the part where I need your help and input. Don’t worry, I’m not asking for much and if it works, the result will be rewarding for all of us. I am thinking of the following ideas: 1. Individual profiles. If I could get five or six system administrators involved I’m be delighted. All I’m looking for is a really quick introduction to you. What systems do you work on, what you specialise in, how much experience do you have and what kind of environment do you work on. For example, the platform, number of users, number of servers etc. You can make this as brief or as detailed as you like. The key is to make it really positive and to show that you enjoy what you do. 2. Problems that you have overcome. What have you had to do above and beyond the call of duty to get access to a system or fulfil a responsibility? For example, I was the first person to organise the backup solution in this company. It was in operation for ten years before I got here but tapes and other media was never archived correctly. Restore requests were a very time consuming job as when the backup software requested a tape with a specific barcode, the administrator had to search through three storage rooms in three different buildings to find the elusive tape. Obviously for me, this wasn’t a viable set up. I dug out all the old boxes for the VOIP phones and the DLT tapes that I could get my hands on and created a barcode template for each one. This template included an abbreviated building name, the floor number and then an incremented identifier. For example. ABC4030. Tapes from specific libraries were put into specific buildings so I could tell that RK5 tapes should be in BCD3 so if the backup solution requested RK5030 I could look up a spread sheet and see that I had put that tape into the box labelled BCD3095. Armed with an off the shelf barcode reader and a laptop I could independently go to the room, find the box and the tape and load it into the tape library. Restore requests took no longer than 20 minutes with my method therefore the solution I implemented was a major improvement for the company I work for. What have you done? Write a simple account such as the one that I have given that demonstrates how you were able to get a job done using your own initiative to make the system accessible. 3. Step by step instructions. I’d love people to help with this so please consider it. If you have made a script for Jaws or Window eyes or you have found a work around to make an application work more effectively with your screen reader then please write down the instructions to help others do the same thing. For example: In HP data protector Jaws incorrectly load the wrong scripts. The fix for this is very simple but by documenting it I could save someone else a lot of time and effort. 4. Ask questions. There is a fantastic mailing list for blind system administrators and I would in no way like to infringe on this. Without that resource I would have been left stranded over the past few years. I would however like to provide a forum on the site so that people can pose questions. There is method to this madness. By asking and answering questions you are providing assurance to new system administrators and even employers that Blind system administrators are a supportive group of people. We’ve all been there. We’ve all had problems that we need a second perspective on. Just by being aware that there’s a group of people available to help with questions is a massive comfort. I’m not asking for any commitment from any of you. I explain this to show you my thinking behind this site and why I think that all of these ideas could actually lead to a resource that is really useful to both employers and employees. I have other ideas as well but this mail is already too long. I’d like to say thank you for reading. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions I’d really really appreciate hearing from you. If you’re interested in helping with any of the ideas above please reply. I have purchased the domain and I will work on this site over the weekend. IF people are interested in contributing then this could get off the ground really quickly. All it needs is your help. Darragh