Andrew, I have started to look at the DOM of Visio to see if this could be scripted with Jaws. At this point of time, I do not have any real idea if it is possible or not. There is a University student in Australia who has a program which works with Visio to convert diagrams into tactual Braille. I have not yet managed to get my hands on the program to see how useful it is or not. I have thought of writing a PERL or Ruby script to build a text based VI friendly map for the network. This is in a concept stage at present. There is a bit of information gathering required before I actually can create anything. The script would be for Cisco equipment. Regards Sean ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Hodgson" <andrew@hodgsonfamily.org> To: "Blind sysadmins list" <blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org> Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2008 2:35 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Cisco Network Admins
Hi,
In my role I get away without network diagrams by doing as you suggest - reading the configs, looking at the systems, and seeing how they connect. I always think that it is better to do this anyway, as I have found diagrams in the past to be over simplified or inaccurate when looking at previous diagrams v looking at the actual bigger picture.
I have also found that various people have different standards for diagrams, so there is no one size fits all approach, especially when working with several companies.
I also ensure that I know how solutions fit in with each other, so if someone says that they have this particular piece of equipment, I know how it fits in with other bits they have, baring in mind the configuration may not be correct.
I am investigating XML based diagrams in Visio, which looked at first as though I would be able to read the diagram using the XML fields. This has so far proved to be a bit unsuccessful, but I am not giving up just yet.
Andrew.
-----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Sean Murphy Sent: 31 May 2008 13:49 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Cisco Network Admins
Darren
In my current role, I do not use any network diagrams to understand the network. In fact, this is not as important as some people want you to believe. Being able to read them does help.
The company I currently work for, provides a managed WAN solution. We have direct access to all the routers we managed. The routers are all Linux based. Therefore, we can determine the structure of the network through the configurations.
The new position I am moving to in the beginning of July. Is very different where they need to have network diagrams because they don't have direct access to the customer routers. I am currently trying to find a solution to this one. If you can read large print, then this simplifies the issue. I rely on speech or Braille.
If the router is text based CLI, then there are no barriers I can see.
Access to books where they explain the graphical networking concepts they portray is difficult without someone else explaining them.
Sean number of networks they are responsable for.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Darren Brewer" <darren.m.brewer@blueyonder.co.uk> To: "Blind sysadmins list" <blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org> Sent: Friday, May 30, 2008 9:12 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Cisco Network Admins
Hi Andrew
I have only recently joined this mailing list as I thought it would be
helpful in finding out how other visually impaired people cope with computer networking.
I was just wondering, where about in the UK do you live? I have been seriously thinking about doing a Microsoft or CISCO qualification for quite some time now and even did a short taster course at Portland college near Nottingham. Unfortunately they are not very well setup to cater for visually impaired students so that didn't really work out.
Having worked as an electronics design engineer and also obtaining a degree in electronic engineering just over 10 years ago,I thought the best route to employment would be for me to get into networking. For those of us who are visually impaired such a career is obviously problematic, especially where practical skills are required. I do still have useful
vision, but even so it's tough. I still require magnification and a screen reader in order to use a computer efficiently.
The sort of work I used to do required a level of vision which I no longer possess. I can still use CAD software and that is still an option, but
diagrams are always going to be difficult. Although I know network diagrams are not as complicated as schematics, they are still quite tricky to deal with.
I would be interested to know which courses you have completed and where?
I would also like to hear the views of other visually impaired people on here who are currently doing a course, or maybe even working in the field.
Cheers Darren.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Hodgson" <Andrew.Hodgson@allpay.net> To: "blind-sysadmins" <blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org> Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 3:38 PM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Cisco Network Admins
Hi,
I am not worried about the course, I did the course last year (though the exams will be retired from that at the end of this year). However, it is the exams that are the problem, but we went through this already on this list.
I am hoping to do the MS 2008 exams, my first hurdle is the exam centre I use has stopped doing MS exams because they are not a Prometric centre.
Andrew.
-----Original Message----- From: Sean Murphy [mailto:mhysnm1964@gmail.com] Sent: 30 May 2008 06:00 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Cisco Network Admins
Andrew,
There is a CCNA course in Australia which is making the CCNA information accessible. The next version of the CCNA course has accessibility in mind. If you wish to learn more, than I can point you towards the person who you should talk too. t he course is being run by the Western Australian Association for the Blind.
?Sean
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