Hay Andrew,
I'm delighted you like the idea.
The site will need to be designed both for visual attractiveness and
accessibility however I've worked on a lot of projects with the same goals
such as www.mushroomfm.com, www.thelegend.com www.vicsireland.org
www.lalrecordings.com www.digitaldarragh.com www.nickykealy.com and a few
others so this shouldn't be much of a problem.
I'm basing the site on Drupal 7 and already have a working model running
at this address. www.blindsysadmins.com
There is certainly a lot to do and I'd like to involve as many people as
possible in decision making and even getting work done if people are
willing. With the level of support I've got back after just a few
messages introducing the idea I'm very hopeful that the momentum will
continue.
Regards
Darragh Ó Héiligh
Fujitsu
Offices of the Houses of the Oireachtas,
Fredrick Building,
South Fredrick Street,
Dublin2
Telephone: +353 (1) 618 3559
Email: darragh.oheiligh@oireachtas.ie
Internet: http://www.oireachtas.ie
From: Andrew Hodgson
To: Blind sysadmins list
Date: 27/02/2011 10:33
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators
Sent by: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org
Hi,
This looks a very good idea. I think the part I like the most is the
ability to share information with other people. Wouldn't it be great if
someone Googled a particular topic, and the blind sysadmins website was
one of the hits with a possible solution?
So where will we go from here? Will we need to design an interface for the
website?
If people want it, the list can also be moved to that domain as well, or
you could point the records of a subdomain to this server to continue
hosting it here under the relevant domain.
Andrew.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [
mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of
Darragh OHeiligh
Sent: 25 February 2011 12:01
To: blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org
Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Blind System Administrators
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
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