KEY POINTS:
When it comes to using IT in the workplace most of us take the basics for granted - we're able to see the PC screen, for example.
Minnie Baragwanath, strategic disability advisor for the Auckland City Council can't see her PC screen, a mobile phone screen or a photocopier display because she suffers from Stargardt's disease, an inherited macular degeneration disease that causes a progressive loss of central vision for both eyes, but does not affect peripheral vision.
Baragwanath, who has had the disease since childhood, says she would not be able to work without the effort some IT companies (particularly IBM, Microsoft and niche disability software developers) have put into developing hardware and software with disabled people in mind.
"When computers first came out there was no adaptive software and I couldn't use them at all; now I can sit at a desk and hold down a full time job and read emails and write reports. For me [IT] makes the difference between being able to work in a meaningful job or not," says Baragwanath, who has a BA in English literature and a Bachelor of Communication Studies degree.
Baragwanath says since 2001 the Auckland City Council has spearheaded a programme of disability reform to make its practices and services accessible and inclusive for the disabled. This has included reconsideration of council buildings, bus shelters, footpaths, and events, through to information technology.
In November last year the council also collaborated with Vodafone, IBM, AUT and the Waitemata District Health Board to launch 'Innovation Unleashed', an event profiling communications advances accessible to disabled people and hoped to change the way business and civic leaders view disabled people. Baragwanath says at present too many communication systems are designed without the disabled in mind.
"That's crazy when you think there are one billion disabled people in the world and around 800,000 in New Zealand alone. Imagine the potential spending power of this group if products were designed for them," she says.
Baragwanath says internal efforts to provide a workplace accessible to disabled people obviously aids retention strategies and creates a viable workplace for a greater section of the population - including older people.
"We have execs here that would prefer to read a screen in 16-point font, but wouldn't class themselves as having a disability," she says.
Recent statistics reveal around 50 per cent of people over the age of 65 in New Zealand have at least one disability as does 20 per cent of the general population. So what part can IT marketers and developers play in improving the odds so a greater proportion of disabled people can seek meaningful employment?
Baragwanath says IT designers who come up with new products designed for the eyes of a 20-year-old are doing employers no favours - at work, she uses screen reading software called Jaws which lets her zoom in on text and magnify the screen as a whole, and members of the Council's IT team sat down and watched her use the internet when they were re-designing the council web site.
"The internet, when it is accessible, is the next biggest revolution for blind people since Braille; only one per cent of the world's books are available in Braille or as audio books - yet we live in a visual world that is based on written material," she says.
And it's thumbs down to mobile phone designers and developers of new printers and photocopiers with small digital screens. Baragwanath says if any of these devices display a message or an error she has no idea what it is because it is displayed too small. To use mobile phones the sight-impaired need adaptive software such as Vodafone's Talks which screen-reads messages sent to and from some phones.
Baragwanath speaks highly of this tool and of devices from Christchurch IT developer Humanware, which develops and market products for the visually impaired including mobile magnifiers, auto-readers and Trekker, a device that uses GPS and digital maps to help blind people find their way in urban and rural areas.
However, Baragwanath says add-on software is often expensive and suffers from compatibility issues with some operating systems - the ideal is for IT developers to design universal systems with integrated disability aids at 'drawing board' level.
"Japan is getting its head around this and some of the Scandinavian countries are also doing better [than New Zealand]. We have come a long way, but there's a long way to go," she says.
