As a blind business woman, I depend heavily on my hosting company to help me with various functions which in the normal scheme of things can be easily performed by anyone who is sighted and has a bit of technical knowledge. Why is this so?
For the most part, it is practically impossible for persons with vision impairment to be able to access and work with hosting panels. Consequently, blind and visually-impaired persons have to depend on their hosting companies to help them with such functions as domain registrations and renewals, website maintenance and updates, web design and development, and more. Up until January 2009, I had the good fortune to have had a hosting company that truly understood the meaning of the word service. They went above the call of duty to ensure that my needs as a blind person were met. Since then, it has been a bit of a rocky road for me.
I have researched over 25 hosting companies across North America and to my chagrin I am here to report that almost all of them were unwilling to help me. Surprising you ask? Not really! Most hosting companies are only concerned with collecting their revenues and not too concerned with customer support and satisfaction. They claim that their hosting panels are easy to navigate but truth be told, they are not. If you are not technically savvy then you are in trouble and add to this the extra burden of having to work with these congested panels when you are unable to see what you're doing. In one sentence, most hosting panels are inaccessible and unusable to persons who are not technically savvy and to those who are unable to see. In short, most hosting companies are not very good hosts towards many of their customers.
So how can we begin to tackle this problem? As I see it, through education. We need to convince hosting companies that they need to design and develop hosting panels that are more accessible and usable. If they are more accessible and usable, then many more customers would be enticed to use their services. Aging baby boomers did not grow up in the age of technology and are the market that hosting companies should be gravitating towards. Too often, companies as a whole seem to forget that there is a real market out there with real consumers and real demand: consumers who are not technically savvy, consumers who did not grow up in the era of the Internet and modern technology, and consumers who are visually impaired.
I'm Donna J. Jodhan wishing you a terrific day and reminding you to go out there and start educating your hosting company on how they can become bigger and better hosts.
Showing posts with label aging population. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aging population. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
The Problem With Warning Signs
Believe it or not, warning signs play a very crucial and important part in our daily lives. We put them up when we need to warn others of pending danger or perils, and we also depend on them to tell us when we need to be aware of something that could potentially harm or hurt us. 99.9% of the time, these signs are very easy to see because they are constructed using extremely bright and garish colors and are almost always strategically placed so that they are easy to spot. However, there is one huge factor that most of the sighted world still seems to miss: Warning signs don't talk. Allow me to explain why this is an issue by giving you a real-life example.
A few weeks ago when I stepped out of my condominium to walk to the elevator, I was greeted by a strong smell of paint. I immediately knew that the workmen were painting close by, but what I did not know was precisely where. I decided to be super careful as I walked but soon ran into trouble when my jacket came in contact with wet paint on the wall close to my door. Before I knew it, the sleeve of my jacket was covered with paint.
When I went to the management office to ask that in future they let me know when and where they would be painting, their response was, "Well, did you not see the wet paint sign tacked onto your door?" When I told them that I did not because I am blind, they replied, "Maybe you should simply be more careful whenever you smell paint."
This interaction totally frustrated me, as it is only one in a long line of such incidents throughout my life. Before leaving the office I told them that maybe in the future they should try to develop a sign that would talk to me instead and would let me know what I needed to. Unfortunately, this did not go over very well and a few days later I returned to the office to have a chat with the management team to try to enlighten them about such matters.
The lesson here is that it accomplishes nothing for me to be sarcastic to the staff at the management office or any of the myriad places where obstacles – both literal and figurative -- occur. Instead, I need to find ways to help them to understand why it is important for them to ensure that warning signs are communicated to all tenants, both mainstream as well as those with special needs. Working with them to find a solution is what is best for all concerned.
I was able to convince them that they need to communicate with all of the condominium dwellers whenever they are putting up warning signs because doing this will not only benefit me, it will also benefit those who are unable to read easily due to an age- or medical-related disability.
There are millions of persons in our world who are unable to read for various reasons, and they are classified as "print disabled." Warning signs are of great value if you can see them, but for those of us who are either unable to see or read them, they become literally useless and more of a hazard if we end up bumping into them and injuring ourselves. It is time for the rest of the world, starting with those around us, to be educated. These are issues the sighted world has never considered, so it is my mission to start the process, and I'm delighted to do so. If we all keep the sighted and special-needs communities in mind as we go through our daily lives, it will help more people than we can imagine.
A few weeks ago when I stepped out of my condominium to walk to the elevator, I was greeted by a strong smell of paint. I immediately knew that the workmen were painting close by, but what I did not know was precisely where. I decided to be super careful as I walked but soon ran into trouble when my jacket came in contact with wet paint on the wall close to my door. Before I knew it, the sleeve of my jacket was covered with paint.
When I went to the management office to ask that in future they let me know when and where they would be painting, their response was, "Well, did you not see the wet paint sign tacked onto your door?" When I told them that I did not because I am blind, they replied, "Maybe you should simply be more careful whenever you smell paint."
This interaction totally frustrated me, as it is only one in a long line of such incidents throughout my life. Before leaving the office I told them that maybe in the future they should try to develop a sign that would talk to me instead and would let me know what I needed to. Unfortunately, this did not go over very well and a few days later I returned to the office to have a chat with the management team to try to enlighten them about such matters.
The lesson here is that it accomplishes nothing for me to be sarcastic to the staff at the management office or any of the myriad places where obstacles – both literal and figurative -- occur. Instead, I need to find ways to help them to understand why it is important for them to ensure that warning signs are communicated to all tenants, both mainstream as well as those with special needs. Working with them to find a solution is what is best for all concerned.
I was able to convince them that they need to communicate with all of the condominium dwellers whenever they are putting up warning signs because doing this will not only benefit me, it will also benefit those who are unable to read easily due to an age- or medical-related disability.
There are millions of persons in our world who are unable to read for various reasons, and they are classified as "print disabled." Warning signs are of great value if you can see them, but for those of us who are either unable to see or read them, they become literally useless and more of a hazard if we end up bumping into them and injuring ourselves. It is time for the rest of the world, starting with those around us, to be educated. These are issues the sighted world has never considered, so it is my mission to start the process, and I'm delighted to do so. If we all keep the sighted and special-needs communities in mind as we go through our daily lives, it will help more people than we can imagine.
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