My story, and a question

[lilpun4ever]

Good afternoon to all. This is my first time on this board. It is a pleasure to read each and every story here. I am not sure if this would even be in the correct thread, but here goes nothing. First, my story. I am 35 years of age, reside in North Carolina and am totally blind, and have been since birth. I am married, with no children, I am receiving SSDI benefits. I just moved from Richmond Virginia about two years ago. I wanted to be closer to my wife's relatives. I worked for ten years in the customer service and call center industry, and am ready for a change from a traditional work environment to working from home. I have applied to multiple companies to work from home, with no success. The issue is that when I disclose my disability, and the fact that I need specialized software called JAWS in order to do my job, they tell me that their systems are not compatible. I actually have a licensed copy of the software, so the company does not need to purchase it. I also applied for services through my state's vocational rehab agency. The agency was unsuccessful in finding me work from home opportunities. I found the opportunities myself, and received all necessary equipment from the state rehab agency in order to work. I did work briefly for a company Sutherland Global for a season, which is how I obtained my assistive technology in order to start working from home. I was let go after my case with the rehab agency was closed successfully. What I really want to do is to work from home as a quality call analyst, where I listen to and grade phone calls. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to go from here? Are there companies don't have a problem wit hiring persons that are blind? I don't feel right about not disclosing my disability to a prospective employer. It also frustrates me that companies are quick to say that their systems are not compatible with screenreaders. I feel like they don't even want to try first. I am an advanced screenreader user, and am able to writes scripts so that a program is more accessible to use. I am even able to do data entry work or backoffice work. I currently troubleshoot and repair computers as a hobby. I apologize for the extremely long post, and I look forward and thank you all for your ideas and suggestions.

[elph]

Hi lilpun4ever,

I am willing to bet that the companies you have applied with don't have an issue with paying for the software, but rather with making any concessions needed to adapt that software to the systems they plan to put on your computer. Most of them require you to sign into a VPN where you'll be using a Virtual Machine that takes over your desktop. The Virtual Machine will not be able to access software on your home desktop, only software loaded by the company on their servers. I would advise you to weed out any possibilities that require use of a VM system and only apply to companies that will allow you to use your own desktop.

There is a company called Call Center QA that has been hiring lately. From what I can tell it is task based work, meaning you get a fixed fee per call completed, which might not be the terms you were looking for. But here they are if you want to have a look:

Home | Call Center Quality Assurance and Analysis Solutions

[blueblue]

Have you tried reading this thread? http://www.wahm.com/forum/telecommut...-my-story.html There seems to be tons of information and resources regarding disability. You may want to try to contact some people that can give you a more detailed outline of resources listed in the post. Let us know what happens!

Blue

[lilpun4ever]

Originally Posted by elph

Hi lilpun4ever,

I am willing to bet that the companies you have applied with don't have an issue with paying for the software, but rather with making any concessions needed to adapt that software to the systems they plan to put on your computer. Most of them require you to sign into a VPN where you'll be using a Virtual Machine that takes over your desktop. The Virtual Machine will not be able to access software on your home desktop, only software loaded by the company on their servers. I would advise you to weed out any possibilities that require use of a VM system and only apply to companies that will allow you to use your own desktop.

There is a company called Call Center QA that has been hiring lately. From what I can tell it is task based work, meaning you get a fixed fee per call completed, which might not be the terms you were looking for. But here they are if you want to have a look:

Home | Call Center Quality Assurance and Analysis Solutions

Greetings Elph, and thank you for your reply. I will have a look at the lead you posted here. I will let the community know of my progress for work. Again, thanks.

[buffetwoman]

Welcome to the forums!!!! We're glad you're here!

[malea]

I just want to welcome you to the forum. Don't give up on your search.