Effective IT support for blind and partially sighted access technology users in the workplace

Abstract

Large organisations face challenges when managing their IT systems. They need to ensure that users are prevented from catching viruses, downloading inappropriate material, installing rogue software or otherwise bringing down corporate IT systems. Ideally, they would like workstations to be locked down, allowing access only to approved corporate applications and nothing else. If a “corporate build” can be used, so much the better—if a workstation breaks, another can be shipped in without delay. Blind and partially sighted employees, and other users with non-standard requirements, really mess this up. They need access to floppy drives and CD drives, and temporary administrator rights, and remote control software disabled, and special software and hardware that cannot form part of the standard corporate build, and priority on repairs, and special attention when it comes to IT training. How can all this be managed when corporate IT support is being cut back to the bone? RNIB is one organisation that has tried to come up with some answers, and there are a number of other employers who are also working on this. We describe what best practice in IT support in the workplace might look like, and show you how far RNIB and others have reached in trying to implement solutions.