Ana and Ted make good points, especially when regarding inbound calls
and national companies.  The other side of this discussion may be
opportunities with more local companies and/or individuals searching
for productive people to make calls, enter data, or answer local or
regional phones.  I have worked from home doing marketing and outbound
calling; making outbound calls allows one to insure breaks and time
off.  I found Ana's comments about isolation and claustrophobia to be
relevant and something to take into account at times when I was under
pressure to produce.  I have also performed writing and administrative
tasks for folks from home; thee jobs are made much easier with the
proliferation of web based productivity tools.

Happy searching, remember that the questions you ask and the research
you do for a homework hob should be thorough and you should expect to
find bad positions as well as good ones.  I'm not sure any rehab
agency has expertise in sorting the opportunities.

Steve Hoad
On 1/12/16, Ana G <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Some well-known companies, like American Express and Goldman Sax, have
> positions that can be done from home either for contractors or
> employees. The most common positions, the ones I suspect are on the
> rise, are what amounts to call center positions. The two companies I've
> mentioned have discussion groups and other support for people with
> disabilities, but what that translates to in real life depends to some
> degree on who your supervisor is and how much this person is willing to
> do. I've heard really positive stories of supervisors pushing for and
> getting very expensive scripting done so a relatively low-level employee
> could use her screen reader, and I've heard horror stories of employees
> quitting because their productivity was extremely low due to poor access.
>
> My only real experience with this type of work has been as a telephonic
> interpreter for a couple of different companies. I did it both as an
> employee and as a contractor. There was a portal we could use to manage
> employee stuff, like days off and payroll, and a website that we could
> log into while we were on the phone to get information about the current
> call. In theory, we didn't have to use the websites, but in practice,
> life was made very difficult if we didn't. The portal and website were
> both only partially accessible, even though I know these companies hire
> a number of blind interpreters, and the level of accommodation varied.
> One company was able to give us over-the-phone training since the web
> based training wasn't accessible, but the same company didn't really
> have anything in place for helping us manage absences, breaks, and so
> forth on it's increasingly inaccessible employee portal.
>
> Beyond that, I personally found working from home to be surprisingly
> hard emotionally speaking. The first few minutes were the hardest part
> of a call because I was juggling information on the computer with what
> the parties were telling me in order to figure out what this particular
> call/encounter was about, and on top of that, I would be getting used to
> each speaker's communication style/voice and trying to acclimate to the
> often poor sound quality of the line. Most days, the phone never stopped
> ringing, so I didn't get a chance to clear my head for a moment between
> encounters. And on days with long sleepy gaps, I would find myself
> noticing just how alone and isolated I was. Since interpreters handle a
> lot of highly confidential information and since I don't live alone, I
> had to keep my home office door closed while I worked. This increased my
> mild claustrophobia to levels I could no longer quite ignore. Over time,
> it became harder to tolerate the days and half-days spent alone in a
> room. I wasn't expecting to have this problem since I think of myself as
> fairly introverted, and I generally find noise and distraction bothersome.
>
> finally, the companies I worked for have no problem requiring extra
> training outside of work hours. We were often sent glossaries and
> scenarios to learn for the latest client, and while we were expected to
> work on the material, we were not paid to do so or allotted time during
> our shift for that purpose. If the job paid well, I wouldn't have
> minded, but since the pay was low enough for me to keep looking for
> work, I was more interested in furthering my own job seeking agenda than
> in helping the companies achieve world domination.
>
> I've spoken to a few other people who have done similar work:
> call-center-from-home jobs. They have the same complaints whether
> they're taking calls for banks or offering tech support. I won't say
> I'll never do it again. I learned a lot as an over-the-phone
> interpreter, both when I did it in the early days of my career and years
> later as someone with lots of experience and training. It was also
> convenient as I didn't have to worry about transportation or weird
> I-can't-deal-with-the-stupid-blind-lady issues. But for me, it was one
> of the most stressful and unpleasant experiences of my working life, and
> I would do it again only if I had nothing else going on.
>
> Ciao
>
>
>
>
> On 1/12/2016 6:03 PM, ted chittenden wrote:
>> Hi to all.
>>
>> There is really no sure way to tell a legitimate work-at-home option from
>> an illegitimate one. However, there are signs that you can use to make
>> that kind of judgment. These include how well the company is known, what
>> kind of reputation the company has with other companies, its customers,
>> and former employees, and if the offer you're getting sounds too good to
>> be true.
>>
>> There is another factor that blind and visually impaired people should
>> consider as well when determining whether or not they will be able to work
>> from home; namely, the accessibility of the company's website. Despite the
>> law, there are still plenty of companies whose website accessibility,
>> especially for employees, is far from adequate. While you could file legal
>> claims or take other advocacy steps against such companies, those actions
>> will not get you nearer to a job from home in the short term, and you may
>> not have the money to fight against such companies in the first place.
>>
>> Finally, to add to Catherine's comments (which are excellent points to
>> consider, by the way), I should note that my past experience with
>> brick-and-morter companies with work-from-home opportunities has been that
>> such businesses will first want to see how you work in the
>> brick-and-morter environments of their offices before allowing you to work
>> from home.
>>
>> Good luck!
>> ---- Catherine Getchell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> This is a great question to ask your state VR agency.  It's been my
>> experience that many of the telecommuting companies that claim to
>> provide jobs for people with disabilities provide temporary contract
>> work at best.  I haven't heard of too many people having a long-term,
>> stable, sustainable wage job from organizations such as NTI or J
>> Lodge.  Not to say these sustainable wage, stable jobs don't exist
>> with these organizations.  I just personally haven't had any customers
>> where this worked out.  There are also usually pretty stringent
>> computer equipment and computer skills requirements which can
>> eliminate many candidates.  My recommendation would be to look for a
>> job from a company that has both a brick and morter office and some
>> work from home options for employees.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 1/12/16, Jeff Kenyon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> Hi everyone, I am also interested in this as well. I am interested in
>>> the
>>> kind of telecommuting work that can be done from home and also what is
>>> legit
>>> and what is not and how to tell one from the other.
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>>> On Jan 12, 2016, at 5:08 PM, Bundy, Keith <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Good evening, list. I continually read where legitimate telecommuting
>>>> jobs
>>>> are on the increase.
>>>>
>>>> For a variety of reasons, I am looking for a career change and would
>>>> love
>>>> to step into telecommuting due to not wanting to relocate at this point
>>>> in
>>>> life. Does anyone on the list have any ideas as to how one can make a
>>>> serious effort to find legitimate telecommuting work?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for any thoughts you may have.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Keith Bundy, MS
>>>> Assistant Dean for Student Development
>>>> ADA Coordinator, Adjunct Instructor - CSC-105
>>>> Dakota State University
>>>> 820 N. Washington Ave.
>>>> Madison, SD 57042
>>>> Phone: 605-256-5121, Fax: 605-256-5854
>>>> mail: [log in to unmask]
>>>>
>>>> Leave list: [log in to unmask]
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-- 
 Steve Hoad


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