RE: "Is Quality for the Blind?"

["Brian Thomas" <briantho@ozemail.com.au>]

In response to Dr Mauro's dilemma when working with Blind people.

I have recently undertaken some research in preparation for working with
a board that had half the participants who were either blind or vision
impaired.  This assignment also extended to a management team who also
had members who were blind or vision impaired.  Our focus was systems
thinking, complexity, service delivery, understanding of the nature of
variation and its impact on decision making and process improvement in
both strategic and operational contexts

Like you I was not able to discover any technology solutions that were
usable and which advantaged the users.  Most of the technology
assistance is in the form of textual devices that either convert to
Braille or speech or visa versa.  This is sequential and also difficult
to manage, especially when looking at relationships as in a large
spreadsheet or when looking for trends in data presented as graphs or
using SPC.  

I found that the group was able to use all the other tools for inquiry,
problem solving, group decision making and action planning, including
system archetypes and system/relationship mapping but we had to talk
things through and as a facilitator I had to be continually speaking to
the group process.  

The room set up was also important. We found that people being seated
around a square table was useful so that people could create memory maps
of where people were, associate speech to individuals and also track
what was being placed around the room or used on cards etc.  We were
able to adapt most tools in the group work environment.  People had a
hugh memory capacity and could hold large amounts of information as well
as participate, subject to low ambient noise conditions and an absence
of side conversations, which when they occurred threw many people into
sensory overload.

However in a students situation where he or she may be trying to analyse
data and turn it into useful information as an individual assessment
task, this presents an issue where they may need a sighted assistant to
interpret what is in the data array or the graph according to the rules
that the student had identified from their reading or their tutorials. 

These issues are real world issues for board members and managers who
are being held to personal account for performance expressed as numbers
and where the real information is in the dynamic and relationship
between different numbers and sources of data - and often they just cant
see it or get it, unless it is pointed out.  

A way forward that I used was based on trust and openness and as
participants discovered ways of asking probing questions, inquiring into
the nature of the performance and the underlying systems and users
experiences, they could elicit what was going on and engage - often
picking up nuance and other feeling data better than sighted
participants who jump quickly to inference and assumption (old
patterns).  The key is generating valid information and as a group this
was possible as long as people were inquiring into the nature of the
measures being used and the performance and variation all was ok.

I was also fortunate in that one of products we developed a while ago is
a desk top coach for problem solving and innovation as well as basic
process management and conntinuous imprvement (34 tools and
techniques)had all the "how to's" in pure text formats so that people
could use them without direct reference to diagrams, in a group
sistuation.  

Another thing that I found was the differentt approaches needed for
young people versus older people and those who once been sighted verus
those who had been blind since birth.  Their learning styles and
abilities varied significantly.

The other issues that looms for manay of us is that significant vision
impairment is an increasing issue as populations age and we all live
longer.  There will be many people trapped in this situation who are
still working in business environments where data driven decision making
is (or should be) a key part of the work.

I contacted all the Australian and Global vision societies and also
touched base with health and education specialts working in the field.
If anyone else has experienced similar things and found new ways that
are effective and can share them, I  would really like to pass them onto
people in Australia.  

Brian Thomas
 
Insight Outsight Pty Ltd
ABN 86 105 521 622
Office Phone:  +61 3 9754 4841
Mobile: +61 419 317 676
 
Melbourne Office:
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Melbourne, Australia 3000
 
Mail Address:  PO Box 1284, Upwey,
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www.insightoutsight.com.au