The Davinci just arrived on time! I was worried that I wouldn’t have it on my desk by the time I would have to grade some tests today.  It was a bit difficult to go up to my supervisor and the professor I work with and let them know that I didn’t have the proper equipment to grade assignments/tests.  Of course after harassing staff in the department about it’s arrival, I found out that it would arrive Thursday (yesterday).  This was after I told my supervisor… funny how things work!  I usually don’t like using my vision as an excuse to not do my work, however without this equipment I don’t think I would be able to grade some tests over the weekend.  It made this more of an internal conflict than an external one.  Both the professor and supervisor didn’t have a problem with me not grading anything until I received the Davinci.

However, requesting the equipment itself was a bit of a struggle (in terms of the actual cost) because it was deemed “too expensive”. In my opinion most high tech, low vision aids are going to have a bit of a cost, but it is necessary tool in order to do my job like my sighted peers. Quite frankly, it seems that I still have some learning to do on my own.  I am so used to dealing only with the school side that I’m a complete neophyte when it comes to jobs. There seems to be different interpretations for what would be considered reasonable accommodations under the ADA in the work place. Even though a department like Human Resources facilitates it never is as simple as it sounds.  It’s just not easy, but it’s just some extra work I have to do in order to be able to level the playing field.  Usually it’s due to the “unreasonable price” for something.  Again the average person would look at the Davinci’s price tag and have their eyes bulging out of their head.  In my minds it’s just doing business… you hire me, I do my job, but in order to do my job I need x.  For my standards, I would have preferred to have this the first day of work, however the actually price tag slowed down this process by a month.

The Davinci is a Closed Circuit Television (CCTV).  CCTVs are like my video magnifiers, except bigger.  This machine also have the ability to scan text and start reading it aloud using OCR.  It’s really cool.  I set the davinci’s language settings to French and it can read French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.  The main voice that recites everything in terms of settings is a male voice for Canadian French (québécois).  I don’t usually name inanimate objects, but I feel like this voice is a Georges. ????