Typical day
Today was a typical day at work. I left in my taxi in time to reach the auction centre by 10.00am. Before I start work I have to set up my equipment. I have a headset with a microphone and a switchbox, which enables me to listen to either the phone or the dictation machine in one ear, and the computer in the other. During the rest of the week my phone and computer are used by other people, so each week I have to unplug the handset of the phone so that I can plug in the wire for the switchbox headset.
Talking computer
My computer is equipped with a screen reader called Jaws for Windows. This translates everything that is displayed on the screen, including anything I type, into speech. When I started work, a firm called Blazie Engineering came in to write a script for Jaws, so that I could use the auction system for typing on lots, looking up statements, invoices, and client details. Along with this, I have an 80-cell braille display which runs in conjunction with Jaws, so that if I am on the phone and need to read some information to a customer, I can read it in braille rather than the computer talking at the same time as the customer.
‘Lots’ to do
When colleagues have their day off, I take messages and pass them on by email. Another of my duties is to wipe the tapes, ready for typing. The porters spend all day on Thursday sticking lot numbers on each lot, recording a brief description of it and telling us who its vendor is, then we in the office do the audio typing. It’s important to concentrate because if I forget which side I have wiped, then I could miss a side and the dictation could get mixed up with the previous week’s sales.
Peacocks
When I first began to type for Peacocks Auction Centre, they were surprised how bad my spelling is. I could say it’s inherited because my parents aren’t too great at spelling, but my teacher once said to me, “your spelling is atrocious Philippa” so I told him “my mum can’t spell, my dad can’t spell, so how do you expect me to?” Apparently that wasn’t the right answer!
Different spellings
I am a phonetic speller because the screen reader reads everything out to me, and I think if a word sounds right it must be spelt right. Sometimes when I use spell check I don’t choose the right spelling of a word, because my screen reader is pronouncing it differently than we would say it because it is American. And then there are the spellings of things like vault and volt. I didn’t even realise there were two different spellings of that. They started off trying to get me to learn the spellings I got wrong but just like at school it wouldn’t stick. I know it’s quite common in blind people because they rely on computers so much. But I was just as bad in braille.
Posh dishwasher
In my first week I misheard what the porter said when he described a dishwasher. He said “bosch dishwasher” and I typed “posh dishwasher” much to the amusement of the auctioneer who read it out on Saturday.
The phones have been busy today because we have a gun auction tomorrow run by another auction company who use our premises, a valuation day on Friday as well as a take-in day for the Rock and Pop sale in October and viewing for the general Saturday sale.
Doing the job
I really enjoy my job because there are such a variety of people to talk to but I find it difficult when customers ask for directions, and put them through to someone else. I very rarely tell a customer that I am blind, not because I am bothered about it, but just because it isn’t relevant to them. I am doing the job as any sighted person would, just with a few different pieces of problem-solving technology.
