Seeking a job delivering technical support to Apple users, please help

I've done a Google search for careers Apple, and the first result that came up may be the one you might need to investigate. A link that enables you to perform a job search appears on the page, in addition to other potentially useful content. It's worth a look, in my opinion. The title of the website should read "Apple - Jobs at Apple." Hope this helps.

Hello,

Sorry your job didn’t work out for you. Most call centers that provide IT support usually have some non accessable software. You would think Apple would use accessable support tools but like other companies, they don’t exclusively use their products. What remote support software were you using? Most companies use Citrix which isn’t accessable.

I know it’s not phone support but here are a few things you can try. Is there a Braille Institute in your area? You can try to volunteer there as an IOS instructor which can lead to a paid job. Do you have a senior center nearby? You can volunteer there and it may also lead to a paid position. Older folks could use your company and you can instruct them how to use an IOS device at the same time. You can also work for yourself. Advertise and let people know you provide IOS training and support. Heck, there is a guy in my neighborhood known as the walking guy. You pay him 10 USD an hour an he will walk and chat with you. IF he can make money walking, you should be able to make money talking. LOL. Not trying to be poetic there.

Good luck.

Hello Djmacradio,

I would like to hear more about your job-loss experience due to the use of inaccessible software. I would like to see if there is anything I can do to help and to
potentially write a story that might give this issue some media exposure.

If you would be interested, please email me directly at darrell@blindaccessjournal.com.

Thanks,

Darrell Hilliker
Accessibility Evangelist
BlindAccessJournal.com

First, a point about the inaccessibility of tech call center software. I have to be very critical here, so take this to heart. You said, you left your job because you couldn't use the software independently, it wasn't acessible. to be frank, who's to say you won't leave a job you find, again, because once you get on board, you discover that software to be less intuitive then you are expecting. Also, have you considered how you'll handle both sighted and blind customers? If blind, you got it covered, sighted, you'll have a hell of a time trying to explain yourself. Are you a visual presenter, being able to say the screen is devided into four quarters, the top left has the icon to go back, pictured like, insert description. I admit to not knowing all the icons, I find it somewhat difficult to help a family member with his IOS device because I can't accurately tell him what to click unless I knwo its pictured description. Things like: envelope for an email message, a paper clip for an attachment, these things you need to make a serious attempt to understand. Remember, a sighted person touches, and the action is accomplished, not this double tap to perform the same thing. How are you going to adjust to people's differing learning styles? Are you able to cut out the B.S. and go fast if something is easy for someone to pick up? Are you one of those presenters of info, whom assumes people know nothing, and take hours and years to finally get to the point of the lesson in question? Make sure your learning style and info presenting abilites match up with your clients. Also decide on a fair price. be prepared to be flexible, and be firm on what your expectation is for payment, should you do the advert and so forth to get this up and running. Ok off to clean and stop wasting time on this thing.

Siobhan, unfortunately, there are very few pieces of remote access software that are accessible to blind individuals. The reason is that these generally transmit images rather than text. The state of the art is that, at present, the same screenreader needs to be installed on both machines in order for remote access to occur. So this was not simply a case of "less than intuitive"--it was completely inaccessible, & likely nothing at the current state of development of remote access solutions for blind individuals would've changed that. It's hard enough losing a job. Calling someone out because of software inaccessibility just adds more insult to injury.

The company will not always install the screen reader on the systems. This has transpired for more than one person in my state and the agencies who were supposed to help just shook there heads. The people that told me the story stated that there was nothing that could be done. This came from the state agency. It was a councilor and a job coach who told me the story. Not good! They don't know the jobs that they are being payed to do. Sorry about the rant. I have lost my job two times due to lack of accessibility. This is in 14 years.