Karen has something to tell us about the importance of communication and how it sometimes seems that our dogs are better at the task. Enjoy this combination of humor and seriousness.

This may seem like an unusual subject to be writing about, even something humorous! However, this is on one level a serious matter and is worth thinking about! Who is better at communicating, humans or dogs? Are humans capable of communicating with others or is it Man’s best friend, the dog? At the moment, I think it’s the dogs whom are better at this task!

I was inspired to write this article after arriving to work to find that my co-workers did not receive important notes that I had left with them on Friday covering things that needed to happen yesterday, since I was off. Somehow, the important information was not given to all of my co-workers. These notes were requests that were given to me by our Guests. I do my very best to serve the guest and provide exceptional service, we all try to achieve quality guest satisfaction each day. I know I Do! Yet, some people, are not as good at communicating requests and other important information that is vital to guarantee that the hotel is running smoothly as well as provide excellent service to our guests during their stay. If they receive outstanding service, guests will want to return, recommending our hotel to their family and friends; However, if they receive average or poor service, they will be dissatisfied and not return.

No matter who you are or what you do, you should do your very best to communicate in any given situation, not just on your job. If one does not communicate effectively it can cause misunderstandings and destroy relationships. If people do not take responsibility, communicate
with co-workers and customers, they too, can be terminated from their employment! Communication is key in every relationship and in every situation.

We can communicate in many ways; verbal, written and non-verbally. Depending on what your strengths are, where ones talents lie , some people are better at communicating verbally while others, like Darrell and I, find written communication a more effective way to express ourselves! Nonverbal communication also provides others with information on what is happening around them. Sometimes, people are unable, for whatever reason,
to verbalize or express their thoughts in written form. Nonverbal communication, or body language, can also give others feedback on what another person is trying to say! For instance, one can get an indication on what type of mood someone is in or what their needs are if he/she can not speak the language.

Dougie, my 5-year-old Golden Retriever guide dog, is an excellent communicator. He communicates through Dog speak. He verbalizes and also expresses himself through his body language. I know when he has to go out, when he is happy, sad, tired or bored! He is a better communicator than most people. Every morning he sneezes as he is waking, rubs his eyes and stretches! He wiggles and does somersaults and runs around spastically when he is happy! When he needs water, he licks the dish or pushes it around. If he has to go out, he will come to me, stand with his back to me, turn towards me, bend, stretch, firmly stand in my way, and gark! Yes, gark! He growls and barks once or twice to make me understand, sometimes being demanding, telling me that he has to go out right now or else! When in harness, he communicates by walking me around the obstacles, stopping at curbs or stairs. These are just some ways in which Douglas communicates and he does it well. I give him thumbs up, or I should say paws up!

After looking at this, you will soon see that it is not us whom are more efficient communicators, but, rather, our four-legged friends! Perhaps,
We cannot only learn from our fellow man but Man’s best friend!

Karen writes about her frustrating experience with the Book Port. I’m having a hard time teaching her how to use this device and, in general, helping her to learn to effectively get the most out of other electronic devices as well. Any ideas?

For those of you who love electronics and gadgets but are unable to use them until you know exactly how they work, this message is for you! I am one of those individuals whom enjoys playing on the computer, listening to music and using new nifty little gadgets; however, I also seem to have a nack for breaking them! For example, Darrell got me a Book Port accessible electronic book reading device for Christmas. I love it and want to use it! I even did for a while! I was listening to books on it. Then, somehow, I messed it up and could not get back into the book. I was listening to “How To Speak Dog”, but, somehow, deleted the file! I then attempted to use the help menu, but, have problems with the “ help menu” or lose interest in the contents of the help file. I find it extremely frustrating! Darrell upgraded the software on my Book Port and even loaded a podcast of Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code. I listened to most of it and was enjoying it! I arrived early to work and wanted to listen to the rest of it before I began my shift. While trying to lower the volume, suddenly, I messed it up again! I somehow lost the podcast and went into record mode! I do not know what exactly I did! Help! Now, the Book Port is messed up again and I lost some files. At least I can not retrieve them! I may sound ignorant and should know better. Yet, I am just one of those people who can not figure electronics out, just don’t have the nack for them! Darrell can get something new and teach himself how to use the new piece of equipment! I think they should attach an accessible manual on cd, cassette or in Braille for those of us whom are not mechanically inclined. If there is only a help menu on the gadget itself, we, who lack the skill to use the gadget will, somehow, manage to break it! For those of you who are good with electronics and have some techniques, tips for us mechanically impaired people, I am listening!

Karen’s cute little five year old golden retriever, Douglas, definitely has quite a personality. He’s telling us he needs to go outside. He’s talking back. No respect. But, seriously, not only is his garking cute, we are also very glad he is such an excellent communicator. Definitely an example many others should learn to emulate!

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On Tuesday, I received a call to the comment line from Susan Kuchinskas of InternetNews.com. She asked me for an interview. Of course, I was more than happy to oblige. It is critical that we all do our absolute best to take full advantage of every possible opportunity to spread the word about accessibility. The result is a story entitled Is Google Shutting Out The Blind? It is quite refreshing to see that there are some journalists who really seem to “get it” with respect to the need for accessibility.

This story has brought out two important new developments with respect to Google’s inaccessible visual verification system. First, Google plans to resolve the issue in one to two months, providing an accessible alternative. Second, Google claims to have people working specifically on accessibility issues. Sadly, Marissa Mayer, Google’s Director of Consumer Products, indicated that this issue was not prioritized due to a lack of feedback. Check out Susan’s story for details.

Another incident was narrowly avoided this morning as Karen arrived at work at 7:43. Karen and I both wrote additional notes to Denise and Rose at the Dial-A-Ride office. As of 12:30 PM, four and a half business hours have gone by and nobody has seen fit to respond.

This is my first note of the morning after a completely unproductive conversation with Debbie, one of the reservationists.

Hi Rose and Denise,

Karen was picked up this morning at 6:40! There is at least one drop off before arriving to work. Her ETA arriving to work, as provided by the driver, is 7:50! Isn’t that cutting things awfully close? The appointment time in your records is 7:50 and the shift begins *promptly* at 8:00. Come on, folks. Are you asking for another incident over this?

As Karen was bording the van at 6:40, I got on the phone to check on the approximate ETA arriving to work. Debbie absolutely refused to provide that information, claiming her boss, you Denise, told her not to release that information. I asked her to escalate this matter to someone in the office who had the authority to release the reasonably requested
information, but she rudely refused. In general, rudeness, hanging up on customers and other unprofessional activities have been on the increase over the past month to six weeks. This was the norm under Atlantic Paratransit. The both of you have been insisting that you have a proper attitude toward those of us with disabilities. Please, start putting
actions behind the words by taking real steps to fix the issues! In addition to being forcibly made late to work by your organization, we are also just simply not going to accept unprofessional conduct on the telephone. There will be ramifications. This behavior from an organization with a mission to serve the disabled and senior citizens will be viewed correctly as a show of contempt toward your customers.

Especially after recent incidents, we just can’t trust you. We need to be provided all reasonable information at any time we ask. Denial of information such as ETA’s is petty, causing yet more incidents. I would strongly recommend that you instruct your reservationists to provide all requested information, especially on Karen’s route to work in the mornings. I would also strongly suggest that an escalation procedure be implemented and enforced. If the first person I speak with on the phone can’t or won’t help, then the matter needs to be escalated to someone on site who does possess the necessary authority to do the right things. An escalation procedure is extremely common in all businesses that do not serve people with disabilities, so, if you don’t implement one, does that just mean we aren’t deserving because we’re disabled? Of course, it goes without saying that random call monitoring and an established quality assurance process for the reservationists would most certainly go a long way toward reigning back in the increasing unprofessional conduct. The Blind Access Journal is increasingly entering the arena of audio
production and podcasting. We are able to record audio from just about any source and publish it to the entire world. We at the journal have been covering this incident as well as the previous incident involving the attempt to take advantage of our disabilities. I do strongly advise you check out the world wide coverage of this and many other blindness related issues at http://www.blindaccessjournal.com. As a matter of fact, there will be ongoing coverage of your follow up to Karen’s recent late-to-work incidents. This should be seen as a challenge to come up with a solution rather than try to sweep this latest incident under the rug as has usually been done in the past.

Regards,

Darrell

I wrote another note shortly after Karen’s 7:43 arrival at the office.

Hi Rose and Denise,

Karen was ultimately on time at 7:43. We strongly feel that was entirely by accident. Absolutely no time was allowed for such unforeseen issues as dealing with rush hour traffic. As far as we can tell, absolutely no solution was implemented at all. I will outline the problems with this morning’s events:

First, the 7:50 ETA from the driver was clearly a point of concern and there was absolutely no way to deal with that issue. Second, Debbie was absolutely no help on the phone. In fact, she was rude, which we find offensive and unacceptable. She refused to give any information or to escalate the matter to someone with the authority to provide the requested
ETA information or make necessary adjustments to avoid an incident. Third, Rocky gave the driver two insertions despite your assurances yesterday that Karen’s route was “locked”. Insertions are a clear sign that there is disorganization, lack of proper planning and poor communications on the part of dispatch, the routers or both and that sufficient management
pressure is not being applied to take corrective actions.

Denise, petty issues such as refusing to provide information requested by your customer is just plain unacceptable. Please fix this. We are told over and over that you are the reservationist’s immediate supervisor. You have the power here to do the right thing by instructing them to provide information upon request. There is not a single reason for failing to tell us when it is estimated we will be picked up or dropped off. If the information doesn’t make sense, that should serve as fair warning that adjustments need to be made to avoid trouble. Let me explain to you, in the context of Karen’s latest incidents, the appearance of these failures to provide such reasonable information, which most certainly does impact us as customers. Debbie may have realized that the ETA was right on 7:50, and that we would be making an issue of it. Rather than providing that information, and probably being forced to actually do something about the problem, you want to try and hide that information from customers, to reduce our abilities to document incidents and to insist on resolution. Look! We’re just not going to accept being made late to work. It is plain wrong. As we stated yesterday, it is quite possible for people to lose their jobs due to the poor attendance that is caused when you make us late to work! Come on; don’t you get it? I have asked about your own company’s attendance policies. Even if you don’t want to state them specifically, isn’t it true that you are expected to be at your job and ready to work at the beginning of your scheduled shift? Aren’t there negative consequences for being late to work on a regular basis? Perhaps, if MV Transit does not have an attendance policy in place, then it would be a good idea to draft and
enforce a very strict one for Dial-A-Ride, so that all employees can be more easily made to understand the consequences involved with failing to start on time for any reason.

Technically, the incident was not repeated this morning. Karen was not late to work, as she arrived at 7:43. Given the circumstances, this is insufficient, as there’s no proposal on the table for a solution that would prevent future incidents. We absolutely insist on some sort of plan for prevention of these issues. Maybe Karen needs an earlier pick up time such as 6:00? Maybe this route should be picked up by a driver who starts his or her shift earlier; if you are going to leave the pick up time at 6:15, then the driver should pick her up closer to 6:15 rather than 6:45, the end of the allowed time window. In most cases where she has been late to work, the pick up occured near the end of the time window. This morning, for example, Karen was picked up at 6:40, just five minutes before the end of the allowed time window. That gives you only one hour and ten minutes, which just isn’t sufficient if there are going to be three or four stops before she arrives at work.

I am looking forward to a response indicating where we go from here toward a solution. We would also like to receive some tickets for the incidents on Tuesday and yesterday. We both asked for those yesterday, but have thus far received absolutely no affirmative response on that request.

Regards,

Darrell

Karen wrote the following note shortly after arriving at work.

Hi Rose & Denise,

I am sure by now, you probably received my voice mail. Though, I was not late, I did arrive close to the appointment time * 7;50*. This was only by accident though. It could have been worse. When I got on the van at 6;45, the driver said then, that my ETA was 7;50. Yet, at 7 am Rocky, gave the driver an insertion. We picked up that individual & then, he got another insertion. Two insertions that were not planned &, the ETA was showing 7;50 prior to these insertions! What was Rocky thinking? If the router sees that I, need to be to work no later then ” 7;50″, why do they accept an ETA of 7;50? Don’t they realize, that anything could happen & that I could be late? Despite the fact, that this morning’s ride was fine & ” everything was locked in place” Denise, as we have said before, this does not mean, things are set in stone. dispatch will do what they want, even if, it does not make much sense & will make passengers late to their destinations. Furthermore, as Darrell stated in his message this morning, Debbie & other Reservationists are not being professional & sometimes disrespectful to us. They are not also providing vital information, that we the passenger, have the right to know. When, we are provided with ETA’s we can then, make an informed decision whether to accept the answers we are given or have the issue escalated. We need such information to make certain that we will not be late. What are your reasons for having reservationist not disclosing this information? Does Andrew randomly listen to conversations between Reservationist & passengers? Does he, monitor radio traffic between dispatchers & drivers? These types of procedures need to be in place. It is very helpful to have a QA department*Quality Assurance*. Moreover, Please, do check out Darrell’s blog, blindaccessjournal.com. He covered yesterday’s incident as well as others on his journal. We look forward to hearing from you. We too, would still like to hear from you Denise, Garry & Andrew for a sincere response to Darrell’s thought provoking question yesterday. Rose, thank you for at least providing us with some thoughtful response to his question. Take care.

Karen

That’s all as of 12:52 PM. The business day is half concluded. Karen’s voice mail has not yet been returned and no e-mail responses have been received. Rest assured we will keep trying, taking any and all actions necessary to insure continued responsiveness from Dial-A-Ride for the purposes of preventing future incidents and obtaining some form of accountability.

Check out this interesting podcast featuring quite a variety of topics. Our sincerest condolences go to the British people for all their losses in today’s tragic subway terrorist attacks.

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Packets: Sent = 25, Received = 22, lost = 3… Oopse, wrong ping!

That’s right. We’re not talking about the console output from the TCP/IP ping command; we’re talking ping pong! I participated in another office tournament this afternoon, where I was narrowly defeated 25 to 22 by a very worthy opponent. Two significant exceptions to the traditional game rules enable me to participate: first, a coworker guides my hand to the ball and, second, I earn two points for each successful play to the opponents single point. A blast was had by all!

Yes. That’s right. There are more serious problems to report with our metro area’s Dial-A-Ride service. Karen has worked four days this week. Dial-A-Ride made her late to work on two of those days! Check out the following e-mail thread.

I wrote the following note on Karen’s behalf:

Hi Rose, Denise, Andrew and Gary,

Karen Hughes was late to work this morning July 7 thanks to inefficient routing and a complete failure to take appropriate corrective actions. This incident represents the second time in one week she has been made late to work! This state of affairs is completely unacceptable. Are you people even considering that one could actually lose their job over excessive tardiness? What are your company’s attendance policies? Since we as people with disabilities endure a 70 percent unemployment rate, your actions or inactions represent real harm to us when we are forcibly made late to our jobs due to the largely preventable circumstances outside our control. We expect actions to be taken to prevent this in the future. Of course, we also fully expect an explanation and a show of accountability for this morning’s uncorrected errors, which resulted in harm done only to Karen. Debbie refused to directly communicate with dispatch, only telling Karen that she would arrive at work by 7:50. Certainly, 8:15 is 25 minutes later than 7:50? The driver asked Rocky to take corrective action, but she refused. Obviously, the incident was preventable on several fronts. First, correct routing yesterday would have avoided the entire problem in the first place. Second, Debbie should have made the correct choice to proactively communicate with dispatch to see what corrective actions could be taken at the moment. Third, Rocky should have asked the driver to drop off Karen. Obviously, the second and third actions would not have been optimal, so prevention was essential at the routing stage. Rose finally called me back at 8:37. She left a voice mail indicating that I needed to give her time, that this wasn’t going to be resolved in three minutes and that there were no “quick fixes” for this matter. Obviously. Of course, I understand these things. Thus far, there have been no real fixes, either quick or otherwise. I actually find those comments slightly patronizing and insulting to my intelligence. Sometimes, I am left with the impression that people who deal with me are under the mistaken assumption that, solely due to my disability, I also lack such attributes as intelligence and a willingness to act to correct injustices. Come on guys. Please! Let’s be accountable for the two incidents on Tuesday and this morning and lets devise a plan to prevent these problems from recurring. Let me just ask you all one question. I do expect an answer to this question, if you are truly sincere toward people with disabilities. How would you feel if you lost your job due to poor attendance that was completely outside your control and was actually caused by the incorrect and inefficient actions of others? I’m looking forward to a real, sincere and effective response. Thanks.

Given the severity of this incident and our absolute insistance on prompt correction, I wrote a second message after two and a half hours with no response from anyone.

Hi Rose, Denise, Andrew and Gary,

While we understand you need some time to investigate and come up with resolutions to prevent incidents like the one that took place today and on Tuesday morning, we do desire and expect reasonably prompt action. Karen works tomorrow also. Wouldn’t it make sense to start toward a solution, taking actions to avoid yet another potential problem tomorrow morning?

Thanks.

Denise responded as follows. Though incomplete, it is a response nonetheless.

Darrell and Karen, I have taken a look at the trip for tomorrow and locked it onto the route. This will help for tomorrow. I have also once again spoken with my dispatch staff and explained that appointments are important and need to be kept. As you know Darrell we are currently working on a plan for scheduling trips with appointment times in a different method making more important the appointment time over the pickup time. We will keep you informed as to the progress of this and what we are planning on doing.

I responded to this note with the following reply.

Hi Denise,

Could Karen also have some tickets for these incidents, please? It is definitely the least that could be done for a situation that could potentially cause the loss of Karen’s employment. If that would happen, it would make you responsible for the wholely unnecessary and preventable decrease in the living standards of a person with a disability. So far this year, Karen’s attendance hasn’t been all that great in comparison to her non-disabled coworkers, and that’s all thanks to EVDAR. Karen is an extremely conscientious, reliable employee, but some of the actions of EVDAR from time to time have given the opposite appearance.

I am awaiting a response on the tickets, hoping that it will also include other information concerning how this recurring problem will be prevented in the future.

Karen started her own thread on this matter. Check out her initial message this morning. Note that her references to EVDAR represent East Valley Dial-A-Ride.

Hi Rose & Denise,

As you know I was 20 minutes late this morning! I should not be LATE TO WORK! THIS COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED ESPECIALLY SINCE i SPOKE TO DEBBIE WHEN i GOT ON THE VAN AS WELL AS THE DRIVER,DAVE, CALLED IN & SPOKE TO ROCKY ASKING IF HE COULD DROP ME OFF AT WORK BEFORE DROPPING THE OTHER PASSENGER OFF AT BASELINE! I spoke to Debbie shortly after getting on the van, around 6;40. I had expressed my concern that I would be late as well as mentioned the routing ISSUE , asking her to put me on hold & speak with dispatch to see what could be done & possibly reroute the rides. She did put me on hold, but did not have any worthwhile information, nothing that was helpful or meaningful! All she said, Dispatch said, you won’t be late, don’t worry! I was upset with her because she did not take this seriously, listen to what I was asking & needed! Darrell & I have been passengers for over 6 years, & know howlong it will take to get from point A to point B! We usually are very acurate & when, we call the eVDAR office, its for a reason! Anyway, we went on to pick up this Lady on Del Rio which is South of Southern. She was going to 48 th & Baseline & had to take Phoenix Dial-a-ride to go to one of the Foundations for the Handicapped. She is Developmentally delayed & I also think PHYSICALLY disabled too. She had to be to her destination in Phoenix by 8am. After Speaking with you Rose, I understand, that she did get to her destination on time. Although, I believe noone should be late to work or anywhere for that matter, I think, if you had to choose getting me to work & getting her to work at one of the workshops for the handicapped, you should prioritize & drop me off at work before her. Most of these workshops, foundations for the Handicapped, do not care as much, whether, their employees are late, but they do here at Hyatt! Every employer should not accept if any employee is late for work. Of course, we all are going to be late, once in a while, but it should not be tolerated. People can lose their jobs if they are
late too often! We did not leave Baseline until almost 7;30 & then were on our way to drop me off at work. Keep in mind that this is rush hour & how far this
is from Double tree! As you know, I did not get to work until 8;20! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE! as you know I have an appointment time of 7;50! ROCKY SHOULD KNOW BETTER! SHE HAS BEEN AN evdar EMPLOYEE FOR SEVERAL YEARS. SHE SHOULD KNOW WHETHER or not I will be on time! She should be looking more carefully, paying attention to the details; looking at factors such as location of passengers home , their destination, how many miles he/she will be traveling, traffic conditions & so on! I do not know what she was thinking, saying that I will be to work on time! She was extremely inaccurate! This is the second day this week that I was late to work! Please, investigate what happened! Why did the router route the rides like this? I should not have even been on the van with Alfreda! Also, there was a communication breakdown somewhere! Rocky & Debbie act like they do not care whether we are late! Something needs to be done Guys! This is inexcusable! I am furious! Both of us are! This has happened way too many times EVDAR needs to do their jobs, look at details & be more efficient! Noone should be late! I said something at 6;40 this morning, so changes could have been made, should have been made, so I would be to work on time! I never should have been on the same right as the other passenger. Please, call us back! Denise, I still have not heard back from you into regards to being late to work & being picked up late Tuesday evening. We would like a call back or a response to this message as soon as possible!

Karen

As of 3:20 this afternoon, Karen has not received a response to that note, though she did receive a phone call. I guess people are afraid to respond in writing? Karen wrote another note as follows.

Hi Denise & Rose,

Thank you for responding to Darrell’s message as well as checking on tomorrow’s rides. We agree, that the appointment time is much more important than the pick up time. If we need to be picked up earlier or later, to assure that we will be to our destination on time, please communicate to us & the other passengers. Sometimes, if we get picked up early, Routers/dispatchers seem to think they can just insert another pickup & do not consider other passengers needs; what time he/she needs to be at their destination or how long they have been on the van for example. Prior to the schedule changes in May, I had a ” request time” of 6;15, but a pick up time of 6;40. The ETA on most of those days was 6;40. Karral was my regular driver Monday through Thursday & Garry usually picked me up on Fridays. On the weekends I have a 6;45, & this is not usually an issue on the weekend. Furthermore, when I would be picked up by Karral or Garry at 6;40, we usually only had one pick up & then would drop me off. The routers & dispatch, felt if, I was picked up sooner, that I would be likely to be late because they would route more passengers on my van, making me late to work! Ever since, the changes, EVDAR can not seem to get it right! Please, do something! You can not get passenger’s late to work! As Darrell said, I am a responsible, dependable employee. I take my job here at the Hyatt very seriously! Please, do not make me tardy again! Also, I too, think, you should send us tickets for today’s & Tuesday’s incidents! I still have not heard back from you Denise regarding Tuesday! We also would like a response to Darrell’s question. We truly would like a well thought * Today’s Thought Provoker”* response to this! This is very important to us! We have known people whom have lost their jobs due to frequent tardiness! WE look forward to hearing from all of you in the next day or so!. Take care.

Karen

P.s. Please, can you check the status of my ride for the morning at the end of the day today? if there are any issues with my morning ride, please, call us. I will be more then happy to get picked up earlier if need be!

I wrote the following e-mail to my boss and another coworker concerning an incident that took place this afternoon here at the office. Not only are a number of aspects of my job inaccessible, but it seems that even the occasional opportunities to have a good time can be inaccessible, too.

Hi Don and Russ,

This morning, Don, you gave me one of those poker chips as a reward for my job performance. Shortly after noon, I agreed to participate in a ping pong tournament. Later, around 1:15, Russ, you took that chip back as an “entry fee” for participating in the tournament. If I didn’t have one, apparently, I would have been charged a dollar. Now, guys, I’m sure this was all explained somewhere in printed form, but, alas, I am a blind person who is physically unable to drive or read print. I can do anything else you can do except for those two things. I agreed to participate in the ping pong tournament because I was invited and it sounded like fun. None of this was explained to me at all! I am held responsible for something without it first being fully explained to me. This happens in other situations, such as the occasional potlucks we have, where I find out at the last minute strictly because nobody bothers to send an e-mail or otherwise provide me with this information in a format other than the apparent printed signs, sign up lists, etc. I have mentioned these issues in the past, but things continue to happen. Don’t worry. This is not urgent or otherwise work related. It only impacts my ability to fully participate in the occasional fun things we do here in the office. I just want you to understand that, when things like this happen, I feel disrespected and offended. Please understand that my only issue is that I can’t see anything. That means I need to receive information in electronic or some other nonprinted form and that, from time to time, you might just need to explain things to me before I make my decision to participate or not. In this situation, my decision to relinquish the chip, or pay the dollar if I didn’t have one, was taken away from me because I participated without having this information. I feel really frustrated, hurt and upset when my ability to make decisions in my life is impacted by information that wasn’t provided to me in a form I could use. I am expected to know these things, yet how can I know when it is sitting out somewhere in only printed form? It isn’t just or right. Oh, well, life just goes on and on, and this is sadly oh so typical. Thanks for your time.

Read this article from Handiham covering the discontinuation of a talking multimeter and thermometer that provided essential accessible information to blind amateur radio operators and other electronics enthusiasts and professionals. As I read the article, I became extremely concerned. Why? Please feel free to post your answer as a text comment or call the comment line at 206-350-6925.