Blind court worker finally gets proper equipment
After waiting for nearly two years, a blind Port Elizabeth High Court switchboard operator has finally received the equipment to “do her job properly”.
|||Port Elizabeth – After a lengthy wait a 32-year-old blind Port Elizabeth High Court switchboard operator has finally received the equipment to “do her job properly”.
Simbongile Njokwana – originally from Mthatha in the Eastern Cape – has been battling to get management to provide her with the necessary equipment to do her job for close to two years since her appointment in July 2014.
Njokwana believes she was discriminated against because of her disability, even more so because at the time when she applied for the position the advert specifically stated that “only disabled candidates would be considered for the position”.
Determined to make the best of her situation she took a switchboard training course at the Pioneer School for the Blind in Worcester in the Western Cape in 2009. She later worked for Old Mutual in Cape Town on a contract basis and in 2014 the position at the high court was advertised.
Njokwana described her joy at landing the job in her home province, saying: “It was like a dream come true because I was really looking forward to it. It was a part of my dream to work for the department of justice since I did part of criminology at varsity level. So I was really looking forward to it and considering the fact that at Old Mutual I was not permanent, so I was really happy.”
Njokwana’s frustration grew and she finally found the courage to write a letter to her superiors stating her rights were being violated and she needed to be equipped so that she could feel “part of the family”.
An excerpt of the letter reads: “It is a violation of my rights for being deprived [of] an opportunity to participate on work-related matters as I do not have access to information circulated to other employees due to the lack of speech software that should be installed on my computer in my office.
“I have tried many times to explain what needs to be done to fully equip me in order to feel part of the family. For instance, I find it difficult to fully engage during staff meetings; a move perpetuated by [a] lack of information that I cannot easily access like other employees do,” she wrote.
On Friday Njokwana’s office was buzzing with an IT technician and management coming in and out to assess her needs.
The JAWS (Job Access With Speech) system costs about R15,000. It is a computer screen reader which allows blind people to read the screen, mainly with a text-to-speech output.
The software is currently being installed on Njokwana’s computer. In addition she also received a pair of hi-tech earphones to help her do her job.
“I feel this is something that could [have] been resolved a long time ago, when this story was first published last month. After that it only took about three weeks for equipment to be delivered – only after it went to the media. I feel the court manager didn’t believe in me. Only when it reached the attention of the media and the department then the equipment could be bought,” said Njokwana.
She thanked officials at the regional office for buying the equipment and said she would have liked the matter to have reached their attention sooner.
“I’m looking forward to doing my work and I’m so excited to learn more things. My supervisor told me that I will be typing her sit-downs and I’m really looking forward to that challenge,” she said.
African News Agency
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