Assistive Technologies What would you do?

SCENARIO 6 – DEBILITATING BACK INJURY The team received an emergency request from the Talent team regarding an individual who suffered a debilitating back injury that prevented the individual from working anywhere other than their couch. Because of this, the individual could not hold their laptop in any static position for long. Their main concern was maintaining high productivity and their role primarily involved the sending/receiving of email. • Dictation using the built-in microphone of the laptop – Given the severity of the injury, the customer could not easily wear a headset. While the laptop microphone is more susceptible to environmental noise, the customer was fine with it since they would be working 100% from home (in a controlled environment). • Emphasis on "Microsoft Dictate" – Since the individual was primarily concerned with email, the team worked through "Microsoft Dictate" in Outlook until the individual felt comfortable to use it on their own. The individual felt the injury would be temporary and did not see the need to use Dragon Naturally Speaking software. • Mobile use of Outlook app - The team also worked with the customer to take advantage of the Outlook mobile app, especially for dictating emails. • "ReadAloud" feature in Outlook – In addition to dictation, the team wanted to provide a way to play back audio of Outlook email to lessen the amount of time one must spend in any one position (staring at the screen). SCENARIO 7 – MANDATORY ELEARNING COURSE INCOMPATIBLE WITH SCREEN READING SOFTWARE A customer reported that a mandatory course for their job role could not be accessed using JAWS screen reading software. The customer was a veteran JAWS user and had tried numerous workarounds to rectify the issue, to no avail. The course had a due date within two weeks and the customer was highly concerned about completing the learning before the deadline. In addition to the course material, there was a mandatory quiz that could not be accessed. • A different AT approach - Instead of attempting to "make" the course software compatible with JAWS, the AT team worked with the Talent and Learning teams to produce an alternate version of the course and the quiz sections. Within a few days, the Learning team supplied a Word version of the course. This was possible because numerous online courses start as Word documents before being made into the eLearning format. • Providing the alternative to the custome r – Before sending the Word document to the customer, the AT team tested it with JAWS to make sure all was well. After JAWS read back the content successfully, it was passed along to the customer. The customer then worked with their Talent representative once they completed the class to then

complete the quiz. Talent and Learning teamed to provide a JAWS-compatible quiz section, and the customer was able to complete the class and successfully pass the quiz by the deadline. SCENARIO 8 – MIGRAINES EXACERBATED BY HEAVY SCREEN USE A customer reached out after experiencing increased incidence of migraines, brought on by heavy screen use (a requirement of their role). They used two screens: a 14-inch laptop screen and a 20-inch external monitor. • Recommendation of larger screens and solely using external monitors – The AT team worked with the customer to determine how they felt about larger monitors while shifting away from the small laptop screen. The team proposed two 24-inch monitors due to customer preference and the amount of desk space available (customer worked from home almost all the time). Also, the customer was amenable to using an external keyboard and mouse (had been solely relying on the built-in keyboard and trackpad from the laptop). A docking station allowed for all items to be plugged into a single source. This made a significant positive difference for the customer. • Physical placement of monitors – Along with new monitors, the team worked with the customer regarding optimal ergonomic placement of the screens. Beforehand, the customer was performing significant left/right and up/ down neck movements to go between their laptop screen and external monitor. The team recommended the new monitors to be placed around a center point (directly in line with the individual’s straight-ahead view) and to be at the same height (where one’s eye level was in line with the top of each monitor). SCENARIO 9 – HYPERFOCUS (MAINTAINING STATIC SEATED POSITION FOR 10 HOURS AT A TIME The team received a call from a customer who reported becoming highly engrossed in their work to the point where they did not take breaks through a full day of work (sometimes 10 hours non-stop). The individual mentioned this lack of activity resulted in negative health effects that lasted for days but also admitted that it’s difficult to break the habit. • Automated break-reminder software – A direct result of Covid, the team rolled out two options for break-reminder software that automatically prompted the individual to take a break. These software titles are available via the "EY App Store" globally. Anyone who works for EY can request the software and it will download to their machine. Neither program requires Internet access to function (after installation). • Wireless headset – The AT team also recommended a wireless headset to ease the ability to “walk around” and

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