Case Study
Administrator at the Rhineland Regional Association

The Landschaftsverband Rheinland (LVR) is a local authority association with around 20,000 employees and is based in Cologne. As part of its duties of local self-government, the LVR is committed to an inclusive society, which is underlined by its mission statement "Quality for People". The administrative bodies of the LVR are divided into nine departments, of which the employee is employed by the Inclusion Office in Department 5 "Schools, Inclusion Office and Social Compensation".

The employee has a progressive retinal disease (retinitis pigmentosa) and is severely visually impaired. His visual perception is impaired due to a narrow field of vision (so-called tunnel vision), increased sensitivity to glare and impaired contrast vision. The man's vision has deteriorated further in recent years.

The man completed vocational training in metal technology and then worked for a mechanical engineering company for several years. During his last period with the company, he frequently stumbled over objects that he did not recognize. As he could no longer be employed by the company and became unemployed, he contacted the employment agency. The employment agency placed him on a vocational training program at a Vocational Training Centre (BFW). There he got to know various occupational fields and was also informed for the first time about assistive products (large screens, magnification software, etc.) that could support him at work and in everyday life. At this time, however, his eyesight was still sufficient to enable him to work largely without assistive products. In the course of finding a job, it turned out that working at an office workplace was suitable for the man and suited his inclinations. As a result, he initially began special vocational training at BFW as an office practitioner with corresponding training regulations for people with disabilities. Due to his good performance, he later switched to standard vocational training as an office administrator. After successfully completing his vocational training, he took part in an application training course at the BFW and applied to the LVR for the administrative service. After the successful interview, the man was hired for the registry of the regional association. He later began an employee training course - a further training course which, once successfully completed, is equivalent to vocational training as an administrative assistant. Since then, he has worked as a clerk for payment transactions and accounting at the LVR.
As his eyesight continued to deteriorate, he attended a BFW again to take part in a basic training course for the blind. During this three-month vocational training course, he learned about Braille and assistive products for the blind, for example.

The clerk works at a computer workstation with ergonomic office furniture in the administration department. Due to his disability, his workplace is equipped with (Fig. 1):

• a screen reader with cross table and large screen
• a mobile character reader
• a PC with large screen, Braille display and large font contrast keyboard
• magnification software
• a screen reader
• a headset
• a floor lamp with indirect light for better and glare-free illumination
• blinds to prevent glare from incident daylight

The clerk receives special pads for their work with an associated file, which have been prepared by other colleagues in the department. These pads are linked to payments, which must be entered into the corresponding masks in a program. Like his colleagues, he receives the orders and files via the in-house courier service.
With the help of the screen reader, he can display the paper documents on one of the two large screens in an enlarged and high-contrast format (Fig. 2). For the actual IT work on the PC, magnification software is used to enlarge the visual content and display it with greater contrast on the other large screen. For data input, the man uses a large font contrast keyboard, which he can operate blindly using the ten-finger system as usual. For daily correspondence and to avoid errors when entering data, the employee can check his entries tactilely or acoustically. With the help of special software (screen reader), the optical screen contents of the PC can be displayed tactilely via the Braille display and read with the fingers or read aloud acoustically via a headset (Figures 3 and 4).
As his work involves a high proportion of reading activities, the clerk also uses a mobile character reader. In conjunction with the other assistive products for information output, this enables a change of sensory and input channels and prevents fatigue. He attaches the mobile character reader to the side of his glasses. It consists of a small reader with a special camera at the front and a loudspeaker at the back. The small reader is connected via a cable to a mini-computer with a rechargeable battery, which can be placed in a clothing pocket, for example. The employee is able to have texts read aloud with the mobile sign reader. To do this, they point their finger at the text to be read out while wearing the mobile character reader. The text is then converted into speech and output via the loudspeaker. For example, the clerk can quickly search for a file to be processed (Fig. 5) - without having to use the swiveling and more cumbersome camera of the screen reader - or have letters read aloud (Fig. 6). The mobile character reader also has the option of recognizing faces and announcing the person's name. To do this, the people's pictures and names must be stored in the minicomputer. If a stored person enters the office or meets the employee in the corridor, the corresponding name is called. This option only works if the camera can capture the face well.

For the employee, the mobile character reader - as a combination of their own glasses with a reader - is a supplement to the other assistive products used. They can work effectively with the mobile character reader and use it universally. However, according to his own statement, the system is not yet suitable for prolonged use over an entire working day. The main problem is the lack of a control instance. While an incomprehensible passage can simply be read again when a person reads a text, the mobile character reader does not yet offer the option of repeating a text that has been read aloud. A high degree of concentration is therefore required to filter out all the important information from the text output and to retain it.

During a meeting or training session, the clerk receives the relevant underlays to view before the appointment. This allows him to prepare himself at his workplace with the assistive products and underlays and save them on a tablet. During the event, they can then view the content zoomed in on the tablet. If necessary, it is also possible to take the screen reader with them from their workplace, for example to read texts from blackboards using the swivel camera. In this case, a corresponding screen must be available on site. If additional underlays in paper format are used in a meeting or training course that have not previously been saved on the tablet, the mobile character reader can also be used.

There is a guidance system on the floor of the building as well as contrast strips on doors and their glass panes. Employees can reach their workplace by public transport and on foot.

The pension insurance scheme provided funding for career guidance, vocational training or retraining, basic technical training for the blind and assistive products such as Braille displays, screen readers and large-print contrast keyboards. The other assistive products were funded by the local specialist office for people with disabilities in working life or jobs as part of the accompanying aids in working life (screen reader, large screen, mobile character reader without glasses and floor lamp), which only exist in some federal states and are commissioned by the Integration or Inclusion Office.
Advice on design suitable for disabled people was provided by the Technical Advisory Service of the LVR Inclusion Office.