The Alice Gottschling Story!

Employing the Disabled is a Great Idea!
Celebrating Disability Employment Awareness Month

Job: Computer Assistant
Who: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Alice Gottschling is a computer assistant at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) David Skaggs Research Center in Boulder, Colorado. She has a genetic disorder that destroyed her central vision. Legally blind, she depends entirely on peripheral vision. Her personal computer is loaded with special software that enlarges the images being produced on other software programs and has audio capability. With this program, she is able to download and disperse budget data by computer to various labs in the Boulder area and nationwide for processing. Her financial data processing responsibilities require interaction with various levels of NOAA's organizational structure. Ms. Gottschling also uses a reader (Closed Circuit Television, CCTV), a machine that magnifies and projects the images from paper on to a color monitor to read mail and other documents. Before obtaining the reader, she was dependent upon someone else to read to her. Ms. Gottschling began her Federal career in 1970 with the National Bureau of Standards as a summer aide. She continued employment on a variety of limited appointments in the excepted and competitive service while earning her degree in Elementary Education from the University of Northern Colorado. In 1994, she was one of two national winners of the Department of Commerce's seventh annual Federal Employee Award for the Accessible Computer Technology (ACT) VII Exhibit.

http://www.opm.gov/disability/success_1-06.asp#jump-1

U.S. Office of Personnel Management 1900 E Street NW, Washington, DC 20415 (202) 606-1800 TTY (202) 606-2532