Workplace Advocacy

By Jennifer Beser

 Advocating for employees' well-being and combating mental health stigma in the workplace is essential for creating a productive, supportive environment. Integrating a Peer Support Specialist into the workplace can significantly reduce stress, anxiety, and depression among employees, ultimately leading to improved performance and job satisfaction. A company that prioritizes mental health will naturally attract top talent, as candidates seek employers who care about their well-being.

Peer Support Specialists are crucial in creating a safe and supportive work environment. They are trained to recognize early signs of distress in employees and can guide them to appropriate resources, such as counselors, support groups, or wellness programs. Additionally, they can lead practices like meditation and mindfulness, promoting overall mental well-being. Encouraging employees to keep a journal for self-care and self-reflection can also be an effective tool for managing stress, life challenges, professional burnout, and compassion fatigue.

Understanding the impact of role stressors in the workplace is crucial, as they play a significant role in shaping an employee's well-being and performance. These stressors are challenges that employees face in their roles, often leading to increased stress and decreased productivity. One common stressor is role ambiguity, which occurs when employees are unclear about their duties, priorities, or the chain of accountability, resulting in confusion and frustration. Another issue is inadequate feedback or supervision, where a lack of clear guidance or evaluation makes it difficult for employees to know how to improve. Lastly, role overload happens when the workload or expectations are unrealistic, creating excessive pressure and making it hard to meet deadlines without compromising quality. Combined, these factors can diminish job satisfaction and overall morale.

By addressing mental health issues proactively, companies can reduce potential legal liabilities and protect their reputation. Investing in mental health initiatives also leads to long-term financial benefits, such as lower healthcare costs, reduced absenteeism, and increased productivity.

All Peer Support sessions are confidential, providing a private space for employees to share their thoughts, feelings, and work-related concerns. Moreover, companies should hold seminars and training to address mental health stigma in the workplace and discuss strategies for overcoming it.

Technology can also play a pivotal role in mediating peer support. Companies can create dedicated pages on their intranet or social networking platforms to share affirmations, mental health awareness tips, and advice on overcoming stigma and the imposter syndrome. For example, social media pages like Let's Talk About Mental Health demonstrate how companies can use digital platforms to discuss mental health openly and share affirmations, creating a culture of support and awareness.

By implementing these strategies, companies can create a workplace that not only prioritizes mental health but also fosters an environment of safety, support, and productivity.

 

References:

https://www.who.int/teams/mental-health-and-substance-use/promotion-prevention/mental-health-in-the-workplace

https://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/initiatives/resource-center/index.html

https://www.apa.org/topics/workplace

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/mentalhealth/

https://hbr.org/

Shekinah Terrence, Beth (2024)
Self-Care: An Essential Practice for Peer Recovery Specialists, presentation.

Kahn, R.L., Wolfe, D.M., Quinn, R.P., Snoek, J.D., & Rosenthal, R.A. (1964). Organizational Stress: Studies in Role Conflict and Ambiguity. New York: Wiley.

Greenhaus, J. H., & Beutell, N. J. (1985). "Sources of conflict between work and family roles." Academy of Management Review, 10(1), 76-88.

Assistive Tech Training

I visited the MD Department of Disabilities Assistive Tech Department, where I was trained in various technologies, such as eye trackers, magnifiers, voice amplifiers, and braille displays.

AI-powered Site Designed for Users Seeking Colleges and Specific Classes

An AI-powered site designed for users seeking colleges to attend offers personalized recommendations based on user preferences, leveraging machine learning. Users fill out a form detailing their criteria for a college, and the site provides the top three choices that match their needs. Alternatively, users can search for specific colleges and filter their desired programs of study, including undergraduate, master’s, doctorate, and certification programs, if available. The site will display relevant classes currently offered based on their interests. Users can also specify any accommodations, such as those covered under a 504 Plan. Additionally, users can filter results by cost, available college scholarships, and SAT scores.

Section 504 - Student and Teacher Portal Concept

Students with disabilities should be able to upload their Section 504 documentation directly to the student portal. Certain documentation will be accessible to both student teachers and regular teachers, enabling them to view and understand the specific accommodations and modifications required for each student. By having this information readily available, teachers can be more aware of and responsive to each student's disability-related needs, fostering an inclusive and supportive educational environment. This system will streamline the communication of important information, ensuring that all educational staff are informed and can provide the necessary support to help students succeed.

This approach highlights the benefits of accessibility and awareness among educators, which can lead to better educational outcomes for students with disabilities.

Exploring Potential Applications of AI Glasses for Mental Health Support

My Proposal:

I hope this message finds you well. My name is Jennifer Beser, and I recently came across your innovative AI Glasses product, which truly impressed me with its potential to enhance communication and understanding for individuals with hearing impairments. I believe there are even more profound applications for this technology that could significantly benefit those with mental health challenges, specifically individuals suffering from schizophrenia.

As highlighted on your website, the AI Glasses offer functionalities that help users see, translate, and understand conversations. I propose expanding the use of these glasses to support individuals experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations, a common symptom of schizophrenia. Here’s how the AI Glasses could be transformative in this context:

  1. Auditory Hallucinations:

    • Verification of Voices: Individuals with schizophrenia often struggle to distinguish between real and hallucinated voices. AI Glasses could provide real-time transcription of spoken words from actual surroundings, helping users verify the authenticity of the voices they hear. This real-time reassurance could significantly reduce confusion and anxiety.

  2. Visual Hallucinations:

    • Reality Validation: If the glasses have recording capabilities, users could capture what they see and review the footage later, potentially with a healthcare professional. This could help them differentiate between real and hallucinatory visuals, offering a powerful reality validation and grounding tool.

  3. Therapeutic Support:

    • Enhanced Communication: The AI Glasses could be used during therapy sessions, enabling better communication between patients and therapists. Real-time translation and transcription could help individuals articulate their experiences more clearly and accurately, facilitating more effective treatment.

  4. Educational and Training Tool:

    • Training for Caregivers and Professionals: The glasses could be used to train caregivers and mental health professionals in understanding and responding to the experiences of individuals with schizophrenia. This can foster more empathetic and effective care strategies.

  5. Data Collection for Research:

    • Insights for Mental Health Research: With appropriate privacy measures, the data collected by the glasses could provide invaluable insights into the patterns and triggers of hallucinations, contributing to research and the development of better therapeutic approaches.

I am enthusiastic about the potential for AI Glasses to become a versatile tool in mental health support and am keen to discuss this idea further with you. With some adaptation, AI Glasses can play a significant role in enhancing the quality of life for individuals with schizophrenia and similar conditions.

Accessibility Certificates

edX Verified for Introduction to Web Accessibility.

Fast Track to Accessibility for Designers

Deque University

Basic PDF Accessibility

Deque University

Basic PDF Accessibility

Excel Accessibility

Excel Accessibility involves several key steps to accommodate users with diverse needs. Running the accessibility checker provides a systematic approach to identifying and fixing issues, highlighting problems, and offering guidance on resolution. Utilizing accessible templates from office.com or within Excel helps create documents with well-organized sheet tabs and descriptive filenames, improving navigation for screen reader users. Enhancing navigability further involves structuring spreadsheet and table content with proper headers and avoiding merging or nested tables. Creating meaningful hyperlinks and adding descriptive text to shapes, videos, and images ensures a more informative experience. Alt text for charts, images, and tables contributes to accessibility, and utilizing cell styles with high contrast enhances readability. When saving Excel files as PDFs, enabling accessibility and utilizing Adobe Acrobat's features help ensure an accessible final document. The Accessibility Checker and Action Wizard in Adobe Acrobat assist in addressing common issues and ensuring a thorough accessibility check. These practices contribute to a more inclusive and user-friendly experience for individuals with varying accessibility needs.

PowerPoint Accessibility

PowerPoint Accessibility involves addressing various elements to enhance the experience for all users, particularly those with visual or auditory impairments. The guidelines recommend specific color contrast ratios for text, providing a step-by-step process for fixing accessibility errors. Outlines can be utilized to improve color contrast, and the use of color filters in Windows settings aids those with color blindness. Descriptive icons, rather than shapes, are recommended for better identification, and differentiation in line graphs/charts helps users with low vision or color blindness. Implementing screen reader-friendly features involves adding titles, checking accessibility, organizing internal object order, grouping objects, and providing alternative text. Attention to detail, like removing automatically generated text, unchecking unnecessary items, and setting meaningful URLs, contributes to a more inclusive experience. For tables, adding header rows, avoiding cell merging, and incorporating video descriptions, captions, and subtitles further contribute to accessibility. Closed caption tracks allow viewers to customize their experience, and the Selection Pane in Mac aids in setting the reading order for screen readers. Ultimately, these considerations ensure that PowerPoint presentations are accessible and effective for a diverse audience.

PDF Accessibility

PDF Accessibility involves several key steps to make documents inclusive for all users. These steps include tagging various elements within the document structure, such as headings, links, lists, tables, artifacts, figures, and form fields. Images require alternative text descriptions, and appropriate metadata should be set, including title, author, keywords, subject, and language. The reading order is crucial, established through tags and the reading order panel, and color contrast is tested for enhanced readability. The accessibility check is performed by clicking the left side of the PDF bar, right-clicking, selecting tags, and checking off "Highlight content." Additional actions involve setting document properties, conducting an accessibility check, and fixing errors. Manual checks with screen readers like NVDA and JAWS are recommended. The process also covers handling untagged PDF conversions, addressing OCR/scanned PDFs, and using tools like the axe Monitor for accessibility scans. The importance of defining tab order, creating and managing tags, and associating content with tags is emphasized throughout the document creation and accessibility enhancement process. Ultimately, this comprehensive approach ensures that PDF documents are visually clear and accessible to individuals using assistive technologies.

Word Accessibility


Word Accessibility is crucial for ensuring that documents are inclusive and accessible to a diverse audience, including individuals with disabilities. Utilizing built-in tools like the Accessibility Checker in Microsoft Word enhances document accessibility. Maintaining a text size 12 and organizing content with appropriate headings and subheadings improves readability and navigation. Meaningful images, graphs, and charts should have alt text that accurately conveys their purpose, with the option to provide long descriptions for complex content. The use of color is addressed to accommodate color-blind individuals, with recommended minimum contrast ratios for text, buttons, icons, and graphical components. Headings, spacing, links, and tables are optimized for accessibility, employing descriptive links, appropriate spacing, and well-structured tables with header rows. The document provides detailed instructions on saving as tagged PDF, emphasizing the importance of enabling accessibility features during conversion. Bookmarks are automatically generated based on the document's heading structure, facilitating easy navigation within the PDF. Word Accessibility guidelines aim to make documents more inclusive, user-friendly, and compliant with accessibility standards.

Optimizing User Experience: A Comprehensive Survey Outline

  • Identify and Address Key Pain Points

  • Articulate Areas Requiring Improvement

  • Eliminate Redundant Design Functions

  • Simplify Complex Features Unnecessarily Complicating User Interaction

  • Streamline Sections for Enhanced Usability

  • Gauge User Sentiment towards the Legacy System

  • Explore Pain Points Encountered in Daily Tasks

  • Leverage User Input for Informed Future Design Enhancements

Published Photos - Contest Winner

Winner of Black & White Magazine's Single Image Contest 2022.

Finalist in Photographer's Forum magazine's 38th Annual Spring Photography Contest 2018 and winner of Black & White Magazine's Special Issue 2019.

Accessibility in Data Visualizations Continues

Creating accessible data visualizations involves considering three key design dimensions: structure, navigation, and description. Structure involves organizing information hierarchically, navigation addresses the user's movement through different levels of detail, and description focuses on how information is conveyed. For visually impaired users, auditory cues, subtitles, and volume controls are crucial when implementing voice UX assistants. High contrast modes, designed with a 4.5:1 color contrast ratio, cater to individuals with color blindness. Macro white space aids those with spatial reasoning difficulties and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder by facilitating faster information processing and reducing cognitive load.

UX designers should provide alternative text options for data tables and images, catering to screen readers. Oracle recommends explicit definitions of table summaries, titles, and headers. Focus on interactive elements like links or buttons is essential, ensuring keyboard navigation. Accessible features include visual headers, screen reader tips, keyboard navigation, focus mode, and data table display.

To enhance accessibility, consider tab order, titles, labels, and markers instead of relying solely on color. Report themes and alt text descriptions for visuals and images help screen reader users understand content. Testing for low vision can be done by adjusting screen brightness or using browser add-ons for a squint test. Overall, prioritizing these design considerations ensures inclusive access to information for a diverse range of users. — https://keen.io/blog/accessibility-in-data-vis/

Military and Accessible User Interfaces

The military historically hasn't prioritized accessibility in their user interfaces under the assumption that a relatively low percentage of military personnel face disabilities. However, the reality is that accessibility is critical for the effectiveness of military systems, especially in dynamic field environments. For instance, the challenges posed by diverse environmental conditions, such as intense sunlight or sandy landscapes, underscore the need for accessibility features.

In scenarios like a sandstorm in the desert, which can significantly impair visibility, it becomes imperative for the military system to incorporate accessibility features. These may include options for enlarging text, implementing high-contrast screens, adjusting color schemes, enabling zoom functionality, incorporating speech recognition, and providing video transcriptions. Recognizing these needs and integrating accessibility measures is essential for ensuring the optimal performance and usability of military systems, irrespective of the prevailing environmental challenges faced by personnel in the field.

Accessibility in Data Visualizations

I ensure that accessibility and design standards are thoroughly incorporated into the process of designing data visualizations. This includes implementing high-contrast type and colors, optimizing type size for efficiency, including a clear title and labels, and incorporating a filter mechanism. In cases where graphical charts are utilized, I make certain that a screen reader can interpret a text-based version of the chart, with the option to hide or show it as needed. Furthermore, I prioritize differentiation between data points within the charts, especially for users with low vision or color blindness. To enhance user experience, each visualization features an introduction or set of instructions at the top, followed by the relevant content. Utilize built-in styles and provide alternative text for better accessibility.