#telecommuting

Remotely.

Regular users of video conferencing software like Zoom likely know exactly what I’m talking about. The rest of you with note taking accommodations are about to get really suspicious of these programs if you weren’t already.

So the lovely people at Zoom and friends (lovely used very loosely here) have a “attention tracking feature” where if you click off the screen while someone is sharing their screen, it tells whoever is running the meeting that you weren’t paying attention. They claim they don’t use video and audio as part of this feature, but I’ve learned to never trust a tech company when it comes to privacy. There is a way to disable it in your account settings. However, the one running the meeting/class/whatever can override it by making it mandatory for everyone.

So what is the problem with this? Well, I have several:

1) Anyone who knows what they are talking about and has been in a physical classroom at all in the past 10+ years can easily tell you that just because someone is looking at the speaker, doesn’t mean they’re actually listening or learning. That’s kinda been my whole premise against forced eye contact. The more energy autistics are putting in to look at you, the less they have to actually process what you’re saying.

2) It’s a great way to not adhere to someone’s LEGALLY protected work or school accommodations. Especially when it comes to note taking accommodations. Since to actually take notes, most people use a different app, which would require that app to be in the foreground and triggering Zoom’s “attention detection”. Nothing pisses me off more than companies helping employers and schools not comply with someone’s accommodations. They are too damn good on their own, those two groups don’t need help.

3) Most people have Skype, FaceTime and/or WhatsApp. Why introduce yet another platform and make things yet even more complicated for students or employees?

It’s bad enough many employers wouldn’t let disabled and chronically ill workers telecommute before the global pandemic. Perhaps if they had, they would have been more prepared to move everyone to telecommuting. But they were in such a rush to find something that they didn’t bother to see how it might negatively effect certain employees.