ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 18, 1996 TAG: 9602160007
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BRENDA McDANIEL SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
"Good afternoon, Holiday Inn-Tanglewood. How may I direct your call?''
The voice belongs to Chris Smith, 44, one of Goodwill Industries Tinker Mountain's star graduates.
Smith, who has been partially blind since age 6 and totally blind since he was 24, works 36 hours a week answering the Roanoke County hotel's switchboard.
His hands move expertly across two keyboards. One is connected to the hotel's telephone system, the other to a computer. He transfers calls to the reservation desk, the kitchen and guest rooms and takes messages for those who are not in.
By using computer technology and equipment paid for by the Virginia Department for the Visually Handicapped, Smith is able to ``read'' his computer screen not with his eyes, but with his ears. Specially adapted equipment translates computer data into speech messages, which Smith picks up through his headset.
When a caller leaves a message for a guest, Smith speaks the message into a small tape recorder, then types and prints it.
Smith worked at Goodwill Tinker Mountain from 1987 to 1991. There, he received job counseling that prepared him for the outside workplace.
It was OK at Tinker Mountain, he says, but the work, consisting of sealing plastic bags and assembling cosmetic tubes for Elizabeth Arden Co., was not challenging.
Neither were his first jobs in the community: cutting mop yarn for mattresses in Charlottesville, scrubbing potatoes and dipping cole slaw at a restaurant.
It was the Virginia Employment Commission that put him onto the switchboard job at Holiday Inn-Tanglewood. He received his training on how to use the computer equipment at the Richmond Rehabilitation Center for the Blind.
Although the hotel previously had employed a disabled worker as a housekeeper, Smith's performance has convinced the hotel not to view a disability as likely to produce lesser results. "We don't expect anything different from Chris that from any other PBX operator," said Tim Craft, manager of Holiday Inn-Tanglewood's front office.
The experience, including special help by Goodwill Industries in training Smith, means Craft said he's willing to tell other employers to hire former Goodwill workers.
Smith, a graduate of the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind, said he now wants to learn as much as he can about his computer equipment and is thinking about taking a computer class at Virginia Western Community College in the spring.
"I like this job, I like the equipment, and I like the people I work with,'' he says. And he feels challenged.
During an interview, he continues to answer the switchboard, connect calls, take messages, put callers on hold, remember to take them off when a line is free and carry on a conversation with a reporter.
Is it always this busy?, he is asked.
Oh, this isn't busy,'' he replies, reaching for another switch. ``Good afternoon, Holiday Inn...''
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Cindy Pinkston. With the assisatnce of some computerby CNBmodifications, Chris Smith, totally blind since age 24, works as a
switchboard operator at Holiday Inn-Tanglewood. color.