Remarkable World Commentary Episode #103: Entity or Customer

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Here Donna Jodhan opens the month of August with a solo commentary she frames as entity versus customer, and she puts her opinion on the table straight away. When a form is inaccessible and the customer agent tells a blind or vision-impaired customer to go and find someone else to help them, whose responsibility is that really? Donna argues it belongs to the company and its agent, not to the customer: the form comes from the company, it does not come from her, and it is up to the agent to find a solution rather than to send someone elsewhere. She recounts what happened a few months ago with ServiceOntario, where an agent told her she had to find someone to assist her and she refused, in the most courteous way she could, then phoned again and again until she reached genuinely helpful, supportive agents who helped her complete and submit the form to renew her company’s business. She asks whether what is really at work is a lack of work ethic or an unwillingness to look for a solution, and puts herself out on a limb to say the duty sits with the customer agent.

She closes with a story sent in by a listener who had been scammed. Being scammed hurts anyone, Donna says, but when you have a disability and a really terrible scammer finds you, it hurts even more. The listener wrote to tell her that while facing the homework of getting their money back, they used the hints and tips from her Mental Stretch to steady themselves, sitting down and meditating on the senses of touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight. It helped them stabilise their minds, their actions, and their decisions about what to do next. Donna says she has been preaching for years that the Mental Stretch can be used in many ways to handle very unexpected and horrible circumstances, and that she is simply happy it continues to help people. She invites listeners to write to her at donnajodhan@gmail.com.

TRANSCRIPT

Podcast Commentator: Greetings. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, and MBA invites you to listen to her bi-weekly podcast, Remarkable World Commentary. Here, Donna shares some of her innermost thoughts, insights, perspectives, and more with her listeners. Donna focuses on topics that directly affect the future of kids, especially kids with disabilities. Donna is a blind advocate, author, sight loss coach, dinner mystery producer, writer, entrepreneur, law graduate, and podcast commentator. She has decades of lived experiences, knowledge, skills, and expertise in access, technology, and information. As someone who has been internationally recognized for her work and roles, she just wants to make things better than possible.

Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Hello there. I’m Donna J. Jodhan, your host for the Remarkable World Commentary podcast, and it is my first solo podcast for the month of August. I hope everybody is enjoying themselves. And for this first episode for the month of August, here is what I’d like to talk about. It is entity versus customer. What does that really mean in my books? Okay.

Donna Jodhan: What should one say to a customer agent when they tell you to find someone to assist you? It’s not an uncommon statement, but one that is too common in many ways. Okay. And when it comes to completing and submitting forms again, the customer agent tells you to find someone to assist you.

Donna Jodhan: Who is the responsibility? And I’m going to put my opinion out there by saying it is the responsibility of the customer agent to assist me as someone who is vision impaired, to complete and submit the form for— After all, the form comes from the company. It doesn’t come from me. And why should I be expected to find someone to assist me to complete and submit the form if the form is inaccessible?

Donna Jodhan: It is the responsibility of the company to ensure that their customers, those of us who need assistance, can complete the form, and it is up to them to help us do it, not to tell us to go elsewhere. Okay. It is up to the customer agent to find a solution. Why should it be the customer or the consumer who is charged, or who is told that it is their responsibility to find someone to do it?

Donna Jodhan: This is what happened a few months ago with ServiceOntario, when the customer agent told me, you got to find someone to help you or to assist you to complete the form. And I said, absolutely not, in the most courteous way that I could. I said, no, it is not my responsibility. It is yours.

Donna Jodhan: What I had to do was to phone again and again until I found some really helpful agents, supportive agents who assisted me to complete and submit my form to renew my company’s business.

Donna Jodhan: So what is being affected here? Is it a lack of work ethic on the part of the said agent, or is it an unwillingness on the part of the customer to find someone? What is it really? Again, I’m going to put myself out on a limb and to say it is the responsibility of the customer agent to assist the customer who requires assistance to find a solution, not simply say go off and get someone to assist you. That’s my opinion. Okay.

Donna Jodhan: Now, I want to end my podcast today with someone who sent in this story to me by telling me that they were a scam victim. So many of us are scam victims, but when you have a disability and you find yourself having been scammed by somebody, by a scammer, a really terrible scammer, it hurts even more.

Donna Jodhan: And this person told me this story, sending this story to me because they wanted me to know that when they were scammed and in order to get over their circumstance, they used the hints and tips from my Mental Stretch to help them out. I’ve been preaching for many years now that my Mental Stretch can be used in many ways to deal with very unexpected and horrible circumstances.

Donna Jodhan: What did this victim do? Well, after realizing that they had been scammed, and after realizing that they had to do a lot of homework to retrieve their money, they sat down and they used my Mental Stretch strategies, which were using the sense of smell, the sense of hearing, the sense of touch and the sense of taste, and sit down and meditate on favorite senses of touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight. Okay. The five senses.

Donna Jodhan: This is what this poor old victim did. It helped them to stabilize their minds, to stabilize their actions, to stabilize what they were going to do with regard to having been scammed. An unwitting victim who had a disability. I’m just happy that my Mental Stretch continues to help people to deal with very unexpected circumstances.

Donna Jodhan: I’m Donna Jodhan, wishing you a great day, great week and great month. Please write to me at donnajodhan@gmail.com. That’s donnajodhan@gmail.com. I’ll see you in a future podcast for this month. Take care.

Podcast Commentator: Donna wants to hear from you and invites you to write to her at donnajodhan@gmail.com. Until next time.

Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA
Global Leader In Disability Rights, Digital Accessibility, And Inclusive Policy Reform
Turning policy into progress for people with disabilities.