Improved Access for Injured Workers

Regular visitors to the EnableLink website might notice a new "hot button" on our home page. Along with the existing links for News & Events, Resources, Library and Communication Centre, a new link to Injured Workers’ Resources makes it even easier for users to find information on events, articles, organizations, support groups and chats that are specific to injured workers. This is an important part of our mandate to link all people with disabilities, including those injured on the job, to the world of resources that’s waiting to serve them.

PARENTING CHATS

Don’t forget to join the monthly Parenting Chat, hosted by the Parenting with a Disability Network (PDN), a program of the Centre for Independent Living in Toronto (CILT). If you are a parent with a disability, or are interested in parenting, join in on the first Tuesday of every month, 9:00 to 10:00 p.m., EST. Discuss common issues and share ideas about managing the challenges of parenthood! On EnableLink, just click on the Community Centre and join the Disability Chat live.

TOP-TEN E-MAIL COURTESY SUGGESTIONS

- Reformat your forwards.
If a message is worth forwarding to half the rest of the world, then it is worth the few moments it takes to remove the >>> with a word processing function.
- Change the subject line when the topic has changed.
Often, after several exchanges of e-mail, the topic has moved from the original subject. It is easier to keep track of incoming mail if the subject line has been updated.
- Cut off trailing previous messages.
Many e-mail programs automatically include the message to which you are replying. But if that was a reply, then your previous message trails below it, and so on... Erasing all but the last message is usually reasonable.
- Resist chain letters.
Do you feel pressure and irritation when someone sends you an inspiring or humorous message that is followed by a demand that you forward it to ten friends immediately, or something dire will befall you? So why would you inflict that same feeling on ten of your friends?
- Respect other people’s privacy.
That includes their e-mail address. When sending the same e-mail to a bunch of friends/relatives who may not know each other, consider using the blind-copy function so that you do not share all your friends’ e-mail addresses with everyone you are sending to. Or be prepared to get blamed if they start receiving spam.
- Don’t spam.
This seems obvious, but some people don’t realize that if they take all the addresses they receive in forwarded mail, and use them for their own purposes without permission, this is still a form of spam. If you do this and someone reports you then you can lose your ISP privileges.
- Do not shout.
Using all-caps is the Internet equivalent of shouting, and is likely to be interpreted as indicating that either you are a very unsophisticated Internet user or that you are outright discourteous.
- Do not flame, over-react, or erase too quickly and without sufficient thought.
In hand-writing a response to something that makes us angry, we have time to ponder our words. The advantage of an e-mail’s speed is also its pitfall. If you find yourself feeling ANY strong emotion as you compose a hasty response to something you have read, it is wise to save it in the Draft file and leave it there for a day before sending it.
- Be patient when expecting a reply.
Accept that some people have lives other than the Internet and may not respond immediately. Some people only check their e-mail once a week (yes, really!).
- Recognize that not everyone wants to receive everything that you find funny. Do not continue to send stuff if they never acknowledge it, thank you or reciprocate.

(Created by Diana Robinson, e-mail: Choices4U@ChoiceCoach.com, website: www.ChoiceCoach.com. Copyright Coach U 1999, www.coachu.com.)

HOW TO CONTACT ENABLELINK
EnableLink, c/o Canadian Abilities Foundation
489 College Street, Suite 501, Toronto, Ontario M6G 1A5
Tel.: (416) 923-9980
Fax: (416) 923-9829
E-mail: ask@enablelink.org

We are grateful to the Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada for their support.