Genealogy Chat

I know this is not a genealogical question, but I also know there are some people quite knowledgeable about computers on this board - so here goes.

I want to use a printer on a computer to which I do not have administrator rights. This means I will be unable to install the printer driver onto the computer. I do have the CD-ROM which came with the printer and has the driver on it. Is it possible to run it direct from the CD-ROM, or will it be compressed? If it is compressed, could I download and uncompress the driver to a memory stick (using another computer to do so), and then run the printer from the driver on the memory stick?

All suggestions gratefully received.

Tina

ask the person with administrators rights to install it?

Hi Grumpy

Regretfully it is not that simple. My employer has decided to remove individual printers and install one central printer on each floor. I have a variety of disabilities which make moving about uncomfortable most days and extremely painful some days. They know this, but don't fully understand my level of discomfort - probably because I try not to make a thing of it. I have asked to keep my printer and been told no. I have offered to buy any future cartridges for it out of my own pocket, and not to ask for any help from IT if it goes wrong - and have been told NO. Someone on high has decreed all individual printers are to be removed and that's it.

Now, I know I could go through the disability chanels but I just don't feel that I have the energy to fight - and it would be a fight. I was thinking maybe if I lay low for a week or two and then quietly took in a printer of my own I might get away with it. However, my current printer is elderly and I can't now buy one like it, and that is the only driver on my computer.

Why do people have to make life so complicated when all I want to do is get on with my job in the most efficient way I can!

Tina

you mention memory stick can you not download files to your memory stick take them home and print them?

edit,
p.s. taking in your own printer after being told no may constitute misconduct be careful?
also be careful what files you remove on a work computer they belong to work?

a small question is the printing you want to do for yourself or as part of your job?
if it is part of your job are you saying that by moving the printer they are making it more difficult/uncomfortable for you as a person with disabilities to do the job?????

if so the best advice is as given above.

Thanks for your thoughts. I know the sensible way would be to approach it through the discrimination laws but I have already been told that they would fight this if I took this route. It is not a question of not being able to print. I can do that to the central printer, but then I have to go and fetch it from there, and I need to print short documents and then work from them. I am being told that I can work from them on the screen (ie jump from document to document on screen), but I know that for some things this will not be either easy or practical and I can see that I shall end up getting up and down more frequently than I do now. (My supervisor says they will say that this is good for me and everyone should get up and walk about every half an hour. Hmm - she should try being me for a day).

I can try to coincide fetching printing with going to the loo (!!!), but my bladder does not always work in sync with my work! Basically, it is just going to make my life more uncomfortable and all I wanted to do was to make things easy for myself. That way I stand a better chance of being able to continue working.

WS - you are right. I am going to have to fight this. It's so darned unfair and, what's more, pointless! I don't have much energy to spare at the moment, having been quite ill for some time. I am seriously beginning to wonder if they are deliberately trying to make life so uncomfortable that I leave - or maybe I am just paranoid. There again, you know what they say, "Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they aren't all out to get you".

However, I have seen a very cheap second hand printer on ebay the same model as the one I am losing. Might just go for it! I have not actually been told I cannot bring in my own printer - only that I can't keep my old printer and buy my own cartridges. A fine difference, I agree, but technically I have not yet been forbidden to do this! Mind you, I haven't suggested it either! Perhaps I should let them sack me and then sue for unfair dismissal and discrimination. An even bigger fight, and anyway, I actually like the job. Oh for an employer with a modicum of common sense!

Tina

hi tina, trying not to read to much into this but the flavour i get is that your supervisor is saying things that appear to have no basis, if you have a union use them if not ask someone else there who is sympathetic to you to represent you and approach your company human resources officer. just write it all down and keep a diary of what is said however trivial it seems? most companies bend over backwards to assist and there is no need to get paranoid?

tina i mean no offense but could you use just for work a motorised wheelchair to move from your desk to the printer? that would make them think because they would have to make it wheelchair friendly. you also need the support of your gp?

You need to take advice as has been suggested. All employers are obliged to make "reasonable adjustments" under the DDA to account for employees with disabilities. Have a look at this site for information.

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/employers/dda/

Trying to connect your own printer is not a good idea at all. You could find that you are in breach of your companies IT guidelines and at worse could face dismissal as a result.