[blindlaw] LSAT Accommodations?

[T. Joseph Carter]

Chuck,

I'd say lack of preparation and acquisition of skills needed for 
college accounts for a fair bit, but sometimes it just doesn't matter 
what you bring to the game.  Sometimes, the game's been rigged, and 
you may not know about it until you've invested yourself.

There are few coping skills that will help you if you become subject 
to institutionalized discrimination, the subjective and reactive 
application of unwritten policies, and vicious gossip and character 
assassination.  With strong social support, tenacity in abundance, 
very strong skills, and the grace of God, you might survive.

That's what I've been dealing with.  Of course, anyone who knows me 
can tell you that I am a born fighter.  I don't give up.  More 
importantly, if I have to go through it, I'm going to make sure that 
nobody else ever has to.  And yet, even I have been ready to walk 
away a few times.  I can promise you that anyone else would have.  
I've learned that many people have in the past.  Not one person with 
a disability has survived my program in six years.

Sometimes, it just doesn't matter what you do, how you do it, or what 
skills you've got.  If your faculty are determined to see you fail 
because you are blind, there's not much you can do until the damage 
is already done.

I don't know how we can prepare people for that, except to have them 
read lots of early Federation history and all of Dr. Jernigan's more 
militant speeches.  *grin*  I'm not certain it'll help, but it's the 
best suggestion I've got.

Joseph


On Sat, May 16, 2009 at 11:06:09PM -0700, ckrugman at sbcglobal.net wrote:
> Being a product of public schools in the 60's where I was the only blind  
> student and college and grad school in the 70's and 80's where  
> accommodations were negotiated between myself and the professors on a 
> large university campus. The bottom line was that blind and other 
> disabled students learned how to solve their problems and how to function 
> independently in all facets of their education and life or they failed.  
> Basic coping skills both for academic and nonacademic survival are a 
> needed prerequisite to college and work and reasonable accommodation 
> through any legislation is not going to bring about an increase of 
> success in college or the real world of employment.
> Chuck