[Blindmath] [Blind math] accessibility issues

Tue Nov 1 16:12:13 UTC 2016

Dear Dr. Heim, 

I would also be interested in speaking with your friend if he is available.

Kind regards,

Zac

Zachary Mason
M.S. Student
Animal and Dairy Sciences
Mississippi State University

-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of John G
Heim via Blindmath
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2016 10:57 AM
To: Sabra Ewing <sabra1023 at gmail.com>
Cc: John G Heim <jheim at math.wisc.edu>; Saaqib Mahmuud
<saaqib1978 at yahoo.co.in>; Blind Math list for those interested in
mathematics <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] accessibility issues

If you are interested in discussing your options, email me off list. I can
hook you up with a disability lawyer who would be willing to give you a
consultation for free. He is in Wisconsin so he probably couldn't actually
help you. But he could let you know what your rights are. I can hook you up
with the people in the disability resource center here as well. They might
be able to give you some suggestions regarding the different options you
have for accomodations.

On 11/01/2016 10:23 AM, Sabra Ewing wrote:
> Unfortunately, it does seem to be working.
>
> Sabra Ewing
>
>> On Nov 1, 2016, at 9:22 AM, John G Heim <jheim at math.wisc.edu> wrote:
>>
>> I doubt that the faculty senate at most universities would appreciate an
instructor hiding behind a claim of academic freedom when choosing to not
make his course materials accessible. If that works at your university, I
seriously think you should transfer.
>>
>> I used to be on the committee here at the University of Wisconsin that
oversaw accessibility issues.  We got an application from a blind student
for admission to our medical school. This student had been turned down by 50
universities already. But our faculty considered his blindness an asset. The
student had a nearly perfect academic record and our faculty felt that if a
blind student could get the kind of grades he had, we wanted him for our
medical school.
>>
>> So attitudes vary widely from one school to the next. But I don't think
the attitude your instructor is showing would work here.
>>
>>
>>
>>> On 10/31/2016 05:58 PM, Sabra Ewing via Blindmath wrote:
>>> You could try the NFB computer science list. Blind people are
successfully getting such degrees. From a blindness perspective, there
should be no problems and it should be completely accessible, but professors
and cited administrators find ways to make artificial barriers if that makes
sense. It can be really hard to remove these barriers when you're dealing
with people who don't know a lot about computer science. I am majoring in
computer information systems, and one of the problems I am having is that my
professor does not use the coding of best practices. The people who could
help me implement appropriate accommodations say that he can do whatever he
wants and it asking him to change would restrict his academic freedom. I
cannot explain to them that when he does not label controls properly, use
accessible objects, and so forth, I cannot understand or run the code. It
really is very insulting because these practices are not hard to implement.
They would not involve cha!
 nging The
>>>   curriculum or anything, and I would be able to understand the code a
lot better. They do other things to like intentionally making it harder for
me to get copies of the course materials. Another thing is that my
classmates are allowed to have one double-sided page of notes for their
exam. I requested to have my notes in a word document. I was at first told
him that I would have to print them out and have a reader read them to me,
and then I was told that I will have to send the word document to the
disability office ahead of time and get braille because I could use an
electronic copy of my notes to somehow cheat on the test. I am alone in a
room with a proctor the entire time I test. That proctor watches everything
I do so there's no way I could she even if I wanted to. They seem so
concerned with testing security and bureaucratic nonsense that they are
basically treating me like a criminal when I haven't done anything to
deserve such treatment.disability offices are g!
 enerally
>>>   understaffed, and universities only care about having blind people
there so they can fulfill a disability quota outlined for them by the
government. They don't actually care if blind people are successful at their
university, and they don't care if it means that blind people will end up in
sheltered workshops or on SSI for the rest of their lives if they can't get
a degree. Blind people are more at risk and sighted people for under
employment, or for unemployment, so you would think that universities would
care more about them, but they care less. They tried to violate the law in
anyway they can, do the bare minimum, and so forth. At my university, they
might as well have slapped me in the face because I'm top of all the
problems I'm having there, they intentionally put braille signs up that
convey no information. For example, they have a sign that says classroom,
when the print sign and tells sighted people what room number it is. That's
like saying that blind people !
 are so stupid
>>>   that they don't know it's a classroom, but the actual room number
should not matter to them. They find very creative ways to consistently and
still the message that sighted people are more valued, and as a result, many
blind people Drop out of college because they don't want to be treated that
way and they have no resources to fight against it.
>>>
>>> Sabra Ewing
>>>
>>>> On Oct 31, 2016, at 7:07 AM, Saaqib Mahmuud via Blindmath
<blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hello to the Blind Math community!
>>>>
>>>> My name is Saaqib Mahmood; I'm a visually impaired person from
Abbottabad, Pakistan, with an MPhil in Mathematics and working as a
mathematics lecturer at a mainstream college run by the local provincial
government.
>>>>
>>>> The Pakistan Association of the Blind (PAB) is looking forward to
starting a one-year Diploma in Information Technology (DIT) program for the
blind students at their national Resource and Training Center (RTC) in
Karachi.
>>>>
>>>> This DIT program, administered by the Sindh Board of Technical
Education (SBTE), includes courses such as programming in C, VB.Net, and
JAVA; web page designing and creation in HTML and other allied tools; and
similar other high-tech courses in the field of computer science and
information technology.
>>>>
>>>> I would be happy to send you the complete course outline.
>>>>
>>>> Is there any precedent of blind people taking and successfully
completing such courses with the help of screen reading software such as
JAWS and NVDA?
>>>>
>>>> If so, then can you put me in touch with any individual or organisation
who can provide us technical support as and when we need?
>>>> Regards.
>>>>
>>>> Yours Faithfully,
>>>> Saaqib Mahmood,Lecturer in Mathematics, Government Postgraduate 
>>>> College (GPGC) No. 1, Abbottabad, PAKISTANPhone: +92-334-541-7958 
>>>> (mobile + WhatsApp + Skype + Viber)Email: 
>>>> saaqib1978 at yahoo.co.inSkype: saaqib.mahmood
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Blindmath mailing list
>>>> Blindmath at nfbnet.org
>>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org
>>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
Blindmath:
>>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/sabra1023%40
>>>> gmail.com BlindMath Gems can be found at 
>>>> <http://www.blindscience.org/blindmath-gems-home>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Blindmath mailing list
>>> Blindmath at nfbnet.org
>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org
>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
Blindmath:
>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/jheim%40math.
>>> wisc.edu BlindMath Gems can be found at 
>>> <http://www.blindscience.org/blindmath-gems-home>
>> --
>> --
>> John G. Heim; jheim at math.wisc.edu; sip://jheim@sip.linphone.org
>>
>>

--
--
John G. Heim; jheim at math.wisc.edu; sip://jheim@sip.linphone.org

_______________________________________________
Blindmath mailing list
Blindmath at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindmath_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
Blindmath:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindmath_nfbnet.org/zm290%40msstate.edu
BlindMath Gems can be found at
<http://www.blindscience.org/blindmath-gems-home>