[blParent] Print and what to do about it

[Steve Jacobson]

Tara,

This is a really good topic to explore with members here because the answers are going to vary with the situation.  Very basically, I believe that there is an obligation for schools to provide accessible information to parents, but like anything along those lines, there is always going to be that good old "Undo Burden" and "reasonable" accommodations language that can become an issue of contention.  In addition, there will be times when the extra step to make something accessible adds a delay that just isn't helpful.   Besides the legal side of things, there is always a practical aspect that has to be considered.  That's the side I want to address and perhaps stimulate some discussion on here.

Although both of my kids are grown now, they went to school when most of the alternatives available now were available then so we worked through many of the same issues.  Even if you get total commitment from your school district, you will need to try to work things out with a new regular teacher each year.  Even then, there will occasionally be other teachers involved playing a less significant role who may not be aware of your needs so you will find that even in the best situations, occasional inaccessible data is going to leak through.  Our school district was pretty cooperative, but there were times when waiting for an accessible document would have had more affect on my kids than on me.  I don't see any way around trying to network with other parents having kids in the same class, for example.  As wonderful as technology can be, having somebody you can call upon to do some reading from time to time is still sometimes very much needed.  What form that takes can vary, of course.  Not everything that a school sends home is in a format that can be easily emailed to you.  They can legitimately claim that it will take them extra time to get it ready for you, but sometimes that leaves your child waiting.  Even if one can get the documents in an accessible format, it probably is still a good thing to have anything sent home with other kids sent home with one's own child.  It avoids having one's child feeling singled out, and one really has no way of knowing that they have received everything in an accessible format without knowing what is being sent in general.  

As kids get older, there is a greater dependency upon email and websites to communicate with schools and for posting homework.  While accessibility can be an issue there, it lessens the amount of paper that is sent home and usually makes life easier.  Therefore, sometimes the toughest years for dealing with this are the first years.

Remember that you are in this education thing for the long hall.  You could easily be the only blind parent with which your whole school district is dealing and there is going to be a learning curve for them.  However, as parents, there is also a learning curve for us to figure out how best to manage this situation as well.  Even if you end up dealing with a perfect school system regarding accessibility, and I doubt any fit that characterization, you are going to have to develop some tools and skills to fill in the gaps sometimes.  It has nothing to do with what is fair, because of course it isn't fair.  We're stuck, sometimes, with having to deal with things as they are, even while we continue to work to make things better.  Fortunately, there others who have gone through this and can share what they have done.  

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson
  
-----Original Message-----
From: BlParent <blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Tara Briggs via BlParent
Sent: Friday, August 23, 2019 10:26 PM
To: blparent at nfbnet.org
Cc: Tara Briggs <thflute at gmail.com>
Subject: [blParent] Print and what to do about it

Hi all! I’m hoping for some help. My daughter started kindergarten this week. I like her teacher. She seems like a nice person and she seems willing to work with me. I let her know that sending home print is not accessible to me or my husband. We need documents that she sends home in an email. So what do I get on the first day of school? Three print documents. Has anyone encountered this problem and what did you do about it?   do I have the right to have documents pertaining to my child in an accessible format? On a different note, have any of you volunteered with your children’s school and what did you do and how did you accommodate for your blindness? Thanks for any help!
Tara

Sent from my iPhone
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