[Cabs-talk] Need Help In Chemistry

Tue Aug 15 19:25:25 UTC 2017

Hi Melissa,

First of all, I want to welcome you to the list! I'm not sure how new
you are to CABS, but I'd like to invite you to our conference call
tomorrow night. I'm sure you can make lots of helpful contacts there,
and I'd be happy to share my information with you as well. I'm
Cricket, a freshman at Stanford University.

There are a lot of helpful resources out there that you can use. To
start with, I definitely recommend getting a Talking LabQuest, which
is a device manufactured by Independent Science, Dr. Cary Supalo's
company. It comes with various probes and other tools for collecting
data, and I've found it very useful in lab sciences. This device
connects with a computer, and in conjunction with standard laboratory
software, it revolutionizes the experience you can have by allowing
you to participate on equal footing with your sighted peers. The
Department of Vocational Rehab should fund this for you, and if they
give you any difficulty at all, let me know and I can help you write a
letter of justification.

Of course, from the professor's standpoint, lab safety is a concern.
As long as you know how to be safe in a lab though, that should not be
a concern. Blind people are doing far more "dangerous" (in quotes)
things every day. While you should definitely take your professor's
concerns to heart, there's no reason for that to discourage you...
You'll be just fine.

Aside from the LabQuest, which I honestly think you'll find endlessly
helpful, I suggest that you join the NABS list on nfbnet.org. It's
nabs-l at nfbnet.org, if I'm not mistaken. Also, you should definitely
sign up for the science and engineering division list. They are both
wonderful groups of people who will help you out a lot. I encourage
you to look at the Independent Science website, which is
http://independencescience.com/

And lastly, I would be happy to email you off-list if you have any
further questions. As a student interested in physics and computer
science, I know what it's like to be discouraged. But it is definitely
possible to achieve your goals--scientific and otherwise. I would love
to share my experiences, and I can share a bunch of useful contacts.
(I can't share people's contact information on a mailing list though,
for obvious reasons.) Please join us tomorrow on the CABS call! I'll
provide the number and access code tomorrow on this list. Thanks!

Best,
Cricket X. Bidleman
NCS Pearson, Associate Quality Assurance Engineer
Stanford University, Class of '21

On 8/15/17, Henry Wedler via Cabs-talk <cabs-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> Dear Melissa,
>
> My name is Henry 'Hoby' Wedler.
> I'm totally blind and recently graduated with my Ph.D. in organic chemistry
> from UC Davis.
>
> I'm more than happy to help and I absolutely will support you in any way I
> can.
>
> Please email me off list. We'll set up a time to talk this week and go from
> there.
>
> All my best,
> --Hoby
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Cabs-talk [mailto:cabs-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Melissa
> Hadiyanto via Cabs-talk
> Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2017 7:54 AM
> To: California Association of Blind Students Mailing List
> Cc: Melissa Hadiyanto; Ken Quinn
> Subject: Re: [Cabs-talk] Need Help In Chemistry
>
> Hi Ken. Thank you so much. If you can connect me with Carry Supple I'd
> really appreciate it. I want to take chemistry because it sounds fun and I
> want to try. I actually did try to take astronomy at my college but the
> homework online wasn't very accessible. Although that professor said that
> he
> has had blind students in the past. This professor obviously has not if she
> is discouraging me from taking the class.
>
> Melissa
>
> On Tue, Aug 15, 2017 at 4:57 AM Ken Quinn via Cabs-talk <
> cabs-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
>> Melissa,
>> I would reach out to cary supple I believe that carry supple is
>> currently living in New Jersey now. I will also forward your message
>> to some of my colleagues that work with science. I myself am involved
>> with space science and in particular creating tactile diagrams for
> astronomy.
>> Ken
>>
>> > On Aug 15, 2017, at 2:39 AM, Melissa Hadiyanto via Cabs-talk <
>> cabs-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> >
>> > Hello all. I am new to this list and wanted to reach out due to a
>> situation
>> > I'm facing. My name is Melissa. I'm 24. I go to community college
>> > and am enrolled in an intro to chemistry course. I want to take the
>> > class to try it out and see if I like it. I also just want to have
>> > fun with it
>> because I
>> > didn't get the chance to do it in high school. Today was my first
>> > day of class. The professor went through the syllabus and safety
>> > procedures for the lab. As soon as she saw my cane she started to
>> > ask me how I was going to do the work. She also kept mentioning
>> > about how dangerous it is. I
>> have
>> > never taken a lab like this so I didn't know how to answer her. But
>> > I
>> know
>> > that there are blind chemists out there and that it is possible for
>> > me to have fun and take this class. I know that there are blindness
>> > techniques for performing experiments. I just don't know what they
>> > are being really inexperienced. So I am reaching out to you for
>> > advice and support. What
>> can
>> > I do about this? Who are the people that I can connect with to talk
>> > about this?
>> >
>> > Melissa Hadiyanto
>> > _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
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