[nabs-l] professors and disability services

[Sarah Jevnikar]

Hi Val,
I'm sorry you're experiencing this, especially during final season where
stress levels are high enough as it is. I'm a freshman too, and I can
definitely understand your challenges.
As much as it can be inconvenient to work with DSS or its equivalent, it
appears it is officially necessary, for future reference. Sorry If that's
obvious.
If you process things in word, you can get the formatting details such as
font size, colour, and spacing by using the JAWS command insert plus f. Have
you made friends in your classes or other places at school? They would
probably be happy to check things like formatting and such. Also, can you
explain your situation to DSS, and see if they can intercede on your behalf
to this prof? You obviously want to do the work and haven't been slacking or
anything, so they should help you out because you've been a dedicated
student. This is especially true because you put the effort out to contact
your profs. Would it be possible to have a face-to-face meeting with your
profs and a councilor from DSS? It would be harder for them to say no if
they're looking you in the eye and can see your concerns first-hand.
Sorry this is long-winded, and I hope things improve.
Sincerely,
Sarah

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Valerie Gibson
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 5:12 PM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nabs-l] professors and disability services

Hi,
my name's Valerie. don't really post here much, but looking for
feeback on two situations i've got going on, which as you prob know:
situations before finals is never good. anyway...

one issue, i probably should have worked out sooner, but here it is:
when first regestering for my first year of psych, yes i'm a freshmen
btw, I emailed my professor and asked hi if he could send me any notes
and things that he shows the clas via email.  He's one of those
teachers who teaches in a large auditorium, and projects an outline
for the class to cpy and fill out based on his lectures.  Well,
natureally i don't see the outline, so i asked this accomidation.

"No." was his responce. he said that he needed to see a paper from
disability services (DSS), if he was going to provide that.

I didn't want to fight, and what harm could there be in going to DSS
to get the paper so long as i passsed the class, i thought.  so i did.

Well, the paper was a letter of accomidation where i had to write down
any accomidations i may need, and take each paper to my professors.
they would sign off on it, and i'd bring it back to DSS.  Well, after
filling out the paper DSS told me to ome back in a few days to pick up
the copies to give to my professors.  Normally, they'd call my cell
when i needed to come by, and it wasn't until three weeks later that i
finally got the paper, and even after my psych professor's signature,
i've still not gotten my outline.

Second issue:  my english professor was probably the most open
professor i've gotten this year. she was open to working with me, even
when i didn't want to work with DSS, and emailed anything she gave the
class to me.

We have four projects that we have to write by the end of the
semester, and we can revise as many times as she wants.   My first
project got a good grade, but she pulled me aside on the second
project, and told me that it earned an "unsatisfactory", the lowest
grade, based on the formatting.  natureally i understood that i should
have worked on finding someone to check the formatting.  So i had to
revise.

The papers were due yesterday, and unfortuneately, i was sick over the
holidays, and wasn't in school.  I emailed my professor and asked her
if i could email her the papers that day, and give her the physical
papers the next day, to which she rudely told me that i could.

If anyone knows my household, i don't get that much support with
little things, like having a sighted person check to see if my lines
are double spaced and things, so the next day, i got back to campus, i
ran by the writing center just to ask them if my formating was okay,
before running to my english teacher's office and turning it in...and
now, she's "having to think on wether she will even take it".

and if she doesn't, i will fail.  and i'm already failing psych due to
the information provided above...any thought?

Val

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