[nabs-l] 10 Best Tips for High School Students
T. Joseph Carter
tjosephcarter at gmail.com
Fri Oct 24 18:42:30 UTC 2008
Hope,
I would like to echo what you said about the need to work harder than
other students may have to. Just because others know that you may need
more time to do certain tasks does not mean they should "go easy" on you
because of it. Nobody is going to go go easy on you after you get out of
school.
That said, there is much emphasis on doing things in college as practice
for the so-called "real world". If ind often that this emphasis is
misplaced. For example, the insistence that blind people produce their
own textbooks makes no sense whatsoever, in my opinion. Certainly, a
blind person should know how to scan a document themselves, but that does
not mean they should be taking the time to scan several entire books the
first week of every term.
Also certainly, DSOs are unreliable as a general rule in terms of
providing the necessary accommodation in a timely, efficient, and
acceptable manner. This does not, however, excuse them from their legal
obligation to provide these things. Moreover, the most efficient way to
handle the textbook situation is to obtain an electronic book from the
publisher directly, and the publishers will not provide this to a student.
You MUST operate through your DSO to obtain this. Not only that, but
scanned documents may be lacking information you don't know is missing
until you must scramble to find out what exactly you don't know.
The simple reality is that university life is not the real world. In
fact, it has no relation to the real world. It is an artificial
institutional system and must be approached as one. In the real world,
you are free to provide yourself with whatever you need. In the
university world, you may not necessarily have the option to do the thing
that makes the most sense.
These are the lessons I have had to learn, usually the hard way.
Joseph
On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 10:13:02AM -0400, Hope Paulos wrote:
> Hello Rania. I have to agree with you. In high school I never
> really learned to advocate for myself until I started college. I
> learned to scan my documents in high but didn't have to do so. I
> had a full-time transcriber to do this for me. Doing my school
> work was enough of a challenge at the time. Now that I've
> graduated from high school, I urge current high school students
> to not let teachers give you a "free ride." My teachers didn't
> know how to teach me because I was the first blind student at my
> high school. They let by with a's and b's when I was doing D
> work. Don't let that happen. It will come back to bite you in
> the long-run. I am in my senior year of college now and will
> graduate in May. I currently have a 3.8 GPA and it's all earned.
> Please. Enjoy the time you have in high school, but work hard.
> Sometimes, as blind people, we have to work twice as hard as our
> sighted counterparts. It may take us longer to do our
> assignments because we have to san documents, etc. Don't let it
> stop you.
> hope and Beignet
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Rania" <raniaismail04 at gmail.com
> >To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> >Date sent: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 07:58:23 -0400
> >Subject: Re: [nabs-l] 10 Best Tips for High School Students
>
> >I think they should learn how to scan there own documents and
> know how to
> >use jaws. I didn't know how to do that and using jaws on a
> computer in high
> >school was not pushed even tho I was getting training on how to
> use jaws at
> >home and did use jaws a little in high school. I found out that
> my high
> >school had kerswale but it never got used because know one new
> how to use
> >it. Depending on ware you go to school and the amount of classes
> you are
> >taking it might be better to do all of your scanning your self.
> I have to do
> >that since I don't have any one to help me with it. You also
> have to work
> >with how the scanned documents come out because not every thing
> is going to
> >scan well.Be prepaired to have a limited number of things
> brailled or none
> >at all because in college you don't see much of it at all if any.
> I can say
> >that I kind of new to expect that but I didn't really understand
> that until
> >I actually got there. Record your classes if you feel that will
> help you in
> >addission to taking notes in class. as for looking for colleges
> look for the
> >school that you want to go to that has the major you are
> interested in. If
> >you are the first blind student to ever attend at that school
> have an idea
> >or know what accomadations you need. Don't be afraid to ask
> questions of
> >your instructors and anyone else helping you. Learn how to
> advicate for
> >your self. If something doesn't work try to find a way to work
> with your
> >instructor to come up with another way that you both agree on so
> you can get
> >the job done. Have fun! even tho it is a lot of hard work I
> enjoy what I am
> >doing.
> >Rania,
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Joe Orozco" <jsorozco at gmail.com
> >To: "Arizona Students" <arizona-students at nfbnet.org>;
> "'California
> >Students'" <cabs-talk at nfbnet.org>; "Colorado Center"
> ><ccb-alumni at nfbnet.org>; "'Colorado Students'" <cabs at nfbnet.org>;
> "Florida
> >Students" <fabs at nfbnet.org>; "'Illinois Students'"
> <iabs-talk at nfbnet.org>;
> >"'Kansas Students'" <kabs at nfbnet.org>; "Kentucky Students"
> ><nfbkabs at nfbnet.org>; "Louisiana Students"
> <la-students at nfbnet.org>;
> >"Michigan" <mi-abs at nfbnet.org>; "Minnesota Students"
> <mn-abs at nfbnet.org>;
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> "Nebraska"
> ><nebraska-students at nfbnet.org>; "New Hampshire Students"
> ><new-hampshire-students at nfbnet.org>; "New Jersey Students"
> ><njabs-talk at nfbnet.org>; "'North Carolina Students'"
> <ncabs at nfbnet.org>;
> >"Ohio" <oabs at nfbnet.org>; "Pennsylvania" <nfbofpa at att.net>;
> "Presidents"
> ><Nabs-presidents at nfbnet.org>; "TABS Students"
> ><tabs_students at googlegroups.com>; "Tennessee Students"
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> ><vabs at www.nfbnet.org
> >Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2008 9:30 PM
> >Subject: [nabs-l] 10 Best Tips for High School Students
>
>
> >> Hello all,
>
> >> I just discovered my mass mailing announcing the NABS web site
> development
> >> skipped a handful of student divisions. You didn't miss
> anything. The
> >> short of it is that I am working with the NABS board to launch
> the
> >> official
> >> NABS web site in the next few months.
>
> >> One of the items I am incorporating into the site is a
> compilation of
> >> quick
> >> tip sheets on a number of subjects of interest to students, tip
> sheets
> >> generated based on your own personal experiences. To start, I
> am looking
> >> for college students who can share their top ten best tips for
> high
> >> schoolers on the verge of applying for college. What did you
> look for in
> >> a
> >> college or university? How should high schoolers prepare for in
> the way
> >> of
> >> readers, accommodations, dealing with professors?
>
> >> My own tip is this:
>
> >> Learn how to use Microsoft Office. Downloading illegal music,
> swapping
> >> e-mails and chatting on messengers is only going to get you so
> far, and I
> >> am
> >> still surprised by the number of students who enter college
> unable to
> >> correctly format a research paper. For that matter, learn how
> to write,
> >> or
> >> at least spell, but one step at a time.
>
> >> Send us your own tips. One or ten. Help us make this a good
> list for
> >> high
> >> school students to peruse as they make preparations for this
> very
> >> important
> >> step in their lives. I'll work with the NABS board to
> incorporate your
> >> suggestions into a final document which will then be made
> available on the
> >> site when it is launched.
>
> >> Regards,
>
> >> Joe Orozco
>
> >> "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for
> humanity."--James
> >> M.
> >> Barrie
>
>
> >> _______________________________________________
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>
>
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