[nabs-l] introduction, and a few questions

Wed Dec 9 15:16:44 UTC 2009

I don't know if your blackboard works the same as mine, but from the
beginning, it looked quite inaccessible, but i discovered the link,
creat a printable view, and it brings up a page with check boxes
beside all of the options, for example, my professor would have for
each chapter, the class notes, and any handouts. I would check these
boxes, and it would bring up a printable view which is then
accessible.

Again, i don't know if all Blackboard runs the same, but i found that
to be quite helpful.

In biology, it helped me to braille out the punnett squares on my own
time after class, once you get the hang of it though, you will be able
to do small ones in your head, but when they get to be three by three
or four by four, writing them out in whatever format you use
definitely helps.

Cindy

On 12/9/09, Darian Smith <dsmithnfb at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi kerri,
>   Welcome to the list.
>   My name  is Darian Smith, I am a  board member  with the national
> association of blind students and a student at city college of san
> francisco.
>     Please don't feel like any question you ask here is a "dumb
> question", as  we are all students and  learning  about school,
> blindness and life.
>   i would have to agree with what everyone's been saying in regards to
> accomidations.  I've had instructors that have either  E-mailed  me
> the  handouts, or I've gotten the handouts to scan myself.  I use a
> braille note to  take notesin class and that works just fine for me
> and I also have a  digital recorder that I baught from radio shack and
> it has worked rather well in some situations for getting the lecture
> down for me to refer back to  it and note take.
>   I know I am probably not going to be able to answer all of your
> questions, but I hope i've answered some.  Just  know that  there is
> always a way to tackle  a situation; some ways people suggeston how to
> go about things may work for you, others may not and that's all fine.
>  Just know that you have  options and tools, and now a whole group of
> successful blind students just like yourself who are here and happy to
> be of assistance, as you yourself will be to other students.
>   Again, welcome and thank you  so much for your questions!
>  Please don't be a  stranger and post as frequent as you like!
>  Best,
>   Darian
>
>
>
> On 12/8/09, Ben Peters <myangelblessings at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Keri, welcome to the list. I'm Ben, and I just graduated with my
>> associates and am now going to be working on my BA in psychology.
>>
>> It is very reasonable and appropriate to ask professors for handouts to be
>> emailed. I do this all the time, and try to have them emailed before class
>> so I'm on the same page. I had one professor willing to email everything
>> including exams at one time, but he was the only one that went to that
>> extreme.
>>
>> I take notes on a braille note. I don't get everything, but I try to make
>> up
>> for this by doing a few things. 1. I record the lecture. 2. I take notes
>> when reading the book jotting down definitions etc that are important. 3.
>> I
>> team up with a friend or someone I know in the class so I can always ask
>> them questions (or vise vera) about stuff I didn't get written down. 4. I
>> ask the professor about specific definitions or whatever. 5. I will google
>> it. I don't do all this at once, I use what I think is useful at the time.
>>
>> In regards to the powerpoint slides, talk to your professor and explain
>> the
>> situation. Ask him or her to provide them in blackboard or to you
>> privately
>> in a different format like PDF or word. Generally I've found these formats
>> to work better than powerpoints. Just make the case for it. I had a
>> professor last semester go out of his way (thankfully for me) to provide
>> me
>> word files of all the matterial posted to blackboard while the other
>> students got the regular format. If the professor won't assist, consider
>> talking to your disability services office and see what they suggest. They
>> might be able to reformat them for you. But you should have the same
>> access
>> to the powerpoints as everyone else.
>>
>> I'm sorry, but I can't help with your biology question.
>>
>> Ben
>>
>> myangelblessings at hotmail.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Join me
>>
>>
>>
>>  On Dec 8, 2009, at 5:50 PM, Kerri Kosten wrote:
>>
>>  Hi All:
>>
>>  I am new to the list. I just recently joined the NFB after listening
>>  to the convention in July.
>>
>>  My name is Kerri Kosten. I am a student at West Virginia University
>>  majoring in Journalism. I also work at a local radio station, doing the
>> sports page for one of the stations websites among other things.
>>
>>
>>  I had a couple of questions. I wasn't taught very well in high school
>>  about college, so I hope these aren't dumb questions.
>>
>>  First, if a professor hands out material in print, is it appropriate
>>  to ask for them to email you an electronic copy? I have Kurzweil at
>>  home, but my scanner is really big so haven't set it up in my
>>  apartment yet. I use and love the Iphone so don't really want to have
>>  to switch to a Nokia just for the KNFB reader, so that's not really an
>>  option so I've been just asking the professors to email a copy of the
>>  handout but wanted to make sure this is appropriate and okay, and not
>>  asking too much.
>> How do you handle taking notes from powerpoint lectures? At WVU, the
>>  professors always use powerpoints up on a screen so the other students
>>  can copy the notes down from the powerpoints. They post the
>>  powerpoints on Blackboard after the class, but I haven't found them to
>>  be accessible from the Blackboard's website unless I am doing
>>  something wrong.
>>  I have been just listening for key things the professor says and
>>  writing stuff down that way that I think is noteworthy but if the
>>  professor gives a really long definition sometimes I forget part of
>>  the definition. The other students can of course look at the
>>  powerpoints to make sure they have copied the notes correctly...so I
>>  was wondering how you guys handled that.
>>
>>  I am also going to take a class next semester in Biology. When we
>>  study genetics, how did you do the whole punnett square thing to
>>  understand genetics?
>>
>>  Thanks so much, and like I said I hope these aren't dumb questions.
>>
>>  Kerri
>>
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>
>
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