[nabs-l] Recording Lectures... Not allowed?

Jamie Principato blackbyrdfly at gmail.com
Fri Jan 23 08:02:31 UTC 2009


What baffles me most though is that this professor claims to have worked
for/with the NFB on something... or he might have said ACB or AFB. He wasn't
really specific. He just said vaguely, "the blind association". But if he
was serious, you'd think he might know already that a blind person obviously
needs to use some alternatives to gather information.

On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 1:58 AM, Corbb O'Connor <corbbo at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm no expert on the legal side of this. But what I've found works well is
> to tell the professor about how you need to ascertain information in
> different ways than other students. With these alternative techniques, you
> have access to the same information as your sighted classmates. Then assure
> the professor that you won't use the taped lectures in any way except for
> yourself--to learn. If you encounter resistance, you should follow the
> bureaucracy--in some schools that means going to Student Services and
> letting their Director make the contact, or by going to the director of the
> department in which the professor teaches.
>
> Best of luck, and keep us posted.
> Corbb
>
>
> -----
> Corbb O'Connor
> The George Washington University '10
> B.A. Political Communication & Economics
>
> On Jan 23, 2009, at 1:14 AM, Jamie Principato wrote:
>
> Hi there.
>
> I know I spend more time reading this list than I do posting to it, but I
> encountered a little issue in my Psychology class this morning, and I think
> this is the place to find the best input.
>
> I attend a small state college. Student services isn't great here (there
> are
> other issues that only just got resolved, but not the point here) but they
> get the job done. One accommodation we talked about when I first enrolled
> was recording class lectures. I was told by Student Services that I would
> be
> allowed to do this in any class that I needed to as long as doing so
> wouldn't disrupt the class (which we determined it wouldn't as I am only
> recording on my laptop as I type notes). One of the main reasons I do this
> is because a lot of the time the professors have diagrams, drawings, visual
> aids, or written information on the board that needs to be copied into
> notes, and I rely on the descriptions given in the lecture to make sure I
> have all the information I need. For me, this is more efficient than a note
> taker because I get the information I need right away and don't have to
> wait
> on Student Services and end up behind in the class.
>
> Today however, my professor stopped me and asked me if that was a
> microphone
> plugged into my laptop. I told him it was, and I politely asked if it was
> okay for me to record the class. In retrospect this was bad self advocacy.
> I
> should have told him just as politely that Student Services arranged for me
> to record my lectures to make up for any visual information I would
> otherwise miss. Anyway, in short he told me no, I could not record any part
> of his class. He was rather intimidating about it, and I'm rather
> sensitive,
> so again I made a self advocacy error and simply said okay and unplugged
> the
> little mic. I want to confront him on this because I do feel as though I am
> missing a lot by not recording, and I was already told that it was a
> reasonable accommodation and that I could do it... I'm still a little
> intimidated though and I don't want to confront him if I don't have a leg
> to
> stand on.
>
> Do I have a leg to stand on? Is there any legal backing for this? Can he do
> this?
>
> Please help,
>
> Thank you,
>
> -Jamie
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