[nabs-l] doing research in a lab and a blindness question

Thu Oct 29 02:54:56 UTC 2009

Congratulations! That's great it's starting off well.

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Cindy Bennett
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 9:09 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] doing research in a lab and a blindness question

The data are actually collected automatically in this case, and since
this would be my first research experience, i would not take part in
the analyzing process.

I spoke with the professor today, and we discussed other things that i
could definitely do. She was very positive about working with me.

Thanks for all of your input. I still welcome any lab tips that you might
have.

Cindy

On 10/28/09, Arielle Silverman <nabs.president at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Cindy and all,
>
> Cindy, if you'd like to fly out to Colorado, we could use your
> assistance in my social psych lab! <Smile>
>
> Joking aside, I think you've stumbled on what I consider to be one of
> the biggest challenges facing blind students and professionals. On one
> hand, most careers nowadays are accessible to the blind. However, it
> seems like the greatest accessibility hurdles tend to lie in the
> entry-level jobs within a career. So while a blind professor can
> perform her duties no problem by doing many of the tasks (lesson
> planning, research design, data analysis) independently while hiring
> research assistants or TA's to handle visual things, entry-level
> research and teaching assistants don't always have the ability to hire
> subordinates and are expected to do many of the tasks that require
> less thinking, such as data entry and filing, which also tend to be
> more visual/less directly accessible. The catch-22, of course, is that
> all professionals need to get through the entry-level jobs before they
> can attain the status that allows them to do more of the thinking and
> to delegate visual tasks to subordinates. I am of the belief that one
> of our main priorities should be working to make entry-level positions
> (in every field) more accessible to the blind so we can climb the
> chain of command and gain experience just like our sighted
> counterparts.
>
> In the meantime, you have some options. The way I beat the challenge
> and got to be a graduate student in psychology without being a
> research assistant for someone else first was to design and carry out
> my own research study. Many universities offer an optional honors
> project or independent study where undergraduates can design a
> research project and carry it out under a professor's supervision. Not
> only was the job fully accessible (because I was in charge rather than
> working for someone else) but this kind of thing looks great when
> applying to graduate school if that's what you want to do. If your
> school offers something like this, perhaps find a professor who shares
> some of your research interests and see if you can do that instead of,
> or in addition to, working in a lab. The study I designed (some of you
> participated in it three years ago) was an online survey--relatively
> painless to collect the data and I got to learn how to design a study
> and analyze data in the process, things that RA's often don't get to
> do because these jobs are generally reserved for more advanced
> researchers.
>
> If you want to work in a lab, I do think using a reader could be a
> viable option. You  certainly can handle animals and take measurements
> with a reader's help. If you work in a lab with human subjects, you
> will probably be expected to help with "subject running" which is
> basically meeting with a group of experiment participants and giving
> them printed materials or reading a script to them--both easy and
> completely accessible. Of course, if you know how to use a stats
> program or even just organize data in MS-Excel, that will be a skill
> that the other lab members will appreciate. Research assistants also
> often help with coding data, which is basically reading participants'
> responses and making a judgment about what category they fit into,
> evaluating their quality, etc. For example in my current study we have
> people write essays, get feedback and then write them again, so we
> want to see if their work gets better as a consequence of the
> feedback. Obviously this last thing is only applicable to human
> subjects. I don't know much about what RA's are expected to do with
> animal experimentation, but if you go to the professor with an open
> mind and show him/her the skills you can offer, I'm sure they will
> find a way to make use of your talents. It's also helpful if you offer
> to select the reader yourself, and to pay the person if you have the
> means to, or select a volunteer reader from a campus volunteer
> organization. The professor might offer to pay the reader or recommend
> people to serve in that role, but it's a good idea to at least offer
> to manage this accommodation on your own so they don't think bringing
> you on is a particular burden of time or money for them.
>
> >From a fellow psychologist--best of luck and tell us how it goes. What
> area of psychology are you thinking of going into?
>
> Arielle
>
> On 10/29/09, Jedi <loneblindjedi at samobile.net> wrote:
>> Mary,
>>
>> Cindy, or any other blind person for that matter, is still doing the
>> work even with a reader. The reader is doing all the visual work. For
>> example, the reader announces digital readouts on scales, but the blind
>> experimentor still manipulates and weighs the rats. The blind person is
>> still responsible for taking notes and preparing data. The reader is
>> only responsible for saying things like "The rat's chasing it's tail"
>> or something. It's up to the blind person to know what tail chasing
>> might mean in relationship to the experiment and presents the data to
>> the supervisor. In other words, the blind experimentor does everything:
>> she manipulates the environment, takes down the data, makes appropriate
>> inferences, etc. The only thing the reader does is supply visual
>> information about what's going on in places where visual information is
>> necessary. It's no different than a deaf person using an interpreter.
>>
>> Respectfully,
>> Jedi
>>
>>
>> Original message:
>>> Hi Jedi,
>>> I definitely don't want to discourage anyone from working in a lab, but
>>> to me, this doesn't seem that simple. Yes, Cindy could get a reader who
>>> could tell her what the rats are doing, but then what would Cindy be
>>> contributing to the lab? Often as an undergraduate lab assistant, you
>>> get the "grunt work" of collecting data or physically running
>>> experiments while the more experienced faculty and graduate students do
>>> a lot of the thinking. There are certainly lots of exceptions, but if
>>> the main point of Cindy's job would be to observe the rats and gather
>>> data about their behavior, and she hired a reader to help her
>>> accomplish those tasks, wouldn't she just be hiring someone to do her
>>> job? Maybe it would be better if she could find a lab project she could
>>> contribute to independently with marginal, if any, assistance from a
>>> reader. There are probably several options, and personally, I would
>>> feel a lot better about my job if I knew I wasn't relying on a
>>>  sighted person to do most of it.
>>
>>> Respectfully,Mary
>>> --- On Tue, 10/27/09, Jedi <loneblindjedi at samobile.net> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> From: Jedi <loneblindjedi at samobile.net>
>>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] doing research in a lab and a blindness question
>>> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>>> Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 5:48 AM
>>
>>
>>> Who says you can't watch rats when you're blind? Why can't someone just
>>> describe what's happening with the rats just like in DVS or when using
>>> a live reader? So long as the experiment doesn't actually require you
>>> to visually perceive the rats, who cares if you're blind? Just get a
>>> reader.
>>
>>> Respectfully,
>>> Jedi
>>
>>
>>> Original message:
>>>> Hi,
>>>> If it is the professor and not an assistant, yes, by all means email
>>>> her, and let her know that you are still interested in her research,
>>>> however, you are blind and cannot watch rats on videos. However, there
>>>> are plenty of ways  that oyu could effectively work in a lab, so
>>>> request a meeting. Let her know though, since that way se will be able
>>>> to think about ways htat you could work. Also, I hope you sent her a
>>>> resume, so that she knows about your experience and evaluates you on
>>>> that rathr than on your blindness.
>>>> Mary
>>
>>>> On 10/26/09, Cindy Bennett <clb5590 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> I am very interested in working in the psych lab on campus. There are
>>>>> opportunities for undergrad students to get course credit for doing
>>>>> this, but they have to interview with and be accepted by a professor.
>>>>> I met with one of my psych professors today who I know does research
>>>>> just to learn the logistics of the process, and he told me a lot of
>>>>> details and answered a lot of my questions which was helpful. So I am
>>>>> now in the process of corresponding with professors whose research
>>>>> interests me.
>>
>>>>> My question is this. In my initial email, I simply expressed my
>>>>> interest cordially and explained why I was interested in their
>>>>> research. However, I got a reply of a professor who is willing to work
>>>>> with me, but her research is concentrated on observing rats’ behavior
>>>>> and taking measures such as wait and stuff. She may very well be the
>>>>> only professor to reply positively to my desire to do research with,
>>>>> so I want to say in an effective way that I may not be able to perform
>>>>> these tasks, but I am still interested in meeting with her to discuss
>>>>> whether there are jobs that I could effectively do in her lab. Should
>>>>> I just respond that I am interested and arrange a time to meet, or
>>>>> should I say that I am blind in my email but still request a time to
>>>>> meet as well as mention the fact that there still might be ways in
>>>>> which I contribute? I guess what I am curious about is, is it wrong
>>>>> for me to say that I am interested but rather than meet with her to
>>>>> confirm things like my response would connote, I would really be
>>>>> meeting with her to let her know that there are several aspects of her
>>>>> data collection that I cannot do? Should I turn down the opportunity?
>>>>> I am all about the belief that I can do anything, but I wouldn’t want
>>>>> some professor to take me on if there wasn’t enough things that I
>>>>> could effectively do.
>>
>>>>> I would appreciate your input; in whatever I say, I just want to be
>>>>> sure not to make my blindness look like a major hindrance, because
>>>>> then she might rethink whether she wants to accept me, but I don’t
>>>>> want to mislead her.
>>
>>>>> Thanks, and any lab tips that any of you experienced research
>>>>> assistants have are helpful.
>>
>>>>> Cindy
>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>>
>>>> --
>>>> Mary Fernandez
>>>> Emory University 2012
>>>> P.O. Box 123056
>>>> Atlanta Ga.
>>>> 30322
>>>> Phone: 732-857-7004
>>>> In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that
>>>> greatness is never a given. It must be earned.
>>>> President Barack Obama
>>
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>
>
> --
> Arielle Silverman
> President, National Association of Blind Students
> Phone:  602-502-2255
> Email:
> nabs.president at gmail.com
> Website:
> www.nabslink.org
>
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