[nabs-l] Reasonable technology requests from Rehab andsomeothercollege questions
Chris Nusbaum
dotkid.nusbaum at gmail.com
Tue Apr 26 20:20:07 UTC 2011
Hi, Anmol.
Just curious. I saw you have a Yahoo email address. I thought
Yahoo was totally inaccessible to screen readers, and I used to
have it with JAWS. Totally inaccessible! Then I found out that
Gmail was the most accessible, so I got it. However, Yahoo is
accessible to VoiceOver if you get email on an iDevice, like an
iPhone or iTouch. We tried it out on my mom's iTouch. But it
didn't say it was sent from any iDevice. So, what do you use for
your email?
Chris Nusbaum
"A loss of sight, never a loss of vision!" (Camp Abilities motto)
----- Original Message -----
From: Anmol Bhatia <anmolpbhatia at yahoo.com
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Mon, 25 Apr 2011 09:12:03 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Reasonable technology requests from Rehab
andsomeothercollege questions
Good points Arielle.
The only thing I would add is to keep consideration that our
technology is expensive and I would hate for any of it to come up
missing or stolen. So maybe at first unless you know someone and
can trust that person get a single room until you get there and
get to know others and have made friends. Maybe second semester
or second year
you can get a roommate with someone you know.
Anmol
I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad.
Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is
vague, like a breeze among flowers.
Hellen Keller
--- On Mon, 4/25/11, Arielle Silverman <nabs.president at gmail.com>
wrote:
From: Arielle Silverman <nabs.president at gmail.com
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Reasonable technology requests from Rehab
andsomeother college questions
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date: Monday, April 25, 2011, 12:24 AM
Hi Jordan and all,
When I applied to college, because of advice from my DSS
counselor and
encouragement from my parents, I disclosed on the housing
application
that I was blind. I was assigned a single room, and
initially I was
assigned a handicapped-accessible room. I fought to get a
non-handicapped room, but decided to keep the single
because I feared
that my technology would crowd out a roommate. As it turned
out, I
brought a Braille printer that I didn't ever use. If I
could do it
over again, I would never have told housing that I had a
"disability"
or requested a single. I made an effort to socialize with
my
floormates, but still I felt I didn't quite click with the
other girls
on my floor and I really think if I'd have had a roommate
it would
have been a lot easier to get in the social swing.
Nowadays, most
college students come with a computer of some sort and I
think many
also bring a printer. You can get a scanner that's
integrated into
your printer, so if you have a scanner/printer, a computer
and
screen-reading software, you really have no more equipment
than your
sighted dorm-mates will have. Even if you splurge and also
get a
Braille Note, Pac Mate or other portable notetaker, it can
easily fit
on your desk, and if you bring a laptop or netbook, your
equipment is
even more compact. So don't worry about any special
housing
accommodations, unless perhaps if you have a guide dog.
Arielle
On 4/24/11, Nicole B. Torcolini at Home
<ntorcolini at wavecable.com
wrote:
I just want to make a few
points.
The notetakers are definitely catching up on the
technology, but there are
still things that you can and will need to do on a
computer that you cannot
do on a notetaker. One of these things is formatting.
Teachers in secondary
school tend to be much more relaxed about formatting,
but, in college, what
passed in secondary school probably will not pass in
college. I hardly ever
turn any thing in directly from my BrailleNote.
I don't think that the person
was using the Braille display *instead* of
VoiceOver. I don't know how it works on Apple
products, but I know that, on
windows computers, you have to have a screen reader to
act as a driver for a
Braille display.
To answer the question of why
you would need both speech and Braille,
some things are easier/faster to do listening and some
are better done with
Braille. For example, I would find it very hard to
listen to math. On the
other hand, I can understand JAWS talking a lot faster
than I can read, so I
listen to things for which it is not critical that I
know every little
punctuation mark.
One last comment about
emailing work. In college, most things are not in
a format that can be read on the BrailleNote. Most
professors use PDF. Some
use PowerPoint. Very few use word documents. Even if
they do, most use docx
files and/or files with formatting that the bn does
not support.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Nusbaum" <dotkid.nusbaum at gmail.com
To: <davidb521 at gmail.com>;
"National Association of Blind Students mailing
list" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Sent: Sunday, April 24, 2011 8:26 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Reasonable technology requests
from Rehab andsomeother
college questions
Hi, guys.
Just a few thoughts on David's suggestions.
I agree with your comment
about the laptop vs the notetaker. With the
newer versions of the
notetakers like the Braille-Note Apex that I have,
you can do most
anything that you could on a computer with your
notetaker as it's all
computer technology now instead of PDA
technology. However, if you're
doing a Internet research project or something,
the more tools in your
toolbox, the better. I know that some sites
are accessible to screen
readers but not to notetakers, and vice
versa. So I would reccomend
definitely seeing if you can get both. Now
keep in mind, as I said
before, rehab probably isn't going to get all the
technology you need for
you, but you never know. You might need
another funding source, like a
Lions club or another foundation like the I CAN
Foundation that I
mentioned in the last email to you. On the
display vs notetaker and
Braille embosser topics, I would suggest a
notetaker over a Braille
display for its portability and convenience.
I would reccomend a
Braille-Note Apex over the Braille-Sense, based on
what I've heard about
the Braille-Sense. However, one of the NFB
executives was showing me a
Braille display called RefreshaBraille from APH,
which he uses for his
iPod instead of VoiceOver. It really doesn't
matter, in my opinion,
whether you get a screen reader for your computer
or a Braille display.
It really serves the same purpose. If you
have a screen reader, it's
already reading the screen, so why would you need
a Braille display, and
vice versa? On the Braille embosser, it all comes
down to individual
preference. I used to love hardcopy Braille
until I got the Apex. Now my
teachers email homework or classwork to me and I
detach it right onto my
Braille-Note. I also email my teachers
homework as attachments to emails
instead of printing them out and labeling them in
Braille, which saves a
lot of time. I also use the good old thumb
drive all the time in school.
What's awesome about that is that in the middle of
class, my teacher will
say "Chris, I need your thumb drive to put a paper
on it for today." If
he/she has an electronic copy in their computer of
the worksheet, they can
stick it on my thumb drive and I can import it
into the notetaker. It's a
life saver! But if you prefer hardcopy Braille,
it's a louder process and
you'll use a lot more paper, but it's whatever you
prefer. If you have
any more questions, let me and the list
know. Good luck!
Chris Nusbaum
"A loss of sight, never a loss of vision!" (Camp
Abilities motto)
----- Original Message -----
From: David <davidb521 at gmail.com
To: "'National Association of Blind Students
mailing list'"
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Sun, 24 Apr 2011 20:38:29 -0500
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Reasonable technology
requests from Rehab and
someother college questions
Hi, Jordyn. Here are some things to keep in
mind. Definitely try to get
a
laptop with a screen reader. I know that
some agencies may not purchase
computers, but rather the adaptive devices like
screen readers,
notetakers,
etc. But there are always exceptions, it
seems. You'll want a powerful
computer with quite a bit of ram and processing
speed, as well as a
decently
sized hard drive. As for OCR, if you're
reasonably good with computers,
look
in to OmniPage, which is a mainstream OCR solution
with excellent OCR
accuracy. I believe that it might be better
than Kurzweil and OpenBook,
and
you should be able to get it for less than
$200. Be aware that OmniPage
is
not quite as easy to learn as OpenBook and
Kurzweil, but if you are a
decent
computer user, you'll have little trouble with
it. As for the Braille
display and notetaker, I would personally
recommend a notetaker with
Braille
output, since it's very portable, and you can just
open it and take notes
immediately, rather than waiting for the laptop to
boot up. I'd get the
notetaker before the Braille display, since most
notetakers can act as
Braille displays. However, I don't think
it's as convenient as a
dedicated
Braille display. Maybe they'll get you
both. A Braille embosser would be
nice, but they can be loud depending on the model,
and that may be a
problem
in a dorm setting. But if you really like
using hard-copy Braille, then
do
try getting one. It would be preferable than
having to schedule time to
use
the university's. Those are my thoughts.
David
-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On
Behalf
Of Jordyn Castor
Sent: Sunday, April 24, 2011 7:09 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing
list
Subject: [nabs-l] Reasonable technology requests
from Rehab and some other
college questions
Hi again guys!
I'm going to college in the fall, as I already
said yesterday. This is
why I have so many questions! I just want to be
sure I'm doing
everything right, and what better way to do this
then asking other blind
students? :) So, thanks for all your great advice
on everything!
My other question is, what are reasonable things
to ask Rehab for in the
way of technology?
I'm thinking a laptop, 40 cell braille display,
Window Eyes, and a
printer scanner combo thinggy with software like
OpenBook or Kurzweil. I
don't know if I'd get a notetaker though as these
are super expensive.
lol Any suggestions or other things you'd ask for?
What are you all
using as far as technology in college?
My college also has a place where I can, I think,
borrow technology like
an embosser or Braille Display. Should I use
that rather than asking
rehab for some of the things like the display and
the printer? I think
it would be awesome to have a printer in my dorm
though lol!
Oh, speaking of dorms, do most of you have a
roommate or a single room?
A lot of my blind friends seem to have single
rooms because of the
expensive technology, but, I want a roommate, I
think. lol Thoughts?
Anyway, I'll stop rambling! :)
Thanks again,
Jordyn
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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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