[nabs-l] Some Questions For A Friend

[bookwormahb at earthlink.net]

Kerri,
Sorry to hear your friend is frustrated. I'm glad she asked your advice 
rather than slipping through the crack and possibly failing school.
However, without knowing what skills she  lacks, its hard to suggest a 
course of action.
I agree with Bridgit.  Assess the situation.  What blindness skills are they 
and how long would it take to learn them?
Are the skills actually blindness related: travel, computer,  and braille? 
Perhaps they stem from other issues more academic or coping with a new 
environment. Maybe its time management. Maybe its lack of getting accessible 
handouts or accomodations with a professor; in that case, that is  more of 
an advocacy skill. If books are the issue, remember to telll her about 
bookshare, learning ally, and of course the idea of hiring your own readers.

As to your question: can she attend
another training center for more skills? That really depends. As Bridgit 
said, since she attended a program already, they may be reluctant to
shoulder the cost again. Did she actually graduate the center? How long was 
she there?
She may want to think of staying in state rather than fight a battle for a 
whole program. If its just a few classes she needs, why fight the battle to 
attend a program when she really needs just a few areas?
She needs to consider what she wants to do and if she wants to expend energy 
justifying going out of state for training.

Some other ideas are:
1. Have a field rehab teacher or other teacher come to her home and teach 
that skill. In my state they provide this, but not frequently is the issue. 
O&M is taught in your community and any daily living task like labeling, 
braille, housekeeping, etc is taught by a rehab teacher. At least where I am 
they will send a technology tutor to you to teach any computer or notetaker 
skills.
2. Seek out other blindness nonprofits for teaching. For instance, the 
braille institute in CA; a lighthouse for the blind; in NC there is 
something called the Metrolina association for the blind. If I knew the 
state, I may be able to suggest other organizations to help.
3. Seek out other individuals who are blind to help. Maybe from the NFB 
chapter. Is she a member of her student division? If they are active, 
getting a friend from that group may help. They can chat on the phone about 
any computer questions and some daily living tasks.
4. If the skills needed are related to braille and academics, hadley school 
for the blind, a distance education program, has basic academic classes and 
braille. They have basic english skills like learning how to spell and 
punctuate sentences, to the advanced english classes of literature that you 
would find in a freshman college class. They do the same for math. There is 
also diagnostic tests if you do not know what class you would fit in.
Go to www.hadley.edu to see their offerings; also they have webinars on a 
variety of topics from accessible technology to daily living.
5. A source for some technology training, if you pay for it, is Carroll 
center for the blind's Carrol Tech online classes. All there classes are for 
windows systems and I think geared to the 2007 office applications. But 
check the website and call them with any questions before signing up. The 
site is www.carrolltech.org.
I have not taken a hadley class or done carroll tech, but plan to do both 
and see how it goes. Hadley has some english classes I'd like to take. I 
already have my degree, but I just want to keep up my reading and analytical 
skills.

Don't forget about school resources for help with academics or related 
skills like time management or study skills. The school probably has a 
writing center, tutoring center, academic advisors and professors always 
have office hours.

HTH,
Ashley


-----Original Message----- 
From: Kerri Kosten
Sent: Friday, August 26, 2011 8:21 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: [nabs-l] Some Questions For A Friend

Hi All:

I have a friend who is not on this list who is really struggling with
a few issues. Since she is not on this list she has asked me to post
some questions for her.

Her school uses Windows Live for their email. She says this is flash
based and she can't seem to get it to work with Jaws. Does anyone know
or have any ideas of how to get windows live email to work with Jaws
or is it totally inaccessible?

Next, my friend attended an NFB center (it was not LCB.) They were
changing some staff members around and because of this among other
things she was not taught some skills. Because of this she is having a
hard time with college and is very frustrated. Would it be possible
for her to go back to training and attend one of the other two NFB
training centers or one that is similar?

Thanks so much!
Kerri

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