[nabs-l] Need Guidance: Several Heavily Visual Labs Coming Up

Tue Jan 4 23:59:36 UTC 2011

Hi Tina,

I would second everything Steve said. Also, if you are strong in math,
you could offer to be  the one in charge of calculations for your
group, as well as note-taking.

Also, if you have labs that require you to draw and label diagrams, I
think writing up a verbal description of the organisms/environments
you are working with is acceptable.

Arielle

On 1/4/11, Steve Jacobson <steve.jacobson at visi.com> wrote:
> Tina,
>
> There are a lot of considerations in figuring out how you deal with this.
> Let me start by saying that when I was in school, I took a general physics
> class
> because it was an area I wanted to learn.  The instructor was not happy and
> he did not want me to take the class at all, let alone the lab.  My
> compromise
> was to take the class without the lab and receive one less credit.  After
> taking the class, which was near the beginning of my college experience, I
> learned
> about other blind people who took similar labs.  Since I took the class
> because I wanted to learn the subject, I have always regretted the fact that
> I didn't
> take the lab.  I also saw students strike up friendships in the less formal
> settings of a lab.  I say all this to contrast my response with one other
> response to
> your note that wondered why you have to do all this when he didn't.
> Probably the first thing you need to determine iswhether you want to get in
> there and
> experience what the other students are experiencing, or whether you just
> want to meet a requirement.
>
> When I read the materials, it seems that there are a lot of things you will
> be able to observe.  The rings in a tree won't be as expressive to you in
> terms of the
> information they convey, but you will likely be able to feel them, and
> probably even judge relative thicknesses with your fingernail, and while I'm
> no gardener,
> I know from firsthand experience that you will be able to tell a good deal
> about the differences in soil by feeling it.  This sounds like a set of
> courses where
> the labs contribute a lot to what is learned, and if your instructor has
> taken this time to discuss your participation with you, I have to think this
> is a good sign.
>
> Here are a couple of things that occur to me.  It appears that some of your
> activities occur in a group.  Understanding which activities are in groups
> might be
> important.  One thing that sometimes works if you are in a group or a team
> is that you might be a good person to be the taker of notes.  I don't mean
> you
> wouldn't do anything else, but some of the functions you can't easily do
> could be done by other members, but you can still feel you are pulling your
> weight by
> doing something that many others will not want to do.  Maybe you are less
> squeamish than some.  I know a blind person who won a lot of points with her
> biology lab partner because the blind person didn't mind coming into contact
> with the white rats they were observing.  Her partner couldn't handle that
> part
> of their lab and was glad to handle some of the other things that the blind
> person had some difficulty in handling.  How are you with earthworms, for
> example?  <smile>
>
> If a lot of these labs do not involve groups or teams, having someone work
> with you on some of this as a reader is also an option.  If you were to
> advertise in
> your clas that another student could earn a little something extra working
> with you while being able to get their own work done might work.  If the
> college
> has a DSS office, they may know of people who do reading who may have a
> particular interest.  In the old days, before DSS offices, advertising
> within the
> class itself or on bulletin boards did work pretty well, if the DSS office
> either can't help or doesn't play that role.
>
> Finally, establishing with the instructor what it is that he or she wants
> you to get out of this experience is important.  The instructor may not be
> concerned if
> you dot every "I" and cross every "T" if the instructor feels that you are
> making a serious effort to do what you can and that you are indeed sharing
> the
> experience and learning the basics.  Especially when students work in teams,
> the experience is never exactly the same for every student.  This will
> depend
> upon the flexibility of the instructor, and I know that some might not be
> all that helpful, but it is likely that many would be.  Make sure the
> instructor knows
> you are honestly curious.  Anyone present can tell you what color occurs
> when a chemical is poured on the soil, physically seeing that color isn't
> important
> unless you are going to make a career of this, and then there really are
> some options.  You would, in that case, talk with Mr. Supalo, the blind guy
> who has
> worked with others to develop audible instruments for measuring colors
> resulting from chemical reactions.  But you might also wonder if there is a
> sound to
> the reaction.  You might let the instructor know that you are curious about
> what you can determine by feeling the slice of the tree's rings that are
> displayed
> from a core.  There might even be some alternate experiments that you might
> be able to do to bring home some of the same points if it is important to
> you
> and the instructor.  The instructor would have to guide you on this because
> I'm just an old math major, but it occurs to me that observing soil that is
> wet and
> then observing it after it has dried for a day might yield some information
> about the makeup of the soil, maybe different information, but perhaps
> useful
> information.
>
> As you can probably tell, I hate to see blind people left out of experiences
> like this even if one can't learn every single thing in the same way as we
> would
> with sight.  I hope that there might be some ideas here that help.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Steve Jacobson
>
> On Tue, 4 Jan 2011 10:26:57 -0800, Tina Hansen wrote:
>
>>You probably know that during the past quarter, I have been taking an
>> environmental science course at my local community college for a General
>> Studies
> degree. I'm in the second course in the series, and there are a number of
> labs coming up that either use chemicals, or are heavily dependent on
> measurements. I don't know if the lists accept attachments, but I felt the
> best way to give people an idea of what these labs are like is to send the
> information about them that I've gotten from my instructor. The instructor
> and I are not sure how to deal with these labs, but I figured that if you
> got a look at
> them, you could give me some ideas on how I might be able to participate and
> not just sit on the sidelines. So if you have any ideas on how I might deal
> with
> these labs, I'm all ears. Thanks.
>
>
>
>
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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