[nabs-l] online college vs classroom instruction

Sat May 21 18:20:29 UTC 2011

Ashley,

You bring up an interesting issue.  My middle school, too does 
peer editing of papers, where we hook up with a partner and read 
and make revisions to each other's handwritten rough drafts 
before we type them for our final copy.  But if you're 
mainstreamed in a class with sighted people, how do you handle 
those situations? I have to resort to a reader because my 
instructional assistant wouldn't have time to scan and Braille 
it.  But are there ways that you all handle these peer editing 
times independently? Do you request your partner's paper ahead of 
time and scan it into Kurzweil or OpenBook? Will those OCR 
softwares scan handwritten materials? In college, are even rough 
drafts typed into a computer, so you ask your partner to email 
their draft to you? I would be interested to hear all of your 
strategies! By the way, I hope to see many of you on the call 
tomorrow!

 Chris

"A loss of sight, never a loss of vision!" (Camp Abilities motto)

--- Sent from my BrailleNote

 ----- Original Message -----
From: <bookwormahb at earthlink.net
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Sat, 21 May 2011 00:16:41 -0400
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] online college vs classroom instruction

Josh,
You have a lot to consider with being a student coupled with the 
wheelchair.
I went to the traditional classroom all through college.  I went 
to a big
state run school and then transferred to a smaller private 
school, Marymount
university.
No, online college is not more accessible.  Things like the 
discussion board
on Blackboard are problematic, so are the quizzes.
I tried an online class this semester and was very disappointed.  
Its partly
my learning style.  I didn't know what was important to extract 
from the text
without a class lecture.  I wasn't sure what to study for the 
test.
Assignments seemed a bit ambiguous with the instructions.  I just 
was never
sure what the professor expected.

What do you want from college? If you want the social aspect, the
independence and living away from home, the increased freedom, 
the ability
to just go where you want on campus such as a friend's room late 
at night to
hang out, then stay on campus.  Oh, another thing on campus its 
easier to
see your professors, if you need extra help during office hours; 
where as if
you are a commuter or online, you can't get to campus as easily.
]
But if you just want the academics, then online might work.  Also 
what is
your study habits? Online classes you are more on your own.  You 
are not in
class with a schedule to turn in things and you won't have 
classmates to
study/compare work with;  what I mean is with papers, you often 
get to read
each other's work and get suggestions.

Personally, I see challenges either way.  On campus classes will 
present
accessibility challenges since you cannot see the board or 
screen; so you
will want the powerpoints or screen lecture notes sent to you.
But online challenges abound because of graphics, flash content, 
and
blackboard if your school uses it.

Regarding access to school due to your wheelchair, I'd check that 
a lot,
even more than the blindness accomodations.  The blindness is 
something minor
to accommodate, where as physical disabilities require 
modifications to the
built environment.

Ensure you can access all classrooms with your wheel chair.  Does 
the school
have enough ramp access?  Does the school have enough space for 
your chair
to wheel into class?
The law, ADA, requires renovated buildings to be wheel chair 
accessible.
Unfortunately, some schools including the community college, I'm 
at now, are
not in ADA compliance because either they did not think of it or 
buildings
were built prior to 1990 and were not yet renovated.

So the law requires access, but if your school was not built with 
ADA
accessibility in mind such as wide door ways, ramps, accessible 
restrooms,
push buttons, etc.  you will have a hard time living and moving 
around
campus.  So check into that.  You could even bring someone 
sighted and help
you look around.  That person can check for ramps, push buttons, 
elevators to
each floor, accessible restrooms, and even check the door way 
width for you.
For ADA compliant wheel chair access door widths need to be 32 
inches.  But
again, if built before 1990 without renovations, buildings are 
not covered
by ADA.

HTH,
Ashley

-----Original Message-----
From: Josh Gregory
Sent: Friday, May 20, 2011 8:25 PM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nabs-l] online college vs classroom instruction

Hi all,
I'm a little curious here, what do people think on this? For us
blind students who are about to graduate from high school soon
(I'm a junior this year and will be a senior next) college is
something some of us look into.  So, my question: Do people think
that online college is more accessible for blind people, or
classroom instruction? If I may ask, what have people's
experiences been with both? What about a person who is blind and
partially in a wheelchair such as myself, could I manage in an
on-campus environment or would online instruction be better for
me?
Thanks so much,
Josh

Sent from my Apex

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