[nabs-l] online college vs classroom instruction

Sat May 21 22:17:22 UTC 2011

Chris,
  If you don't know who your partner is until you swap papers, just
have them read you the dang thing.  If, however, it's pre-arranged (as
it is a lot of the time) you can often ask them to send you a copy in
word, rtf, etc.  This also works for those situations where you're
supposed to peer review something for homework.
  Josh, Ashley does bring up some good points.  But don't you dare let
that discourage you from doing what you want to do.  Online classes
can be very accessible, I'm in one right now and it's amazing.  You'd
know more about wheelchair access than me, but I've made some good
friends who use wheelchairs on my campus (BYU) and they do great.  I
think sometimes we have the tendancy, and I'm not saying Ashley was
remiss because she brought up some great points, but I think sometimes
we have the tendancy to look at something, say there are accessibility
challenges, and then ignore that thing because it won't be easy.
Either way you'll have accessibility issues-life, quite frankly, will
often be inaccessible.  That doesn't mean you don't go the extra mile
and do what you need to do.
  I'm not mocking your questions.  But be ready for a difficult road
through college, no matter if you do most classes online or spend the
bulk of your time in traditional classes.  Buckle up, it's not going
to be easy.  My recommendation, not knowing a thing about personal
factors you aren't telling us, is that you take most of your classes
on campus.  It'll give you an experience of being away from home, if
you're anything like me it'll make you get better travel skills, and
it's the route most people take.  But that doesn't mean online classes
are bad, or that they aren't a good option-I'm probably going to take
more because of the great experience I'm having with it now.
  Best of luck,
Kirt

On 5/21/11, Jorge Paez <computertechjorgepaez at gmail.com> wrote:
> Chris:
> What I do is ask my friends to read their papers too me, and I can correct
> any grammar/phrasing issues that way.
> I  usually either have a copy of my paper printed,
> or if the teacher is aware that we're peer editing,
> she'll usually  have a print copy ready for me when I get to class to share
> with the other students.
>
> Jorge
>
>
> On May 21, 2011, at 2:20 PM, Chris Nusbaum wrote:
>
>> 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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