[nabs-l] Consultation regarding an Academic Mission

[Justin Salisbury]

Hamid:

I respectfully disagree with your notion that blind people are inherently less productive in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) coursework.

I lost my vision during high school and can relate to the initial lack of competitiveness caused by the lack of blindness skills.  Note that I am saying that it is not because of blindness but because of the lack of adaptive techniques.  I just finished my BA in Mathematics in the normal four years with a GPA of 3.918.  I don't look at this as a special accomplishment; it is something that we should all expect blind people to be capable of doing.

If you are not able to move efficiently through coursework in your field, I urge you to work to acquire the blindness skills that you need in order to become more efficient.  I notice that you still depend heavily on your vision, and non-visual skills may be what you need to be competitive.  I will be attending the Louisiana Center for the Blind in a few months for a program that will help me enhance my non-visual skills significantly to make me competitive and efficient for the long term.  I may be able to get through school still depending on my vision, but depending on my residual vision is not a practical long-term solution.  I want to use non-visual skills during my graduate program so that, when I am working, I can call upon academic experiences where I was using the non-visual techniques.  Some excellent rehabilitation centers that you may wish to consider are the Louisiana Center for the Blind, the Colorado Center for the Blind, BLIND, Inc, and Blind Industries and Services of Maryland.  Many more exist, too.

Whatever you choose to do, I wish you the best of luck.

Justin

Justin M. Salisbury
Class of 2012
B.A. in Mathematics
East Carolina University
president at alumni.ecu.edu

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”    —MARGARET MEAD