[nabs-l] Consultation regarding an Academic Mission Needed

[Joshua Lester]

What about contacting these guys, to get your books in Braille, if
that's what you prefer?
http://www.mbvol.org
Just wondering!
Joshua

On 6/2/12, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Hamid,
> I'll start by saying  that I graduated from Marymount university, a private
> liberal arts school, a few years ago. I combined studies for a degree as  I
> did not feel I could handle a full degree in psychology. At the time the
> stats software, SPSS, was not accessible and I would have faced other
> barriers. My degree was in liberal studies with focus in communication and
> psychology.
> School is challenging at the post secondary level because you do not have
> access to braille. In public school my Teacher of the vision impaired, TVI,
> obtained my books in accessible format either audio, braille or large print
> or a combo of those as well as brailled any handouts the class received.
> Therefore when my sighted classmates got a worksheet, so did I and I did not
> have to wait for alternative forms of texts as I did in college. I did
> despite requesting electronic formats way in advance of my classes!
> I'm also not too active in NFB so my opinion may differ from others. I know
> we want to present a positive image, but IMO we may have to take it slowly
> at the beginning while adjusting to a new school, new major, and new ways of
> doing things.
>
> Anyway, that said, I wish you success in your
> computer science studies. You might want to do two classes your first
> semester. Where will you be studying? What country do you
> come
> from and were you educated there in a mainstream class or school for the
> blind? Do you mind sharing what your vision impairment is? Its obvious your
> vision loss is new and I'm guessing probably a gradual loss. Maybe you have
> RP, retinitinis pigmentosa. I'm visually impaired too, so I  know the
> benefits of seeing things where spatial relationships are involved. However,
> I also was taught braille and use that as my primary medium and print my
> secondary one for reading.
> I think by seeing something like say geometry figures or a diagram of the
> heart, I can better picture it than if I learned it just by a description.
> So, for some of us vision impaired people, using it is effective and we do
> not have to use all nonvisual ways. Because you cannot read braille
> effectively, I think using your vision may help a lot provided you can see
> large print well without fatigue.
> BTW, you might be able to use jumbo braille a little bit even though you
> have hand trimmers.
>
> I do not know computer science or math majors so my advice may be more
> general and I'm imagining what might be useful to you
> in this program of study based on the little I know of CS.
>
> You are right that getting special equipment will help your studies a lot.
> I use adaptive equipment all the time. For instance, I love my braille note,
> a portable PDA from humanware. In the US, we have a service that records
> books on CD and digital form. It
> is Learning Ally www.learningally.org.
> I do not know if they provide service to study abroad students, but you
> might check on that. Learning ally may have your textbooks in their library.
> If you choose to use them, you might want to buy a VR Stream and you can use
> an sd card to play their books. You could also buy a vr stratus which plays
> daisy cds. Both are available from humanware.
>
> These are some other ideas here. I know you will need a way to draw things
> in your CS studies. They use a lot of flow charts and also if you study
> computer programming that has a lot of visual stuff too.
> You already know about freedom scientific because you use jaws and openbook.
> If you tell us how you plan to read your books and take notes I might have
> more suggestions.
>
> Let me know if you need or want to know where to purchase these. The first
> four items are available from APH, American printing house for the blind.
> Click on products and then low vision reading and writing to find these.
>
> 1. bold line paper or bold line notebook; these lines are easier to see than
> standard loose leaf paper.
> 2. writing guides; these are templates which you slide a paper into and
> write between the boxes of the template; good for writing straight if you do
> not have lined paper.
> 3. large print ruler
> 4. bold lined graph paper; might help as you draw concepts or if you take
> math classes
> 5. a CCTV, it’s a magnifier that you put a paper or book underneath it and
> it magnifies print on the screen
> 6. a digital recorder
>
> Other tools for writing or drawing diagrams you can get at general stores.
> You could use Mr. Sketch markers some. They are multi clored and good for
> drawing contrasting lines. You might also use graphic art tape, which is in
> red and black, so you could see and touch the lines if you used both colors.
> Crayola also makes some thick markers you might also be able to see well and
> find useful.
>
> Good luck.
>
> Ashley
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hamid Hamraz
> Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2012 5:54 AM
> To: Blind Math ; National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: [nabs-l] Consultation regarding an Academic Mission Needed
>
> Dear all,
>
> I am going to start a computer science graduate program in US in the
> upcoming fall. However, this is my first academic mission after I got
> visually impaired. The standard load for a semester would be 3 graduate
> courses. On the other hand, as you know, we blinds and VI folks are
> remarkably slower in CS-related assignments like math, programming, etc.
>
> Now, I greatly appreciate it if experienced people in the list offer me
> suggestions regarding the course load, etc. Besides, I should order
> VI-related equipment for my workplace well in advance. So far I've thought
> about these:
>
> 1. A large LCD (+25 inch)
> 2. Headphone
> 3. Scanner
> 4. Printer
> 5. Whiteboard (on which I can read single letters and digits or very large
> figures/diagrams)
> 6. Software (JAWS and Open Book to which I am very well accustomed)
> 7. An ergonomic keyboard with many extra function keys
>
> Please note that I can not read Braille effectively (mostly because of some
> very little tremor in my hands and fingers).
>
> If anybody has some other things to add to the list, I'd be glad to hear.
>
> Look forward to hearing back both your academic and non-academic advices.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Hamid
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