[nabs-l] Consultation regarding an Academic Mission Needed
Arielle Silverman
arielle71 at gmail.com
Sun Jun 3 21:03:21 UTC 2012
Hi Hamid and all,
I think we need to be very careful when making generalizations about
all blind people such as "It takes us longer to do our work or grasp
concepts". We are all different in our individual abilities and skills
and although we do use different techniques than the sighted use for
learning and acquiring information, that doesn't make those techniques
slower for everyone. These kinds of generalizations aren't helpful and
unnecessarily limit what we ought to expect out of ourselves. In my
life I have learned that blindness by itself doesn't limit the average
person's ability to complete the average task. While some of us might
be better at, say, math or spatial concepts than others, we see these
differences in the sighted world as well. I think it's fair to cut
back a little on course load while you are learning a new blindness
skill or new technology, so perhaps take two courses your first
semester, but once you get the hang of the new technology I think you
can and should plan on taking a regular course load. It is great to
hear that you already have a good working knowledge of JAWS and Open
Book and these will help you out immensely. Definitely talk to the
folks on the NFB in Computer Science list to get more details, and it
would also be good to talk to a professor in your department to find
out what kind of reading is assigned. You might actually find that you
don't need all the equipment you listed. For example, as a graduate
student in a small program, all the students receive electronic
materials, so I haven't needed to use my scanner. You don't need a
special scanner for the blind; a combined scanner/printer should work
fine. Also, if you are a skilled typist already, you probably don't
need a specialized keyboard; however I am not a computer programmer,
so I might be missing something.
Welcome to the list and we're glad you joined us!
Best,
Arielle
On 6/3/12, Chris Nusbaum <dotkid.nusbaum at gmail.com> wrote:
> Were you the opera performance major who won an NFB scholarship
> this year?
>
> Chris Nusbaum
>
> "For we walk by faith, not by sight."
> 2 Corinthians 5:7
>
> Sent from my BrailleNote
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brandon Keith Biggs" <brandonkeithbiggs at gmail.com
> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> sent: Sun, 3 Jun 2012 00:30:52 -0700
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Consultation regarding an Academic Mission
> Needed
>
> Hello,
> I'm training to be an Opera singer, but I do all kinds of
> stuff...
> Thanks,
>
> Brandon Keith Biggs
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ashley Bramlett
> Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2012 10:04 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Consultation regarding an Academic Mission
> Needed
>
> Brandon,
> What is your major? Haven't seen you here til recently.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brandon Keith Biggs
> Sent: Sunday, June 03, 2012 12:43 AM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Consultation regarding an Academic Mission
> Needed
>
> Hello,
> If you're a computer programmer, you may not like mainstream
> products.
> For example I can't stand the victor readers and I'm only getting
> an Apex
> because it's the smallest 32 celled PDA out there.
> But for programming, getting your hands on a Braille+ would be
> heaven as it
> runs on a Linux operating system and it uses Python in its sours
> code. They
> opened up a developer package, so one is able to develop their
> own apps for
> the BP and the commands are very programmer friendly.
> The only thing that I've heard is hard in a computer engineer
> class is
> soldering the small wires to the different hardware pieces
> without touching
> anything.
> Other than that, programming blind is just as fast if not faster
> than
> programming sighted.
> But really join the program list.
> Thanks,
>
> Brandon Keith Biggs
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joshua Lester
> Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2012 9:01 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Consultation regarding an Academic Mission
> Needed
>
> 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, it뭩 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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