[nabs-l] Extremely frustrated with microbiology class

[Arielle Silverman]

Just FYI, I was a biology major and I never had to do any cell
identification. Granted, I didn't take microbiology, but I did have
some microscope work in general bio labs.  I worked on those
assignments with my lab assistant and lab partners. I never had to
identify cells on an exam based on how they looked, and I don't think
my sighted classmates did either.
I did have to know where all  the cell organelles were located within
the cell, and gave verbal descriptions when others were asked to draw
pictures.
Arielle

On 9/22/12, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Jewel,
> This sounds tough. Is your professor restricting the questions and
> discussion your lab assistant can tell you?
> It seems to me that any visual info including shape, size, and color would
> be fine questions for your assistant because sighted people get this info by
> looking at it. This aids them in identifying the organisms. If they restrict
> your access, this sounds discriminatory.
>
> I'd first clarify what you can ask your assistant. Then explain why the
> tactile diagram is insufficient. Find an alternative.
> Could you make a diagram with your assistant from things you bring like wiki
> sticks, hard candy, and string?
> Another alternative is to do something in lou of the visual part as long as
> this isn't your major.
> If it’s a major course, this issue would arise again and you couldn't get
> out of this part for many classes.
> I'm thinking you could answer questions about cells. Your professor could
> name cells instead of showing you a visual image under the microscope.
> Then you could describe the cells or something like that. This is anothe r
> fair way to demonstrate your knowledge it seems to me.
> I know most federationists aren't big on alternative assignments or changing
> the work, but this seems more fair to me. I'm not into science. When I took
> general biology, however, my professor asked me questions on my exam instead
> of me looking at pictures. Other students looked at a picture and were asked
> to identify a certain part such as a cell part, a flower part, or muscles of
> the body. Mine were multiple choice questions as well, just without
> pictures. The question named the organism in the question.
> It asked me about that subject in the question. So I didn't have to identify
> any organisms via pictures or a microscope.
>
> I also still had the same number of questions as other students; mine were
> just worded differently since I did not label pictures.
>
> HTH,
> Ashley
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jewel
> Sent: Friday, September 21, 2012 6:48 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: [nabs-l] Extremely frustrated with microbiology class
>
> I'm taking a class in microbiology that I need for my degree program,
> and one of the things I need to do for the midterm lab praticle is
> identify cells under the microscope. The thing is, my lab assistant is
> not allowed to give an in-depth description of the cells, nor can I
> ask him questions like "What colour is it?"...I have to identify the
> cell by looking at a tactile image that I can't understand because the
> image is not of good enough quality for a tactile image to work, and
> I'm having trouble getting my professor to understand my problem. She
> says I should be able to recognize the cell based on the tactile image
> and specific questions to my lab assistant, but I can't ask him "What
> colour is this blob here?" or anything. I am not sure what kind of
> questions I *can* ask him, nor am I sure how I am going to identify
> cells based on images that are just blobs and dots to me. Please, can
> someone give me any ideas or suggestions? This has me frustrated to
> tears, beause I'm afraid I'm going to fail the lab practicle because I
> don't have access to the same materials as everyone else. Help please!
> ~Jewel
>
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