[nabs-l] Some Questions About Attending College

Misty Dawn Bradley mistydbradley at gmail.com
Sat Dec 21 00:50:23 UTC 2013


Hi Kerri,
I have been in school at my community college for about a year and a half 
now, and I attended school for 2 semesters in college. As for me, I use my 
laptop with JAWS. I don't have a Braille display, because vocational rehab 
did not think I needed any equipment because I had a netbook with JAWS on it 
that was outdated, and they told me that that should be enough for me, so I 
ended up purchasing my own laptop that ran Windows 7, which was a 
requirement for my classes at the time. I would like to get a Braille 
display, especially for math and foreign language classes, but it is just 
too expensive for me, and the laptop with JAWS has worked pretty well. I do 
do the majority of my classes online, since I am a parent, so that helps a 
lot with notetaking, because I don't have to take notes while listening to 
the professor like I would have to do in class. Usually, I just take notes 
from the textbook and from information that the professors have posted 
online. Perhaps you can talk with your counselor in West Virginia and they 
may be able to do evaluations to get you the equipment you need. They will 
probably even help pay for college, although they may require you to apply 
for financial aid through filling out a FAFSA form, which can be found at 
fafsa.ed.gov. It would be too late to get financial aid for next semester 
from the FAFSA, but you can fill out the form for the 2014-2015 school year 
if you think you may be taking more classes then, and you can do this 
starting after January 1. If you fill it out at the beginning of 2014, it 
will take effect in the fall semester of 2014 I think. You may also want to 
go to a financial aid adviser at your school, and they may be able to 
explain the process to you and also refer you to any other resources that 
are available to help pay for tuition and books. A financial aid adviser 
will also tell you what paperwork you need to bring in, and you may be able 
to ask them to help you fill out any paperwork related to financial aid.
You can get books in electronic format, but you usually have to go through 
your college campus's disability services office. Perhaps you could talk 
with them and get things set up with them, and when you have the list of 
textbooks, you can bring them to the disability services office on campus 
and they can order them for you from the publisher in electronic format. You 
will probably have to actually purchase the print copies of the books 
though, since the publishers usually require that the disability services 
office send a copy of the receipt saying that you actually purchased the 
books before they will give an electronic file of the book to the disability 
office. This has generally been my experience, anyway. Some disability 
services offices will even scan the book for you if you bring it to them. 
You can also talk with them about any accomodations you might need for 
class, and they will write letters that you can give to your professors that 
explain which accomodations you will need in class and for things like 
testing and assignments. If you look up the website for your college, you 
should be able to find the contact information to contact the disability 
services office, or disability access services office, depending on what 
your college calls it. If not, you can maybe call the main number for the 
campus and ask them for the phone number and where the disability services 
office is located.
I hope this helps,
Misty


-----Original Message----- 
From: Kerri Kosten
Sent: Friday, December 20, 2013 6:29 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: [nabs-l] Some Questions About Attending College

Hi Everyone:

Well, after taking a few years off, I have decided to take the plunge.
I have decided to go back to West Virginia University. I registered
for three classes: Communications 122 which is Communication in
Contemporary Society, English 111 which is Introduction To Creative
writing, and a University Library course which is library research
which is a class that is required for my major.
I previously attended WVU from 2007-2009 but ended up dropping out
because I didn't have any blindness skills and things just weren't
working out.
I have been debating for a long time now whether to go back to school,
but I need to get back to a routine and since jobs are hard to find
and I never finished my degree I figured going to school would be my
best option currently. I figured going back to school would give me
something to do five days a week, it would get me out of the house, I
could learn things, and could work on finishing my degree. I haven't
been on campus yet, but my mother and everyone says everything is
right near each other and once I get to the student union I should
have no problem walking to my classes. I could have lunch in the
student union before class, then walk to my classes, then either go
back to the student union or go home. Next to the student union there
is even a Starbucks where coffee and such can be gotten. So, for all
these reasons I figured school would be my best current option.
Being that I have not been in school for a few years, I had some questions.
First, how do you all handle the whole taking notes thing? I have a
very very old Pacmate that I received back in 2007, and I guess I
could dig it up and make it work but you all know the Pacmate is a
very very old very outdated notetaker that is so old they don't even
make it anymore!
Do you all primarily use notetakers such as the Braille Note or
Braille Sense for notetaking or is there a newer, better way?
Do any of you do the whole notetaker as braille display with an Ipad?
What is the advantage of this over just using the plain notetaker?
How do I justify to Rehab (even if it's for next semester) to get me a
new notetaker? Is there a better thing out now or are the notetakers
still widely used even though they are overpriced?
The one thing I do like about a notetaker is everything is right there
and I can type and then check my notes on a braille display. If I am
going to ask Rehab for something new, I definitely want some sort of
braille display so I don't have to rely on my hearing to try to listen
to the professor and simultaneously try to listen to Jaws or speech at
the same time.
How do you all get textbooks in accessible formats?
I hate RFBD/Learning Ally. It puts me to sleep so I would do best with
electronic copies of the books.
What is the current way of going about getting books electronically?
Finally, when I went to school before, I didn't really pay attention
to things such as cost. After I registered today, I looked at my bill.
For three classes, it is about $2,000. My mother is going to help me
pay, but she also wants me to see if Rehab can help.
How do I justify to rehab to help me pay for school? I'm having
trouble because while I want to major in journalism, and I did well in
my journalism and english classes when I attended WVU before, I have
no idea whether I will be able to really realistically get a job after
college. The amount of $2,000 really shocked me, and I guess now I am
feeling extremely guilty because I'm doing this school thing because
it seems my best option for turning my life around. However, I have no
idea how to justify that type of money.
When I asked Rehab to send me to training, that was a little different
because I desperately needed training and really couldn't go further
without it. Training was my only option at that time for bettering
myself.
I feel extremely guilty about the cost. Is it like training? Does
Rehab have to help even if I don't necessarily get a job right away or
even if I get a degree in journalism and get a job in something
totally different/unrelated?
Thanks, and if I have any other questions I'll ask!
Kerri

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