[nabs-l] Some Questions About Attending College

Sun Dec 22 15:16:29 UTC 2013

Kerri,

There's nothing lazy about not wanting to carry around a heavy laptop. No
one likes to do this, and one way to confront that problem is by buying one
of the newer ultrabooks. I just bought a refurbished XPS 13 from Amazon for
$649, no chump change but better than the original $1,049 Dell is charging.
In the case of the XPS 13, you're looking at a laptop that weighs just under
three pounds and is actually smaller than the MacBook Air 13. Dell has been
my preferred PC maker, but Asus, HP, and Lenovo make good products.

The iPad is a tablet and will therefore be lighter than any laptop out
there, at least for now. I get the sense you may not have interacted with an
iPad, so if it's possible, I would go into an Apple store so you can hold
one and get some familiarity with some of the different ways data is
displayed on the larger screen.

My feelings on the iPad is that it's not 100% economical for blind
consumers. If you already have an iPhone, buy yourself one of the Apple
Bluetooth keyboards and use it with your iPhone. Office is now available on
iOS, but it's not accessible. IA Writer and NoteMaster are two apps that
will work for word processing. Check AppleVis.com for more suggestions. I
would not invest in the word processing app from AFB, but that's just
personal opinion. Even if you bought an Apple keyboard and purchased a few
word processing apps you're still spending a lot less than you would buying
a new iPad.

What you buy on your own will not, or should not, concern your rehab
counselor. I think you should figure out what equipment you need and then
determine what is essential and save money for the rest. The U2 is an
excellent choice and would be a justified purchase. The Apex is also a fine
notetaker, but it's competitive edge stops at its physical appearance. It's
more cumbersome to do simple tasks that the Windows interface of the U2 lets
you do in fewer steps. If I could stuff the guts of the U2 into the body of
an Apex, and slap on the U2 keyboard, you'd have a damn near perfect
notetaker. It would still be too over-priced for what it can actually do,
but it's what we have to work with at the moment.

I got stuck with a Pacmate at work. It just sits there. The interface will
work just fine and, like the U2, really tries to mimic the Windows
environment. I use it occasionally to take notes in meetings, but I use a
laptop instead more often than not.

Okay, probably far more than you wanted or needed to read, but I hope some
of it is helpful.

Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kerri Kosten
Sent: Sunday, December 22, 2013 3:11 AM
To: louvins at gmail.com; National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Some Questions About Attending College

Hi Everyone:

Thanks for all the responses. They help a lot.
I hate to say this, but I don't really like the idea of the whole laptop
thing in class. I have hearing loss, and it would be a little hard for me to
listen to the jaws with a headphone, and listen to the professor. I have
hearing in only one ear, so while the earbuds I use don't block out all
sound I'd really really prefer a braille display.
What I figured is if I could get rehab to get me a new notetaker I could
always buy an Ipad and pair the notetaker with the ipad or just take notes
on the notetaker regularly.
In order to justify to rehab to get a new notetaker, does my current one (an
old pacmate) have to be broken?
I don't believe my pacmate is technically broken, it's just that it's so
old. It doesn't have an actual USB drive on it.
It also has no built in wireless so basically it has no internet.
It uses the windows mobile operating system which is like obselete now.
I guess it does technically work though for very basic notetaking.
If I purchased an Ipad and one of those cases that has a keyboard in it,
would rehab still buy me a notetaker?
I think I would prefer to have a notetaker such as the Braille Sense
U2 to accompany/compliment whatever else I decide to use.
I also may sound lazy, but my laptop (at least to me) is a little heavy and
big. I have a case for my laptop and when my laptop is in it it makes it a
little heavy.
I've been told there are backpacks I could purchase that have a special
place for the laptop and then the backpack also has room for other things,
but I think I'm going to become very annoyed with trying to lug my laptop
around every day.
When I have had to travel and taken airplanes where I have to carry my
laptop through the airport, it gets heavy and my shoulders tire quickly.
Are the Ipads light?
If the way to go is to use an Ipad with a bluetooth keyboard would the Ipad
be lighter and less bulky to carry around than the laptop?
Also, if I got the Ipad would rehab turn that against me and not purchase me
a new notetaker such as the braille senseu2?
Thanks,
Kerri

On 12/21/13, Joshua Hendrickson <louvins at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello Helga.  I'm very surprised that your DS office doesn't have some 
> kind of scanner to scan books.  I wouldn't want my books in pdf format 
> either.  See if you could get your books in an alternative format like 
> word .docx.  What would probably work for you is if you could get your 
> books in daisy format, then you could navigate by chapters, sections, 
> and subsections, whatever markup the books had.  Check bookshare.org, 
> they are a great source of textbooks if you don't like learning ally.
> You can get bookshare for free if you are a college student.  Also, 
> you can get learning ally for free, if you fill out a form over the 
> phone.  Basically, if you receive things like SSI or SSDI, then you 
> can get learning ally for free.  They don't advertise this fact.  I 
> was fortunate to find out about it.  Good luck.  If my college is open 
> on Monday, I'll call them, and see what I can find out.
>
> On 12/21/13, Helga Schreiber <helga.schreiber at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Hey Joshua, this is Helga. What would happen if my DSS office don't 
>> have a
>>
>> Senta machine to scan my books? But I would like to have them scan! 
>> What should do about it? I really hate my books in PDF format. I'll 
>> really appreciate it, if you could give me some suggestions. Thanks 
>> and God bless!!
>> :-) from my iPhone
>>
>>> On Dec 21, 2013, at 2:58 PM, "Joshua Hendrickson" 
>>> <louvins at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Lizzy.  What I used to do, was purchase my textbook from the 
>>> college bookstore, and give the book and receipt to my disability 
>>> support office.  The receipt was to show proof of purchase.  Then my 
>>> disability support office would scan the book or books I needed 
>>> using kurzweil.  Then I would get the book on cd in mp3 format.  I 
>>> know now my DS office uses dolphin reader and can put the books in 
>>> daisy format.  I wouldn't be charged anything to have my DS office 
>>> scan the books I needed.  At least for me, my textbooks were scanned 
>>> and proofed very well.  Good luck.  I would also agree that if 
>>> you're looking for a notetaker for college the braille-sense u2 
>>> would be your best bet.  I'm going to see if my REHAB office will get me
one.
>>>
>>>> On 12/21/13, lizzy <lizzym0827 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Hi all,
>>>> I just have a few more questions about text books to add to the 
>>>> discussion.  I know some of you said that your office of 
>>>> disabilities will scan them for you, but what have others done?
>>>> Do you (personally) have to pay the person in disabilities scan for 
>>>> you or did they hire someone specifically to do this? Does anyone 
>>>> scan the books themselves using Kurzwhile? Is there a machine that 
>>>> can get the job done on its own? Is it usually a hassle to get the 
>>>> PDF versions of textbooks from publishers?
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Lizzy
>>>>
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