[nabs-l] New on the list

[Ashley Bramlett]

Hi,
are you starting college? It sounds like you know braille; I hope you had a 
system worked out for high school texts and handouts.
Some of the same accomodations and techniques work both in high school and 
in college.
Hopefully you had a supportive TVI who helped you advocate for your needs 
and taught you to order books and you learned adaptive technology.

I suggest you meet with your teachers at the beginning of the semester.
For notetaking, the important thing is to do it; some blind people simply 
record class and I don't think that is a good idea. You will not be fully 
engaged in the lecture then and reviewing notes really will help you study. 
Recording class can be a good way to review complex material or if a 
professor goes real fast, you might review things verbatum with a recorded 
version. You can book mark certain sections in a lecture.

So, I'd say definitely take notes and record as a secondary option.
How you take notes is up to you. However, if you are a braille user, you may 
find having an electronic notetaker with a built in braille display very 
helpful. You can read your own notes with it and read class writing to 
others if you need to share it in class. So, if you have worked with or are 
familiar with a notetaker, this is an excellent option. Notetakers such as 
a Pacmate, BrailleNote, or Braille Sense are popular notetakers.

If you are comfortable typing notes and have a mainstream device such as a 
laptop or IOS device like an Ipad, these devices are also notetaking 
solutions. I don't do it that way since I need braille to study and a typed 
electronic copy would not afford me the braille option.

Next how you read your books is up to you. But I'd say different options 
give you different features and flexibility. Personally, I use audio books 
when I can; Using Learning ally textbooks formerly RFB&D,
is a good option since they describe diagrams and charts as well as you can 
get page numbers from it.

However using electronic text copies by scanning books gives you some more 
information as well. You can see the spelling of words, what is bold or 
italicized, and the structure of the writing; such as where paragraphs break 
or where quotations are.
I think a con to scanning text is that scanners make errors and you cannot 
scan things like charts and tables; it won't make sense.

So, whatever works for you is best. I might also mention you can usually get 
your DSS office to get you electronic texts when you provide proof of 
purchase. This is better IMO; it eliminates the need to scan books. Why 
spend time scanning if you don't have to? So, I'd say between using daisy 
books through Bookshare and Learning Ally and publisher issued texts, you 
may not need to scan books.

Ashley



-----Original Message----- 
From: Shelby Young
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2013 3:17 PM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nabs-l] New on the list

Hi,
My name is Shelby. I am going to start school in the fall. I am wondering 
Where is the best place to get my text books? Would you recommend getting 
them on audio or getting the print copy and scanning them on my Mac. Do some 
of you use brille displays, and if so what is your preference? What are 
different ways you take notes in class?
Thanks in advance for any information.
Shelby


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