[nabs-l] unaccommodating professors

[Ashley Bramlett]

Carley,
if what you mean by "move on" is taking another class, I'm thinking of doing 
that.


-----Original Message----- 
From: Carly Mihalakis
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2013 11:57 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] unaccommodating professors

Hi, Ashley,

Surely you don't want to be in a place, or  under
the custodianship of someone who has tried to
dissuade you but to no avail? Move on. It isn't a
constructive use of your time, because you know
professor X. would never think of putting such
time/effort  into your guy's interaction. It's
not anyone's "fault" it's just this dude had a
bad attitude, sometimes you run into such
instructors. If anything in fact, win them over
with kindness, empathy, not because of his
attitude toward you or toward blindness but
because of his own unique,  komf.1/11/2013, you wrote:
>Hi all, I’m here to vent about a situation. I wish all professors were 
>open to working with us. But they are not and some professors are visual in 
>their teaching style. I certainly am proactive and try and work out issues 
>with professors ahead of time. But I do not have a book to refer to in 
>english classes, so I cannot look at specific paragraphs. that one would 
>not be solved; I use audio for reading. I need an elective and had signed 
>up for survey of american literature. I had contacted this professor in 
>December to find out about the class such as his teaching style and major 
>topics covered. This would help me decide if the class was a good one to 
>take. I decided it was. The professor stated he used an anthology and he 
>presented a mix of poetry, drama, and fiction. He stated the teaching 
>method was discussions, a paper, midterm, final, video clips, and pop 
>quizzes. So, I think at this point, discussions are fine; videos may be a 
>challenge, but surely its just to reinforce the other information; and I 
>know I can take exams in the testing center. That is why I asked about how 
>you all took quizzes. Well, I thought we were fine. He did say there were 
>other sections of the class that may be more likely to run versus his which 
>did not have many students enrolled. Still, I picked this class since it 
>fit my schedule. Well, after emailing the professor to say I’m coming and 
>to ask a few more questions such as if you needed to bring a book to 
>reference pages as other english teachers have done in the past, he emailed 
>me back. He answered my questions saying his videos showed the literature 
>we were discussing; students had to bring their books to look at specific 
>pages and even paragraphs to discuss it, and he could not give pop quizzes 
>after class orally. He discourages me from the class and suggests his 
>format is not the best for me. He suggests I take the class online. I 
>should point out after receiving this discouraging email, I offered to call 
>him thursday morning to discuss his questions and see if we could work out 
>something. I said email may lead to more misunderstandings and thought to 
>myself, he may jump to conclusions, as I talk via email. so I said I’d 
>call him which I did. He did not return my calls. I realized  a 
>conversation would be best so hopefully no misunderstandings happened. 
>Well, to make matters worse, he goes to my disability counselor and talks 
>to her about his concerns. What he said, I do not know! I was not there! I 
>am upset he’d do this without involving me. This is college. This 
>occurred on yesterday, Thursday, January 10. My disability support service, 
>dss, counselor tried to call me. I was busy and heard her message later. 
>She said that we needed to talk. She said there would be some challenges in 
>the class and wanted to discuss what accomodations I could get. Anyway, I 
>emailed her saying I was too busy today, but I’d call her monday if we 
>still needed to talk. I am looking for another class. I told her that after 
>hearing this professor’s reservations about it, and my own concerns about 
>following videos and class discussions without a book to skim, I would look 
>for another class. So, I’ll never take english lit, at least with him. I 
>was so hopeful originally since this professor has decent ratings. He also 
>has years of experience. But I won’t be in a class which does not benefit 
>my learning style and work with a professor who violated my right to 
>privacy by speaking to the dss counselor without me being there and without 
>my knowledge. I had no idea he would do this. I was shocked when the voice 
>mail from the dss counselor said he talked to her about the class I was 
>enrolled in and she wished to talk to me. I emailed him to work things out 
>and wanted to talk to him. Obviously, instead of talking to me and seeing 
>what I might offer as solutions, he turns to the dss counselor. Well, 
>I’ll find a teacher who has a better attitude than this. So, I’m trying 
>now to get over my hurt feelings and look for something I’ll enjoy as 
>well. If this has happened to you, would you complain to the dean or 
>anything? Would you simply move on? Take care and thanks for reading. 
>Ashley _______________________________________________ nabs-l mailing list 
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