[nabs-l] unaccomodating professors

Sat Jan 12 06:35:39 UTC 2013

dear ashley,

I hope you read my entire e-mail as my experience comes from a 3rd world country, and believe me, things for us aren't easy.
It might sound pretty hard for you to assimilate this at the moment, but I believe your professor did absolutely nothing wrong, and my explanation to you is below:
you have e-mailed him to ask about his class, and you liked it. great, this is the wonderful first step.
If you notice, you said your professor had years of experience - have you thought  you might be his first blind student?
I am not saying he should have discouraged you from the class, but if you think through his eyes, he has done so because, in his point of view, he is attempting to help you.
He turned to the DSS because they are the ones who can explain to him about blindness. I am not saying you have no opinion, but have you considered how good it is he still tried to work with DSS?
In my country, friend, there is no darn DSS to be called to talk with. we have to deal with things on our own.
What i suggest is you go and talk to your DSS counselor, and suggest to her that you three sit and speak, so that you show him you can be proactive in your education even  in what they consider a hard situation as professors, that way you may take the class you would like and the professor learns something.
About books, every class requires page numbers and paragraphs. audio provides page numbers anyway, and about paragraphs, you will be able to participate in discussions though you can't refer to paragraphs, and this is something you will need to show them and yourself.

let me know if you would like to discuss this further and even off list.

sincerely,

mauricio
On Jan 11, 2013, at 11:19 PM, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> 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
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