[nabs-l] We know about college but think back to high school

Sun Dec 14 02:29:12 UTC 2014

Kaiti,
Well said. I think with all the professionals involved and the family too, 
its no wonder blind students lack skills for college.
I agree with you that TVIs should not have to prep you for college 
academically much, but because mainstream teachers don't seem to know or 
always want to work with us, it seems to fall to the TVI.
For instance, several math teachers I had seemed to think tutoring me in 
math fell to the TVI, not them. They felt the TVI could better explain and 
show concepts to me, I guess.
Also, I think good TVIs want to help out, want to see their students succeed 
after high school, and cover all bases they have time to, so they do try and 
help you for college. Does this cross into academics? Yes, it may, depending 
on the student. I only applied to a few schools, and saw no need to seek 
guidance from the TVI on college essays, so that was not an issue. But my 
TVI most definitely secured accomodations for my PSAT and SAts.
They did support me in other ways. For other college bound students, the 
support may have included more academics and writing college essays.

You said
"it’s the TVI to make sure the
student knows their accessibility options, how to work with DS, when
to and when not to ask for help doing homework, taking tests, using a
reader, etc, and of course braille literacy training.  "

Absolutely! I was fortunate that even with low vision, my TVI supported 
braille literacy for me and I got the texts I wanted in braille as a senior.
My TVI also did all the other things you mentioned except for the advice on 
DSS. They new little of that.
But they did encourage me to advocate my needs in college and to talk one to 
one with professors about my needs.

For tests, they did assist with that. I was used to them brailling exams; 
but to prep me for college, they had me  take exams with them as a reader. 
For accessibility, they taught me to use the basics of Openbook as a senior. 
For books and readers, I was told how to sign up for RFB, now learning ally,
and given opportunities to order my own books. They also assisted me in 
directing them as readers. If I could have gotten more preparation from 
them, I would have loved more practice with readers. Directing someone to 
find what you want is hard and asking someone to skim for you is even 
harder.
I wish I had gotten more practice as a high school student as I had to learn 
by trial and error in college, because, as I've said before on list, you 
will likely need readers for research in college; not all databases are 
accessible, nor is everything in a database, so you will have to use 
something called print sources: periodicles, encyclopedias, and, yes-- old 
fashioned books.

Kaiti, you asked where the line is drawn, I have no good answer. I think 
that it should a case by case thing.

Ashley

-----Original Message----- 
From: Kaiti Shelton via nabs-l
Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2014 7:30 PM
To: Roanna Bacchus ; National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] We know about college but think back to high school

Hi Bridget and all,

The problem with that for some students is that they want to get into
the work force as quickly as possible.  This is why many students
choose to defer going to an NFB training center till after they have
their college degree, so they can job search and start to look around
in their free time while learning blindness skills.

One more thing I forgot to mention, but have been thinking about this
afternoon.  How much responsibility lies with the TVI to really
prepare a student for college?  I personally think that it is the
school's responsibility to train the student academically, the family
to teach independent living skills, and the TVI to make sure the
student knows their accessibility options, how to work with DS, when
to and when not to ask for help doing homework, taking tests, using a
reader, etc, and of course braille literacy training.  I had the same
TVI from kindergarten through the 8th grade.  In the 9th grade I was
given a new one, and worked with her solely on Nemeth for 3 years
because I tended to struggle in math.  My senior year she started
working as an O&M specialist, and I was placed with a woman who was a
lackluster TVI.  She had apparently been working for years as a low
vision specialist, and had forgotten most of the braille code.  Then
she had to teach braille, and she didn't seem like she even knew what
to do with me.  She wanted to help me write my college applications
and look for scholarships, but since I had already started both of
those processes on my own I did not feel that these braille lessons
without braille were a good use of anyone's time.  With the support of
my braillist and parents, I stopped having TVI instruction for the
last year of schooling; I was done with my high school math and only
needed to take stats in college, so the extra work in advanced Nemeth
was not even necessary even if the teacher knew it.

I bring this up because I think everyone, including TVIs, have a
skewed perception of what their responsibility is.  In this case, the
woman called my mother to basically rat me out for not continuing
braille, and she thought that since I was still under 18 my mom could
intervene.  She was quite surprised when my parents expressed that
they also felt like there was nothing for me to gain by continuing
braille, and that my mom had already been helping me edit my completed
scholarship applications and college admissions essays for a while.

I know not everyone's situation is the same, but I do think there are
certain responsibilities that are not part of a TVI's job description
which are often attributed to them.  TVIs have enough to do, so where
is the line drawn?

On 12/13/14, Roanna Bacchus via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi Arielle I agree with what you have said.  I also believe that
> life skills programs are not appropriate in the mainstream
> setting for students who are blind.  I attended the Transition
> program at the Lighthouse of Central Florida before beginning my
> college career.  This program taught me many of the independent
> living skills that I still use today.
>
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-- 
Kaiti

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