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

[Bridget Walker]

Hi all,
Now we are really getting somewhere. 
I'm really happy to see the clarifications between TVVI respond abilities and responsibilities of guidance councilors. 
In a perfect world VI should be able to teach braille and AT. They should also be able to teach advocacy skills and an overview of how professors will treat a student in college.
I agree DS knows nothing in providing support to people with modality impairments. 
I thought it was just me.
The real problem no longer sounds like a lack of preparedness from the student infidels. 
DS and CI support need to be considered.
This is great
Bridget 

Sent from my iPad

> On Dec 13, 26 Heisei, at 8:33 PM, Arielle Silverman via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi Kaiti, That's an excellent point. I think sometimes folks try to
> lean on disability professionals for non-disability-related help. It's
> not just blind students who may do this, but also parents, teachers
> and professors can be the worst offenders. TVI's are useful for
> teaching about access and, hopefully, should be qualified to teach
> Braille and technology. They are not, however, experts in advanced
> math content, college admissions or scholarships. A high school
> student should really reach out to a guidance counselor for that kind
> of support, since guidance counselors are specially trained and
> experienced in helping students get into college. Similarly, a college
> DSS is not a good place to look for academic tutoring or advice on
> what courses to take. Instead, a mainstream tutoring center or an
> academic advisor is the most qualified person to work with.
> I think students can sometimes get into trouble if they rely too much
> on DSS for needs unrelated to their disability.
> Arielle
> 
>> On 12/13/14, Kaiti Shelton via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 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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