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

[Bridget Walker]

I apologize for all of the spelling mistakes. I hope you can make it out. I had auto correct activated on my iPad and I wrote the email quite fast. 
Bridget 

Sent from my iPad

> On Dec 13, 26 Heisei, at 10:53 PM, Bridget Walker <bridgetawalker13 at aol.com> wrote:
> 
> 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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