[nabs-l] Fwd: Fwd: Taking on line classes and overcoming difficult situations
Elizabeth Mohnke
lizmohnke at hotmail.com
Mon Aug 24 19:20:42 UTC 2015
Hello Carlos,
I can definitely understand how it can sometimes be difficult to find
solutions to a problem while feeling frustrated or overwhelmed by things.
However, I have a few thoughts about how to go about accessing inaccessible
documents as well as the discussion boards for your classes.
I think it is safe to say that most blind students run into problems
accessing print materials for their classes. I know the inaccessible PDF
documents pose a challenge for a number of people. I do not have any
experience using the OCR function with JAWS, but it is definitely something
worth considering.
There is also a free service out there called RoboBraille which may also
help you convert your PDF documents into other file types such as a Word
document. You can find out more about this service by visiting
www.robrobraille.org for more information about this service. I have used it
in the past, and felt it was a good solution for reading the PDF document I
was trying to read at the time. Although, I cannot recall how accessible or
inaccessible the PDF document was when I used RoboBraille to help me convert
it to a format that was easier for me to use.
Also, there was a recent discussion on here about opening PDF documents in
one of the online platform apps for the IPhone using the KNFB Reader app. I
do not have any experience in accessing PDF documents this way, but thought
I would mention it as a possibility if you have the KNFB Reader app on your
IPhone. I hear it is a good investment if it is something you can afford.
Finally, perhaps you could find someone to help convert the PDF files you
need into a more accessible format for you. I believe finding independent
ways of doing things is usually the best route for anyone to take. However,
as someone with a full time job in addition to taking classes, this option
may help you make the most out of your time. Perhaps your disabilities
office could do this for you, or perhaps you could get another classmate to
do this for you in exchange for something else like sharing your class notes
with this person.
As far as accessing the discussion boards for your class, I have a few ideas
for this as well. If you have been testing out the online platform you will
be using to see how well it works with JAWS, and you have not encountered
any major problems during your testing, I suspect you should not have any
major difficulty accessing and participating in the discussion board.
However, if you do run into trouble, here are a few things for you to try.
First, if you can read the discussion board prompt, and you are asked to
simply respond to this prompt, perhaps you could write out your response in
a Word document and have someone else help you post your response to the
discussion board. If you are not able to access the discussion prompt,
perhaps you could ask your professor to email it to you until you are able
to figure out how to access the discussion board. Responding to discussion
boards where you need to respond to what other students say might be a bit
more tricky than a single post discussion board, but you could still use
these techniques to form your initial response.
I believe my college offers face-to-face sessions to teach students how to
use the online platform system. They also provide a help desk number for
students to call regarding computer questions for students using computers
on campus as well as students using the online platform on computers off
campus. While the people who provide this kind of assistance may not
necessarily know much about using JAWS with the online platform, they might
be able to help you figure out a way for you to use the online platform when
you run into trouble while using it.
Finally, if your college offers any kind of tutoring service, you may wish
to look into whether or not they could help you access the discussion boards
if you have trouble using them. In addition to providing help with the
technical aspects of posting to the discussion board, they could also help
you draft your responses to the discussion board questions if writing is a
challenge for you.
Hopefully some of these suggestions will help you with your concerns about
returning to classes to complete your degree. If none of them seem to work
for your particular situation, I hope these ideas will help spark some ideas
of your own that will work for your particular situation. I wish you the
best of luck in your classes, and I hope you can find a way to finish your
degree.
Warm regards,
Elizabeth
-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Carlos Montas
via nabs-l
Sent: Monday, August 24, 2015 1:18 AM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Carlos Montas <carlos.montas at att.net>
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Fwd: Fwd: Taking on line classes and overcoming
difficult situations
Good evening Arielle I appreciate you writing back to me. I struggled with
things like articles not being in the correct format so that I could read
them. I am hoping that by using the new Jaws ocr utility that this will no
longer be an issue. Another issue I had was the inability to participate
with the various discussion boards on Blackboard. I attempted to use the
Black-board tutorials but nothing seemed to work. As , mentioned before I
have spent most of my time this summer testing the new system called Canvas.
I know that no system is perfect and that their are going to be challenges.
I just feel that because I work full time that I did not deal with these
issues because I just got so frustrated with them. I feel that one of my
issues is that I need to develop better problem solving skills when it
comes to technology issches that I might experience. Perhaps I am not able
to communicate in writing as well. So please feel free to contact me off
list. Thanks again for writing in response to my questions.
Sent from my iPhone
> On Aug 23, 2015, at 6:23 PM, Arielle Silverman via nabs-l
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> Hi Carlos. Your questions are fairly general so I'm not quite sure how
> to advise. Could you maybe share a specific accessibility challenge
> you've had and we could brainstorm some solutions? As far as time
> management goes I think the best thing to think about is just how you
> can break down your course assignments into manageable daily work
> chunks, and then to designate a certain number of minutes each day to
> work on those assignments (when you are not at your job). For example,
> if you work 9-5, you might designate 6-8 p.m. each weekday and 1-5
> p.m. each weekend day to working on school stuff. Then figure out how
> much time you have to complete each assignment and divide that up into
> daily allocations of work. For example if the class requires 40 pages
> of reading and a quiz each week you might plan to do 5 pages of
> reading each weeknight and the remaining 15 pages of reading on the
> weekend and then take the quiz each Sunday afternoon. Another strategy
> is to build an extra day into your schedule each week for "catch-up"
> and use that time to meet with a reader and go over anything
> inaccessible or just get caught up on work for that week. These are
> just general guidelines so if you want to share more specific details
> I may be able to help more.
> Best, Arielle
>
>> On 8/23/15, Carlos Montas via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> Good afternoon I wanted to repost the following message because I
>> wanted some more feedback on some of the questions that I've asked.
>> Thank you so much and may you all have a wonderful start to the semester.
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>>> From: Carlos Montas via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>>> Date: August 19, 2015 at 9:28:13 AM EDT
>>> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>>> Cc: Carlos Montas <carlos.montas at att.net>
>>> Subject: [nabs-l] Fwd: Taking on line classes and overcoming
>>> difficult situations
>>> Reply-To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>> Begin forwarded message:
>>>
>>>> From: Carlos Montas <carlos.montas at gmail.com>
>>>> Date: August 19, 2015 at 9:24:00 AM EDT
>>>> To: Carlos Montas <carlos.montas at att.net>
>>>> Subject: Fwd: Taking on line classes and overcoming difficult
>>>> situations
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>
>>>> Begin forwarded message:
>>>>
>>>>> From: Carlos Montas <carlos.montas at gmail.com>
>>>>> Date: August 19, 2015 at 7:38:42 AM EDT
>>>>> To: "nabs-l at nfbnet.org" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>>>>> Subject: Taking on line classes and overcoming difficult
>>>>> situations
>>>>>
>>>>> Good morning to all. My name is Carlos Montas. I have been a
>>>>> member of this great organization for a long time now. For those
>>>>> of you who do not know I am a vocational rehabilitation counselor
>>>>> and I am also pursuing my Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling
>>>>> through the online program at the University of Kentucky. I first
>>>>> started this process in the fall of 2013. However as my caseload
>>>>> grew, and I ,began to experience accessability issues with
>>>>> blackboard and the like I became extremely frustrated. Now that I
>>>>> have been on the job for 4 years now I have a better idea of what
>>>>> I am doing as a counselor. My question is as someone who is
>>>>> working full time and at the same time going to school what kinds
>>>>> of suggestions would you give me as it relates to time management
>>>>> and dealing with possible accessability issues? The University of
>>>>> Kentucky has moved from Blackboard to a system called Canvas. I
>>>>> have spent this summer testing the system out with Jaws and System
>>>>> Access as well as with my mac. So far I have not had issues with
>>>>> Canvas in the testing enviroment. I withdrew and now I am going to
attempt to complete my Masters. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>>>>> I start class next week and because of my past I find my self
>>>>> feeling extremely nervous. I know that working and going to
>>>>> school is challenging but I know it can be done I guess the
>>>>> challenge will be for me to put my past behind me. thanks for reading
this post.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sent from my iPhone
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