[nabs-l] Accessibility in a college classroom

[Elizabeth Mohnke]

Hello Amber,

Have you tried explaining to the professor the skills you use in the
classroom to succeed as a blind student? I have found it helpful to explain
how I do things as a blind student such as how I take notes in class and use
a computer to be rather helpful for me. If I have any reason to believe
either the content of the class or the way the professor teaches the class
may be difficult for me as a blind student, I will ask the professor to
explain how they believe either the content or the teaching methods will be
difficult for me as a blind student. I would then ask to see how they have
dealt with these issues in the past as well as offer my suggestions about
what I believe will work best for me in this particular situation.

I have personally never encountered any problems accessing information on
Power Point slides. It seems to me that usually most of the information you
need to know is either in text on the Power Point slide that is accessible
with speech or is covered in class lectures and the textbook. I think it is
always a good rule to remember that things like charts and graphs are only
picture representations of information that can most likely be found in the
textbook or class lectures. 

I have used readers provided by my college to help describe movies shown in
class before as I thought this would be the only way I could gain access to
all of the information shown in the video. However, I found this method to
be rather distracting to me, and I would probably consider using some of the
other techniques others have already mentioned before using this method
again. 

Although, now that I think about it some more, I did not use a reader to
describe any movies in any of my recent classes that used movies and videos,
and I seemed to do just fine. If there was something in particular the
professor wanted us to pay attention to in the movie or video, the professor
would pause the movie or video to point it out and explain it to the class.
However, professors may use movies and videos in different ways, so this
technique may or may not work for you. If your professor does not use any
class time to discuss the movie or video, I would visit the professor during
his or her office hours to discuss the main points from the movie or video.

As others have already mentioned, it sounds to me like your professor is not
sure about how you will be able to access to information from Power Points
and movies  or videos in this class. It also sounds like the professor is
worried that providing the accommodations you will need will only cause more
work for him or her to do. This of course is not necessarily true, and
talking to your professor about what you can do as a blind student with
minimal effort from your professor may go a long way in soothing your
professor's worries. So if I were you, I would simply show up to class, and
then talk directly with the professor right after class or during the
professor's office hours to specifically explain how you as a blind student
can gain access to the information your professor is worried about with what
should be little effort from your professor.

I hope some of this is helpful for you and that you are able to be
successful in this particular class.

Good luck,
Elizabeth

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Amber Kraft via
nabs-l
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 11:59 PM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nabs-l] Accessibility in a college classroom

Hello,
   My name is Amber and as this is the first week of my new classes I have
ran in to a few problems and I am not sure what to do. I have signed up for
a Intro to Psychology on-campus class and after signing up for this class
along with the rest of my classes I set up a meeting to meet with the
disability cordanater for my school along with all of my new instructers.
Before getting to the meeting I received an email from the disability
cordanater expressing the psychology instructors concerns for me being able
to complete this class. She explained that there are many videos and
powerpoints for the on-campus class and suggested that I take this class
online as she would not have the time to make the videos or the powerpoints
accessible for me.
After meeting with the disability cordanater and talking to her a little
more about my options for this class it it was agreed that I would be able
to make the powerpoints accessible myself as long as they are mostly text
and I could have someone attend class with me to explain any videos we may
watch in class or explain any pictures on the powerpoints that would need to
be described. Also after talking with the disability cordanater about this
class it was explained to me that the instructor would not be able to make
the accomadations that I needed because in one of her other classes she is
teaching she has another student who is blind that she has to make
accomadations or and will not have the time to make the accomadations for
both of us.
after meeting with the disability cordanater she had told me to send an
email to my instructor and explain to her what we have come up with to make
the class accessible for me and to make sure that it is ok with her that
someone attends class with me as some instructors will not allow that. I did
send the instructor an email explaining what the disability cordanater and I
talked about and asked if it would be ok with her that someone attends class
with me. When sending this email I did CC the disability cordanater on the
email as well. Well tomorrow is going to be my first day of this class and I
am not sure what to do as I have not received an email back from the
instructor. So I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions on what to do at
this point?

Thank you
Amber Kraft

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