[nabs-l] Accessibility in a college classroom

Wed Jan 14 17:05:55 UTC 2015

Amber,

Good for you for your advocacy up front.
This situation is disturbing. I had a similar situation but not with 
psychology. I was in an english lit class. And, just like your situation, 
the professor insists he cannot make the class accessible; said he showed 
videos of the stories we read and gave pop quizzes. Then just like your 
situation, he suggests I take the class online. I could not believe it. 
While I agreed with him that he raised valid concerns about barriers, I 
offered to talk in person or via phone as email was not working well as we 
kept going back and forth. Finally, he went to the dss coordinator about his 
concerns and she called me. I was not going to deal with an adversarial 
situation and discuss it with the dss cordinator since he went behind my 
back doing this. So, I dropped the class.

I was not able to take marketing either due to a professor's visual style 
with videos and an online video game.

Its too bad when professors have an attitude of inflexibility. I just say 
this because you ought to know you are not alone, and I suspect with the 
trend of more multimedia in classes, this is only getting worse.

Regarding your situation, I echo what others said.
Be firm but polite. It is illegal for them to barr you from class and bully 
you into online classes to make it easier for them. Besides as Arielle said, 
online classes  may not be too accessible either as they use lots of 
multimedia and sometimes live discussions. I do not know if that is 
accessible as I have not tried it. But it would not surprise me if 
blackboard collaborate is not accessible.

I suggest going to class and taking notes and participating best you can.
Your professor should have come to you with concerns, not the dss 
coordinator!

I cannot believe the school is allowing the professor to decide if you can 
have a reader in class.
That ought to be an accomodation, period, not something the professor can 
deny you simply because he is uncomfortable with it.

He may simply not have emailed you back because he is busy.
So go to class with an open mind. Afterwards, set up a meeting with the 
professor.

Explain to the professor how you do the class like how you take notes
For powerpoints, as other said, often you can get what is on them by 
listening and reading your text.
Powerpoints are meant to be an outline  of content anyway, not filled with 
text.
You can access them by either downloading them from blackboard or whatever 
your school uses for their online platform, if the professor uses it.
If not, have the professor email you powerpoints before class.
You can read the text with jaws, and have someone describe any charts or 
pictures. A reader the school gives you can do it, or the professor himself 
during office hours.
But, charts may not even be  necessary if its described in your text with 
words.
Oh, and if the powerpoint is too big for email, give the professor a USB 
drive or cd rom.
Ask him  to place the powerpoints for several classes on it. then in two 
weeks or so, do it again.

Do not let him say he does not have time due to another blind student. That 
is hogwash because most of our accomodations are easy to honor if the 
professor plans ahead of time.
Planning your lessons and lectures is something a good professor ought to do 
anyway!
Two of my accomodations are access to slides and alternate form of handouts. 
Since many professors post to blackboard anyway, they do not need to make a 
special accomodation for me.
In fact, most students would benefit from seeing the slides ahead of class 
anyway!
In other words, what I'm saying, is the professor ought to plan ahead anyway 
and be accomodating to all student needs, not just yours.
I simply do not buy the excuse about their time.
Is he a full time professor?
If so, he is paid for office hours and that includes prep time.
Adjuncts are not paid for extra time, but any good adjunct should still make 
time for accomodations.

So, powerpoints are not a big obstacle in my experience.

Regarding videos, I  have not found a good solution.
I simply ask a classmate to describe a little bit and learn what I can with 
the narration on the video.

I took several psychology classes, btw, and some had videos. Most did not.
I generally found videos for those classes to be supplemental though. So 
they complemented the lecture, not gave you information
you needed to know.

Once we have more information on how he teaches including more about the 
videos, we might be able to offer more suggestions.
If videos are more vital to the class, you might want to find an 
accomodation. If thhey are simply supplemental to reinforce lectures,, then 
you may not need to worry so much.

The key is to go to class and be yourself. Then meet the professor one on 
one and see what you can work out.

HTH,
Ashley

-----Original Message----- 
From: 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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