[nabs-l] inaccessibility in the class may end up costing me a passing grade!

[Arielle Silverman]

Hi Abby. From what you have described, I think when you are receiving
the documents from your professor, they are in "protected view". This
is not a Track Changes thing, but is something Word does with any
documents that you download from emails or the Internet. When a
document is in protected view, it is difficult to navigate with JAWS.
Fortunately it is easy to switch from protected to normal view where
you can read the document, including comments, and edit it as needed.
To do this, simply open the document, and press control-S for save.
JAWS will ask you if you want to "enable editing". Tab over to the OK
button, press enter and the document will be saved to your computer in
a regular, unprotected view you can navigate easily.
Sorry if our earlier replies didn't address this issue.
Best, Arielle

On 11/23/15, Suzanne Germano via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Abigail
>
> Did you ask disabled student to provide a reader to help you access the
> comment? Do your disabled students center offer alternative format for
> example you forward the word doc to them and they provide it to you in
> braille or a format that you could read the comments with a screen reader?
>
> You might be able to ask for an incomplete and finish after the semester
> ends and work with a reader.
>
> Suzanne
>
> On Mon, Nov 23, 2015 at 11:49 AM, Steve Jacobson via nabs-l <
> nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
>> Abby,
>>
>> If there was a misunderstanding of what was to happen, I hope you can get
>> it
>> resolved in such a way as to avoid not passing.  I know that some schools
>> do
>> have a mechanism for allowing work to be turned in late to salvage a
>> grade,
>> but of course that can vary between schools.
>>
>> To say that comments in Word are not accessible might be a difficult
>> position to defend, though.  Which screen reader do you use and what
>> seemed
>> to be not accessible?  You didn't say exactly what didn't work propperly.
>> If your professor said he would send you his comments in parentheses, it
>> would seem that he has some willingness to change to make things go
>> better
>> for you.  When did he agree to do that, and did you follow up to find out
>> why that didn't happen?  It might be possible to avoid a confrontation,
>> but
>> if not, you will need to have explanations ready for the above.  Your
>> best
>> bet might be to ask for additional time because you were not aware of how
>> to
>> handle comments in Word and see if things can be salvaged that way.  If
>> for
>> some reason you can't deal with the comments he has inserted, I would
>> think
>> it would be reasonable to work with someone in your Disabled Students
>> office
>> to make the comments available to you.  There seems to be some gray areas
>> here, but I hope you can get it worked out.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Steve Jacobson
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Abby Bolling
>> via nabs-l
>> Sent: Monday, November 23, 2015 11:44 AM
>> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> >
>> Cc: Abby Bolling <violingirl30794 at gmail.com>
>> Subject: [nabs-l] inaccessibility in the class may end up costing me a
>> passing grade!
>>
>> Hi all,
>> So, I have been having so many problems with my English class in that
>> even with all of your advice, I can not get the comments feature in MS
>> word to work properly.
>> So I have talked with and emailed my professor extensively all semester
>> and we have agreed that he would put his comments in parenthesis.
>> The problem is, he hasn't!
>> I received an email this morning that consisted of him telling me that
>> since I had not turned in any acceptable final drafts, I could not pass
>> the class. he went on to say that I did nothing with the comments he
>> provided which would have made my papers a lot better.
>> I have since emailed his supervisor to explain what has been going on,
>> because I refuse to accept a failing grade because a professor would not
>> listen to accommadations that he had agreed upon in writing, and spoken
>> word many times.
>> Should I push further and harder with the supervisor if I don't hear
>> from him in the next few days? I did get an email back from him saying
>> that he and I could not meet today, but he would look into the situation
>> and talk with my teacher early tomorrow morning.
>> What would you all do in this situation?
>> Also, a few of my teachers assignments are completed on a website called
>> pilot.
>> The conversation boards on pilot are almost completely inaccessible.
>> I can read other students postings, burt I can not reply to them at all.
>> I have tried to inform my teacher of this problem as well. His response
>> was that he was sorry that technology wasn't working, but that I should
>> work with Disability Services more! My problem is I have already
>> informed ODS (several times) about this acce3ssibility problem, as well
>> as the inaccessible of outlook webmail (which wright state uses for
>> their email provider,) and nothing has been done.
>> So where do I go next?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Abigail Bolling
>>
>>
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