[nabs-l] Interesting interaction with a professor

[Derek Manners]

I totally agree with Justin here. You certainly are entitled to accommodations whether you do this or not. Also, I believe there is almost certainly a privacy aspect with regards to your accommodations. 

That said, I personally would relish an opportunity to educate a room full of my peers about how, through alternative techniques, I can be a successful student. Obviously it's a bit awkward and the fact that she is requiring it to achieve accommodations is wrong and you should probably address that with someone in the disability office or maybe even the dean of students if that doesn't work. However, in addition to setting her straight on the lack of necessity, you might take her up on your offer if nothing else to increase awareness about blindness. 

Best regards
Derek Manners

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 6, 2016, at 12:49 PM, justin williams via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> She is not aloud to do that; as a student with a disability, you have the
> right to accommodations.  You don't have to do that in order to use them.  
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kaiti Shelton
> via nabs-l
> Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2016 12:43 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Kaiti Shelton <crazy4clarinet104 at gmail.com>
> Subject: [nabs-l] Interesting interaction with a professor
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I've been thinking about this for a while now for a variety of reasons.  The
> first is that I wouldn't necessarily describe it as a dilemma in need of a
> particular solution.  The second factor is that I do consider myself to be
> comfortable with my blindness, and typically have no qualms about educating
> others on the equipment I use when asked.  However, I just feel a little
> awkward about the following situation and would like to get some ideas
> bounced off of it.
> 
> I'm taking a psychology course this spring, so of course I emailed the
> professor to introduce myself and start the discussion about accommodations
> in advance.  Generally the professor seems to be pretty flexible and willing
> to adapt the existing plans when necessary, and I think she and I can work
> well together.  However, she seems very bent on her rules regarding the use
> of technology in the classroom.
> Obviously I'm the exception to her typical rule because the
> computer/notetaker is my pencil and paper, and she isn't banishing me to the
> testing center for exam days like some professors have, which I do
> appreciate.  However, whether or not I can participate on exam days in the
> classroom is contingent upon me explaining to the class why I need to use a
> computer when they are not allowed to.  My knee jerk reaction was to say,
> "Well, it should be pretty obvious why I need to," but I realize that this
> professor is just trying to cover all her bases.  I just feel awkward about
> the idea of talking about my accommodations to an entire class of my peers
> (not familiar with me from my department) in a way that isn't expressly
> about educating them on blindness, etc, especially on the first day of
> classes.  I don't feel like it is fair to limit my choice of where I can
> take my exams, which apparently are in essay format, based on whether or not
> I want to explain how Jaws works and why I need it.
> 
> I have comfortably talked about blindness and such with classes before, but
> not quite in this way.  Classmates in other gen ed courses obviously figured
> out that I am blind plenty of times without me even saying it, and were
> intellegent enough to ask if my computer talked to me or how it works
> before.  I only had one incident about a year ago when another student tried
> to use his laptop in class when he wasn't supposed to on the grounds that I
> was allowed to use one so why can't he, and the teacher just told him to
> read the syllabus and I qualified for using one because I had accommodations
> and talked to her ahead of time.  Part of me just doesn't get why I have to
> explain what I do to a class of people when it's obvious I can't use a
> traditional pen and paper.  I realize I'm the different learner here too,
> but this just seems weird to me.  I told the professor in our last email
> that I had never been asked to do this before and would think about it, and
> she responded basically saying that the other students are owed an
> explanation of why I can use something they can't so the rules are clear.  I
> don't necessarily agree with that since the whole point of accommodations
> are to make access equal, but maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way.
> Thoughts?
> --
> Kaiti Shelton
> 
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