[nabs-l] Interesting interaction with a professor

[Karl Martin Adam]

Hi Kaiti,

Is using your technology in class an official accommodation 
registered with DSS?  If so, the professor is required to let you 
use it.  In fact, the DSS office is not allowed to tell the 
professor what your disability is, and there is no requirement 
for you to do so.  I do understand the concern about you using a 
computer while no one else can and about students perhaps 
worrying that there is favoritism going on or something.  It is 
standard, however, for professors to say that no one is allowed 
to use technology accept under special circumstances or in the 
case of disability or something similar precisely to address 
this.  You should not be forced to explain anything to your 
professor or fellow students.

Best,
Karl

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Kaiti Shelton via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Wed, 6 Jan 2016 12:43:10 -0500
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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