[nabs-l] academic library access

Tue Jan 12 17:41:14 UTC 2016

Hi, Carly and all,

Of course the choice to use technology or work with another person is
a personal choice, but in my experience technology works a good 80% of
the time at least (in that 20% I'm counting when PDF files from the
library are not innately accessible).  IN that case, what I do as
stated before is get human intervention in the form of my disability
services converting the files to a readable format for my
computer/notetaker.  That's what they're there for, after all.

I have used readers before, but I think I'd dread using them on
something as extensive as a research project where multiple, long
articles or books need to be read.  It is essential, I think, to have
a copy of the printed material at your disposal so you can see how
statements are punctuated and how exactly the author worded them when
citing in your paper.  It also allows for you to draw your own
conclusions without some other person unintentionally adding their
interpretation into their reading or screwing up the reading because
they're not familiar with the subject you are studying.

Lastly, I usually avoid readers because I hate the idea of being
beholden to someone else's schedule to get my work done.  I'm not
above asking for help and have used readers in the past for short
projects, but to do something like extensive research reading like a
thesis or senior capstone project like I did last semester would be
crazy.  I worked on it whenever I had free time because the project
was so large, including late at night and over the weekends when a
human reader probably wouldn't have been available because of their
own life commitments.

Also, even in cases when personal technology goes down, there should
be a few different places one could go to have computer access.
Colleges are supposed to be required by ADA law to have an accessible
computer in a library for public accommodation, and if not I've used a
computer in the testing center before when nothing else was working.
Think about it; if a sighted student's laptop went down they'd have
plenty of other computers to use to get their work done, so as blind
students if our work goes down having access to a computer at least
somewhere on campus is a reasonable accommodation.

On 1/11/16, Carly Mihalakis via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Good morning, everyone,
>
> What about when tech doesn't work? At least when
> a reader is humanoid, you are likely to get work done.
> CarAt 03:46 PM 1/9/2016, Ashley Bramlett via nabs-l wrote:
>>Hello Kennedy, Glad you shared your thoughts. I
>>guess we just have to do what we can do and get
>>help with human readers. Readers are great when
>>they work well and are dependable, but I've had
>>many unreliable readers. I am glad someone gets
>>the frustration with ebsco databases. They are
>>terrible. What I learned from a good librarian
>>though Ii s something that saves me so much
>>time. Before, I did the same search in several
>>ebsco databases. This librarian showed me how to
>>search all ebsco databases at once, or you can
>>pick which databases you desire to search by
>>checking the boxes. So, once you pick the
>>databases you want, you press a button and it
>>sets it to that search. Then I limit it to
>>certain types of articles so I do not get
>>hundreds of book reviews. It works great, and I
>>wish I had known that before. I suggest that if
>>you need many ebsco databases that you have a
>>librarian show you this trick. Press B to get to
>>the buttons. My experience is also that some
>>librarians are great, and some are not. Yeah, a
>>mixed bag of good and bvad ones. It takes more
>>skills and patience to describe what they are
>>doing, and some do not have it. They typically
>>show students what they are doing on the screen,
>>and since I cannot see the screen, they have to
>>verbalize it. I was researching Queen victoria,
>>and needed biographical info not online through
>>databases. So, I used readers. I got an
>>extension on the project as I needed more time
>>as my readers took longer to find the info and
>>they cancelled sometimes on me. Well, we pretty
>>have much the same experiences. Man, if I ever
>>have free time and find an ebsco contact for
>>accessibility, I'll write to them. Ashley
>>-----Original Message----- From: STOMBERG,
>>KENNEDY via nabs-l Sent: Saturday, January 09,
>>2016 5:28 PM To: National Association of Blind
>>Students mailing list Cc: STOMBERG, KENNEDY
>>Subject: Re: [nabs-l] academic library access
>>Ashley, It honestly depends on the type of
>>research you are doing. You are so right about
>>the Ebsco databases, though. They are a
>>nightmare! If you're looking for scinitific
>>journal articles, I find that Google Scholar is
>>very accessable. Bookshare or Learning Allz
>>might also be an option, if they have the books
>>you need. I have had both good and bad
>>experiences with librarians. And I deffinitely
>>agree that it's frustrating to still need
>>readers in this day and age! It's kind of
>>redicubous! Good luck with your classes this
>>semester! Kennedy Stomberg On Sat, Jan 9, 2016
>>at 3:47 PM, Vejas Vasiliauskas via nabs-l <
>>nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote: > Hi, > If you have a
>>Bookshare account, you could try looking for the
>>book > there.  If you're working on a research
>>paper of some kind, Bookshare > usually has some
>>good books on the topic you're researching. > I
>>never used the databases in high school; do you
>>find using them helpful? > Vejas > > > > -----
>>Original Message ----- > From: Ashley Bramlett
>>via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org > To: "National
>>Association of Blind Students mailing list" < >
>>nabs-l at nfbnet.org > Date sent: Sat, 9 Jan 2016
>>16:22:05 -0500 > Subject: [nabs-l] academic
>>library access > > Hi all, > > Iâ€™d like to
>>hear about the level of support and
>>accessibility of your > library and the
>>resources it has. > Iâ€™ve written about my
>>struggles before.  The gist is that many
>>library > databases have access issues.  The
>>ebsco ones are the worst.  Its hard to > open
>>the pull down list of options, but I think I
>>finally did open them > with spacebar.  I find
>>that databases run through Oxford and proquest
>>are > generally user friendly and
>>accessible.  Jstor is fairly decent, but seems >
>>like most articles are image pdfs or display on
>>the screen as images.  I > kept wondering why
>>jaws was saying graphic and the next line said
>>page 1 > of > 5 or however many pages it was;
>>then it occurred to me that the text must > be
>>an image; so I found the pdf link to download
>>it. > The pdf was an image too, so I had to
>>convert it. > > Generally, when I was in the
>>university setting, I got support from the >
>>reference desk.  They retrieved books for me and
>>other students had to > find > them by call
>>number.  I got pretty much the same support as
>>other > students.  I was on my own with access
>>barriers.  Sometimes, I was able to > get a
>>library assistant to sit down with me and look
>>at the database and > then email me relevant
>>articles.  This worked much faster than
>>jaws. > > Now, to learn more, Iâ€™m taking
>>classes at Northern virginia community >
>>college, nova, while looking for work. > > Many
>>Nova reference staff are great and in fact go
>>the extra mile.  They > explain well how to
>>search databases.  Others seem to struggle how
>>to > verbalize things.  Normally, they demo the
>>task and have the information > seeker watch
>>what they are doing > >
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-- 
Kaiti Shelton
University of Dayton-Music Therapy
President, Ohio Association of Blind Students 2013-Present
Secretary, The National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts
Division 2015-2016

"You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back!"