[nabs-l] academic library access

Tue Jan 12 22:57:24 UTC 2016

Kaiti,

You bring up a very good point! I am the  only blind student at my college,
and the first blind student there in twenty years, not to mention the
firststudent who relies comletely on Braille.
As a result, my campus has no computers with JAWS or other screen readers,
asside from my own personal laptop. This means that if something happened
with my technology, I would have to rely solely on a human reader.

However, I do try to avoid human readers if I can, that way I am only bound
by my own schedule.

On Tue, Jan 12, 2016 at 11:41 AM, Kaiti Shelton via nabs-l <
nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> 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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> >></x-flowed>
> >
> >
> >
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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!"
>
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