[nabs-l] A Struggling Blind Student Looking for Some Advice

[Karl Martin Adam]

Dear Elizabeth,

College is really not feasible without some method of writing.  
You either have to learn braille well enough to be functional, or 
find some kind of technology that you can write on.  It sounds 
like your rehab agency is not doing their job in providing you 
with at least minimal technology.  If it's not practically 
possible to get them to do there job in time for exams, I would 
suggest that the most cost effective thing to do is to get a 
smart phone and use a word processing app.  Even a relatively 
inexpensive smart phone with a bluetooth keyboard would let you 
write out answers.  You could then either read what you'd written 
to your scribe to put it on the test or show them your screen and 
have them copy your answers out or just e-mail your answers to 
your professors.  Most phone companies will allow you to buy a 
smart phone on an installment plan at a reasonably affordable 
price.

I hope this helps,
Karl

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Elizabeth Mohnke via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Fri, 29 Jan 2016 10:50:56 -0500
Subject: [nabs-l] A Struggling Blind Student Looking for Some 
Advice

Hello All,

There was a message thread on here not too long ago about someone 
being
upset about not being able to use a computer in the classroom. It 
seems as
though people on here were offended by my response to this 
message. However,
from my point of view, being able to use a computer in the 
classroom seems
to be more of a privilege rather than a right because not 
everyone can
afford a computer that they can take to class.

I really wish I had the money to buy a new computer that I could 
take with
me to class because then maybe I would not be so worried about 
failing my
exams due to a lack of accommodations by my college. When I took 
classes
before, I was able to use a computer in the testing center for 
answering
short answer and essay questions that were on my exams. However, 
it appears
as though the college no longer offers this as an accommodation. 
The college
is supposed to have computers on campus with JAWS on them, but 
most of the
time, these computers do not work correctly, and every time I ask 
about the
status of the computer with JAWS on it in their new testing room, 
there
always seems to be something wrong with it. So I am really at a 
loss as to
what to do for my exams, and I am really scared that I am going 
to fail my
class because of a lack of accommodations.

So what exactly am I supposed to do if I do not have a way to 
write out my
answers for the short answer questions that are going to be on my 
exam? My
college seems to rely heavily on the disabilities office to 
provide and
approve accommodations on campus. Therefore, if I talk to my 
professor, she
will most likely tell me that I would need to talk to the 
disabilities
office in order to get any accommodations for my exam. But the 
disabilities
office does not appear to provide the accommodations I need, so I 
feel like
I am just caught up in some bureaucratic mess.

It seems to me the only reliable accommodations the disabilities 
office
provides for exams are readers. However, this does not work for 
me when
answering short answer questions on exams because I find it 
rather difficult
to write anything longer than a couple of words by dictating it 
to someone
else to write down for me. So the best accommodation for me in 
this
situation is to use a computer since I do not know Braille very 
well. But
since I do not have my own computer that I can take to class, and 
the
college does not appear to know how to properly maintain the 
computers on
campus that have JAWS on them, I feel as though I am at a loss as 
to what to
do for my exams. If I had known this was the situation I was 
going to be
facing, I probably would not have signed up to take this class.

I guess some days I just really hate being blind. And I get 
frustrated when
I see other blind students get pretty much everything handed to 
them from
their vocational rehabilitation agency. Not everyone gets 
privilege of
receiving services from a vocational rehabilitation agency, and 
not everyone
has the privilege of having others help them advocate to receive 
services
from the vocational rehabilitation agency either. And I guess I 
just find it
rather difficult to make anything out of my life given my limited 
amount of
resources and a lack of support from other people.

Anyway, I am sorry if I have offended anyone with any of my 
messages to the
email list. This is not what I mean to do. I am just really 
frustrated by
life right now, and I am really struggling in trying to figure 
out what to
do. It seems to me like nothing in my life ever works out, and 
that I can
never really get the support I need from others when I need it. 
The NFB has
never really been there for me before, so I am rather skeptical 
that I will
be able to receive any help or support from the NFB, but I 
thought I would
at least give it a try.

Thanks,
Elizabeth

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