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

Fri Jan 29 21:06:01 UTC 2016

Good morningAt afternoon, list,
,

To me, it's not necessarily about the ends (I.E.) actual submission 
to prof. Instead, could it be more about the ends (I.E) getting your 
thoughts together before jotting them down on a Perkin's, then 
crafting the paper before, ultimately submitting it?
Car
, 10:54 AM 1/29/2016, Ashley Bramlett via nabs-l wrote:
>But Carl, what good does a slate and stylus do for exams and other 
>assignments?
>A professor cannot read braille.  So a student needs to use 
>technology to substitute for handwriting.
>
>The only good braille does in college is for your personal 
>notetaking during class and for homework, like reading textbooks. 
>Otherwise, what you show to the instructors  needs to be in print.
>
>Ashley
>
>
>-----Original Message----- From: Karl Martin Adam via nabs-l
>Sent: Friday, January 29, 2016 12:04 PM
>To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>Cc: Karl Martin Adam
>Subject: Re: [nabs-l] A Struggling Blind Student Looking for Some Advice
>
>Christina, the point of her attending a training center would be
>to learn braille well enough to use a slate and not need the
>technology she can't afford.  I'm not sure that would be
>feasable, but that was the suggestion that was being made.
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Christina Moore 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 11:53:56 -0500
>Subject: Re: [nabs-l] A Struggling Blind Student Looking for Some
>Advice
>
>Hi,
>
>I am sorry to here about the struggles you are having. They are
>very
>unacceptable and I hopw that you can find some solace in that you
>are
>not alone in having difficulties of this sort.
>These things should not happen but they do and we all can do our
>best
>to educate others but at times that falls on deaf ears as they
>say.
>First, in my opinion a reasonable accommodation for you is to be
>allowed to have a recorder in your lectures. I am not sure what
>devices you are using/have access to currently but you should be
>able
>to record your lectures so you can listen to them later to study
>the
>information.
>Second, if you do not mind me asking, why is your vocational
>rehab not
>helping you? You are pursuing an educational degree and need
>technology that it is not surprisingly, too expensive for you to
>pay
>for. They should be willing/able to help you pursue your
>educational
>goals.
>Third, the suggestion to attend the NFB center is an interesting
>one.
>I have never attended such a center myself but I believe it would
>put
>off your education considerably which is something you should
>consider
>when weighing your options. I hear the centers are very useful
>but I
>am not sure how it would benefit you since yes you would go home
>with
>skills but still without the resources to use those skills.
>Advocacy
>can go a long way but only to a point. If someone does not have
>the
>economical means to pursue their education and their state and
>other
>organizations are not willing to help, than a training center
>will do
>nothing. Just my thoughts on that suggestion.
>Fourth, it seems like you are in a position where a tutor for
>this
>class would be beyond necessary. The tutor can read the notes
>from the
>TA and others, ask you questions, be a scribe for exams/reader
>and
>they can get paid for it.
>I hope this helps you get somewhere. Your disability services
>should
>provide the reader/tutor/scribe that is a reasonable and
>essential
>accommodation for your circumstances.
>
>On 1/29/16, Aleeha Dudley via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>One of the big things that I want to say to you is this: do not
>give up. One
>of the things that would really help you is to get the Braille
>skills and
>problem solving skills from an NFB training center. You will
>gain confidence
>in yourself and be able to do whatever you want to do. I think
>that would
>really help you when it comes to getting accommodations for
>yourself and
>truly succeeding in your college life.
>On Jan 29, 2016, at 10:50 AM, Elizabeth Mohnke via nabs-l
><nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
>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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