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

Fri Jan 29 22:09:43 UTC 2016

Technology is ideal, yes, but if that's not an option because of 
the cost it would be possible to write the essays in braille and 
then read them to the scribe rather than trying to compose them 
in your head and tell the scribe what to write, which is 
apparently what the DSS want Elizabeth to do.

 ----- 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: Fri, 29 Jan 2016 13:54:13 -0500
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] A Struggling Blind Student Looking for Some 
Advice

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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