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

Fri Jan 29 23:15:40 UTC 2016

Elizabeth,

First of all, NVDA can work with different voices.  Second of 
all, you don't know if you can understand the default voice or 
not unless you've worked with it a while to acclimatize yourself.  
You could of course use another screen reader, but the other's 
aren't Free like NVDA.  You might even be able to put Jaws on a 
thumbdrive if you have a licence already, you'd have to check 
with the manufacturer.

I'm not sure what you think you're going to do if you don't want 
to learn Braille and you don't want to use technology.  Those are 
the ways blind people have of being literate.  At some point, you 
have to use one if you're going to go to school or work.  Maybe 
there are other choices, but I don't know of them, and I assume 
you don't either or you wouldn't be asking.  I don't know why 
you're so hostile to Braille, but it's worth pointing out that 
you don't have to use Braille as efficiently as a sighted person 
uses print in order to organize your thoughts for an essay and 
then be able to read it to your scribe instead of doing it all in 
your head.  We're not talking about you reading Braille other 
people have produced hear, so you could write in uncontracted 
braille if you wanted and memorizing the contractions is part of 
your problem.

Best,
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 17:54:02 -0500
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] A Struggling Blind Student Looking for Some 
Advice

Hello Karl,

I am really getting frustrated by the fact that it appears as 
though no one
is listening to me. I cannot understand the voice that comes with 
NVDA, and
no amount of using this program is not going to change my ability 
to
understand the voice that comes with NVDA.

And if I really need to learn Braille to the point that I can use 
it in
class or for tests, then I am royally screwed. At this point in 
my life I do
not believe I could learn braille well enough to be able to read 
and
understand it enough to be able to read it and understand it at 
the same
rate and level as someone who reads print. This is simply not 
going to
happen, so please stop shoving this down my throat as if this is 
the only
answer.

Elizabeth

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Karl 
Martin
Adam via nabs-l
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2016 5:36 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Cc: Karl Martin Adam <kmaent1 at gmail.com
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] A Struggling Blind Student Looking for Some 
Advice

Dear Elizabeth,

You're right that many of the suggestions people have given you 
won't help
for your test in two weeks.  If you want to continue college 
though,
learning braille whether from a training center or a Hadley 
course or
whatever or learning how to use something like NVDA will be 
something you
have to do.  We can't do that for you.  I wish we could, but you 
have to
actually learn the skills you need to do college assignments.  
One thing you
could do is take an incomplete get the skills you need and finish 
the class
in the fall.  I'm assuming that's more drastic than you want to 
do though.
You could work on trying to learn something like NVDA for the 
next test, and
maybe your professor would allow you to take this one later if 
you explained
it to them or maybe they would let you take it orally.  I 
understand not
wanting to learn new technology, I really do.  I hate it, and 
I've never
been able to learn Windows and a screen reader well enough to 
function
effectively, which is why I use my Braillenote for everything.  I 
think you
might be surprised at how easy it is to learn how to make a 
smartphone work
though.  Androids are known for taking some time to figure out, 
but Iphone's
are fairly intuitive.  When I got mine I hated it for a day or 
two because I
couldn't make it work, but then it clicked.  All you really need 
is to type
your answers into the body of an e-mail and either send it to 
your professor
or have your scribe write it out onto the test or e-mail your 
answers to DSS
and have them print them.  Learning how to do that much really 
wouldn't be
very difficult--even someone who has as hard a time with 
technology as I do
can manage it.  I really hope you can find a way to do well on 
your exam!

Best,
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 17:02:48 -0500
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] A Struggling Blind Student Looking for Some 
Advice

Hello All,

I honestly wish I had never posted my email to this email list. I 
really
hate the fact that it just seems like all you are wanting to do 
is tell me
that an NFB training center is somehow going to solve all the 
problems in my
life. Even if I could ever go to an NFB training center, I will 
probably
never gain the Braille skills necessary to be able to use them in 
a testing
situation.

I have never used a smart phone before, so this option would not 
work for
me. There is absolutely no way I would be able to learn how to 
use it good
enough to use for a test that is in two weeks.
I am already trying to catch up in this class after being sick, 
so I am not
looking to add anything more to my plate than what is already on 
it.

Using NVDA sounds like a good option, but again, I have never 
used it
before, and I cannot understand the voice that comes with it . So 
I am not
quite sure how this option would work for me.

I am sorry that I am not able to fight my college and the 
vocational
rehabilitation all on my own. The Client Assistant Program does 
not do much
of anything here. And no one in the NFB has never really been 
willing to
help me either. All I wanted to do was to find a way to pass this 
class. But
it looks as though I simply do not have the support, resources, 
and capacity
to do the things I wanted to be able to do before my accident.

I should have never signed up to take this class. I really did 
not have the
money to pay for it in the first place, and right now it just 
feels like
this was only a waste of my money. And I should just learn that I 
am never
going to be the same person that I was before my accident.

Elizabeth

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