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

Elizabeth Mohnke lizmohnke at hotmail.com
Sat Jan 30 00:12:28 UTC 2016 

Hello,

I honestly do not understand why it seems to me that no one is able to
understand the fact that I cannot understand the voice that comes with NVDA
and that this will most likely not change after trying to use it. And I do
not have the money to pay for the voice that JAWS uses.

So if you do not mind, I would like for this discussion to end. I feel worse
now than I did before I posted my question to the email list.

It seems to me like the best thing for me to do is accept the fact that I am
simply not the same person I was before my accident. I am nothing but a
failure who can barely do anything anymore without it being such a big deal.

Elizabeth

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Desiree Oudinot
via nabs-l
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2016 6:49 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Desiree Oudinot <turtlepower17 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] A Struggling Blind Student Looking for Some Advice

Hi,
I too am sorry that NFB training centers were suggested as the be all, end
all. I'm going to catch flack for saying so, but I would be disgruntled in
your situation, too, because that wasn't the question you were asking. You
were asking a question about solutions that you could use in the here and
now, and several responses did seem to be putting you down for not having
attended a training center. That's not OK at all.

To answer one of the points you raised, though, you don't need to install
NVDA on a computer to use it. You only need to put a portable copy on a
flash drive, plug said flash drive into the computer, and launch the
application from there. If you need help doing that, you could either ask
someone who happens to be in the testing center, or, if no one is available
or willing to help, you could launch Narrator so that you could find the
flash drive and use NVDA. On versions of Windows below 10, you launch
Narrator by pressing windows u, and in Windows 10, it's Windows enter.
Although I seriously doubt that a college testing center is using Windows 10
yet.

The Blind Access team is proud to present podcasts covering the Windows and
Android operating systems, as well as demonstrations of accessible games and
software!
Why not check us out at:
http://www.blindaccess.org
Or like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Blindaccess
Contact us directly:
podcastteam at gigajoy.net

On 1/29/2016 6:37 PM, Elizabeth Mohnke via nabs-l wrote:
> Hello Karl,
>
> It is apparent that you are not listing to me. I never said I was 
> against learning Braille or using technology. I already know that I 
> cannot understand the default voice for NVDA because I have heard it 
> before and could not understand it. I also have another disability 
> which I am not comfortable disclosing publically that makes it more 
> difficult for me to be able to understand the default voice of NVDA. 
> And I do not have any administrative rights as a student to be able to 
> put programs on the campus computers. If they could just simply figure 
> out a way to properly maintain the computers on campus that have JAWS 
> on them then I would not be having this problem.
>
> I truly regret posting my question to the NABS email list. I honestly 
> did not need people shoving down NFB training centers and braille as 
> the only solutions to my problem. This does absolutely nothing to help 
> me and it only makes me feel worse about things. I know that at this 
> point in my life I will not be able to learn Braille well enough to 
> use it as my primary mode of communication. If I am never going to be 
> good enough succeed as a blind person with other disabilities then 
> perhaps I should not try at all and simply consider myself to be a 
> failure who is never going to be able to make anything out of my life.
>
> Elizabeth
>
>   
>
> 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 6:16 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
>
> 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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