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

Sat Jan 30 02:35:37 UTC 2016

Hello Suzanne,

No, I am not a client of the vocational rehabilitation agency. And no,  I
currently do not receive financial assistance. A student needs to be
enrolled on a half time basis in order to receive financial assistance, and
I am only taking one class.

I am sure there are lots of things my disabilities office should be doing,
but that does not mean that they are doing them or have any desire to do
them in the future. Unfortunately, I do not believe I have the capacity to
fight the college disability office all on my own right now. 

Elizabeth 

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Suzanne Germano
via nabs-l
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2016 9:27 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Suzanne Germano <sgermano at asu.edu>
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] A Struggling Blind Student Looking for Some Advice

Hi Elizabeth

Are you a client of VR? I know you mentioned other people getting stuff but
you did not state if you are a client or qualify.

I had to fight vr initially. I did it on my own. I adked for something
justifiable. She said no. I filed an official appeal and my request was
approved.

Do you get financial aid? Do have more you can qualify for ie loans?
Getting a student loan for a computer would be well worth it if you qualify.

Speak to the head of disabled student services, then speak to who ever is
above them and continue up until your situation is taken care of. It is a
pain but I have had to fight battles to get stuff.

Your disabled student office should have a minimum of one computer with jaws
for test taking. If not, push for it.

I hope you can get this resolved

Good luck

On Friday, January 29, 2016, 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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