[nabs-l] 7 plus blind or low vision students facing discrimination at NIU... Please help!!!!!
Carly Mihalakis
carlymih at comcast.net
Thu Nov 24 02:55:34 UTC 2016
Anna,
Bring on the humor! A real tension defuser, trust me.
CarAt 11:28 PM 11/21/2016, you wrote:
>It is because, the program doing the teaching
>probably has no one with visual impairment in
>it's administration, typical story... Key
>decision-makers thinking they know what is best. The ADA sucks in this regard.
>
>
>Sent from my iPad
>
> > On Nov 20, 2016, at 19:02, Zachary N.
> Griego-Dreicer via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> >
> > I didn't even count you in my initial
> headcount so that makes eight now! Yes I
> do remember you!!! I hope to call you soon so
> maybe we can put something together about it
> >
> > Sent from my iPhone 7 Using VoiceOver
> >
> >> On Nov 20, 2016, at 16:02, AlyssaHenson via
> NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hello Zach,
> >> You probably remember me as i am one of the
> people that showed you around. I experienced
> similar difficulties with the classes you
> mentioned. I also had issues with the advanced
> Braille course which you would be taking in the
> spring. I'm glad someone is finally taking
> steps to address the issues. I wish I would
> have done the same. You can feel free to email
> me off list if you have any additional questions regarding my experience.
> >> Warm regards,
> >> Alyssa
> >>
> >> Sent from my iPhone
> >>
> >>> On Nov 20, 2016, at 5:06 AM, Zachary N.
> Griego-Dreicer via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Good morning federationists,
> >>> Please forgive me in advance, this is going
> to be a long email. I am disappointed to inform
> you that 7 students, including myself, are
> facing or have faced discrimination by a
> program at a university whose aim is to teach
> blind students. Perhaps there are more that I
> don’t know of, and if this is the case, it
> would be great to know of their
> experiences. The program is in the school of
> special education at Northern Illinois
> University main campus in DeKalb, West side
> Chicago, Illinois. There are 7 confirme cases
> of discrimination and/or difficulty to complete
> assigned coursework in the visual disabilities
> program, between the programs at both the
> undergraduate and graduate level. What’s more
> disappointing to me is that in this semester
> alone, 4 blind students including myself have
> elected to change our majors because of the difficulties we face.
> >>> Obviously for me to be writing these
> statistics something is terribly wrong here
So
> I should explain further that the reasons
> compiled or most noted are lack of adaptation
> by course instructors, discouragement by some
> instructors for blind people to participate
> actively and fully, lack of knowledge by
> sighted colleagues of how to help the blind
> students in the class, lack of teaching proper
> cane/guide dog use skills early, and problems
> with conflicting philosophy. As far as I know,
> 3 of the 3 students who have already changed
> their major and started down a new career path
> have not sought assistance from resources at
> Northern Illinois University or the National
> Federation of the Blind, and the same can be
> said of 3 of the 4 students making the
> transition over the upcoming holiday vacation.
> Some have directly told me that they decided to
> leave quietly, thinking their voices wouldn’t
> be heard and that they would not be able to
> make a difference with just 1 person. They
> encouraged me to do the same, and although I’m
> changing majors for the sole reason of keeping
> my high grade point average that way going into
> the latter part of my undergraduate career, I
> am not leaving without making a lasting impact
> on the visual disabilities program
and I need
> your help. 6 of the 7 students do not know the
> National Federation of the Blind as far as I
> know, and they are strictly reliant on the
> disability resource center and the department
> of vocational rehabilitation of Illinois. Yours truly however knows all 3.
> >>> The first issue, and the one I find of most
> importance
is the discrimination that blind
> students are faced with in this program at both
> the undergraduate and graduate level. I am in
> my 1st block of classes—introduction to
> teaching students with visual impairments,
> introduction to Orientation and Mobility,
> Introduction to Braille which I tested out of,
> and The Anatomy and Pathology of the Eye. jOf
> those 3 classes where I am participating, I
> know that the hardest one for me is
> Introduction to teaching students with visual
> impairments. The class is to teach students to
> develop and teach lessons according to EDTPA
> standards. In this class, there are 2 obvious
> red flags. The first is its sequence in the
> program, when students are concurrently
> enrolled in Introduction to Braille. Most
> sighted students—and a few blind students—were
> not proficient at Braille and taking the 2
> classes at the same time. This has an automatic
> drawback in my mind, the sighted students have
> no idea yet about adaptive tech or Braille and
> the program is about teaching blind students.
> This is not so hard to overcome because they
> will learn the skills in due time, although
> I’ve had several sighted students approach me
> regarding this class apologizing to me that
> they don’t know how to adapt their lessons,
> which I forgave them but told them some very
> simple strategies to adapt with little to no
> stress for them. I have put 2 other blind
> students in the class in charge also of talking
> to other sighted classmates, but they gave up
> after only a few tries and no success. The
> other red flag is the more major one in my
> mind, it stares everyone in the face during
> each lesson plan. I copied and pasted the
> section of the instructions of each lesson I
> refer to below, and it clearly spells out
> discrimination. “...You are pre-teaching this
> so that the student is more prepared for the
> class discussion and activities. Select one or
> more CONCEPTS that will help the student
> understand the content more fully. The student
> is a print reader and all materials must be in
> print. We will assume that you would provide
> appropriate modifications tailored to the
> student’s vision skills determined through
> functional vision and learning media
> assessments. For this exercise, however, use
> standard print materials but it is fair to
> address any concepts that you think would be
> particularly difficult for a student.” This
> spells out that NO blind students can be
> participating as students in the lesson, they
> can only participate as teachers. Furthermore
> it makes the assumption that the students know
> how to perform assessments to determine usable
> vision, and that has not even been taught. It
> is important to note that many sighted students
> want to teach the blind students in the class,
> (I.E.) the blind students in the class could be
> the blind students in the lesson scenario. Also
> of importance to note is that the groups of
> students consist of 3 to 4 students, and it is
> 1 to 1 ratio of teacher and student so the
> other students just sit and observe. It is also
> hard to sift through the CCSS standards, and
> half the time the teacher reports back to me
> that I didn’t do the best standard for my
> assignment. There are other various reasons for
> point deduction, but I feel that I am doing the
> best I can from the instruction given. There
> are also video observations of classrooms for
> undergraduate students, which is second to
> being able to observe a live classroom like the
> graduate students do. This is less of a concern
> to me, although it would be much more
> beneficial if every student had the same
> experience—even if they were partnered up to go
> on observations. Across other classes
in
> Orientation and Mobility, except for the blind
> students, nobody is using a cane or guide dog.
> An overwhelming majority of the class is
> lecture, and when we are out on travel, it’s
> all done under blindfold and teaching sighted
> guide and protective techniques with hands at
> different positions—which is agreeably
> important but far from the comprehensive skills
> that need to be covered to make it effective
> and safe. I’ve learned that there is an
> advanced O&M class open to graduates only that
> teaches cane travel skills, meaning that all
> the undergraduates get is the basic class
> without the cane. Also there are major
> philosophy differences from what I know to what
> is being taught in that class. As 2 examples,
> students are instructed that it is not safe or
> responsible to leave a blind student unattended
> when they step away to check in to a hotel or
> restaurant, and that blind people should use
> paratransit services or sit immediately behind
> the operator of the public transit vehicle in
> the priority seating area, making others move
> if need be. One particular lesson that had the
> sighted students wandering around lost,
> sounding very similar to #HowEyeSeeIt earlier
> this year was learning their way around a
> grocery store under blindfold while holding the
> elbow of another classmate. This included going
> to and from the store using public
> transportation. Obviously the first part could
> not apply to me exactly as instructed, and I
> questioned the legality of guiding a sighted
> student off of campus with no cane, sighting
> the fact that I could be held liable for
> someone who had no experience in the proper
> techniques if they were in any way hurt or
> whatever. I ended up instructing as I was
> taught during my training at the Colorado
> Center for the Blind and the sighted student
> traveled to and from the store without
> blindfold. I got an additional opportunity to
> work with another student who wanted to see how
> a compitent blind person travels. But this is
> highly unfair to blind and sighted people alike
> because this not the way anyone would learn to
> get around the store. The lesson was that the
> blind partner would be able to walk into a
> store and grab something off the shelf if the
> sighted person show them how to get there and
> to the specific item. I feel this is not a fair
> lesson because items’ locations may change and
> this leaves the blind person to have to try and
> try again to find an item that was moved. In
> anatomy of the eye, the instructor is doing
> their best to talk about the functions of
> everything, but a good tactual representation
> of everything would make it make much more
> sense. We dissected a cow’s eye which gave me
> at least a little better understanding, but my
> partner did most of the work even though I had
> my hands all over the area where the eye was
> being dicected. The same instructor teaches O&M
> and anatomy and is a really nice person but my
> final comment about them is they adjust scores
> up so it doesn’t accurately reflect how a
> student is doing, regardless of if they are passing or failing.
> >>> I have heard from people that have
> continued passed these introductory classes
> that in clinical, they are having issues
> including but not limited to not being able to
> actively participate because of lack of access
> to material in a format that can be
> comprehended. I also have experienced their
> other issue, the instructors are always saying
> to have the students use whatever remaining
> vision they have or to rely on their resource
> teacher. I do not know a blind student in the
> undergraduate or graduate level who has
> successfully graduated the visual disabilities
> program at Northern Illinois University.
> >>> It was my goal since 2013 when someone
> forwarded info about a scholarship to attend
> NIU to the National Association of Blind
> Students to get to Chicago asap so I could
> learn how to teach students like me in a
> variety of environments. I kept looking for
> ways to go to Chicago starting during my CCB
> training, but my parents wanted me to stay in
> Colorado because it is nearer to where they
> live. So I compromised and started my
> undergraduate work in Greeley at University of
> Northern Colorado, NIU still on the forefront
> of my mind. In April of last year, I received
> an invitation to the spring seminar of the
> Illinois Association of Blind Students because
> of my membership on Illinois NFB lists, and I
> jumped on the cheapest flight I could find. I
> went out a day early to go to NIU and explore,
> and 1 of the 7 students I gave mention to
> showed me around a little but that barely
> scratched the surface. In the middle of October
> of 2015 was when I declared to everyone that I
> could obtain a undergraduate degree at NIU as
> what I wanted to more quickly advance to a
> masters in quicker time than I could get it in
> Greeley, sighting the fact that an
> undergraduate TVI program didn’t exist in
> Greeley. I jumped on the cheapest plane, toured
> around Chicago with a friend for a few days,
> and enrolled in NIU the last day before I went
> back to Denver I was highly impressed with the
> disability resource center’s services, in
> particular the fact that they told me they have
> an on sight Braille transcriber and an
> electronic text coordinator who would get me
> all the materials I needed only by me
> submitting a receipt and making a simple
> request in person or online including the proof
> of purchase. It sounded too good to be true,
> but I quickly found out that this disability
> resource center really knows their stuff and
> have been greatful to work with them since.
> Speaking of them, my case manager put me in
> contact with some of the people that are higher
> up in the department and is trying to help me
> troubleshoot as best as they can, but they said
> it’s more up to the student to do that and that
> DRC would be there to assist along the way as
> necessary. I made it through my 1st winter in
> Chicago with a 3.4 and went into this semester
> on a good grade from a summer class.
> >>> Only 2 airlines leaving Chicago serve the
> airport closest to my home. I flew through
> Denver on United on my way home yesterday
> marking the start of Thanksgiving break, and as
> I got on my connecting flight and the safety
> video began, I had time to reflect on
> everything to myself and I really missed my
> times in Denver and thought for a little bit of
> going back. Walking outside and up the jet
> bridge to get my hour’s long flight home from
> there was what really got me thinking. But I
> knew I couldn’t easily switch again and I
> quickly convinced myself of it, with the number
> of friends I made around Chicago and the
> promises of being able to be done a year sooner
> in my new major of rehabilitation services,
> thereby getting me to my next adventure—Louisiana Tech University—sooner.
> >>> Thus said, I have a few question. Is there
> anything NFBI or national can do to make it so
> that the visual disabilities program doesn’t
> discriminate against anyone in future or make
> them feel “chased away”? Has anyone you know
> graduated from there who is blind or low
> vision? How about what would you recommend to
> me and the other 3 students who are in the
> midst of changing majors—did we do the right
> thing? I am taken aback at how the program has
> chosen to deal with blind and sighted students
> alike and was surprised to hear it echoed
> across many fronts this semester. Can the
> federation step in and fight for us—or if not
> us because it may be too late—other blind
> people who have yet to enter the program? And 1
> last question, did anyone around here get the
> teaching certification another way and then
> enter tech because that’s what I am now facing.
> Even if I didn’t get it, I plan to be there in
> due time for the rehabilitation teaching and
> o&M programs. That limits the possibilities by
> a third if I didn’t get a teaching degree
> though, which makes me disappointed because I
> thought I had it made at NIU. Thank you for
> bearing with me, and I really look forward to any feedback—legal or otherwise.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Sent from my Macbook Pro 13
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
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> >>
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