[nabs-l] Blindness and roommates

Tue Nov 29 14:41:17 UTC 2016

If they are using your stuff on the weekends when you are not there, it sounds as though they would do that anyway regardless of whether you are blind or not. However, that does not make it OK. Have you made this clear to them? Have you made it understood by them that they are not allowed to use your stuff, simply because you were not there? That would be the next step, I would think.
One thing that some roommates at my school do is come up with a roommate agreement which all of them sign as well as the resident assistant. When there are problems like this, the resident assistant usually makes a roommate agreement mandatory. I don't know if your school has anything in place that would allow you to do that, but you could talk to your RA, and see if it's an option.
When it comes to talking to the director of residence life, baron mind that they really don't like dealing with issues like this. They get a lot of them throughout the year, and it's a tough process for them to take care of rather than you your roommates and you're Resident assistant. 
In terms of not getting your accommodations, that doesn't really surprise me. When it comes to residence life, it is very difficult to get a single room as a first-year college student, unless you have a very good reason for it. For example my school believed that blind this wouldn't necessarily be a good reason for a single room. Unless I had some other condition that dictated that I needed it.
I am sorry you are having a roommate trouble.
I hope everything goes well!
Kennedy

Kennedy Stomberg 
(218)295-2391 

> On Nov 29, 2016, at 8:10 AM, Ashley Bramlett via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Sami,
> 
> Sorry to hear this. You did what I'd do. You already reported this to your resident director. I think you should talk to them nicely. Tell them you need to sleep by a certain time; perhaps 11:00 for the next day and ask them if their guests could be a bit quieter.
> Yes you'd need to talk to them and then meet with your resident assistant or the resident director. I had issues with my roomate  too although not as bad. Like your situation, she invited either her boyfriend or someone else late to  our room and they had the tv on. She also took over some of my side of the room. She was not at all respectful of my desires to sleep or do what I needed to do. Fortunately, she did not take my stuff even though I left for the weekend. I had a meeting with her and my RA which did nothing to solve the issues.
> 
> The next semester I switched rooms. My suggestion Ii s you talk to your roommates and then the director with them. If that fails to work, switch rooms next semester. You could also take a lot of your stuff home on weekends so they do not take it. You could put your valuable things in a locked place perhaps; I think you can buy containers or drawers that can lock up.
> 
> They may be taking advantage of you, but they may do this to anyone; you never know. Maybe they are just real rude people.
> If they actually steal something and do not give it back, remember you can report that to the police; most schools have a police department. If they harrass you, that is also reportable.
> 
> Not sure what else to suggest. I hope something works out and keep us posted.
> 
> Ashley
> 
> -----Original Message----- From: Sami Osborne via NABS-L
> Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2016 1:41 AM
> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> Cc: Sami Osborne
> Subject: [nabs-l] Blindness and roommates
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> As you probably know, I am currently a college freshman and
> really enjoy it so far.  However, I have experienced major issues
> with my two roommates throughout the course of the semester.  It
> seems to me that both of them are not very organized with their
> belongings, and that I am the most organized out of the three of
> us.  The first incident that happened was back in September, when
> one of my mates charged his laptop using my power strip while I
> was home for the weekend, and I therefore didn't notice until
> when I returned to campus on Monday morning.  Also, the same guy
> took his lamp and put it on my desk rather than his own, and also
> put one sock of his under my bed and the other one under his.
> Also, both of them often times invite their friends into our rom,
> and it can get pretty rowdy.  Most nights, they  stay up later
> than me - usually until 1:30 or 2:00 AM.  While I personally
> don't have a problem with this, it does irritate me that they are
> staying up listening to music and watching TV while I'm trying to
> get some rest for the next day.  It also seems as though they
> take full advantage of the fact that I go home every weekend to
> get into or even steal my personal posessions.  For example, they
> took away my desk chair without any notice to me, and didn't
> bring it back to my desk until the following Monday, and even so,
> I had to ask them to give it back to me.  The last straw happened
> just today, when I discovered that they had stolen my night table
> next to my bed.  I have no idea why they did that, but that's
> what they did.  Fortunately, they restored it, but I was really
> shocked and angry that they did this.
> 
> So as you can see, I've had some rather major issues with my
> roommates throughout the whole semester.  The things that they've
> been doing are very disrespectful to me personally.  I reported
> most of these concerns to the director of Residence Life just
> this morning, but he just responded to just have a conversation
> with my roommates, and that if it didn't work, we just have a
> meeting with them as well as my RA to figure out what to do next.
> 
> It's also very unfortunate that, one of my accommodations was to
> have a single room, but that request was never granted to me.
> When I confronted the Residence Life director, he simply
> responded that they did try to accommodate my request by only
> putting me in a unit for four, because apparently all the other
> units have up to seven people in them.  Although, as you can see,
> that wasn't exactly what I asked for.
> 
> So I had a few questions for you guys: first, do you think that
> my roommates have been taking advantage of my absence over the
> weekend, as well as maybe my blindness, (like maybe thinking,
> "Oh, he's blind, he won't notice") to use and/or steal my
> belongings? Second, what kinds of things should I do to prevent
> this from happening again in the future?
> 
> I  hope you can get back to me soon, because this is really a
> serious matter for me.
> 
> Thanks and enjoy your week,
> 
> Sami
> 
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