[nabs-l] More Questions About the Disabilities Office and Readers

[Jameyanne Fuller]

Hello Elizabeth,
I don't know if there are official guidelines anywhere. A good place to look
is your university's policies on their website.
When I was in college and now that I'm in grad school it's pretty common for
the disabilities services office to talk with my professors, at a minimum to
get material they would need to prepare in an alternate format for me or to
clarify schedules, but also to get the professor's perspective on how the
accommodations were working out on their end or to answer professors'
questions about specific projects. I don't think I knew specifically when
they would talk, but it never really bothered me. I also made sure I was in
regular contact with the disabilities services office and my professors to
let them know that accommodations were either working out or needed some
adjustment. I went to a small liberal arts college, and there wasn't a lot
of structure to how this happened. A lot of the time it would be informal
conversations between me and disabilities services or me and my professors
or my professors and disabilities services that I would hear about. Now that
I'm at a large law school, it's much more organized about it. The
accessibility office communicates directly with my professors' faculty
assistants to get materials and the powerpoints for class, or else with the
registrar about exam accommodations because exams are graded anonymously.
Once I filled out all the forms, I really don't have to do anything accept
let them know if I'm having a problem.
Once in college I had a reader for using Maple in math class because it was
totally inaccessible, and I know she was communicating with the professor
and disabilities services office, but like I said it never bothered me.
If you're uncomfortable with this, it seems reasonable to me that you should
be able to ask disabilities services what will be discussed or even to be
present at the meeting.
But I really don't know a lot about this, so I'm interested to hear what
others say on the subject.
Best,
Jameyanne

-----Original Message-----
From: NABS-L [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Elizabeth
Mohnke via NABS-L
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2016 8:06 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Elizabeth Mohnke <lizmohnke at hotmail.com>
Subject: [nabs-l] More Questions About the Disabilities Office and Readers

Hello All,

I have some more questions as it relates to using readers during class from
the disabilities office. I chose to use a reader for my science class as I
thought it was the best option for me based on the way my professor teaches
this class. Since my professor likes to do random activities in hard copy
print, I thought the best way to be accommodated for this class was to have
a reader for the full duration of each class period. I felt as though this
was the best way for me to be able to participate in class along with my
sighted classmates.

However, last week my reader informed me that the person in charge of the
disabilities office was going to be meeting with my professor to talk about
some things related to the class. I thought this was rather odd as the
person in charge of the disabilities office did not contact me about meeting
with my professor. I feel as though having the person in charge of the
disabilities office contacting my professor without contacting me first is
inappropriate. However, the person in charge of the disabilities office does
not agree with me.

I was informed that the readers and the person in charge of the disabilities
office connect with each other throughout the semester to talk about the
in-class reader assistance to see if any changes need to be made. As a part
of this process, the person in charge of the disabilities office will often
contact the professor to ask them questions related to the structure and
format of the class. I do not agree with the person in charge being able to
contact my professor without talking to me about it first regardless of the
reason. The accommodations are between me and the disabilities office and
not my professor and the disabilities office.

So I am simply curious, what are the typical guidelines and procedures in
regards to the person in charge of contacting professors without talking to
a student about it first? Are there any reasons or circumstances where it
would be okay for the person in charge of the disabilities office to contact
my professor without talking to me about it first? I do not believe there
would be any reason for the person in charge of the disabilities office to
contact my professor without talking to me about it first. Therefore, I
thought I would ask about it on this email list to receive different
perspectives in regards to this issue. Any information anyone could provide
in regards to this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Elizabeth
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