[nabs-l] New to this

[Chris Nusbaum]

CJ:

Welcome to the list. I'm so glad you've decided to reach out to your fellow
blind students as you begin your journey with blindness. As you have likely
already seen during your short time here, this list, along with the National
Federation of the Blind itself, is a wonderful place to get information,
support and encouragement from those who are walking with you on this
journey. I hope you will continue to tap into this resource as you go
forward.

I commend you on your commitment to not letting blindness stop you from
achieving your dreams. This positive philosophy will serve you well as you
learn the skills of blindness and deal with a public which often has
misconceptions about what we can do as blind people. As you have already
seen, blind students can certainly pursue chemistry and other sciences given
alternative skills and a few modified technologies. I don't have any
personal experience in this field, so I will instead try to give you a few
resources in the Federation which will hopefully help you.

Perhaps the foremost expert on this front is Dr. Cary Supalo, a blind
chemist who is one of the pioneers in making chemistry accessible to blind
students. He is the President of Independence Science
(www.independencescience.com,) which manufactures a number of tools which
make the standard chemistry lab equipment usable by blind researchers. You
may also wish to read an article which Dr. Supalo wrote about his experience
as a blind chemistry student. This can be found at:
https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm12/bm1207/bm120703.htm.
Additionally, there is an NFB member in my home state of Maryland who is a
blind chemistry professor at one of our major universities. Please write me
off-list at cnusbaumnfb at gmail.com if you would like his contact information.
Finally, I would encourage you to join our Science and Engineering Division
and its listserv, on which you could likely get more in-depth answers about
specific aspects of chemistry from blind students and professionals. Their
list can be found at the following link:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-science_nfbnet.org

I hope these resources, along with those which you have already received,
will help you as you continue to discover the techniques blind people use to
succeed in science. I also hope that you will continue to tap into the
resources of the Federation, and that you will lend your unique talents to
our work on behalf of blind students everywhere. Please don't hesitate to
contact myself or my fellow NABS Board members if you have any questions
about how you can fit into the bigger picture of our organization.

Best,

Chris Nusbaum

-----Original Message-----
From: NABS-L [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Craig Balster
via NABS-L
Sent: Thursday, February 2, 2017 1:06 PM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Cc: Craig Balster <unoiwin21 at gmail.com>
Subject: [nabs-l] New to this

Hello, my name is CJ, and I am new to list serv.  I am new to blindness, but
am not letting this slow me down on accomplishing goals in my life that I
would like to achieve.  Chemistry is what I am interested in, and would like
to become a chemical technician.  I honestly don't even know where to begin.
If there is anybody who could help me on where to start, I would greatly
appreciate that.  Or even help discuss some of the obstacles that you
encountered, and how to get it all without going insane.  Thank you guys for
everything, and I look forward to talking to you soon.

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