[nabs-l] Filing discrimination complaint re NIU TVI program with US Department of Education

Sat Jan 21 23:08:41 UTC 2017

Hi there Justin, I know that student personally and have spoken with them by phone about this, they are willing to participate in the title IX investigation process but I have not asked them about the Department of Education. I do have plans of setting foot on Louisiana Tech University's campus in the near future and look forward to doing so. My only issue now is not graduating with a teacher licensure which may prove to be a challenge down the road for something I always wanted to do. I am going to make sure that Northern Illinois University is compliant with the law because if I don't, I know someone who will and who is going to use legal force to do it... more so than a title IX  complaint and the complaint to the Department of education. 

Sent from my iPhone 7 Using VoiceOver

> On Jan 21, 2017, at 16:30, Justin Salisbury via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> I am sorry to hear that yet another blind student wishing to become a blindness professional has been affected by the low expectations that seem to pervade NIU. I have a friend who recently left that university for similar reasons and headed off to the Colorado Center for the Blind to restore confidence and build better blindness skills. If you want to get in touch with that student, perhaps you might consider contacting the Colorado Center for the Blind. 
> 
> As much as I wanted to have a choice in where I went to graduate school for a master's in the blindness field (I studied O&M and Rehab Teaching), I didn't apply anywhere but the one university whose institute on blindness was set up specifically because blind students were not being given a fair opportunity anywhere else. That institute offers programs for the K-12 Teacher of Blind Students, as well as orientation and mobility and rehabilitation teaching. I think we should have a choice, but it's not much of a choice when only one orientation and mobility program believes that blind people can become orientation and mobility instructors. When graduates of well-known programs like those of Western Michigan or UMass Boston tell me that a blind person can't really be a mobility instructor, I am grateful that members of the National Federation of the Blind got involved many years ago and set up the program at Louisiana Tech. 
> 
> I hope that you will stay close to the National Federation of the Blind because you do belong in your program and you do deserve to be treated equally.
> 
> Stay strong!
> 
> Justin
> 
> Justin M. Salisbury, MA, NOMC, NCRTB, NCUEB
> Pre-Authorized Contribution Plan Coordinator
> National Federation of the Blind of Hawaii
> Email: President at Alumni.ECU.edu
> LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-salisbury  
>  
> "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." 
> 
> William Butler Yeats
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NABS-L [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of wmodnl wmodnl via NABS-L
> Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2017 3:46 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: wmodnl wmodnl <wmodnl at hotmail.com>; iabs-talk at nfbnet.org; il-talk at nfbnet.org
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Filing discrimination complaint re NIU TVI program with US Department of Education
> 
> You can also file with DOJ and Office of Civil Rights, OCR.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
>> On Jan 17, 2017, at 09:45, Cazares, Gabe via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Zach,
>> 
>> If you have already filed a grievance with your school and are not satisfied with the results of that process, filing a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education is certainly another option that is available to you. However, it is important to keep in mind that if the school has not completed its internal investigation as a result of your grievance, OCR will defer to them until that process has been fully completed.
>> 
>> I am happy to chat with you off-list about things you can do to move the process along.
>> 
>> ...Gabe
>> 
>> Gabe Cazares
>> (410) 659-9314 x 2206
>> National Federation of the Blind
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: NABS-L [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Carlos Montas via NABS-L
>> Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2017 5:44 AM
>> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>> Cc: Carlos Montas; iabs-talk at nfbnet.org; il-talk at nfbnet.org
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Filing discrimination complaint re NIU TVI program with US Department of Education
>> 
>> Good morning  my name is Carlos Montas.  I am a vocational rehabilitation Counselor.  Please feel free to contact me off list.  I have a contact that may be able to assist you as your formal complaint moves through at ocr.  you can email me at carlos.montas at att.net  Sincerely,  Carlos Montas  
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>>> On Jan 17, 2017, at 2:54 AM, wmodnl wmodnl via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> I would, you went to a TVI program, one that should accommodate this population better. To all:
>>> Umass Boston has the best program, I guarantee it. Umass Boston is inclusive all over, you'll love it, come for a visit, bigly it's great, it's great, you know whad I mean. Those others are a horrible disaster and failing miserably. File, file, and then seek out The University Of Massachusetts At Boston for a great inclusive education. 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Sent from my iPad
>>> 
>>>> On Jan 17, 2017, at 01:24, Zachary N. GriegoDreicer via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Hi all,
>>>> Happy new year. I flew all day to Chicago's O'Hare airport the other day from home and was starting to question why I was even coming back to Illinois for another semester after the appaling grade I got in classes I mentioned as being challenging and unpassable due to facing discrimination against all blind students last semester (fall 2016) to you in an earlier email. I had a good long time to think about this as I got further and further away from home, having the question of my voc rehab counsellor and many others of why I didn't transfer to somewhere back home if I'm not going to graduate with what I want to think about, and thought that my best course of action was to just complete the major I switched to after my email to you all last year was sent, especially considering that I can graduate with vocational rehab services undergrad major at the end of the 2017 fall semester. I'm frankly not satisfied with this, because this was planned for down the road, I could accomplish this major at a school much nearer home in an undergraduate path, and I came thousands miles to do the TVI program and am now at this point not even going to graduate with an education credencial. One of my friends suggested the other day that I am within my right to file a complaint to the department of education because a programa for TVIS teachers of visually impaired should most definitelya be accessible. I did file a complaint locally with the school as you guys suggested, but I am highly unsatisfied with how slowly it's progressing and am also highly disappointed in my current situation of being steered off a path that I really wanted to pursue. Nobody else around here has complained or is doing anything about it so I am going to and nobody can now disuade me. I'm not in Illinois just for any program and this is really upsetting that I'm having to do this and that other blind students attending the same program in hopes of the same degree just ran off into the distance and said nothing of it. I'd much rather this not b!
>>> ecome a legal issue so my friend said the department of ed route will do it and would be much less likely to result in lawyers getting involved. I'm also doing this to try and help, NOT to do a lawsuit. Once the complaint has been received by the department of ed will someone (or a group of people) in NFB be able to please provide representation to guide the school and/or department of ed to make the program accessible? I have hope of returning to this program is something is done about it before December which is my currently scheduled graduation date. Thanks.
>>>> 
>>>> Sent from my BrailleNote Touch
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