[NABS-L] Nonacademic support in college

Thu Nov 8 17:03:35 UTC 2018

Thank you, Kartik, Roger and Kassandra.

Roger, to your point first - while being from a developing country has certainly made things harder for me from the standpoint of addressing my nonacademic needs, I would respectfully argue that the notion that a disabled person must possess the wherewithal to do everything independently is one which I find not only unreasonable, but also deeply harmful when imposed on someone under the guise of making them more employable or some such. At any rate, that is your view and people can disagree about this and that's fine.

Kartik, while programmes do exist in the West for this kind of training, people have told me that they are often far too long  for themv to be viable for many.

Third, and more broadly, I have seen blind students, who because they have been taught to think that they must do everything independently and shouldn't need help, prefer not eating because they cannot cook; not going to places because they do not know how to; not eating food of a high quality because they don't want to ask for help in making it easier to eat and are unable to tap into so much of the potential that university life and the world offers. 

Fourth, given that how few of us there are in mainstream institutions, perhaps it's time we made getting our needs met, rather than making ourselves more palatable to others, the primordial consideration driving our actions. It is not like they find us very palatable in the present state of affairs anyway.

Rahul  

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 7, 2018, at 1:41 PM, Kassandra Cardenas via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I was just talking to my partner about your email, and he was telling me
> that they do things the same way that they are done here in the US; it is
> not the universities responsibility to provide students with the
> nonacademic tools that one might need for success. Here in the US, you
> would typically contact a vocational rehabilitative service, and they would
> direct you to the different programs available for working on these
> skills--whether that means going to a center for an extended period of time
> to work on core skills, or receiving quicker, more specified training for
> certain  areas.
> 
> Just in case you don't already know this (and my apologies if any of this
> is incorrect, as this is second-hand knowledge, though my partner is also
> blind so I can't imagine this being too inaccurate) :
> The same is essentially true for the UK. It sounds like each city has a
> different "society for the blind", each affiliated with the UK's blindness
> organization (the RNIB--royal national institute for the blind). If you
> wanted services related to orientation and mobility (so learning how to
> navigate to and through a grocery store, for example), my partner tells me
> that they do that, at the very least. If they do not offer services
> directly related to cooking, organization, and living on one's own, they
> should at least have phone numbers and other contact information to further
> direct your search.
> 
> The webpage for the oxford association for the blind is here:
> https://www.oxeyes.org.uk/website/
> 
> You can check out the 'helping you' link at the bottom of the page to see
> the resources they provide, and the 'contact us' link to find the
> information necessary to contact them to schedule an appointment to discuss
> your specific situation. The website also says that their office hours are
> changing to M-F, 10-3.
> 
> As I'm writing this, my partner also says that if you have a guidedog, you
> might want to contact the guidedog organization in the UK to help with
> mobility-related concerns, as they would be more specialized and able to
> deal with a guidedog situation.
> 
> I hope that this information has been helpful to you!
> 
> Warmest regards,
> 
> Kassandra "K" Cardenas
> Pronouns: she/they
> University of Texas at Austin | Women's and Gender Studies 2019
> (E): kassandrac at utexas.edu
> 
> "Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much."
> - Helen Keller
> 
> 
> On Wed, Nov 7, 2018 at 3:30 AM Roger Newell via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> wrote:
> 
>> As blindness does not impose limitations on learning to shop, cook and
>> stay organized, I cannot see any issues with this.
>> 
>> I understand you are from a developing country where blind people can
>> expect to receive support in these non-academic skills, but in
>> developed countries, blind people would be taught how these skills in
>> the course of their education through their teacher of the visually
>> impaired, and I would argue that blind people who have not learned
>> these skills should learn them before going to university as
>> non-academic skills are just as important as academic skills in
>> employment. You may have all the credentials in the world, but not
>> being able to care for yourself will limit you as employers may see
>> you as a liability.
>> 
>>> On 11/7/18, Rahul Bajaj via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>> Hi Everyone,
>>> 
>>> I recently started studying at the University of Oxford in the UK for
>>> my postgraduate education. One feature of the support provided to
>>> disabled students here has surprised me: while they are willing to
>>> provide any kind of academic support, they provide no nonacademic
>>> help, with things like going to the market for shopping, cooking and
>>> staying well-organized.
>>> 
>>> I am wondering, just out of academic interest, if this is how things
>>> are in the US. For those blind people who possess the wherewithal to
>>> do things completely independently, more power to them, but for those
>>> who can't I find it hard to fathom how this is not a problem. Surely
>>> ou cannot accept students, who may have lived with their parents until
>>> now, to become fully independent over night? Also, I'm wondering if
>>> the autonomy and freedom to choose of the disabled person, as opposed
>>> to a certain conception of independence, should be prioritized here.
>>> 
>>> This article beautifully describes some of these issues, in the words
>>> of a blind girl who went to Yale:
>>> https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2015/01/23/invisible-disability-at-yale/
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Best,
>>> Rahul
>>> 
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