[NABS-L] Urgent - Studying College Level STEM Without Tactile Material

[Harry Staley]

Good evening;

Generally the first year or years of an undergraduate education are filled with general education and lower division requirements and not very heavy into your major course of study. What specific fields were you intending on studying at your chosen institution? Many STEM topics such as Calculus, Biology, etc. do require a great deal of understanding of visual or tactile content. That being said you very well could take subjects in the humanities such as language arts, psychology, or English that would fulfill many of your lower division general education requirements. That being said the best place to start would be for you to consult the individual degree requirements in your undergraduate academic catalog. For those STEM topics that you want to take you could plan on taking them in the spring semester which would give your disability support services office a chance to ensure that all materials would be accessible and delivered to you to your home. There may be other international students who have taken online courses from U.S. institutions on this list that might be able to shed some light on the topic. That being said you could retain the services of an assistant in your country to help with making tactile models with the assistance of the readers that the college will be providing you.
> On Aug 15, 2020, at 10:47 PM, Bhavya shah via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> As an international incoming freshman at a US university, I am now
> faced with the real possibility of studying for the entirety of my
> frosh year online. There are so many other factors to consider, but
> this mail is about one specific one.
> 
> I plan on studying subjects and taking classes that have visual
> content like graphs, diagrams and other figures, i.e. STEM and related
> areas. Since I will be enrolled remotely, my university's Office of
> Accessible Education has assured me (a) alt text for images in my
> study material, and (b) a visual descriptionist who will be a graduate
> student in the subject of the class. However, what is very uncertain
> right now is access to tactile graphics because of all the timelines
> and challenges of international shipping. We are still exploring this,
> but there is a good chance I won't be able to receive tactile graphics
> for the period in which I am enrolled remotely.
> 
> Which subjects do you think have a substantial visual component to it?
> I am not interested in physics or biology, but definitely want to take
> up Mathematics, try a Chemistry class or two, study new disciplines
> like Linguistics, and be able to have as many options open for
> coursework.
> For these fields, how important do you think is tactile material to
> properly understand and absorb the subject matter? Could I do without
> it and be successful while relying only on textual and verbal means
> instead?
> Do you think it is generally possible for me to design my first year
> course load a little differently so as to take only those classes
> which are less graphical in nature? I am thinking I could focus more
> on probability than conics in mathematics for instance. It is worth
> keeping in mind here that not all topics are are covered in frosh
> friendly courses so my ability to do this may be limited.
> 
> The reason why I indicate urgency in the subject line is because I
> need to take my call about going ahead with remote enrollment or
> considering a gap year very soon. Any inputs or perspectives are
> hugely appreciated.
> 
> Best Regards,
> Bhavya Shah
> Stanford University | Class of (hopefully) 2024
> ;
> 
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