[NABS-L] Reading out loud in class with a text book

Tue Feb 6 02:59:45 UTC 2024

Hi Asia. Like others have suggested I would definitely talk to the disability services at your school and see what they can do in order to make it more accessible for that matter.
Noemie O'Toole

> On Feb 5, 2024, at 9:30 PM, Asia Quinones-Evans via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> I appreciate all of this information. I keep in very close contact with my
> Accessibility department and my professor. The biggest issue I am coming
> across is that the pages in my BRF file from Book Share does not line up
> with the actual textbook pages. I do get a lot of my books off of Bookshare
> for my classes. If they do not have it I like to send in a book request and
> majority of the time they  get it. since this book is from American Council
> of exercise there are very few ways to get an electronic format of the
> book. The two devices that I mentioned in my earlier email I have
> downloaded the BRF of the textbook onto both of those devices. I have
> contacted Humanware about the strange issue with the Victor and I know my
> accessibility department cannot do anything about it.  I was just wondering
> if anyone has any advice on how to complete this kind of activity in class.
> When the professor request us to read a certain passage from the textbook
> it is literally on a specific page in the middle of the page. So of course
> a sided individual can find it very easily with scanning but it is a bit
> more difficult for a blind person to find it.  I thought I could
> participate with finding some of the words in the glossary but I'm having
> difficulty searching the word that I want just in the glossary not
> throughout the entire book.
> 
> Yours truely,
> 
> Asia Quinones-Evans
> 
> Phone: 440-670-6509
> Email: aevans.nfb at gmail.com
> 
> 
> Live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back
> 
> 
>> On Mon, Feb 5, 2024 at 1:43 PM Kendra via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi all!
>> I have experienced having to read text aloud in class before. Luckily in my
>> case, I already had my stuff in a format I could use with my braille
>> display
>> at the time. I was able to read that text in braille without accessibility
>> problems. The last teacher I had who required me to do this was a wealth of
>> resources and I'd work with her again if I could. I can't help you with the
>> technology itself because I don't have a Victor Reader Stream or the kind
>> of
>> braille display that you're using. I can give you work arounds regarding
>> your school's resources because often times, they can help with work
>> arounds
>> that no one else can assist you with. Ok, sure, community colleges are
>> better with resources than universities in general, but there are some
>> common resources that you might want to take advantage of if you haven't
>> done so yet.
>> 
>> Your school's disabilities department
>> If you haven't done so yet, go to whoever works your case at your school's
>> disabilities services, whatever they are called for you because their job
>> is
>> to help sort out issues like this one. I know that everyone has a different
>> viewpoint about accessible course paperwork, websites, ECT, but I believe
>> that to make something fully accessible, it also has to be functional to
>> the
>> user. Since you're running into bugs of this kind, let these people know
>> about your problems and what your teacher is also requiring you to do with
>> your textbook. Hopefully, they'll be able to help come up with a better
>> workaround for this particular book. OK, working with your school's
>> disabilities department has some drawbacks, but they're still worth giving
>> a
>> try. For one thing, The laws are in favor of making your school's
>> disabilities department do all of the work when it comes to education and
>> advocating, but there are still some drawbacks with these laws in place. I
>> think the laws are best for the trickiest cases, and sometimes, the law
>> will
>> totally come in handy, but the people at your school's disabilities
>> department are not experts in the field of things like braille and
>> blindness
>> tech. They specialize in making it accessible and to work out bugs that you
>> run into like this one. From my experience, your school's disabilities
>> department is also not a room or office that's full of a bunch of experts
>> in
>> what's actually accessible and what's claiming to be accessible and
>> actually
>> isn't accessible after all. Even so, they still might be able to have a
>> workaround that you don't have access to especially in working around the
>> bugs. Even if they don't, they can still help you if you have tried to
>> contact your professor and your professor either doesn't help you or that
>> he, she, or they ghosts you and doesn't contact you back. Keep in mind that
>> even they don't always or often know what works for you and what doesn't.
>> 
>> Your professor
>> If I were you, I'd contact your professor as well and let them know about
>> your problem because they might come up with an alternative workaround that
>> even your disabilities department might not come up with. I believe in
>> using
>> all or as many of my resources as I can including but not limited to the
>> professor when finding workarounds because your professor might have extra
>> resources, documents, or access to info that can really help you such as
>> someone in the library who can get you a good electronic copy for you to
>> borrow for term. Even if your professor doesn't have resources, someone
>> else
>> might have some good ones. I'm not saying this will happen to you, but it's
>> worth a shot.
>> 
>> Other book places
>> 
>> Sometimes, but not always, you can get your required book from other
>> places.
>> Have you tried looking for it on Bookshare, Audible.com, BARD, Learning
>> Alley, Kindle, ECT? It can't hurt because sometimes, you can find your book
>> on one of these other places. From my experience, I have only found my
>> books
>> on these other places a few times, but my school also had its own
>> publishing
>> house that's specific to my school. It even went so far as to offer most of
>> my school's textbooks to its student body instead of outsourcing in less it
>> wasn't possible for a particular book or resource. If your school doesn't
>> have such a publishing house, I think you'll have a better shot at finding
>> your textbook on one of these other resources. Ok, the risk for not finding
>> it is rather high, but because it does happen, it's still worth a shot
>> because you won't know without performing searches there. Unfortunently,
>> you
>> might be stuck with buying an electronic copy just to work around these
>> bugs. I'm giving you ideas that you can try first before having to buy that
>> copy because if you don't have to buy it and you manage to come up with a
>> good workaround, then awesome! I hope this will happen to you! I also hope
>> this helps!
>> 
>> Kendra
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: NABS-L <nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Asia Quinones-Evans
>> via NABS-L
>> Sent: Sunday, February 4, 2024 2:24 PM
>> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> Cc: Asia Quinones-Evans <aevans.nfb at gmail.com>
>> Subject: [NABS-L] Reading out loud in class with a text book
>> 
>> I was hoping anyone can tell me if you have had experiences in class where
>> you may have to read certain passages from your text book. I know this is
>> usually done in elementary school but my college professor is wanting us to
>> read definitions out of the Glossary and sections of the text book during
>> class. I have a copy of my text book on my Victor Reader 3 but for some
>> reason it will not let me skip back to the chapter after I go to the
>> Glossary . Or if it does I have to press rewind then skip back chapters. I
>> have called Humanware about this and they are working on it. I also have
>> the
>> braille copy of the book on my Mantis but again it is hard to search
>> sections when the BRF does not line up with the actual text book. I have
>> bookmarked the start of the Glossary but I do not know how to search for a
>> term just in the Glossary not the entire book. An example would be that the
>> professor tells us the page number the text is on that we will read out
>> loud
>> and review.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Is this something I just can not participate with or will I just have to
>> try
>> pushing through it to participate? This book is from American Counsel of
>> Exercise so they do not give out free copies of the publishers pdf to get
>> an
>> electronic copy for my computer. Has any other student delt with this
>> situation and how did you get through it?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Yours Truly,
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Asia Quinones-Evans
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Phone: (440) 670-6509
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Email: aevans.nfb at gmail.com <mailto:aevans.nfb at gmail.com>
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Live the life you want; Blindness is not what holds you back
>> 
>> 
>> 
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>> edu
>> 
>> 
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