[nfbcs] Computer science major college question

Wed Jul 6 20:51:25 UTC 2016

Speaking of foreign languages and people who have no idea what we
need, someone in the disabled office at my university told me that I
shouldn't take Spanish there. He said it was too fast paced for a
blind person, it was a GPA killer and that I should either take it at
the community college or get the requirement waived. I wonder if the
real reason was because they didn't want to have to make those
picture-filled textbooks and tests accessible. I ignored him and took
three semesters of Spanish (6 hours each) and made A's in all of them.
I might have taken even more, but the required exercises were full of
politics and propaganda - "let's talk about immigration and saving the
planet."

Amanda

On 7/6/16, Nicole Torcolini via nfbcs <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Well, per the German part, this actually is not surprising given that the
> sentence structure and vocabulary is very different; I took German in high
> school and college.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Deborah
> Armstrong
> via nfbcs
> Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2016 7:21 AM
> To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
> Cc: Deborah Armstrong
> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Computer science major college question
>
> I completely agree with the comment on developing solid communications
> skills. In most of my jobs, writing code, writing manuals and doing tech
> support, I was one of the few people whose first, native language was
> English. And because I obviously couldn't do graphical programming, or
> desktop publishing, I was often the main communicator for the department.
> For example, I was the one who coordinated beta testers, handled
> compilation
> of releases, saw to it that everyone knew what everyone else was working
> on.
> I wrote posts for the knowledge base and I communicated with people we
> outsourced to do various jobs. Also because my code was well-commented, I
> was often asked to code something that might need to be altered frequently.
> I was not a brilliant programmer,  but companies can't function with just
> geniuses doing the work.
>
> Be aware too that talents might lie in other areas in tech than just
> writing
> code. I wanted very much to be a foreign language simultaneous translator.
> I
> have a facility with foreign languages, and lived in Germany as an exchange
> student. Though I quickly picked up German, I discovered, when my family
> arrived for a vacation that I was a terrible translator. I could speak and
> understand both English and German but I couldn't effectively move between
> the two languages, nor could I translate ideas from one in to the other.
> Basically I was like the tone-deaf person who tries to join the choir but
> has no musical talent. I'm glad I discovered this early before I spent
> years
> seeking a goal for which I had no talent!
>
> So besides writing code, you might discover a talent for tech writing, as I
> did, or for creating test plans/scripts, or tracking release changes, or
> designing algorithms, or communicating with other developers, or teaching
> programming or even selling technical products such as firmware development
> toolkits. Studying computer science could mean all of those things in your
> future.
>
>>I sometimes wonder if that's why some blind people are unemployed--that
> it's such a huge hassle sometimes to figure out access problems.
> Boy do I agree there! It is a giant hassle and getting worse. It's one
> reason I'm working at a college instead of in the private sector these
> days.
> But when I thought I was going to loose my job a few years ago, I plunged
> right back in to it; researching the accessibility of everything from
> development integrated environments to remote-access tools and secretly
> wishing someone would just do it for me. I kept thinking about all the
> arranging I do for blind students at this college, making sure their
> materials are accessible and negotiating with professors who think the
> student can't cope in their classroom and realizing that  though I was
> legally obligated to level their playing field, my doing so was preventing
> them from growing their own independence.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tracy Carcione
> via nfbcs
> Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2016 5:14 AM
> To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List'
> Cc: Tracy Carcione
> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Computer science major college question
>
> I want to add 2 things to Nicole's well-thought-out post.
> In my office, communications skills are essential for everyone.  Even
> people
> who mostly write code still have to communicate clearly with the rest of
> the
> team, and often with their users.  Sometimes it's through email, and
> sometimes speaking with the other person.  Either way, it has to be
> effective.  So classes in communication skills, like writing or presenting,
> are useful.
>
> And to another of Nicole's points, not only do other people not know what
> blind people need, they often make assumptions about what we need which are
> completely wrong.
> Back when I went to college, my school had no disabled student services
> department at all.  I had to make all my own arrangements to get textbooks
> and take tests.  It was a pain, but I learned how to do it, and how to
> explain to authority figures like professors exactly what I needed.  I
> think
> the experience did a lot for me, once I graduated.  I'm sure it's very nice
> for someone else to make all those arrangements, but I am concerned that
> blind students get used to someone else handling all that stuff.  Maybe
> someone will be around to keep making arrangements, at least the first
> time,
> when the student graduates and gets a job, but mostly you're on your own,
> and you have to know how to manage your accessibility needs yourself. Like
> Nicole said, if you sit back and wait for someone else to figure it out, it
> may never happen, or you may not actually get what you need.  If you don't
> know what you need, you have to know what resources to tap to figure it
> out.
> I sometimes wonder if that's why some blind people are unemployed--that
> it's
> such a huge hassle sometimes to figure out access problems.  Jumping down
> from my soapbox.
> Tracy
>
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