[nfbcs] Help for older students

Wed Jul 20 21:26:42 UTC 2016

I was an older student I just graduated Dec 2015 at the age of 51 with my
degree in Computer Science. Summer of 2015 I did an internship at USAA and
was offered a full-time position for the Jan after my graduation.

I think the key to being an older student is to make sure you still take
advantage of internships. They are the key to employment upon graduation.

I was very worried about getting a job being not only legally blind but
over 50. I made sure my resume spoke to my accomplishments. I knew I had to
be better than the other applicants so I made sure I had a 4.0 and did
internships.

I have to say school is much harder at 50 than at 20. Takes a lot longer to
memorize facts and formulas.

Suzanne

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 1:20 PM, Tracy Carcione via nfbcs <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
wrote:

> Hi Brian S.
> I understand your frustration.  I think it's very difficult for an older
> person to find any kind of tech job.  Companies figure an older person
> won't
> be up on the latest whatever, and they'd rather pay some young person
> peanuts and work them 20-hour days.  Me, I have other things to do than
> work, and I have expenses, and need health insurance.
> I think what people are discussing would help anyone trying to learn a new
> language, or make a career change, but I think there are other systemic
> social problems hitting older people looking for something better than
> unskilled work.
> Tracy
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Bryan Schulz
> via
> nfbcs
> Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2016 1:55 PM
> To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List'
> Cc: Bryan Schulz
> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Future goals for the division
>
> Hi,
>
> I would like info and thoughts of how older people can get into cs/help
> desk
> jobs and am so sick of the nfb only being interested in young students.
> The situation of someone going down the technical college road and only
> ending up with an associates degree isn't fun and gaining certs hasn't
> helped at all.
> Bryan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kathryn Webster
> via nfbcs
> Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2016 12:20 PM
> To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List'
> Cc: Kathryn Webster; 'Jim Barbour'
> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Future goals for the division
>
> Debee and all,
>
>         I would be exceedingly interested in contributing to this. I'd like
> to echo Jim's suggestion of a wiki as that would be easy to maintain, edit,
> and expand.
> In terms of publicity, I'm eager to take the lead on marketing any new
> intiatives to help blind students through our master database and website.
> Collaboration amongst divisions is a significant goal of mine, and I see
> the
> CS Division as an ideal place to continue that effort. Our student division
> leaders, particularly Bryan Duarte and myself, are both very in touch with
> CS and student issues, so there is some place for us to start.
> If our CS Division leadership chooses to move forward with this idea, count
> me in on all accounts. I am more than happy to help with whatever is
> necessary in kickstarting this effort.
>
> What a fabulous idea!
>
> Best,
> Kathryn
>
> Kathryn Webster
> President | National Association of Blind Students
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jim Barbour via
> nfbcs
> Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2016 1:07 PM
> To: Deborah Armstrong via nfbcs
> Cc: Jim Barbour
> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Future goals for the division
>
> I think Debee has a great idea.  I actually think it's a very good
> application for a wiki.
>
> One person won't know everything about what is accessible and what isn't,
> even in the developer and IT focused worlds.
>
> If we agree, I'd be happy to work with Curtis W on setting up a wiki and
> start populating it.  I'd like to hear from folks that we think this is
> worth collaborating on.
>
> Jim
>
> On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 04:54:45PM +0000, Deborah Armstrong via nfbcs
> wrote:
> > >I'm interested in hearing from folks on this list about things they'd
> like to see the NFB in Computer Science do in the future
> > I'm changing the subject line so people won't skip over it.
> >
> > I think one of the most crucial things is to put together an online
> > paper,
> that is updated regularly, that spells out what one needs to know to get
> started in any computer science related field. This would be different from
> what sighted people need to know; it would focus on which current tools are
> accessible, which aren't, and include the resources such as books or online
> training that were discussed over in the other thread.
> >
> > I work at a college, and I know new blind students get stymied by the
> simplest things because they lack experience and so do their sighted
> helpers. For example, I heard of a student who dropped a Linux class which
> was all command-line based, because the rest of the class was using telnet
> built in to Windows to log in to the class server. Not sure why they used
> anything this insecure, but I wasn't administering that system and heard
> about it third-hand. And JAWS was not accurately reading what appeared
> onscreen, nor was it tracking the cursor when the student tried to use
> Emacs. As a Linux-head I had to laugh a bit about the ignorance that lead
> the student and his professor to conclude the coursework was inaccessible,
> but it's not a laughing matter, when a beginner doesn't know where to turn.
> >
> > The document could have sections: What you need to know to Learn C++"
> > or
> "What you need to know in your first Visual Basic Class" etc.
> >
> > I also think we need to nail down and possibly explain the reasons
> > behind
> the inaccessibility of many current tools. For example, if the QT4 library
> is used in creating interfaces, screen readers only partially identify or
> even recognize the existence of controls. If in learning SQL the difference
> between inner joins and outer joins is explained through the use of
> diagrams
> only, then it's not going to make sense to any blind student. That caused
> me, an experience programmer to drop a course just last year. I would have
> loved to be able to find a paper that outlined where I could go to locate a
> book that explained these concepts in plain English.
> >
> > Another thought about UML: wild idea here, but how about digital
> > tactile
> diagrams of the symbols that could be embossed? I know different embossers
> have different codes for doing graphics, but someone who knows more about
> this than I could perhaps take the lead here. A student could simply emboss
> the shapes, or get their school to do it, and then using post-it note glue
> which comes in sticks, post their charts on a classroom wall, doing
> homework
> along with a sighted class.
> >
> > One way in which I can contribute is writing, and I'd be happy to take
> > the
> lead on that part.
> >
> > --Debee
> >
> >
> >
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