[stylist] Blindness, college and life

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Lynda,

I'm finding that it tends to be a regional thing when it comes on how
blindness is approached. You hear horror stories about blind parents
having their children removed by CPS just because they are blind. Then
in other areas of the world, parents don't seem to have this problem. 

my friend had her son six years ago. Both her and her husband are
competent blind people yet a CPS case worker showed up at their door a
few days after bringing their son home. She very quickly realized
nothing was amiss, but the fact that someone reported a concern was just
ridiculous and shouldn't happen.

Then Ross and I had such a different experience. People certainly have
questions, but our doctors, family and friends have, for the most part,
been supportive and let us lead the way when it comes to blindness. When
Declan was in the NICU for six weeks, the nurses had questions, but no
one was overly concerned with us being parents. They let us do things
the way we needed too, and they all let us be in terms of the blindness.
When it was decided Declan needed a G-button feeding tube, no one was
overly concerned that we could handle it. Thank God he doesn't need it
anymore, but it wasn't difficult to deal with.

We do have a nosey neighbor I call Gladys Kravitz, grin. We had lived in
our house for a few months, and family and friends always pointed out
that our neighbor lady would either sit in her window or stand outside
and just watch us. This is a little unnerving. She never introduced
herself until one day my grandparents took Ross and I up to the NICU. I
went outside to find them conversing. My grandparents, of course, were
bragging talking about how Ross and I are college graduates, work and
have a family. The lady said, right in front of me, that she had been so
worried about blind people having a baby. She didn't know if she should
call someone. She then said she didn't think we were intelligent enough
to go to school and work. That's a quote. Then she told my grandparents
that she would keep an eye on us and let them know if anything was
wrong. We haven't seen her since. Oh, she's still watching us like a
hawk, but she never actually speaks to us. This past weekend, the
weather was so nice, we took Declan out for his first stroll around the
neighborhood. I'm sure she was super nervous watching us walk around the
block with a baby in a stroller. Hopefully she's never stupid enough to
actually call CPS or the like.

My college experience was actually very positive. I initially started
sighted in 2000 then lost my vision and had to go back as a blind
student. The most difficult transition for me was reading material
predominantly in audio. Whether JAWS or live narrator, I had to adjust
to this, though I eventually did. I graduated with honors and on the
Dean's List every semester. My profs were great and let me lead the way
when it came to blindness. Very little accommodations were ever
required. I would always tell profs to just teach the way they always
do, and if something wasn't working for me, I would speak up. The two
exceptions: The theatre teacher and one of my writing profs. He wasn't
as bad, but he was grading me on a curve when he wasn't doing this with
other students. I felt he was being easy because he thought my blindness
was a huge obstacle. He always complicated things way too much. He was
creating different quizzes and exams and assignments for me when it
wasn't necessary at all. I finally spoke with him and explained that
regardless of what he thought, just let me handle things, and if I feel
we need to approach things differently, I would let him know. He still
never fully got over it, but he lightened up and just let me do the work
in the way I saw best.

Otherwise, my college experience was very positive, and UNO has a
fantastic student disabilities services office. My material was sent to
me in adequate time in a decent format, and they really worked with me.
It also helped that I contacted profs ASAP and turned textbook info over
to the DSO in enough time to give them the 6 to 8 weeks they request. I
also did a lot of my own scanning and other accommodations to take the
load off the DSO.

I have heard of the complete opposite though when  it comes to college
experiences. It really depends on the situation and how you handle it.

Bridgit


Message: 1
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:44:49 -0500
From: "Lynda Lambert" <llambert at zoominternet.net>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] More on this subject of working in blindness
	field
Message-ID: <55A91364EDAD4D969C472EE77866A8F6 at Lambert>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
	reply-type=response

My gosh, the horror stories here when it comes to being allowed into
college 
classes! Where I taught, our philosophy was that we were there to
"serve" 
our students - and that meant figuring out what they need and getting
them 
where they wanted to go with their academics and even outside of
classes. It 
was no unusual for me to be speaking with troubled students at 3 am 
sometimes.

I never checked on any student's physical abilities when they signed up
for 
my classes. I took them all over Europe, Puerto Rico, Arizona, and on
the 
campus in my courses - yes, there were problems and sometimes big ones.
But, 
we always worked through them and things turned out very good.

I had many handicapped students over the years, and it is the profesors
J O 
B to work with the student to find out how to best serve them. Most all
of 
them graduated and many went on to higher education after their
undergrad. 
work was completed. At our college, the student was our highest
priority. We 
were educating them to be "servant leaders" themselves.


Lynda