[stylist] Blindness, college and life

Tue Feb 19 19:51:51 UTC 2013

Bridgit,
There's always someone like your Gladys behind a bush, it seems. What did
your grandparents tell her? I hope they said it wouldn't be necessary.

There seem to be regional differences and class differences, but negativity
can rear its ugly head anywhere. Declan is fortunate that his parents are
gifted at dealing with it when it does.
Donna 

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Bridgit
Pollpeter
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 2:04 PM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] Blindness, college and life

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

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