[blindkid] blindness & University

[Jan Wright]

Mike wrote:
Actually, I think you had the better deal arranging your own accmmodations. I did also as when I went to college forty years ago, no had even thought about
DSS offices and people assumed (rightly, in my view) that it was up to me to arrange for the help I needed. That's the way things still should be in my
view sinc" all the accommodations blind students routinely receive these days are virtually nonexistent in the world outside of academia.

Mike, in some instances, I did.
I knew what worked and what did not.
I had to assess my own needs and tell the  professor  what I needed.
I had to speak up in class when I did not understand something.
At first, it made me quite uncomfortable.
But, speaking up or not, I was always the "blind student."
And, after I spoke up a bit, some knew that I was intelligent and they might ask such things as:
"Jan, how should we word this?"
or:
"Is there something that we are missing, you think of all of the angles."
The problem came when some professors found it a chore to comply with the accommodations.
Before my Junior year, I was convinced/persuaded to go to Indianapolis to finish my degree.
(larger city/more blind people).
 Granted, professors were not so "shell shocked" but yes, you are right, there were other bureaucratic  issues to deal with.




"Bonds of the Heart should never be broken!"
"Dil kay rishton kay bandhan kabhi naheen tootnay chahiay hain!" -- Urdu translation