[nabs-l] A Struggling Blind Student Looking for Some Advice

[Elif Emir Öksüz]

Hi Elizabeth,
I totally support you. It is possible for a blind person not to have a
laptop, and schools should not expect you to have one. They provide
computer labs for all other students, so you should be able to use
them as a student of that school. What I am trying to say is those
computers should be accessible to you, because this is your right as a
student.
I understand how frustrating it is for you to be in this situation.
I have some suggestion’s
NVDA have a very nice portable version and it is free. You just put it
in a flash drive and it works on every windows computer. You just need
to plug in your drive to a regular computer and then start NVDA. Then
it turns into a talking computer. The keyboard commends are very
similar to jaws, so you can use this for your exams.
Let me know if you want to try this option and need any help.
I am ready to do whatever I can, because our education journeys are
hard enough and I don’t want to see any blind students suffers from
this anymore.
This can be your first step solution. Then you can contact your state
NFB people and ask them specifically contact to your school on behalf
of you. They may talk to disability office and explain the legal
requirements.
You can contact me from my personal e-mail.
filerime at gmail.com



2016-01-29 10:56 GMT-05:00, Aleeha Dudley via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>:
> One of the big things that I want to say to you is this: do not give up. One
> of the things that would really help you is to get the Braille skills and
> problem solving skills from an NFB training center. You will gain confidence
> in yourself and be able to do whatever you want to do. I think that would
> really help you when it comes to getting accommodations for yourself and
> truly succeeding in your college life.
>> On Jan 29, 2016, at 10:50 AM, Elizabeth Mohnke via nabs-l
>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hello All,
>>
>> There was a message thread on here not too long ago about someone being
>> upset about not being able to use a computer in the classroom. It seems
>> as
>> though people on here were offended by my response to this message.
>> However,
>> from my point of view, being able to use a computer in the classroom
>> seems
>> to be more of a privilege rather than a right because not everyone can
>> afford a computer that they can take to class.
>>
>> I really wish I had the money to buy a new computer that I could take
>> with
>> me to class because then maybe I would not be so worried about failing my
>> exams due to a lack of accommodations by my college. When I took classes
>> before, I was able to use a computer in the testing center for answering
>> short answer and essay questions that were on my exams. However, it
>> appears
>> as though the college no longer offers this as an accommodation. The
>> college
>> is supposed to have computers on campus with JAWS on them, but most of
>> the
>> time, these computers do not work correctly, and every time I ask about
>> the
>> status of the computer with JAWS on it in their new testing room, there
>> always seems to be something wrong with it. So I am really at a loss as
>> to
>> what to do for my exams, and I am really scared that I am going to fail
>> my
>> class because of a lack of accommodations.
>>
>> So what exactly am I supposed to do if I do not have a way to write out
>> my
>> answers for the short answer questions that are going to be on my exam?
>> My
>> college seems to rely heavily on the disabilities office to provide and
>> approve accommodations on campus. Therefore, if I talk to my professor,
>> she
>> will most likely tell me that I would need to talk to the disabilities
>> office in order to get any accommodations for my exam. But the
>> disabilities
>> office does not appear to provide the accommodations I need, so I feel
>> like
>> I am just caught up in some bureaucratic mess.
>>
>> It seems to me the only reliable accommodations the disabilities office
>> provides for exams are readers. However, this does not work for me when
>> answering short answer questions on exams because I find it rather
>> difficult
>> to write anything longer than a couple of words by dictating it to
>> someone
>> else to write down for me. So the best accommodation for me in this
>> situation is to use a computer since I do not know Braille very well. But
>> since I do not have my own computer that I can take to class, and the
>> college does not appear to know how to properly maintain the computers on
>> campus that have JAWS on them, I feel as though I am at a loss as to what
>> to
>> do for my exams. If I had known this was the situation I was going to be
>> facing, I probably would not have signed up to take this class.
>>
>> I guess some days I just really hate being blind. And I get frustrated
>> when
>> I see other blind students get pretty much everything handed to them from
>> their vocational rehabilitation agency. Not everyone gets privilege of
>> receiving services from a vocational rehabilitation agency, and not
>> everyone
>> has the privilege of having others help them advocate to receive services
>> from the vocational rehabilitation agency either. And I guess I just find
>> it
>> rather difficult to make anything out of my life given my limited amount
>> of
>> resources and a lack of support from other people.
>>
>> Anyway, I am sorry if I have offended anyone with any of my messages to
>> the
>> email list. This is not what I mean to do. I am just really frustrated by
>> life right now, and I am really struggling in trying to figure out what
>> to
>> do. It seems to me like nothing in my life ever works out, and that I can
>> never really get the support I need from others when I need it. The NFB
>> has
>> never really been there for me before, so I am rather skeptical that I
>> will
>> be able to receive any help or support from the NFB, but I thought I
>> would
>> at least give it a try.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Elizabeth
>>
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