[nabs-l] Seeking advocacy assistance for college accommodations

[Ashley Bramlett]

Hi Elizabeth,
I commend your efforts to pursue a college degree despite some obstacles 
facing you. We met briefly at the Virginia state convention years ago, but 
you may not remember me which is okay.

I'm glad you reached out to us. I assume the NFB leaders may not help you as 
they have a lot on their plates both with NFB, their own work, and any 
personal family stuff they do. I've been ignored by state leaders too or it 
may take a long time to receive responses.

I feel your pain about accomodations. While I do not have the exact issue, I 
was also denied accomodations in classes. Most of the time the accomodation 
sought was accessible copies of visuals such as powerpoint slides or charts. 
Usually, I eventually got them, but this was too late in the semester to be 
useful. I've also received accessible textbooks late through the disability 
office and this put me behind my reading for the class.

I used a combo of large print and a reader for math. I know you need a 
qualified reader.
Please contact me off list. I will be out of town  a week. However, when I 
return,
I am happy to be in touch. I would like to  speak to you about this. I can 
help you research places in your area which might be of help. One advocacy 
group comes to mind is the American Civil Liberties Union which has chapters 
in every state.
Also, I am happy to speak to college staff and officials for you as well 
once I have more details.

Sorry you are going through this. I don't know how to reach you off list. 
You can contact me at bookwormahb at earthlink.net.

Ashley


-----Original Message----- 
From: Elizabeth Mohnke via NABS-L
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2017 1:05 PM
To: NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List ; NationalAssociation of Blind 
Students mailing list ; Blind LawMailing List
Cc: Elizabeth Mohnke
Subject: [nabs-l] Seeking advocacy assistance for college accommodations

Hello all,

Last semester I was denied accommodations for a math class. When I contacted 
the national Center, I was advised to file an official complaint with my 
college. However, I found it rather difficult to complete the complaint form 
on my own, and the national office was not willing to provide any assistance 
in  helping me Phil out the complaint form. So I have not done anything to 
follow up with the lack of accommodations I received last semester as I had 
a difficult time keeping up with my classes when I got sick during the 
second half of the semester.


I would like to be able to continue taking classes so I can complete my 
degree even though I've been told that it will most likely not mean 
anything. However, I am not quite sure how to go about receiving the 
accommodations I need for my math classes. Since I do not know Braille very 
well, or how to make a computer read all of the math symbols, I have found 
that using a reader for my math classes works the best for me. However, last 
semester my disabilities office provided me with a reader Who was not 
qualified to read math, and would not allow me to use any other reader 
besides the one they had a sign to me including my own reader, so I was 
forced to drop my math class due to a lack of accommodations.


I am not completely sure where to go from here in terms of being able to 
receive the accommodations I need for my math classes. I have been told that 
the dean of students would like to talk to me. But I am not completely sure 
what to say to her, and I do not feel comfortable meeting with her on my 
own. The college has a past history of being rather hostile and aggressive 
towards me. So I do not feel comfortable meeting with people at my college 
on my own when I am not completely sure  what the purpose of the meeting is 
supposed to be.


Anyway, if there is anyone out there Who would be willing to help me receive 
the accommodations I need for my math classes, I would greatly appreciate 
hearing from you off list. I feel as though I have not had much success in 
contacting individual people, so I thought I would send out a mass email to 
see if this might help me find someone who is willing and able  to help 
provide me with some advocacy assistance and receiving the accommodations I 
need for my math classes.

Thanks,
Elizabeth

Sent from my iPhone
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