[Oabs] Fwd: Teach Act Story

[Kaiti Shelton]

Here is the teach act information, along with the stuff I sent to
Cindy myself so you all can have an example of a story which has been
submitted.  Please take the time to do this; it doesn't take that
long, and the impact is really important.  If you need Steve Chabot's
number (he's the congressional representative for district 1) let me
know because I can just send it to you.  Also, let me know if you're
in district 10 with Michael R. Turner because I have his number too.
If you study and live in two separate districts, make sure you call
both representatives some time this weekend or early this week.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Cindy Bennett <clb5590 at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 09:11:29 -0800
Subject: Re: Teach Act Story
To: Kaiti Shelton <kaiti.shelton at gmail.com>

Hi Kaiti, this is a wonderful story! Thank you so much! And thanks for
taking the initiative to contact your home representative. I
definitely resonate with Googld Docs. :(

In addition to this effort, the Legal Department at the NFB maintains
a Digital Technology and Accessibility in Schools Questionnaire at
https://nfb.org/digital-tech-access
with the goal of understanding current technology trends in education.
Cindy, it would be a huge help if you could fill this out as well to
help with our ongoing efforts.


Cindy

On 1/15/14, Kaiti Shelton <kaiti.shelton at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Cindy,
>
>
>
> Here is my story for the Teach Act.  I unfortunately am writing about my
> first experience with inaccessible technology in college which just started
> today, so I do not have much experience to speak of.  However, I hope that
> this will show that these types of problems are cropping up all the time.
>
>
>
> I am planning on giving Steve Chabot (Ohio first congressional district) a
> call sometime this weekend.  I just learned the name of the representative
> for the city in which I go to school, so I will do a bit more poking around
> before I talk to him next week.
>
>
>
>                 Hello.  My name is Kaiti Shelton and I am from Cincinnati
> Ohio, located in the first congressional district of Ohio.  I attend the
> University of Dayton in the tenth congressional district, and am pursuing a
> Bachelor of Music in Music Therapy as well as minors in Psychology and
> Philosophy.  Although I am only in my 4th semester of study at UD I am
> considered to be a junior.  I owe this in part to the overall accessibility
> of UD's online learning systems, and its commitment to providing equal
> access which allows students like me to succeed along with our typical
> classmates.
>
>                 I have very recently encountered my first snag in
> accessibility in the classroom.  I have currently enrolled in a
> communications module called Group Decision Making.  This is a five week
> course in which teams complete various projects for collective grades.
> Just
> today in class we met our teams for the course and began working together.
> We exchanged contact information and were encouraged to use Google Docs to
> keep all of our information organized and available for everyone.
> Unfortunately, as my screenreader will not work with Google Docs, this
> leaves me at a disadvantage.  I am afraid that very little can be done
> about
> it since this course is so short, other than asking my teammates to relay
> information to me from the Google Doc, and write what I come up with on the
> form so that everyone else can see it.  I feel that this is risky because I
> cannot count on my classmates remembering to make me aware of a change, and
> if something I send to a particular person does not make it onto the Google
> Doc then no one else will be able to see it.  I want to be able to
> contribute my full portion of the work, but feel like Google Docs are a
> barrier which may hinder me from doing so.
>
>                 Up until this point I have only encountered Google Docs in
> my student organizations; my fraternity uses them a lot, and I am
> constantly
> asking other sisters for information.  I do not want to be out of the loop
> or left behind due to the use of Google Docs in the classroom.  Especially
> since my grades and the grades of others in my group are on the line and
> dependent on having equal participation from all team members, I wish that
> Google Docs adhered to more stringent accessibility guidelines or there
> were
> some other way to accomplish the same tasks that is accessible to everyone.
> Accessibility for all in the classroom is exactly what the Teach act
> promotes, and I urge you to support this issue for students like myself.
> It
> is important that we are not hindered from full participation in our
> studies
> by the use of inaccessible technologies such as Google Docs.  Please
> support
> the Teach act.
>
>                 Thank you for your time and consideration.
>
>
>
>
>
> Kaiti Shelton
>
> University of Dayton---2016
>
> Music Therapy Major, Psychology Minor, Clarinet
>
> Ohio Association of Blind Students, President
>
> NFB Community Service Group, Service Project Committee Chair
>
> Sigma Alpha Iota-Delta Sigma
>
>
>
>


-- 
Cindy Bennett
Secretary: National Association of Blind Students

B.A. Psychology, UNC Wilmington
clb5590 at gmail.com