[nabs] First time college student with a couple questions

[Miranda]

Hi Ashley,
Thanks for your email! I'll check out APH for their tactile graphics and science kits. I'll also check out NBP.
I am attending a local private college, and I'll be majoring in music with an emphasis in vocal performance. As far as getting accessible materials, I'll be advocating along with my vocational rehabilitation counselor. My college is small, and I'm the first totally Blind student to my knowledge. They are more than willing to work with me to meet my accomidation needs, so I'm not complaining. *Smile*
I'm a member of NLS, Bookshare and RFB&D. I have to take this pre-calc course. Sadly, I can't get around it unless I take a basic computer programming course. If all else fails, I'll do that! My husband does web design and computer programming, so I would be able to make it through the course with his help if need be. I can take a basic quantitative reasoning course for my QR requirement, but I'd eventually need to take either the pre-calc or computer programming to satisfy my math/computer science requirements. Both the pre-calc and computer programming course would also satisfy my QR credit, so I figure why take QR plus one of the other courses when I can skip the QR class altogether? *Smile* If only that darn QR class could satisfy my Math/computer science credit!
Thanks again for your message, and have a great day!

In Christ, Miranda

-----Original Message-----
From: Ashley  Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net>
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2010 12:24 AM
To: Discussion list for NABS,	National Alliance of Blind Students. <nabs at acb.org>
Subject: Re: [nabs] First time college student with a couple questions

Hi Miranda,
Which college are you attending and what aspect of music?  Performance? 
vocal?  Music therapy maybe?
I have a blind friend who is a music major as well; he is a freshman; I'll 
ask him if he used braille but I think he relied on audio from RFB so far.

So I can not answer your question about braille .brf files.  But you could 
check with National Braille Press and see what they have.  As others said 
bookshare has .brf files but I don't know if they have what you need or if 
you're a member.


As for the other classes, those are hard due to the visual aspect and well 
they're just abstract.
I stayed away from
pre-calculus and math; had one required math class about problem solving and 
had a tutor for that.
You might want to have some more specific questions for us.  But in general 
a good source of texts is Recording for the blind/dislexic, RFBD.
If books are not available there, your disability office will hopefully 
provide you alternative formats such as scanning the text for you or 
obtaining the electronic version from the publisher.

Generally here are some accomodations for math/biology.

1. Maintain a good relationship with the professor if possible; go to them 
with questions or concerns; use their office hours.  They can explain things 
in greater detail or show you concepts.  They can "draw" something for you 
or actually have makeshift or real models.  Some biology departments have 
models you can touch; George Mason university had some.  Otherwise you could 
make some up.  For instance demonstrating mitosis for cell reproduction you 
can use magnets to show how things split apart and go to opposite ends.

2. Ask your college to purchase some adaptive matterials; they'll likely say 
no but it can't hurt to ask; public schools may be more likely to say yes; 
its state money.
I'd recommend getting the tactile anatomy kit sold by APH.

3. Have multiple ways to represent diagrams/drawings.  Of course some things 
they draw you can just imagine and some problems rather than graphing you 
can solve numerically; but you need all options. Buy a raised line drawing 
kit and raised graph paper; I think APH sells them.
Things like wiki sticks or string can be used for diagrams too.

4. Obviously you need to be able to show work to a professor; they cannot 
read braille.  So doing homework on your computer or pac mate and printing 
may work.  You also may want to just work them out mannually and use a 
reader/scribe to transcribe work.

5. Biology has lotsof memorizing.  So as with all classes but particularly 
that one, take notes and study systematically.  Group concepts and study 
those together; helps with memory.

HTH,
Ashley
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Miranda" <knownoflove at gmail.com>
To: <nabs at acb.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2010 7:55 PM
Subject: [nabs] First time college student with a couple questions


> Hi,
> I will be attending college in 2012 for my BA with a major in music.
> Do any of you know of Braille transcribers who will provide textbooks in 
> BRF format to read with a Braille display? I have a Pac Mate, and want to 
> get books not containing graphics in BRF if  at all possible.
> Any ideas on how to make biology and a pre-calculus course (with algebra, 
> geometry and trig review) as accessible as possible?
> If anyone has any other advice pertaining to college I'd greatly 
> appreciate it.
> Thanks in advance for any help you can give, and have a great day!
>
> In Christ, Miranda
> _______________________________________________
> nabs mailing list
> nabs at acb.org
> http://www.acb.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs
> 

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