[nabs] foreign professors

Sun Aug 21 16:05:50 EDT 2011

Alicia,
Good luck. Switching professors is not an option then.
Do talk to him and maybe he will work with you and slow down. If you try and stick in the class, remember the withdrawal date in case you change your mind.  You can sit up front as well as get his lecture notes, if he has any at the potium. My suggestion of studying the text will not work since you indicated  his information comes from the lecture, not the book mainly.
What a tough situation. Professors who don’t speak clearly do hinder your ability to learn. I’ve been in that situation, but their accent was not as bad as you described.  

Ashley

From: Starner, Alicia M. 
Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2011 7:41 AM
To: 'Discussion list for NABS,National Alliance of Blind Students.' 
Subject: Re: [nabs] foreign professors

Hello All,

This professor does not use power point. He lectures and writes notes on the white board behind him as he goes. I will talk to him about the language barrier and see if perhaps there are some notes that I can get from him. Perhaps his lecture notes are on a sheet of paper on the podium. That is a good possibility. The other thing I have thought about is dropping the course and seeing if it is available online, but I will lose a scholarship if I do that. I honestly think my next course of action is talking to the professor and letting him know that I don’t understand him and to see if he has lecture notes in another form I can get. He is a very nice person and has a good sense of humor, I just cannot understand him. I also believe that oral communication skills is very important for a university professor and shame on the university for hiring someone with such a steep accent. I believe that I am not the only student, matter of fact I know, I am not the only student struggling to understand this professor. He might have already encountered this problem in the past and has a solution for it. If he doesn’t provide me the results I want, the dean might be the next step. 

Alicia

From: nabs-bounces at acb.org [mailto:nabs-bounces at acb.org] On Behalf Of bookwormahb at earthlink.net
Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2011 11:01 PM
To: Discussion list for NABS, National Alliance of Blind Students.
Subject: Re: [nabs] foreign professors

Zack,

Because most of the notes students take are from lecture format where students listen to the lecture and take down concise notes from that information they heard, I disagree that a notetaker will solve the problem.

A notetaker will have to hear the lecture too and if the professor cannot be understood, then the notetaker will not know what notes to take!

Yes the professor ought to provide his notes in electronic format if that is Alicia’s accomodation.

However, some professors write on the fly on the white or blackboard.

They do not generate them in computer format prior to class. Therefore, 

the professor cannot send electronic notes if he has none to send!

Haven’t you had professors who stand at a potium and turn to the white board and start writing? I’ve had professors use powerpoint. I had professors who used the LCD  screen and projected notes they were writing on the computer or wrote ahead of time in Word format.

Oh and you get professors who use no notes and simply talk and use other teaching tools like group discussion and video. My adolescent psychology professor did that. She taught a lot via class discussion and small group discussions.

She would put us in groups of three or four and tell us to discuss a topic and a student from that group had to report to the class on our oral discussions/reflections. She also showed videos.

We know Alicia’s class has notes. But we do not know what they are or how dense they are. Some professors write so few notes that

if you had them in accessible format, they are useless.  I’ve run across that just last semester with a grammar professor.

The notes professors write on the board supplement a lecture. And its my experience that professors will verbalize what they write anyway. Students in the back cannot see the board as clearly and rely on hearing the professor.

Oh and if professors do not verbalize what they write, politely ask them to do so. If you do not know how to spell

words like proper names, ask a classmate to whisper to you the spelling or ask the professor to spell as he/she writes. Some will do that. And remember sighted students need to look at their paper to write; they do not look at the board and paper at the same time!

Sighted students will appreciate that the professor spelled Pericles, Aphrodite,

Zues, and Zenophon.  FYI, these are Greek names.

While the school may legally need to provide notetakers, I wouldn’t trust a notetaker the school hired. Try and get the professor to verbalize his/her writing and take your own notes.

Do you want your grade to lay in the hands of another student who may not care about the subject?

When I attended that community college Ann Pimly did, the notetakers/scribes

were of mixed quality. Some were good students and paid attention. Others were not articulate readers so when I had class handouts having a scribe read them proved fruitless. Also, some scribes spent half the class on their laptop on the internet or text messaged!

Good quality notetakers are good for some classes especially math and science. But overall, I think we can take our own notes provided that we can understand the professor.

I had a foreign biology professor with an accent. But I got used to her accent. And for the 5 to 10 percent I might have missed, I asked her to repeat it during office hours.

She was also one of the accomodating ones who actually sent her notes before class. How nice to have a professor who sent notes ahead of time!

Foreign professors are a huge challege since we have to hear most of the information to learn it. That is true whether you are sighted or blind.

Ashley

From: Zack Olson 

Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2011 11:00 PM

To: Discussion list for NABS,National Alliance of Blind Students. 

Subject: Re: [nabs] foreign professors

Hello,

yes, it is required under ADA/504 that either you get electronic notes from the professor or that your disability assistance office provides a scribe.  I’ve brushed up on my ADA a bit in the last year, as my university likes to provide pretty much the minimum as far as ADA regulations are concerned.  Now if only they’d brush up on the Chafy Amendment, things would be awesome.  

Anyway, definitely contact your disability support people and inquire about a note-taker.

Hope it works out for you. 

From: Ann Pimley 

Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2011 9:54 PM

To: 'Discussion list for NABS, National Alliance of Blind Students.' 

Subject: Re: [nabs] foreign professors

Alicia, 

Does the instructor write on the board, or show powerpoints in class? You said that “if I can’t see his notes,” so doesn’t he give you electronic copies of his notes or powerpoints? Does the college provide you with a reader/scribe? I believe that under the ADA and Section 504, either the instructor has to provide you with lecture notes that he writes on the board and powerpoints, or the college needs to provide you with a scribe that will copy all the written information down. I always insisted on having a reader/scribe when I was attending a community college, even if I got the powerpoints electronically. At one point when the Office for Students with Disabilities said they did not have any more scribes I contacted the college lawyer and insisted on getting someone. Your Access Office is probably responsible to make sure that you get class information in an accessible format, so I would think you should contact them. They should either ask the professor to send you lecture notes and powerpoints, or provide you with a reader/scribe. If he is so hard to understand then probably it would be better to get a copy of his lecture notes, because a reader/scribe might not be able to understand him either. 

I will start at a 4 year university next spring and I don’t know yet what their policy is. If I think it does not follow the law, I am willing to fight for my rights there also. 

I have heard of other students having the same problem with a language barrier, and they dropped the class and took it somewhere else. I am not sure what is the college’s responsibility to make sure that students can understand the professor. I had one instructor that was slightly hard to understand, but she always sent me her lecture notes or powerpoints before class so I could look them over. 

Please do let us know about what happens with your situation, and good luck to you. 

Ann 

From: nabs-bounces at acb.org [mailto:nabs-bounces at acb.org] On Behalf Of Starner, Alicia M.
Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2011 6:57 PM
To: 'Discussion list for NABS, National Alliance of Blind Students.'
Subject: [nabs] foreign professors

Hello All,

I kind of know what I am going to do, but thought I would get some input from all of you. This semester is the first time I have come across a foreign professor with such a strong accent. ON the first day of classes there was only room for me in the back of the classroom, so I went in and took a seat. I had a very difficult time understanding the professor. I left the classroom thinking that I will go back and sit up front. On Friday that is just what I did, but I still walked out of class not understanding him. I did understand the video he was playing, but couldn’t understand a word he was saying. My first thought was drop the course and see if there was another instructor that taught the course, but I learned that he is the only instructor that teaches the course. I feel I am at a double disadvantage if I can’t see his notes and I can’t understand a word he is saying. I started to send an email to the access office, but decided it probably isn’t an issue for her. It is not really her fault or the universities fault I don’t understand a word this man says. I even recorded the lecture to see if I could understand him better at home, but the recording was even worse. Does anyone have any suggestions? I thought about dropping the course and seeing if he teaches the course online, but don’t know what to do. What would you all do if in the same situation.

Thanks,

Alicia Starner

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