[nabs] school is not accomodating

Sat Jan 21 00:35:00 EST 2012

Jordan,
Yes, they should know better; so should publishers; oh well.
Well,  I thought a drawback of a laptop was no numeric keypad; I like that to use the numbers and jaws.
You say yours has one? What type? I’ve not seen a notebook with a numeric keypad before!
I also might want a larger screen so I can see it better.

System access sounds like a solution. How do you get it and what are the reading commands? Is it like jaws where insert down arrow and up arrow read lines? Does it sound like jaws? I cannot understand dectalk.

What is the weight of the laptop? And how do you all carry these things? On your shoulder?

The school won’t provide anything but PDF files. I emailed the counselor today and complained. So guess I’ll live with that and probably get someone to read to me like a classmate or my dad. The words really sound broken such as 
these exerpts
“what I fi nd”
I hope to describe writing in this book as such an fl uid social activity”
“intellectual con—structs”
graphic 1
graphic 13.

Well, if you all get snow, stay safe in it. We are about to get more snow here

From: Jordan Gallacher 
Sent: Friday, January 20, 2012 9:48 PM
To: 'Discussion list for NABS,National Alliance of Blind Students.' 
Subject: Re: [nabs] school is not accomodating

The ODS should know better, and I have had trouble with them on more than one occasion.  You should have seen the e-mail I sent to them when they sent me a reply to my origional e-mail requesting a meeting to solve an issue.  Two quarters later, they tried it again, and well, this time I had enough and fought back.  I would suggest getting a laptop.  I use really powerful entertainment notebooks that are around 17 inches since I like having the full numeric keypad.  Another thing I did was I got System Access, which since I could get to it on any computer as long as I had an internet connection, it solved the problem of maybe not having a screen reader wherever I go.  I would recommend finding a program that will easily scan things in and let you save them in whatever format you want.  Doc U Scan Plus is what I use because it gives me almost every option I need , and I can get to it on every computer.

Jordan

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From: nabs-bounces at acb.org [mailto:nabs-bounces at acb.org] On Behalf Of Webmaster
Sent: Friday, January 20, 2012 5:57 PM
To: Discussion list for NABS,National Alliance of Blind Students.
Subject: Re: [nabs] school is not accomodating

First, I have to tell you unaccessibility is just how it goes. Yes it sucks, yes they could do more to be accessible, but they won't. Especially since most people aren't cool about it and instead throw a fit.

Second, your school needs to buy a business license. They probably have not. I recommend you start talking with Student Services, and if they can't do anything go higher.
Third, get a laptop. Your voc rehab should be able to help you out with that. Put it in a backpack, that works great. I have a really heavy 18" laptop I use which is built for gaming, but it has a lot of power. I carry that thing back and forth across campus. You may not want a laptop, but it will do you a lot of good.

Also, if you are waiting on a DS office to scan a textbook, why not get kurzweil and scan it? Voc rehab can buy you kurzweil too. It's not great, but until you get things moving it works.
On 1/20/2012 12:50 PM, Ashley Bramlett wrote: 

Hi all,

Just want to vent. My school doesn’t seem very accomodating and they’re the largest community college in the commonwealth. Yo They got over five campuses and you can read about at www.nvcc.edu.

I’m just taking further classes to get a writing certificate and figured extra knowledge will enhance my resume as I look for work. No one’s hiring so it will be a whwile; might as well learn more.

First, my disability service office, DSO, does not scan any texts. I am still waiting for electronic text; fortunately, a family member can read meanwhile til I find a reader at school. If the publisher won’t give us the e-book, they likely never will; I mean its been two weeks!

Second, I am taking that It class as I mentioned before. The instructor wanted jaws installed in her office because she needs to show me the steps. Hmm. Maybe I need a laptop. But I hate the idea of lugging the thing around!

They tell us they don’t have enough licenses; um how absurd. They need lots of them. what if another blind student needs jaws in a classroom lab?

Third, they cannot braille tests; at least they will outsource to get it brailled though; just seems like a large school would be able to braille tests!

Fourth, this new building which holds the student service stuff and counseling center is very open few halls, few landmarks. I bet its not ADA compliant. I don’t know though. Its certainly confusing for a blind traveler. Sighted people get lost until they’ve been there a lot since its not laid out well.

Not to mention the inaccessible website and CD for the IT class too. Publishers need to get with the program!

Ashley

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