College Advice

Jiro said:
yep. 100% full tuition. I was amazed at Texas's generosity. There are a few Texan ADers in here. All you gotta do is get registered with Disability Department as a "Disabled" resident or whatever.... and boom you're good to go.

You have stated in other thread that you're interested in moving somewhere else... and now you want to go to law school. It's best if you finish your law in here since it's free and then go wherever you want.[/QUOTE]

IMO, I find that to be very very wise advice!
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woops - I forgot to add another one.

7. Sometimes you'll have a CART reporter that you don't like very much for some reason. Maybe because she keeps being late for class. Maybe her skill is badly inadequate for the job. Notify your disability office director immediately so they can take immediate action in replacing her with somebody else. The agency usually has several terps but sometimes that is not doable because that person may the only one available in your area for your schedule and other terp is already taken for other client.

so the best thing all of you can do is to resolve the situation diplomatically or.... couple of other options - either change the course to different schedule (assuming that there is available CART reporter for that time slot) or.... drop the course and take it in next semester.
 
Glenn said:
It's a state school. The DSS director wanted to cut costs so dramatically that he did not provide what I needed to succeed. He would say that it met the minimum standards, but that isn't really the point of a DSS office or a school. And the federal Office for Civil Rights did find problems. This quarter I do have good services. BUT it took the school's legal rep telling them what they needed to do because the administration was not seeing the necessity. That is a really abbreviated version, but that's the gist.
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ah.... yes that is thing about ADA law. it doesn't require the school to provide you the best accommodation on the table. but then.... you're very lucky to have somebody telling disability office to step up.

if you're having a good service for this quarter - why do you want to transfer out? it's a lot of hassle that way because you'll have to start over with some of the courses.
 
Jiro said:
woops - I forgot to add another one.

7. Sometimes you'll have a CART reporter that you don't like very much for some reason. Maybe because she keeps being late for class. Maybe her skill is badly inadequate for the job. Notify your disability office director immediately so they can take immediate action in replacing her with somebody else. The agency usually has several terps but sometimes that is not doable because that person may the only one available in your area for your schedule and other terp is already taken for other client.

so the best thing all of you can do is to resolve the situation diplomatically or.... couple of other options - either change the course to different schedule (assuming that there is available CART reporter for that time slot) or.... drop the course and take it in next semester.
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Funny you mention that because it is exactly what happened to me. They sent this HORRIBLE CART provider to one of my classes. Late, terrible skills, and etc. DSS office didn't take me seriously until I sent the teacher one of the transcripts. She thought it was terrible and that I would have a hella time passing the class. It didn't matter what I said...they just told me they would "work with her." What a fiasco that was.
 
Jiro said:
ah.... yes that is thing about ADA law. it doesn't require the school to provide you the best accommodation on the table. but then.... you're very lucky to have somebody telling disability office to step up.

if you're having a good service for this quarter - why do you want to transfer out? it's a lot of hassle that way because you'll have to start over with some of the courses.
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I didn't say I wanted to transfer out. I am very close to graduating. And there is no other school in this state that has the degree program I am pursuing.

I didn't ask for the "best" accommodations available, but what they were providing was grossly inadequate. One transcript had the word "indiscernible" appear 157 times and there was no way I could understand that. I wanted accommodations that were the same as what was available at other schools. I don't see why CWU should be any different than what other public state universities.
 
Be familiar with the Americans with Disabilities Act (especially Title II - State or Title III - Public, depending which college you go to) and Rehabilitation Act, Section 504 (usually applies to all higher education that receives federal funding - federally backed student loans are considered federal funding).

Like others said.....contact the disability support office of the college you attend for whatever accessibililty you need.

Good luck.....
 
Glenn said:
I didn't say I wanted to transfer out. I am very close to graduating. And there is no other school in this state that has the degree program I am pursuing.

I didn't ask for the "best" accommodations available, but what they were providing was grossly inadequate. One transcript had the word "indiscernible" appear 157 times and there was no way I could understand that. I wanted accommodations that were the same as what was available at other schools. I don't see why CWU should be any different than what other public state universities.
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I would have relocated, then sued.
 
Wow, sounds like I have a busy month ahead. I appreciate the advice. :ty:
 
Glenn said:
I didn't say I wanted to transfer out. I am very close to graduating. And there is no other school in this state that has the degree program I am pursuing.

I didn't ask for the "best" accommodations available, but what they were providing was grossly inadequate. One transcript had the word "indiscernible" appear 157 times and there was no way I could understand that. I wanted accommodations that were the same as what was available at other schools. I don't see why CWU should be any different than what other public state universities.
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ah-ha. ok thanks for clarification. did you notify the terp about the indiscernible word? When that happened to me, I wrote the word on note and gave it to my terp so that she can update it in her computer. no more INDISCERNIBLE!

but I understand your frustration that it may looks like we may have a lot better resource than what you have but don't see it that way. It's most likely a matter of availability of resource in a location.... as well as some budget issue. But the budget issue isn't really much of a case in here because they can get the additional funding from state and federal. At my high school which is very academic-oriented school. Note-taking wasn't just cutting out for me anymore. So my parents and I complained to my case manager about it. The best part is that she has deaf family member so she understood my situation sympathetically. She did a lot of work and found out about CART service. The school had absolutely no budget for it at all. That's why the NJ Department of Education director came down to personally interview me from Trenton! oh he's deaf :) 5 min talk and he had issued a special budget to my school for CART service. Hooray to them for making it possible!

I did a quick search on your location of your college and hmmm well - it's in a rather sleepy small city. I mean you know that it's logical that in a major city, you're likely to have a better availability of resource than small city, right? That might be a case...... but then... it could be that your disability office director is one lazy arse who didn't want to do all these paperwork and hassles :dunno:
 
I did some research on the TX plan. It's awesome but only covers public schools. I will have to chose between UT-Austin and Texas Tech........Not bad choices though. Texas Tech is where I started college a long long time ago.
 
TXgolfer said:
I did some research on the TX plan. It's awesome but only covers public schools. I will have to chose between UT-Austin and Texas Tech........Not bad choices though. Texas Tech is where I started college a long long time ago.
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a good informative site - College For All Texans: Blind/Deaf Student Exemption Program

nothing wrong with state school. I graduated from all public schools. lol I'm a FB member of "I Went To Public School, B***h!" :lol:
 
Jiro said:
...2. It is a good idea to extend some courtesy to notify your professors about the accommodation service so that he/she won't be surprised or apprehended by it. Some professors do not like being recorded because it may put a crimp on their teaching style and well.... quite frankly - too bad :) but they get used to it as few weeks go by. Some professor especially male may "tease" your CART reporter (most are women) and that can get pretty f'ing annoying especially when it's being done on regular basis. You must have a talk with professor (after class, his office hour, or email) that he must stop doing that and it's unprofessional... and very distracting to you...
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At the college for which I work, the disabilities service office notifies, by email/letter, each instructor of what the exact accommodations are for each student before school starts. The student can't request anything beyond what's included in the official notification, and the instructor can't provide anything less than what's included. If the student discovers that he/she needs more or different accommodations, then the student goes back to the disabilities office and they send a modification to the instructor.

As a terp, I try to confer with the instructor for a few minutes prior to the first class. I introduce myself, give the instructor one of my business cards, and ask if he has any prior experience with an interpreter. If the answer is no, then I give him a brief explanation of what each person's role is in the communication process.

I suppose the CART reporter does something similar.

On one point I disagree with you. It is not the student's responsibility to speak to the instructor about the instructor's behavior toward the reporter. If the reporter is not comfortable with the instructor's speech or behavior, then the reporter should speak to the instructor herself, or report the instructor to her chain of command (supervisor, department head, or however it's set up at that college).
 
Reba said:
At the college for which I work, the disabilities service office notifies, by email/letter, each instructor of what the exact accommodations are for each student before school starts. The student can't request anything beyond what's included in the official notification, and the instructor can't provide anything less than what's included. If the student discovers that he/she needs more or different accommodations, then the student goes back to the disabilities office and they send a modification to the instructor.

As a terp, I try to confer with the instructor for a few minutes prior to the first class. I introduce myself, give the instructor one of my business cards, and ask if he has any prior experience with an interpreter. If the answer is no, then I give him a brief explanation of what each person's role is in the communication process.

I suppose the CART reporter does something similar.

On one point I disagree with you. It is not the student's responsibility to speak to the instructor about the instructor's behavior toward the reporter. If the reporter is not comfortable with the instructor's speech or behavior, then the reporter should speak to the instructor herself, or report the instructor to her chain of command (supervisor, department head, or however it's set up at that college).
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if you want to go by the book - yes that is how it's done. but c'mon... it's just a matter of diplomacy. I deal with it myself. If the situation is unresolved, then I go thru proper channel... which is contacting the director.

Some students and terps may handle the situation differently. The terps may brush it off because perhaps she's got a thick skin but sometimes the student can get uncomfortable or distracted by professor's treatment on their terps so...... he/she can either address it to their professor or contact the director. up to him/her!

On some occasions, my terps have reminded my professors and classmates that when they are speaking to my terp, they are speaking to me so they should look at me and talk to ME, not at my terps. and also that my terps do not answer their questions for me.

When you're (not you Reba but generally) in college, you're a grown-up adult. You should be adult enough to deal with the situations yourself. I understand some students are either too shy or intimidated to address it to their professor. Just saying that you CAN deal with it yourself because once you're out of school and into real life.... nobody is going to hold your hand you or coddle you if the situation is not going your way. You've gotta deal with lot of situations by yourself. That's just the way I see it.

again - nothing wrong with doing it by the book as you said in your post. I simply prefer doing it mano-to-mano and we're good :cool2:
 
Jiro said:
ah-ha. ok thanks for clarification. did you notify the terp about the indiscernible word? When that happened to me, I wrote the word on note and gave it to my terp so that she can update it in her computer. no more INDISCERNIBLE!

but I understand your frustration that it may looks like we may have a lot better resource than what you have but don't see it that way. It's most likely a matter of availability of resource in a location.... as well as some budget issue. But the budget issue isn't really much of a case in here because they can get the additional funding from state and federal. At my high school which is very academic-oriented school. Note-taking wasn't just cutting out for me anymore. So my parents and I complained to my case manager about it. The best part is that she has deaf family member so she understood my situation sympathetically. She did a lot of work and found out about CART service. The school had absolutely no budget for it at all. That's why the NJ Department of Education director came down to personally interview me from Trenton! oh he's deaf :) 5 min talk and he had issued a special budget to my school for CART service. Hooray to them for making it possible!

I did a quick search on your location of your college and hmmm well - it's in a rather sleepy small city. I mean you know that it's logical that in a major city, you're likely to have a better availability of resource than small city, right? That might be a case...... but then... it could be that your disability office director is one lazy arse who didn't want to do all these paperwork and hassles :dunno:
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There was nobody to notify. It was a remote CART transcript. The next class meeting I didn't allow them to set up the equipment.

Those resources were and are available. We had experienced and appropriate accommodations providers. When the current director was hired, he instituted policies that were so backwards that they no longer wanted to work here. One thing happened was that they were overscheduled. Two of the accommodations providers suffered repetitive injuries. They had to go to a special clinic and wear wrist braces for several weeks.

We had an excellent program under the former director and when this new guy came in, he basically destroyed it. He is more interested in budget than meeting the minimum legal standards than providing quality services that allow students to succeed. My GPA has taken a nosedive since this guy came in.
 
Glenn said:
There was nobody to notify. It was a remote CART transcript. The next class meeting I didn't allow them to set up the equipment.

Those resources were and are available. We had experienced and appropriate accommodations providers. When the current director was hired, he instituted policies that were so backwards that they no longer wanted to work here. One thing happened was that they were overscheduled. Two of the accommodations providers suffered repetitive injuries. They had to go to a special clinic and wear wrist braces for several weeks.

We had an excellent program under the former director and when this new guy came in, he basically destroyed it. He is more interested in budget than meeting the minimum legal standards than providing quality services that allow students to succeed. My GPA has taken a nosedive since this guy came in.
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I've had remote CART service too. In my case - it's the same person on regular basis so we do exchange emails for corrections.

You do not have regular terp for your remote CART service?
 
Jiro said:
I've had remote CART service too. In my case - it's the same person on regular basis so we do exchange emails for corrections.

You do not have regular terp for your remote CART service?
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Remote CART, thankfully, was a temporary thing. Right now I am using TypeWell and I have a couple of very good transcribers.
 
Glenn said:
Remote CART, thankfully, was a temporary thing. Right now I am using TypeWell and I have a couple of very good transcribers.
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yea that's what I had in other schools. They called it C-PRINT. As long as you have good transcribers.... you're A-OK. Don't worry about GPA too much....

I forgot to ask - what are you majoring in?
 
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