[Arizona-students] "You Don't Have To"

Sat Dec 29 21:43:58 CST 2007

Hello Arielle,

You're getting no argument at all here. I was just bringing up the 
accessibility in the context that, if we're not going to be expected to 
accomplish the same tasks as our sighted peers, then we also don't need 
accessibility.  Nobody, at least not me, was suggesting that the bar should 
be lower for us.

In high school physics, I was also required to complete a unit on optics. I 
was not exempted, and I'm glad of that. For one thing, the electromagnetic 
spectrum (radio waves and all that fun stuff) is very similar to light, and 
there's also fiberoptics (another interest of mine as a techie geek) so I 
wasn't about to skip that unit for anything!

Darrell Shandrow - Accessibility Evangelist
Michele Y. Sinnock (sister): 7/20/1957 - 11/29/2007
Please visit http://BlindWebAccess.com and sign the petition asking Yahoo! 
to make their CAPTCHA accessible!
Information should be accessible to us without need of translation by 
another person.
Blind Access Journal blog and podcast: http://www.blindaccessjournal.com
Check out high quality telecommunications services at http://ld.net/?nu7i
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Arielle Silverman" <arielle71 at gmail.com>
To: "Arizona Association of Blind Students List" 
<arizona-students at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2007 8:38 PM
Subject: Re: [Arizona-students] "You Don't Have To"

Hi all,

This reading reminds me of two experiences I had during school. In
bboth cases, I was offered an exemption or modification of an
assignment because it dealt with a highly visual topic. In the first
case I accepted the exemption; in the second case I didn't. As I
contrast these cases now in my mind, it shows how refusing these
exemptions can really enhance learning about topics that a blind
person has little access to, as well as affect other people's
attitudes about blindness.

In seventh grade, we had been studying art history and were given some
kind of assignment that I don't remember the details of, but I think
we were either supposed to create a drawing modeled after one of the
artists that we'd studied or analyze some art from our textbook. I
raised my hand to ask a question about the assignment and was told in
front of the class that I'd be exempt. At that point I was relieved
and never thought to question  what had happened. But right away this
boy in my class (who was generally a pest anyway) mumbled, "I wish I
was blind". The teacher admonished him never to say something like
that again, but it made me realize that he (and probably other kids in
the class) thought of me as different, in this case as privileged,
because I didn't have to do the challenging assignment at all. Now
granted, as a totally blind student I can't produce a detailed drawing
or analyze other people's artwork without some assistance. But the
teacher could have assigned me something slightly different that would
still enable me to learn and practice the concepts that the rest of
the class was studying. I could have written a research paper about a
certain artistic style, for example, or discussed the paintings in the
book with someone who was familiar with art history and then done a
written analysis. In either case my knowledge of the subject material
would have been reinforced, and the other students would have seen me
as an equal.

In twelfth grade I took physics. My teacher had had a blind student in
 her class a few years back, and she told me that when the rest of the
class did a monthlong unit about light physics, he skipped all the
work related to the unit and instead turned in a research paper about
acoustics. At first I worried that if he couldn't do the work I
couldn't either. But as the class progressed I realized that I really
liked physics and I was curious to learn as much as I possibly could.
I was also curious to learn about the physics of light and color
because I have never seen color before and have no other basis for
understanding it. So I asked my teacher if I could participate in  the
light unit (using the same accommodations as for the other units such
as Braille worksheets and someone to describe the labs) and she
agreed. I did the unit and I really didn't feel at all handicapped by
my blindness, so I'm not sure why the other student was offered an
exemption. I'm so glad I took advantage of the unit because I feel
like I now have a better understanding of visual concepts like light
and color and can better relate to sighted people for whom these are
part of everyday life. Furthermore, my classmates didn't have a reason
to judge me as less competent because I did all the same labs,
assignments, and tests as they.

The real problem with accepting waivers and exemptions is that we
don't always know what learning opportunities we're giving up by not
taking the challenge. Even if an assignment seems pointless or
unnecessary at the time, you'll never know if the experience will help
you a few years down the line, or what unexpected surprises you might
find as part of the experience. As people who can't get away with just
sitting around and watching others do things, our only means of
attaining skills, knowledge and character is by going out and doing
things. Usually the things that are the hardest (or that we hate doing
the most) are the very things that we need to practice in order to
grow.

There's also the issue, as Allison brought up, of being true to our
word and representing ourselves well with the sighted. If we expect
the same privileges as the sighted, we have to accept the same
responsibilities as they. Accessibility hurdles do sometimes prevent
us from performing the tasks expected of us, but then the goal should
be to lift these hurdles rather than to just lower the bar.

Cheers
Arielle

On 12/30/07, Darrell Shandrow <nu7i at speakeasy.net> wrote:
> Allison and all,
>
> Of course, I agree with the premise of this article and am glad to see 
> that
> ideas for ensuring the reasonable accessibility of such an assignment were
> also discussed. See, there's an accessibility perspective to this topic.
>
> If we were to go with the "you don't have to" approach, then there 
> wouldn't
> be a need for any accessibility. I'm sort of wondering if that was another
> reason for this teacher's exemption of Jordan from the assignment? If she
> wants him to do it, then some sort of reasonable accomodations are 
> obviously
> needed in order to complete it successfully. On the other hand, exemption 
> of
> the child from the assignment also exempts the teacher from possibly 
> having
> to do a small amount of extra work. Hmm.  That actually makes it doubly
> robbery IMHO...
> :(
>
>
> Darrell Shandrow - Accessibility Evangelist
> Michele Y. Sinnock (sister): 7/20/1957 - 11/29/2007
> Please visit http://BlindWebAccess.com and sign the petition asking Yahoo!
> to make their CAPTCHA accessible!
> Information should be accessible to us without need of translation by
> another person.
> Blind Access Journal blog and podcast: http://www.blindaccessjournal.com
> Check out high quality telecommunications services at http://ld.net/?nu7i
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Allison Hilliker" <hillikera at gmail.com>
> To: "Arizona Association of Blind Students List"
> <arizona-students at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2007 7:04 PM
> Subject: Re: [Arizona-students] "You Don't Have To"
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> Thanks for sharing this story, Arielle.  That was really interesting and
> really true.
> Unfortunately I think I have at some point, fallen into the trap of not
> doing something simply because I was told I didn't have to since I'm 
> blind.
> I can't think up specific situations, but I'm sure it has happened.  One
> reason I've really tried not to fall into that trap though is because of 
> how
> I think it may effect how sighted people view me.  After all, if I
> expect others to treat me equally, isn't it essential that I expect
> equality from myself?  I can't tell others to treat me equally one minute,
> and then except some sort of preferential treatment the next.  If I want 
> to
> be given a job, or a scholarship, or a passing grade, doesn't that also 
> mean
> that I should have to meet all the requirements associated with such
> privileges?  These are the thoughts I try to keep in mind as I am offered
> many of life's little blindness-related shortcuts.
>
> I'm interested to see what others think about this topic.
>
> Hope everyone had a nice holiday.  Happy new year all.
>
> Best,
>
> Allison
>
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