[Jobs] computers and college

[Laura Eaves]

Hi Michel --
What college are you going to?  Actually the good news is that there are 
many blind persons -- including myself -- with degrees in computer science.
Also, more and more textbooks are available, and I believe the laws now 
state that accessible materials need to be supplied to blind students, but 
you do need to take the initiative and contact your professors and/or 
department in advance to find out what is already available, and if they use 
a text that is not currently accessible, contact RFBD to add it to their 
collection.
As for labs and dealing with hardware, I don't know what is currently needed 
(I graduated with my masters in the mid 80s), but when I was an undergrad, I 
had to take a digital logic class in which we had to build a little computer 
(actually a programmable calculator) on a breadboard.  I was worried that my 
vision would be a problem.  But actually in a weird way, it worked in my 
favor.  The reason is that I inserted the chips and wires with great care to 
get the prototype working the first try, and so I would finish my projects 
faster than a lot of sighted students who were throwing their projects 
together too quickly then ripping them apart and starting over, or worse, 
debugging the thing and poking through it wire by wire...
I had no problem with it -- but again, computer science has evolved since 
then and so the classes and labs may be quite different.

I would say, do your homework and contact your profs early and let the rest 
happen and you should have nothing to worry about.
Good luck!
--le
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michel" <michelbattles at comcast.net>
To: <jobs at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 12:14 AM
Subject: [Jobs] computers and college


Hello,
my name is Michel. I am about to go ahead and start college. I am afraid of 
so many things. My main fear is getting around campus. Another fear is not 
being able to keep up. My passion is computers. I am a computer genius to my 
family and a computer dummy when talking to computer experts. I want to get 
a bachelor's degree in computer engineering. I was told that this is one of 
the highest paying job in the computer field. I would really like to hear 
from anyone who has went to school for computers that is blind. I  would 
also like to hear from anyone that is totally blind like myself for advice 
and technology that is used to do their jobs. I really ` this web site and 
with everyone's help folks will be calling me Mr. Microsoft in no time! 
Thank you so so much for your time and support!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


_______________________________________________
Jobs mailing list
Jobs at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/jobs