I recently heard from a few blind students about how hard it is going to university. Nothing seems to be sorted concerning access to course materials. It's difficult to get the support you need to get about the university and surrounding area. Etc etc. However, when you get talking, folks have people beavering away providing essential and non-essential texts, support getting about and so much more. Yes I'm sure so many aspects of going to university are very hard for blind people but so much has changed since I were a lad.
I first went to university in 1988, but let's go back a little further. I really had no idea what I wanted to do so kind of fell in to study, no change for so many people these days. I got relatively little guidance and ended up putting in applications to study English and phonetics - not that you would ever think that given the terrible structure of this blog! I fully expect to feel the full force of grammatical pedantry.
2 out of my 5 universities rejected me and, when pushed, explained that their courses would most likely cause problems for a blind person due to the lack of access to information and "manner of teaching". It was almost impossible to challenge this in 1988 and so out and out discrimination was alive and well. I wonder if greater awareness of the issues and ever strengthening regulation and legislation make such discrimination less likely or simply force it in to the dark recesses of what already seem to be murky processes associated with the acceptance or otherwise of university applications.
My secondary education was crafted to perfection in order to deliver the best possible outcome. In a so-called "special school" of not more than 120 "pupils" - isn't it interesting how the term "student" has developed a much wider application these days - I was carefully spoon-fed a diet of learning designed to deliver only exceptional grades. My diet had little spice of innovation or creativity of thought but focused on a mix of dictated notes and teacher-chosen experiences.
Is there anything wrong with this? I certainly gained great grades with minimal effort or risk but I also failed to develop the degree of independent learning and associated skills required at university.
I also had a utopian vision of life in which a microcosmic existence had little to challenge it by way of inaccessibility or the scale and scope of the big bad world where blindness was largely misunderstood.
I moved from a crafted world to one where I had to find my own way, often literally. I arrived at a university hall of residence larger than my school, joining a campus as big as a town and where more than 15000 students thrashed around through fresher's week and the year beyond. No immediate support with getting about. No access to information. No access to facilities to cook etc. with the prospect of consuming the wonderfully named "rat burger".
Most students will eventually admit to feelings of fear, anxiety and so much more, but the difference in worlds amplified these to stadium filling proportions for me.
I rapidly realised that I would be undertaking at least 2 degrees - one in my chosen subject, the other in administration. The internet was not much more than an academic curiosity. Hearing the pips and pushing a coin in the slot, to almost quote the lyrics of "Orchard Road", was as good as phoning anyone got, and the ubiquitous and inaccessible notice board was the bane of my life. Getting what I needed in terms of information worked out to be a mix of loaning material from various libraries throughout the world, battling departments to give me something I could read, recruiting an army of over 60 readers, jumping out of planes and other stupid things to purchase a £10,000 scanner (now costing less than £100) and so much more.
As I progressed through my course, Chaucer (endless braille volumes and hundreds of cassettes), gave way to Shakespeare, (the Arden edition being in 96 braille volumes requiring around 3 meters of robust shelving). Students realised I was organised - I had no choice - and I realised I could turn disadvantage to advantage by selling them my lecture notes which I took myself on a device that would occasionally spit out the cassette tape used for storage, losing everything you had typed in!
How wonderful it would have been to have someone taking notes for me so I could capture the detail of a text referred to by the sweep of a lecturer's hand, but how much better that the lecturer really thinks about his/her audience and delivers a person-centred learning experience. I know through conversations with students that we have still got some way to travel with this.
Let me tell you about Joe. Joe was also a student and I met him in my first year. He wasn't reading my subject but decided he could help me read. He turned up at least once a week, often many more times than that, helping me to get through piles of hand-outs and other reading. Joe also told many of his friends and helped me to build up a pool of over 60 readers who I could call on. I am sure I thanked Joe every time he read for me but I don't know if I REALLY thanked him. People like Joe make more than a difference, they change lives. Other such people are those who offer assistance without the expectation of any reward saving the knowledge that they have done something useful. Thank you Joe.
So yes it's very hard and still extremely difficult to get about, find the information you want and study/enjoy university in the same way as everyone else. However, so many things have changed, not least the terrible attitudes of those who felt it reasonable to refuse me a university place. Shame forever on you and my 3 degrees give me the last laugh I feel.
There are people to take notes for you, departments who will produce essential and even non-essential texts in a format you can read and even lecturers who might not wince at the prospect of person-centred teaching. The internet and advances in access technology pose their own challenges but also afford incredible opportunity associated with fully participative learning. No previous generation of blind people can claim to have experienced such access on every front.
I'm not saying "quit your moaning" but I am saying people might celebrate advances on so many levels, helping to roll that stone a little further..
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