Full Transcript
Becca:
You definitely have to do some self-advocating.
Gabby:
Self-advocacy is like a really big thing to start working on, communicating with your professors.
Jeff:
Transitioning from high school to college.
Alyssa:
Yeah, time managing skills are really important in college.
Becca:
That’s another thing to consider too, when transitioning after you meet the requirements, depending on your school, if you want to live on-campus or off-campus.
Ben:
How do you find your classes, and like, get there on time?
John:
How is it, navigating through, like, big open spaces like diners and other, like, you know, crowded venues in college, what is that like?
Sheila:
For you high school students, if you’re feeling like I really could use some O&M in the dining halls and the open spaces and the hallways, if you have a counselor through your VR agency, ask them about it, because it is a service that they can provide to help you.
Yael:
What has been the most challenging thing about going or being in college as a blind or visually impaired person?
Alyssa:
The hardest thing that I’ve probably had to go through was finding friends who accepted my, like, visual impairment.
Jeff:
High school students asking college students what it’s like.
Becca:
And it definitely is, like, uncomfortable to put yourself out there, but I would encourage it, to make friends and things, and I know, like, it definitely can be scary at first.
Jeff:
A big thank you to all those involved, teachers of the visually impaired, transition coordinators, and especially the students themselves.
Gabby:
Make sure that you also have fun, just, you know, it’s not always about academics and you do those things, but college is also a way for you to meet new people, to do some self-reflection on the things that you want and need, just make it a good experience for yourself.
Jeff:
Welcome to Blind Abilities, I’m Jeff Thompson. Today, we’ll be talking about transitioning from high school to college. We have high school students asking questions to a panel of college students who have experience transitioning from high school to college and they’re gonna share what they’ve learned, their experiences, and some tips and tricks to the high school students. We also have, along with us, teachers of the visually impaired who have selected these students to participate in this discussion. And now I would like to introduce to you the organizers of this college panel discussion on transitioning from high school to college. Take it away, Steve!
Steve:
Alright, well, I’m Steve Kersher, I’m a teacher of the visually impaired at the Delaware County Intermediate Unit. I’ve been teaching here for- this is my 33rd year, I’m an itinerant, so I travel from school to school, grades K-12. I love my work and I’m really excited to be here and be a part of this panel. Pam?
Pam:
Hi, my name’s Pam Kuzmicki, I’m also a teacher of the blind and visually impaired at Delaware County Intermediate Unit. Prior to that I was working as a classroom teacher at Overbrook School for the Blind. I’m really looking forward to hearing all the questions from high school students, and listening to the college students share their experiences. I think it’s gonna be a really valuable day. Thank you.
Mary-Beth:
Hi everybody, Mary-Beth Waldron, I’m a teacher of the visually impaired and orientation and mobility specialist at DCIU. I’m also really excited about this, this is such a fabulous idea, and I’m glad you guys are participating and put this together. Happy Friday!
Holly:
Hello everyone, my name is Holly Short, and I am an orientation and mobility specialist with the DCIU. I am really excited for this because I have done a lot of work on orienting students to campuses, so I’m interested to hear about all the other workings of the transition from high school to college.
Sonya:
My name is Sonya Korinth, I am currently the supervisor of the vision support program at DCIU. I am just pleasantly surprised that you guys are all doing this on a Friday afternoon, and I appreciate it, greatly appreciate students and young adults sharing their wisdom. Thank you for setting this up!
Jeff:
I want to thank you all for what you do for the transition-age students, and thank you for your participation in helping make this transition from high school to college panel possible. So thank you, we will also be joined by Sheila Koenig, Transition Coordinator for State Services for the Blind. So without further ado, let’s hand it over to high school student and Blind Abilities correspondent, Simon Bonenfant. Simon?
Simon:
Hello everyone, and Blind Abilities, this is Simon Bonenfant here, and today we are doing a panel discussion between high school students and college students talking about the successes, failures, triumphs, and tribulations and anything in between, talking about the transition from high school to college life and to the workplace. We have a lot of people here today, some of them you may be familiar with from past podcasts and some of them you may not, so you’re gonna get to meet some new people. Why don’t we start with the high school students, can go around and introduce themselves, and then we can take it over to the college. Ben, can you introduce yourself?
Ben:
Hello, my name is Benjamin Wallace, I’m 15 years old, I’m from Pennsylvania and I currently am in 10th grade at Norristown Area High School.
John:
Hey everybody, my name is John, I am 20 years old, I’m from [unintelligible] New Jersey, and I currently attend [unintelligible] High School. I am a senior and after high school, I’m gonna pursue my career as a country musician, so that should be fun.
JT:
My name is JT, I am from Ardmore, Pennsylvania, and I will be attending Eastern University in the fall to study computer science. Some hobbies I like to do include running, climbing, tinkering around computers and programming.
Yael:
Hi, I’m Yael Cork, I’m 18 and I currently attend Robinson secondary school in Virginia as a senior.
Simon:
Good. Now let’s bring it over to the college students, now we have a lot of college students that are going to share their wisdom with you all. Let’s first bring it over to Alyssa.
Alyssa:
Hi, my name is Alyssa Rufo. I go to Kutztown University and I am a sophomore. My major is teacher of the visually impaired. It’s one of the five schools in the country that have this program, and I really enjoy music.
Becca:
Hi, everyone. I’m Becca, I also attend Kutztown University. I’m a senior in the vision program as well. And I graduate in the spring, so I’m excited to graduate and start in this awesome field. So thanks for having me.
Gabby:
Hi, everyone. My name is Gabby, I currently attend St. Francis college, and I’m a senior. I’ll be graduating in January, actually, and I’m studying communications and digital media, so I’m excited to be here with you all today.
Simon:
Okay, very good. We’re happy to have all of you here. And thank you very much for your participation. We really greatly appreciate it. Why don’t we start with something that’s very important when looking at transitioning from high school to college? There’s a lot of things that go into this process. One of the things that is really daunting at first or that could be daunting at first is the campus, and navigating a college campus versus a high school campus. What were your experiences? What tips do you have, things along those lines? Why don’t we pass it over to Becca first?
Becca:
Hello. I would say transitioning from high school to college is definitely- kind of a long time since I like, you know, thought about this since I’m a senior now. But I remember when I was a freshman, it was kind of a lot at first because you had to get from one side of campus, say for example, Kutztown is divided into the north and south sides of campus. So on the south side, you have all the dorms and the dining hall, things like that. And on the north side, you have all of the classes, and you definitely have to leave a little bit early because everything on Kutztown’s campus is kind of spread out since Kutztown is in kind of like a rural area, it definitely was a lot at first. And I would recommend definitely making sure that you have your orientation and mobility set up in advance. And a good thing that may help too is to either have a tactile map or a map with high contrast, or if you’re a braille user, to write things down, like you cross the street, then you turn left, or you walk down this path or you go towards the right or something like that. Whatever works for you. But definitely it’s a good thing to be on top of this now just so you don’t have to think about it all at once, and you can kind of like plan it out so it’s an easier transition. So I’m finished with my answer.
Simon:
Okay, great. That’s great advice. Let’s go to Alyssa.
Alyssa:
Yeah, going off at what Becca said Kutztown is like north and south campus. And what I always like to do is before the first day of classes, I always like to find my classroom before classes start, like the weekend we get there onto campus and we move in. I don’t know if your specific college would let you go into the buildings of the specific, where the classrooms are. But I believe some of our classrooms on campus or like the buildings on campus are open before, like during that weekend. So I would usually go in there, find the classroom, make sure I’m familiar with the path to get there and can remember it so I can apply it to that day of class I need to be there. Yeah, basically all of what Becca said was awesome advice. And I second that, so.
Simon:
Great. And let’s bring it to Gabby.
Gabby:
At SFC we have a very small campus but nonetheless like transitioning from high school to college is still like a big process for anyone, but I think when you are blind or low vision, basically what Alyssa and Becca said, I did a lot of O&M training before I went in and I actually went in like a few weeks prior to actually, you know, attending classes to kind of get myself oriented, and I met with my disabilities office and my dean of students at the time just to go over like the layout or ask questions. So I highly suggest like if you already know what school you’re going to be going to and things like that, I would say start those, start doing those things pretty early so that you have an idea, so that you’re comfortable when you start.
Simon:
Okay, great. So why don’t we bring it over to JT for a question?
JT:
How did you handle the accommodations in the dorms?
Becca:
So something that I found really helpful was working with my orientation and mobility instructor. So I actually lived in the same dorm for the first three years, which was really nice. And my last semester, I lived off campus, so that was a little bit of a transition, and I definitely worked with another O&M specialist to help me with that. So I would say definitely have either an O&M specialist or maybe a close friend help you, if you guys live in the same dorm, then this could help with orientation, as well as like, trying to, you know, make new friends and do things together. That’s a really important part of college as well.
Alyssa:
What I would say is look into all of the dorms that the college has to offer, and see what kind of types of rooms they have, and like what the dorm has, like it has an elevator, or if it’s like air conditioning, if you like air conditioning and stuff like that, if it’s like a lot of floors, is it like easy to navigate? And like, Is there a huge community bathroom? Or is it just like each room has a bathroom in it, stuff like that, see what you prefer. And think about what you would prefer and try and go for that to pick your housing, and try and get that housing as best as you possibly can and like contact the housing at your university to try and get those accommodations as best as possible.
Gabby:
So I would say, although I don’t dorm, I did do a lot of research. And like I spoke to a lot of people with my residence hall, just in case I ever did want to- basically I agree with what Alyssa and Becca both said, it’s important to figure out the layout of the dorms and do your mobility instruction, if you know that that’s something that you really want to work on. And I think that having that be, you know, figuring that out so that you know how to navigate to and from your dorm and in the residence halls. Yeah.
Simon:
Great. Something that goes along with dorms is roommates. How was your experiences with roommates? And what tips could you give to maybe explaining to roommates your situation and being blind, or just some tips on breaking the ice when first getting to know roommates and things like that.
Becca:
So I think that it’s useful to find them on social media, if they have social media, or usually like for Kutztown, you have this profile-like website, not the most accessible. So we just usually would email them and find out emails and then just email back and forth, and then either give our phone numbers or social media out, and that usually helps to get to know them. I always find it easier to explain beforehand, and all my roommates have been fine. They’re, you know, fine with me being blind and everything like that. And they don’t really have problems, they would always ask, you know, like, is it okay if I leave this here, or they would always like keep their spaces clean so I wouldn’t trip over things and things like that.
Alyssa:
As far as being like connected to your roommate, my freshman year of college, my roommate and I met on social media like Becca was talking about, we met on Facebook, and we connected through that, and we’re both like nice people and we both like got along very well throughout the year. But I kind of wanted a friendship and a roommate, and I didn’t really get that too much from my freshman year roommate, we kind of just like- we respected each other very well but we didn’t like talk or like connect very much. So I would say meet them probably before college starts so that you can- if you want a friendship with that person like, and more connectability I guess you could say I would meet them in person and try and build a bond before you get to college. Some roommates you do connect, like when you get on campus and you like actually hang out with each other, but in my situation, we didn’t really connect too much probably because we were in different activities like on campus and stuff like that, but I would definitely try to meet them in person before you get there, and make sure you guys have like similar interests and stuff. With the website that Becca was talking about, there’s this little quiz on there that tells you if you’re like compatible roommates. Try and sort out how you’re compatible with that person. I mean it’s kind of illegal but smoking and stuff like that, like if you’re into smoking or drinking or whatever and they’re into smoking and drinking, like, or like other stuff, like if you’re a clean person, if you’re like a night person, or other characteristics like that. Try and see if you’re like compatible roommates and like trying to make sure you’re compatible before you get on campus and like decide fully if like it’s a good situation or a bad situation.
Gabby:
I have- two of my closest friends, they both dorm. And the things that I’ve learned from them, I could say is that definitely communication is key. And similarly to what both Alyssa and Becca said, they would often connect with their roommates through email or social media, and a lot of the time, like, they didn’t really develop a lot of like friendships with them. But I know that it’s really good to still be able to have that connection, and be able to at least have a conversation with them when you get back to your dorm, and be friendly and you know, build up that relationship, that friendship.
Simon:
All right, great. Why don’t we take it over to you all?
Becca:
The disability services office of Kutztown’s great, I actually work for them. I’ve worked for them for the past two years; I think they’re awesome. They really, you know, try to make sure that every student has everything that they need to be successful. And I think that in my personal experience, most of my professors have been really great with accommodations. Some professors don’t really know much about technology, and they don’t really like, understand accommodations. And they kind of think that just because things are online, that they’re accessible, and that’s not necessarily true. And so I think you definitely have to do some self-advocating. And if that doesn’t work, reach out to your school’s disability services office, I would also say, to communicate with your professors and make sure that you have all your accommodations, because usually you have to go through a process through the disability services office to request accommodations, and you get a letter where you have to give it to your professors, and then they go over it and make sure that, you know, they understand all the accommodations, and they can meet those accommodations and things like that. And sometimes you might have to work out alternatives, like in this one class, I had to do maps. And so I can’t read maps, so an alternative that I had to do was my professor would give me all the countries that I had to look up and I would just say where they’re located, and that usually helped. So I’m still completing the assignment, I’m just doing it in an alternative way.
Alyssa:
Like Becca said, our disability services at Kutztown is really amazing. One example that I had, like, literally this past week was that I don’t know about other universities, but Kutztown, you can have a peer note taker that if you are unable to take notes, or just don’t take as good notes, because you’re trying to focus on so many things during the lecture, that you can’t take down every single note, like what’s on the board and what the teacher’s saying, it’s very difficult. So I had requested a peer note taker for three of my classes, and they could not find a peer note taker at the moment for my classes. So they contacted me again, and let me know about other services that I could get as alternatives, such as like a smart pen, which I’d never heard of. It’s this cool notebook that like has, you can write in it, and you can record the lecture while you’re writing notes. It’s pretty cool, I would look into it. And another app called Otter AI, I believe, where you can record a lecture and it like transcribes the whole lecture for you. That’s a really cool thing I have now. It can have like up to 600 minutes for free, and then I think you have to pay for that after the 600 minutes are up. The other things I would like to say about that question is definitely get the services that you need early when you’re transitioning into college, because it takes a little bit of time to write in all the forms that you need, and then turn it into the disability services. And then have them process the information and then have a meeting and then have the disability services be implemented and have letters ready for you to get your professors. Don’t do it last minute, don’t procrastinate about it. And yeah, most of my professors have been great, the services that I’ve gotten. One example that I’ve seen in the classroom is when there’s another blind student in my one of my classes, and the professor showed a video and the professor knew that she was blind because she had services. So the professor walked over to her and explained what was happening in the video while the video was going on. And I thought that was just really great that he did that and I’ve never seen anyone else do that.
Gabby:
[unintelligible] to Becca and Alyssa. You know, I never really had like a big, big issue with my accessibilities office. I would say that I’ve had really unaccommodating professors. I feel like it happens like almost every semester for me, but I think like Becca had mentioned, self-advocacy is like a really big thing to start working on, communicating with your professors, communicating with your accessibility office. And Alyssa, just like university, at St. Francis, we, actually they offer us peer note takers also. And that smart pen thing, I never actually used it but it sounds pretty cool. So I’ve always gotten a peer note taker and I think that, like, resource really works really well, especially when you have exams coming up and you have things to study for, it helps to be able to compare your notes with somebody else’s and actually see like, what to really work on. And another thing is, again, just make sure that you actually check in with your college’s services before you start classes, so that you have everything that you need, because like Alyssa said, it does take a really long time to actually get, like textbooks and things like that ready if you need it to be transcribed, or you need anything like that. So I would say those are some of the things that has also worked for me.
Simon:
Great. So let’s parallel a little bit, high school to college. I know that in high school, many people will have services such as a TVI, teacher of the visually impaired and we have a lot of them on the call today, and similar services to that. But in college, those services are kind of supplemented by the disability office. But there is a lot of self-advocacy that’s done in college more than high school, and a lot of…more independence as well. Can you speak to the differences that your experiences was from high school to college and how you had to supplement that in your independence and self-advocacy?
Becca:
Definitely, one thing that’s different is you don’t necessarily have an IEP in college, you may have some accommodations that are similar to the IEP, but some laws that are different in high school, you know, that are different in college and high school, they don’t necessarily apply to college, the ADA and the section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Those are the two laws that are used in college and then IDEA is used in high school. Those are like the main laws. One thing that’s different is that in college, you are kind of the one who’s in charge. So in high school, you maybe had a team of professionals, maybe TVI and O&M, maybe you had like a resource person, things like that, that you would like go to in high school, and not necessarily saying that you don’t have those people in college. But it’s kind of like more on you, and to see how you advocate for yourself in college, because people like aren’t really going to know what you need, unless you ask for it. I think definitely self-advocacy is really important. And definitely start that early and make sure you have the skills necessary to self-advocate for yourself.
Alyssa:
Again, yeah, self advocacy is really great. I also think that time management skills are really crucial in college, you have to balance whatever schoolwork you have, and the classwork and the homework you have, as well as social life and the clubs or organizations that you’re a part of, and it’s a lot to try and juggle. But somehow, I get it done, and Becca gets it done, and Gabby gets it done. But it’s a struggle. But you definitely have to make sure that you’re on top of it, so you don’t miss anything. Yeah, time management skills are really important in college. Because if you get something late, like your professor, sometimes, if they’re nice, they’ll let you like get a few points off. But some professors are just kind of mean and harsh, and will probably give you a zero for it, which is not fun. But you got to deal with it, you got to make sure you have good time management skills.
Gabby:
Similarly to Becca and Alyssa, in high school, you know, I had a TVI. And I think, like, going into college, because it’s such a different environment, and again, like that’s a whole ‘not her thing, because you’re in charge, you’re responsible for the things that you do, whether you choose to not submit assignments, whether you choose to not go to class, like that’s all up to you, nobody is going to be prompting you and telling you like, hey, this assignment is due at 11:59 on Friday, so you have to get it done. It’s just self-advocacy, it might be a little uncomfortable at first, especially when you’re in a new place and you’re surrounded by new people. But I think that the more that you kind of figure out what works for you in your first semesters, you’re going to continue to utilize that and make sure that you’re actually able to speak out and speak up for the things that you need. Because like Alyssa said, sometimes professors are not always easy to communicate with, so it’s important to make sure that you stay on top of those things.
Simon:
That’s good, good answers. Thank you very much. Let’s go to Ben for the next question.
Ben:
Hi. So I know we did cover like navigating a little bit already, but my question was more of like how to navigate, like I know college campuses can be pretty large. So how do you find your classes, and like get there on time, because I know the buildings can be very big with many floors and hallways. What was one or more easy ways that you found to find classrooms and navigate busy hallways and stuff like that?
Becca:
It definitely depends on how big your college campus is, and how spread out it is. So for example, Kutztown’s like kind of spread out. I like to be early for my classes, so maybe at least like 10 minutes early to class. So for example, it might have taken me 15 minutes to walk from my dorm to my class that was like on the other side of campus, but then if I lived in my apartment off campus, it might have taken like longer because it was further away. I think the best thing is to be early for your classes, just so you make sure that you don’t miss anything important, and you are on time.
Alyssa:
I agree about being on time, I’m usually like 10 minutes early. I hate being late. It makes me anxious. But some way to navigate around campus because it’s so big, at Kutztown at least there’s a bunch of maps here on campus. And what I found online is I found a PDF of the campus map and I saved it to my phone. And whenever I was lost or needed to find a building or something, I would just pull it up on my phone and just zoom in and just try and navigate there as best I could. In the buildings, there’s also usually a map of the building. And sometimes there’s a few maps around the entrances of buildings, like [unintelligible], but I would also use those and sometimes take pictures of them, or just like stare at them for a long time to try and figure out where I need to go. And then for the crowded hallways that you’re talking about, in Kutztown, there aren’t particularly too many crowded hallways because like Becca said, it’s very spread out. Like in high school like it’s just one building pretty much and like there’s like maybe like 2000 people in like one building, it’s really crowded, but in a college, it’s like thousands of people but it’s all spread out between a bunch of buildings, so it’s not too crowded. There’s probably, thinking back to like last year when there wasn’t COVID there’s probably like 20 people in a hallway, usually what I see, not too crowded but at some points in certain buildings it can be a little crowded, but it’s usually like not that much time that it’s super crowded, maybe like on stairways it’s super crowded, but it’s usually not that crowded. It’s kind of easy to navigate when there isn’t that many people.
Sonya:
This is Sonya, you guys are talking about navigation, have any of you done any of the campus busing that’s available? And how hard is that to navigate?
Becca:
I didn’t really use the shuttle a lot when I was on campus, just because I like to walk everywhere and didn’t really like want to. But now that I was off campus sometimes it would rain and my apartment was kind of far from the campus. So sometimes I would take the shuttle, and there are apps that you can put on your phone to help with that. I think COVID like, they’re not terrible- because of COVID like they’re not terrible, but they’re not great either. Sometimes they wouldn’t arrive on time, which is not really fun. As an alternative, you could always call your like Union building, where they have all the different activities, you could ask, you know, I’m waiting for the shuttle, it’s supposed to be here at this time, I was just wondering if there was a change in the times, to figure it out. Because sometimes that does happen, and that is frustrating. That’s something else to consider. Because some colleges do have you live on campus for a certain amount of time. And I missed living on campus, even though I honestly hated the food on campus. But I definitely enjoyed it more because everything was right there. You didn’t have to like walk so many minutes to campus and things like that, so that’s another thing to consider too when transitioning after you meet the requirements depending on your school, if you want to live on campus or off campus.
Alyssa:
Yeah, this is Alyssa. The shuttle system at Kutztown is free for students, we pay a fee for that. I don’t know about other colleges, if they have to pay a fee, I don’t know. But ours is free. It’s kind of confusing, like Becca said, like there’s an app for Kutztown you can download and it’s a bus tracker on there, that you can track the bus where it is and like the route it takes and stuff like that. It is sometimes unreliable. I’ve taken it like one or two times, and it’s nice to like not have to walk around. But like, it’s also, the times are kind of unreliable. So that’s like the pros and cons of it a little bit. Yeah, I usually like walking around more than using the bus.
Gabby:
In response to the first question, for me, what I usually try to do is, you know, time management is such a big thing. And I think that I really learned more about that as I, you know, I kind of went through my college and things like that. But I would definitely say like try to get to class or try to get to your campus, at least like 10 to 15 minutes early. Usually I would arrive like 15 minutes early and I would just like sit in the cafeteria, grab breakfast, like get coffee, and then I would head to class and I would always try to get there like at least 10 to five minutes before the class started. In response to the second question our dorms are pretty close to the school. They’re only like a few blocks over. So everybody- where my school is, it’s in a like city area. So there’s a lot of places, like food spots and things like that around there. So everybody basically just walks to campus or they take an Uber, or, you know, they come with a friend, so we don’t really have like a bus transport system.
Simon:
Great, and thank you Sonya for the question. Let’s bring it back to John, do you have your question ready, John?
John:
I do, I do. Thank you. So how is it navigating through like big open spaces like diners and other, like, you know, crowded venues in college? What is that like?
Becca:
It can definitely be a little bit confusing, especially if it’s really crowded, especially at dinner time. So what I would ask my roommate to do, tell me where they are. And they would look for me, and especially if I was traveling with some of my blind friends, what we would do is, we would find a table that was close by what’s, okay, what, the second table, and then we would go get our food just because it’s easier to find a spot close, that’s close for everyone. And something else, too, is navigating the dining halls, some of them are self-serve and it’s kind of hard, especially if you have like little to no useful vision and you can’t necessarily see what is there. And even if you do have some vision, sometimes it is hard, and also, it sometimes is confusing if there’s no one there to tell you what the options are, like for food selections, what some of my friends have done is they’ve gone into the dining hall and they swipe the card. And they would ask someone, you know, can you offer me some assistance in the dining hall? And they would say, yeah, like we can offer you assistance and help you pick out your food and things like that. With that, I would definitely communicate your needs, like if you would like human guide, or if you would like to just follow them with your cane, because what I’ve had happened to me a lot, and you can probably speak to this too, is being grabbed, like when you didn’t ask to be grabbed, and just saying like oh, come on, I’ll take you this way. And like, that’s not necessarily like, okay, so definitely communicate what you need to the person so that you can feel like you have autonomy and that you are being respected as opposed to that.
Alyssa:
And I have a pretty good amount of functional vision, so it is a little bit easier for me to navigate around the dining halls. But it’s definitely hard for me at most dinner times and whenever there are mealtimes when I hang out with my friends, to find them at their tables. So I kind of have a set routine or like thing that I go through, where we usually eat upstairs at our dining hall. So I go upstairs, there’s like a doorway that’s open for people to leave through, I look through the doorway, see if I see anyone, if I can see them. If I don’t, then I just go around, get a drink, and then scan the area to see if I can see them. And then when I finish getting my drink, I go to the other side of the dining hall and try and scan to see if I can see them. That’s kind of the thing I do. And then if I don’t see them I like just contact them and be like, where are you, please help. Some of my other friends that are visually impaired understand the struggle, so they tell me generally where they are or just at a set table in the dining hall, like at a booth specifically, like the second window or something like that. Yeah, it’s definitely hard, like Becca said, to try and navigate when it’s really busy. But since COVID, there aren’t really much self-serve stuff anymore at our dining hall. So it’s kind of easier in that aspect. But it’s still hard to like try and figure out what they’re serving sometimes, like signs about what the food is, but sometimes it’s quite small, like, especially maybe for like a lactose intolerant person, like being in person, they do have a vegan section, but like the ingredients of that stuff, they have it on there on a little label, but it’s really tiny print like probably like eight size, like, it’s so tiny. So if you’re like me, that type of stuff, like it’s hard to see and try and figure out what you’re eating specifically. So I would say try and get help, and like definitely ask the people who are serving you what is in it, and if they don’t know, just like maybe just like ask the cook, they can like get the cook and just ask them.
Gabby:
For me, I usually, I truthfully, like I get a little flustered in crowds. So when we usually would have our like lunch rush or things like that would be happening, a lot of the time my school would host events in the cafeteria at the same time that students would be going down to get whatever they felt like getting, a snack or lunch or whatever. So navigating with that I know the layout really well, but usually I would have a friend come with me just because sometimes in the kitchen they get really busy with orders and things that they have to do, so people aren’t always able to read me the menu right away. So usually my friends would come with me and they would assist me with that, and I usually would just like sit at a table with them, and we would all just kind of hang out. And usually one of us would try to find like a table, and then we would all go and get our lunch or whatever together. I feel like that’s like what works for me. But if it’s not like a really busy, not a busy time that I that, you know, people are downstairs, I just go by myself, because I know the layout really well, so I just try to figure that out and navigate through it as much as I possibly can.
Simon:
So we also have Sheila Koenig here, who is the Transition Coordinator at the State Services for the Blind, Sheila, you want to introduce yourself?
Sheila:
So I am the Transition Coordinator at Minnesota State Services for the Blind, which is a vocational rehabilitation agency, a lot of you might be familiar with those kinds of services. Right now we’re especially working with students who are younger, and I just wanted to be able to tell you some of the things that we can provide, because every state has these agencies, some of the things that we can do to help you as you’re transitioning from high school to college. So I just have ABC, because you know, we’re talking about school, and why not do ABC? So one of the things that we can do is to connect you with other adults who are blind or low vision or deaf-blind. You know, for a lot of the students that I meet, they are unsure about how to do things, they’re unsure about what jobs they might want. They wonder what college is like, and exactly what you’re doing here today, by having those students in college share their experiences are things that vocational rehabilitation can do as well. Whether it’s setting up like a job shadow, we also have a program that’s a college shadow, so you would be able to virtually meet, if you’re a high school student, you’d be able to virtually meet a college student and kind of follow them around, as much as you can do that in pandemic times, for a day to see what life at college is like. I know myself as a blind person struggled with growing up and not knowing any other blind people, I really struggled with, how am I going to do things? How am I going to have the career that I want? And it wasn’t until I actually met other blind adults who were out there doing it that I realized it was possible. So a lot of vocational rehabilitation agencies have different kinds of mentoring programs, and I just really encourage you to reach out and learn about those. The B is, blindness skills is kind of what I call it, but it’s things like assistive technology. How are you going to access print, things like orientation and mobility and independent living? I heard a couple of questions about O&M, and it made me think, that I wanted to remember to say that we in the, VR is what I’ll call it, agencies can help to provide that on your college campus. One of the things that we do at State Services for the Blind, is identify all the students who are going to be graduating high school seniors, and then we connect with them throughout the year, to make sure that they have any O&M that they need, that they have any assistive tech that they need, and we can actually work with them on their college campuses. So for you high school students, if you’re feeling like I really could use some O&M in the dining halls and the open spaces in the hallways, if you have a counselor through your VR agency, ask them about it because it is a service that they can provide to help you. And then the C is careers. As I mentioned, a lot of people aren’t even really sure what do I want to do? And in part, it’s because we’re thinking, well, what can I do as a person who’s blind? The VR agency is designed around helping you find your career, and helping you reach your employment goal. So whether it’s connecting you with people for informational interviews, or maybe doing some interest inventories, we’re all about really helping you explore those career opportunities. Because of new legislation we can start working with people at earlier ages in Minnesota, it’s age 14, and we’re really all about helping you connect with peers and getting those skills. I think the college students have really been sharing a lot of wisdom and I appreciate you just being able to get me in, so thank you.
Alyssa:
Going off of that for a second, this is Alyssa. Make sure what Sheila said about the vocational rehabilitation services that you can get from the Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services in Pennsylvania; you can get financial aid for college from the agency. They can also help you find internships for your field and a bunch of other vocational rehabilitation needs. So make sure you register for that, and get in contact with a counselor, just to make sure we can get financial aid. Everyone wants free money, and you can also get like, cool technology, like I got an iPad Pro from the BBVS because I needed it for college. So there’s just some really cool services that you can get from the BBVS in Pennsylvania.
Sheila:
And that’s a really good point, we can often help out with things too, like textbooks, or like potentially paying for some of the housing costs, too. So yeah, thank you for that.
Simon:
Great. Sheila, why don’t you talk about how people can prepare in terms of their blindness skills going into college and some tips in that area?
Sheila:
Yeah, absolutely. And I know every state is a little bit different in terms of what programs they have. So I can speak to Minnesota, we have a couple of programs that are year-round programs for teens, basically, they start as early as age 14, and we have three different- Adjustment to Blindness Centers is the term that we use, we have three different Adjustment to Blindness Centers in Minnesota. And at those centers, students can learn skills like braille, assistive technology, home management, orientation and mobility. So the programs that go on throughout the year, for students specifically, happen outside of the school day. When we were in person, they would meet over weekends throughout the year. And now that they’re virtual, they do a lot on Zoom throughout various evenings. But I know that each state has these training centers. And if you’re thinking, oh my gosh, I really need to learn all of those skills, then maybe going to a training center is the place for you. We also have what are called itinerant vendors. And so that would be like one person who could come to your community and help you. So maybe you’re thinking, well, I don’t need all of those skills, but I really could use some orientation and mobility, that person could come to you, and you could practice it right there. So there are a couple of different ways to get those skills.
Becca:
Can I just jump in there, work off of what Sheila said about different programs? So in Pennsylvania, the Bureau of Blindness and Visual services, as well as other agencies, have a summer program that’s called Summer Academy. It’s at Penn State. So with, ‘cause of COVID, they had to transition to virtual settings. I’m not really sure if it’s still going on this year, I don’t know if it’s gonna be virtual, or I’m not really sure what is going on with that. But at this program, you learn skills that can help you transition from high school to college. So it’s independent living skills, you live on a college campus, you go to eat in the dining halls, learn about assistive technology, O&M skills, vision rehab therapy skills, and you just learn like kind of what it’s like to transition to college. And there was also a junior program for those students in middle school and they learn pretty much the same areas, it just might be a smaller time because they are still middle school. So the one at Penn State is a two-week program. And it’s a great program. I went as a student and I worked as an RA for two years and I thought it was awesome. Hopefully COVID gets better, definitely consider checking that out.
Gabby:
I want to add to what Becca was saying, similarly to what they have at Penn State, we have something like that out here in New York. It’s not in New York, it’s upstate, but, I’m sorry, in purchase, but they do a pre-college program, which you could attend as a junior in high school. And through that you get to learn about assistive technology and just what it’s like dorming, and then you know, aside from like, the very, like the academic part of it, you also get to go out and you know, they take you out to different trips, but you also, again, you learn how to navigate on campus, we actually get mobility instructors, and they would come and they would like help us and teach us if there was something that, in particular that we wanted to learn. Similarly to that there’s another thing called VCV. I don’t know if they’re doing it this May, I did one back in May last year, but that was more towards like jobs, but they have very, like they have various ones that you could look up and I think Alyssa had mentioned it about the services that they have out in Pennsylvania, we get to do like a, out here we can do a tech evaluation, and I usually try, I would suggest that you do that way before you actually go to college, because it takes a really long time to get the technology that you need, but I had gotten just a braille notetaker and a computer, because I had already gotten an iPad from the pre-college program, so if those were things that you’ve been thinking about, definitely start getting a head start on those things, because the process and getting your technology can be a while.
Sheila:
And this is Sheila, just to add to that, there are a lot of summer programs also just based on particular student interests, so there’s a space program, I can’t remember which state that it’s in, there is a STEM program that usually happens in Baltimore, there are programs if you’re thinking about maybe getting a guide dog, where you can go to kind of test that out for a little while, and see what that’s like, I believe there’s one of those in Michigan and one in Vermont, so those are open to students nation-wide, and definitely worth exploring if you have a specific interest, too.
Simon:
That’s great, because I know that Sheila, the VR, as you called it, the VR provides some technologies for college students as well.
Sheila:
Absolutely, and in Minnesota one of the things we’re doing is we have a lending library, so if you’re not sure if a piece of technology is right for you, you can try it out for about six months, and hopefully get a sense of whether it’s something that could help you or not. I don’t know if other states have those kinds of lending programs, but definitely VR is part of what we want to or all of what we want to do is to support you in being employed and independent, and having assistive technology is a big piece of that.
Sonya:
Tech AU through Temple University has a great lending library that’s really worth looking into, and also Katan also has a lending library if you guys need information, but I’m sure your TVIs can help you with that, or your guidance counselors for the OVR application too.
Becca:
I was just gonna mention that as well.
Simon:
Well, thank you for talking about the services that your company provides, it’s really great the work that you do for the blindness community, and we thank you very much for that.
Sheila:
Well, thanks for having me here, and just what a cool way to bring together college students and high school students to talk about the transition, I really do think that that’s such a big piece, is learning from people who have just done it, so thank you.
Simon:
Oh, very good. So, why don’t we bring it back over to the college students now, and we’ve talked a lot about things like accessibility and a little bit about textbooks, but why don’t we kind of talk about the brunt of college, which is the schoolwork? How is the schoolwork based on high school, how much harder is it, what kind of time does it take to get the work done, let’s dive into that realm.
Becca:
The difference between high school and college is you’re not actually in class every day, so for example you might have class Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, for 50 minutes, and then you may have class on Tuesday and Thursday for like an hour and 20 minutes, or depending on like how specific your major is, you may have class once a week for like three hours, and that has happened. There definitely is a lot more work, but it’s kind of nice because it’s spread out throughout the semester, it’s not like you’re getting thrown like so many different things, and with this too, I would definitely say don’t wait to do all your work, try to do a little bit each day, just you know, try to get on top of it, and also too, if you need any, like, assistance or anything with that, definitely reach out to your professors, to the disability services office, if you have any challenges completing any work or things like that, because they are here to help, and they will definitely like make exceptions for you if you need those, so some professors can be, you know, not so nice, but in my experience the majority of them have been very nice and understanding with extensions and things like that on your work.
Alyssa:
Yeah, the workload is definitely a bit different than high school, there’s definitely less busywork in your classes, I mean, some of my gen-eds, general education classes, did feel like busywork because like, I already knew some of the information, like in biology, I like, it was a pretty easy class for me because I’m pretty smart and I kind of barely had to try. Probably shouldn’t say that, but I never really tried and I still got a good grade. Some of the classes will feel like you don’t wanna do it, and like, it’s all busywork, but like, it’s all to graduate and stuff, you’re taking the class, you might as well get the work done, yeah. If you are having trouble with your classwork and stuff like that, like Becca said, there are services on campus, like your professor, but there’s also- Kutztown has tutoring services that you pay for, there’s a writing center if you’ve got trouble writing papers, there’s also in probably half my classes, there’s been supplemental instructors where there’s a student in the class who’s taken the class before, who will help tutor you in the class, and help explain assignments to you and help you understand the class better if you’re having trouble understanding it and stuff like that. I don’t know if other colleges have that, but Kutztown has it. I think it’s a really cool thing that they have put in place, that you can just talk to a student instead of having the pressure and anxiety of talking to your professor you can just talk to a peer, talk to a student about what you’re having trouble with, and trying to mitigate that anxiety and stress about trying to get that work done and stuff like that.
Gabby:
I would say, adding to what Becca and Alyssa said, the work can get very hard and there will be times where you’ll like, you just won’t want to actually get up and actually do what you have to do, go to class, but the best thing I would say about college is that you actually get to pick your own schedule, and depending on your major, your week might look a little bit different. Sometimes you might have to go in five days a week, or go on Zoom I should say now, five days a week, or you might just have three days a week throughout, but I would say that just like Becca and Alyssa’s school, we also have an academic enhancement center where you can go and get tutoring if you really feel like that’s something that you need, I try to go get tutoring especially when I have exams coming up that I really don’t feel confident about, they also have a writing center which is in the same area that if you are writing assignments, you know, doing essays and things like that you could go and they can help to edit it, and another thing is definitely just communicate with your professors, communicate with your office of accommodations, because again, they can definitely help you and give you extra time if that’s something that you really feel like you need. Yeah.
Simon:
Okay, great. Why don’t we bring it around and go around again, through the high school students that we have, for maybe one more question? Why don’t we go to Yael?
Yael:
What has been the most challenging thing about going, or being in college as a blind or visually impaired person?
Alyssa:
The hardest thing that I’ve probably had to go through was finding friends who accepted my, like, visual impairment in high school, and like, before high school I never really told anybody that I had a visual impairment, because my functional vision is pretty good, as I’ve said before, so it’s not like as noticeable as some of the people who are more visually impaired than I am, so in college, I kind of have had to step out of my comfort zone and tell people that I am visually impaired, and it’s kind of been hard for me to do that because it’s definitely out of my comfort zone, so trying to find people that accept that, and accept me for who I am, it’s definitely been hard but it’s also been nice because I have met people who are visually impaired in the major that I am in, and it’s awesome to meet them. It’s definitely a challenge for me to come out to people that I have a visual impairment, because I’ve never done it really in my life, and I never really had many people besides my family who are visually impaired talk about that, so it’s one of the biggest challenges for me.
Gabby:
I would agree with Alyssa, I feel like I had the same issue. It’s very hard to make those genuine connections. I’m actually fully blind, so sometimes just like I would really feel very outcasted, I would say, because I always felt like people just didn’t want to be my friend, which, it’s understandable, like you’re not always gonna make really good connections with people, and you’re not always gonna really be able to bond with people in the way that you want to, but I think really finding those groups of people or those few people that you can really be like okay, like, this person understands me, they accept me, you know, they understand, like, it’s sometimes hard for me to make connections with people, so I’ve had a lot of people that were just genuine and I feel like it’s been an interesting experience for me in my college. I would also say just reaching out to people, especially when I make friendships, because sometimes you know, as a person who is completely blind or even without whatever visual impairment that you have, you also just don’t want people to feel like you don’t want them to pity you or think that you need extra help, because sometimes you just genuinely want to be around those people and hang out with them, so it does get a little bit anxiety-inducing for me, I try to find like the positives in it and just understand, like, maybe starting out’s gonna be rough, making those connections, it was for me at least, but again, like, everybody has their own experiences, so I would say kinda see how you feel and see what works.
Becca:
One challenge for me was definitely what like Alyssa and Gabby mentioned, just trying to find where you fit, and like, your friend group, and definitely like making those connections with people, it kind of like took a little bit, just because my first year I kind of was like more focused on getting like the academic side of college down and getting the schoolwork side of college, and it was kind of hard to like balance your social life with your, you know, schoolwork and like, things like that. I definitely agree that it kind of is hard at first to find your group of people, and it definitely is like uncomfortable to put yourself out there, but I would like encourage it to make friends and things, and I know, like it definitely can be scary at first, so that’s kind of my answer to that.
Simon:
Okay, great. So I think with the time we have, I think we’ll take one more question.
Ben:
I do have one question, Simon.
Simon:
Yep, go ahead.
Ben:
So I know that a lot of, I think it was actually close to all of the college students said that it was difficult to make friends, so I would say what was one way that you did end up making friends in the college environment?
Becca:
I would say your major definitely is a good place to start, I know in the vision program, our major is like really close-knit, and there’s not many of us, so I would say definitely reach out. It may depend on how big your major is, but I think it definitely helped that ours was kind of small, and another thing too is like attend events on campus, like they have movie nights, or if they have different social hours and things like that, I would say definitely attend those, and like even if you’re in your classes, it’s kind of hard online, but in person, like if you talk to people who are near you, like around you, that’s a good way to make friends as well.
Simon:
Good. I want to touch on one more point, we did talk about technology a little bit earlier, but let’s kind of dive deeper, a little bit, into what technologies you use for different classes, and specifically how is technology helpful to you when reading textbooks and filling out questions and doing assignments and things of that nature?
Becca:
I use a variety of technology, so I’m a braille reader as well as a screen reader user, so I use Mac OS, I use Windows, I use iPad OS, iOS, and the braille note touch to complete all of my assignments. It kind of depends on what device I would like to use during the courses of my classes. For example, I may take notes for a class on my braille note, and then transfer those to a computer if I need to write a paper on it or something like that, or I may take notes on my iPad, and you know, use that, and usually for papers I use a computer just because it’s the easiest way that I’ve found. You have like more functionality with a keyboard, and you can spellcheck and things are just kind of easier to do, on the computer. I have found that the easiest way to access my textbook is using my iPad. I can use apps like Voicestream Reader, or Dolphin Easy Reader, to access my books, and I love Bookshare, I use it all the time, I think it’s just an awesome resource. If you don’t have it, definitely I would encourage you to get it, I also answer questions like on quizzes usually on my computer, that’s just the easiest way, so we usually have quizzes through our campus’s learning management system, and that’s how we access all of our quizzes. I love technology, I think that it’s awesome, it’s really helped me not just in my school life and you know, professional life, but definitely in my personal life as well, I think technology has such a huge role in interacting with people and like, getting things done and things like that.
Alyssa:
As I said earlier, I have an iPad Pro that I primarily use for school. I also have an iPhone that I can use, I have a smart pen that I got from the university about a week ago, I also have an electronic magnifier that I sometimes use for textbooks, if there are online textbooks, I usually use the technology on there to be able to listen to the textbooks, so I can read it faster and get the work done faster. I’ve found out ways that I can take PDFs that the professor tells us to read, maybe there’s a paper that I have to write and I have to read a resource that is a paper, I use the app Speechify, it’s really cool, I really like it, it’s for free, you can import PDFs into there and listen to them on whatever word speed you want, and I just love the app, it’s so nice. I use Google Docs and like, all the Google applications mostly for my schoolwork. I don’t know, I just don’t like Word that much and Microsoft, but I have them on my iPad, I just don’t use them that much.
Gabby:
So I have my Braille Note, which I use to take certain notes, similarly to what Becca had said, I like to take notes and just transport it over to a thumb drive and put it on my computer, but I also have my iPad, which honestly, having an iPad has been like one of the best things for me, because I use it every day to do assignments. I actually like using Pages to do my work, we use Canvas for my school, so we would usually do our quizzes in Canvas. In terms of textbooks, I also use Voicestream Reader, I love Bookshare because that’s where I get all my books. I realize that with me, something that I usually like to do is I’ll download the book, like the textbook in audio format, but then I’ll also get it in braille because a lot of the time in class the professor does like to go over certain chapters, so I like to participate, but I also just, it feels like for me especially because there’s more things to kind of focus on, having it be in braille I get to really, I guess maybe understand it a little bit better, but I think- and I have it on my iPhone, so I have like Voicestream Reader, I have like a whole bunch of productivity apps on there too if I’m like on the go and I need to take care of like an assignment, then I’ll just type something up and submit it. Yeah, that’s pretty much what works for me, so.
Sonya:
Do you- and many of you have been virtual, probably, but when you’re actually in a live classroom, do you find space? Is it an issue for the devices that you have, because I know a lot of the desks can be small, or do you have to advocate for extra space for any devices that you need to have in the classroom?
Becca
So, for me personally, I’m trying to think back to when I was like actually in a classroom-
Sonya:
Or all the things you have to take with you, is it hard to have everything with you that you need?
Becca:
So, I’m one of those people that, this like may sound strange to some people, but I like love all my technology, and I like to take it all with me even though the reality is that I’m probably not gonna use like 90% of it. I just like to have, you know, different like operating systems, and like things like that. It definitely works too, like, especially if you find something that’s inaccessible, like if you find a PDF, you can just- I like to use Kurtzweil a lot, so I import the PDF, and then it reads it to me. And I also like just having the different technology there, just in case I need it. Personally, I don’t think so. I usually only use like one device at a time, maybe two, like, so I’ll have my computer on my desk, and then I’ll have my iPad and my laptop in my lap or something. I personally haven’t really found it hard to carry everything, and the space in the classroom, but again, that’s just my personal experience.
Alyssa:
My iPad is pretty portable, it’s an iPad, and sort of small, it’s easy to move around and it doesn’t take up too much space. In certain lecture halls, the desks are sort of small, but in the classes I’ve been in- Kurtztown’s kind of a small university, so I haven’t really been in a class with like 100 people sitting next to each other really, so I, if I need more space I just put up the desk on the chair next to me and I just use that one, so that’s how I use desks if I need more space in lecture halls, and then in one of our buildings on campus there’s rooms with tables, that is really nice for space, you can like spread out and everything like that, it’s really nice. I haven’t really had too much of an issue, I’m just kind of a little messy when it comes to desk space, I like to spread out and just have everything everywhere sometimes.
Gabby:
So for me, in only like, a few of my classes we’ve had those desks that are like attached to the chair. I use my iPad, which is, again, like it’s, like Alyssa said, very portable, and it has a keyboard on it, so I am able to take my notes in that class, but usually what I like to do is also put my braille note in my bag, if I really feel like I need to, you know, take notes on something. [Unintelligible] an issue with desk space unless it’s in my like music class that I took, or one of my other classes, ‘cause usually the desks are pretty wide, so although there’s people sitting next to you sometimes, there’s still room to be able to like put your stuff if you really need that extra space.
Simon:
Great, yeah, great question, ‘cause I know sometimes in high school I’ve dealt with those situations where the desks are a little bit crowded, and I have a braille book and a computer and a braille note taker, it can be a lot of stuff, so great question there. Now, something that I just want to clarify for listeners that may not be aware about Bookshare, Bookshare is a free service that is a nice way to supplement buying textbooks, because the textbooks can be expensive in college, we’ve talked about before, so there’s a lot of books on Bookshare, and there’s another service that I’ll mention, that is Learning Ally, is another service that has textbooks and a lot of those books are professionally read, and there’s also the Bard Mobile App, which is on the iPhone, that people can download. That has a lot of textbooks, it also has a lot of just regular leisure books, just types of things like that, so there’s a lot of different things that can offset the cost of buying textbooks or buying novels that you have to read for class, there’s a lot of options for blind people.
Becca:
Yeah, Bookshare is awesome. It’s a great thing like if you want braille access to books, it definitely saves the cost of, you know, someone having to emboss it, or like, you know, outsourcing it to an agency that embosses it. Definitely Bookshare is awesome, and I would definitely recommend people to get an account if they don’t have one already.
Simon:
Great. So why don’t we take it more generally for our last and final point of discussion. I would like to know what piece of advice, this could be college or just life-related, what piece of advice would you say would be the most important advice that you want to leave with the listeners today?
Becca:
I would say, definitely enjoy your college experience, because it goes by faster than you’d think. I started 2017 and I’m already graduating, I’m like wow, that time went by really fast, so definitely enjoy it, you know, college is awesome. I definitely have enjoyed college a lot more than high school, to be honest. I feel like I, personally, have had a lot more independence and like freedom to kind of you know, get to know myself and other people, and like learn so many different things. That’s the good thing about college, and another thing about college is you can start and stop, like, whenever it’s convenient for you, and you know, if you like take a semester off or a gap year or something like that, it’ll always be there for you when you, you know, need it, and like if you would like to go back and you know, get your degree, so it’s definitely great and I have definitely enjoyed my, you know, experience at Kutztown.
Alyssa:
Definitely involve yourself in the activities that you’re interested in. If you’re interested in music, try to join band and ensembles, if you’re interested in sports, do intramural activities and sports like that, or the actual sports teams on campus, and just general clubs. There’s probably a website online that has a list of clubs, and like a description, like how you can join them, like if you want to join a sorority or a fraternity, you have to pay for those but they’d probably be fun, I’m not in a sorority or anything, but like, I’ve heard they’re fun. Also, you’re paying for college, so make sure you take advantage of all of the services and opportunities that they have to offer you.
Gabby:
I would say, me personally, I did a lot of like events and stuff my first two semesters. One thing I would say is don’t overload yourself. Make sure you check in with yourself and know, okay, do I feel good, do I really want to attend this event today? But also stay active on campus, it wasn’t until like my sophomore year that I really started getting involved in clubs, and that’s when I was able to meet more people. Basically what Becca and Alyssa both said, make sure that you also have fun. Just, you know, it’s not always about- it is very important that you pay attention to the academics and you do those things but college is also a way for you to meet new people, to do some self-reflection on the things that you want and need, just make it a good experience for yourself.
Simon:
Great, and I just want to add one last thing on my part about paying for college, because that can be expensive. For the listeners that are interested that may not know, there are scholarships out there for blind and visually impaired people, that they can get. There’s ones from the NFB, National Federation of the Blind, there’s the ACB, American Council of the Blind, and I’m sure that there’s others out there, and of course there’s other scholarships for other interests as well, but there are definitely options out there for scholarships and grants that can be used for paying for college. Alright, well, thank you all for participating, I hope you all found it very valuable, and to the listeners, I hope you really enjoy it. Thank you very much for all your participation and all the questions, and the very thoughtful answers, we really appreciate it. Thank you all very much.
Jeff:
Be sure to contact your State Services for the Blind, your voc-rehab, and find out what they can do for you. Live, work, read, succeed, and for more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on Twitter @BlindAbilities, and download the free Blind Abilities app from the app store and Google Play store, that’s two words, Blind Abilities. And if you want to leave some feedback, give us some suggestions, give us a call at 612-367-6093, we’d love to hear from you. A big shout-out to Chee Chau for his beautiful music, you can follow Chee Chau @lcheechau. And from all of us here at Blind Abilities, through these challenging times, stay well, stay informed, and stay strong. I want to thank you for listening, and until next time, bye-bye.
[Music] [Transition noise] -When we share
-What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.
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