Podcast Summary:
Episode Three of Blind Abilities – The Musical explores what it really means to find your voice as you move from K–12 into college and on toward a career. The three acts set the theme, but the heart of the episode lives in the conversation—real stories about IEPs, learning to speak up in meetings, navigating disability services, and building access when the rules change. Cheryl, Seyoon, Lori, and Jeff share practical strategies for getting accessible books and materials, communicating with professors, managing deadlines, and using tools like screen readers, Braille, and modern tech to stay independent. The discussion also digs into disclosure, confidence in interviews, choosing a campus that fits your mobility needs, and building peer networks that help you succeed. Together, the music and lived experience show that advocacy is a skill you grow over time—and the more you use your voice, the more it carries you forward into college, work, and life.
Full Transcript:
{Music}
Blind Abilities – The Musical. Every voice rises. Standing tall. Different ways of seeing. Strong and real and true. It’s not what’s missing. It’s what we do. From Braille in our fingers to the cane in our hand. We’re learning. Living. Making our stand. Blind Abilities – The Musical, Come take the ride. Come hear it all.
Jeff: Good evening and welcome back to Blind Abilities the Musical.
Lori: Tonight’s episode is about transition, not just moving forward, taking ownership.
Sree: From kindergarten classrooms.
Jeff: To college lecture halls.
Pete: And from having someone speak for you to learning how to speak for yourself.
Jeff: This is a journey from K through 12, where advocacy often starts with a parent.
Lori: And slowly becomes something much more powerful.
Sree: Your own voice.
Pete: Act one begins where many journeys start with support, structure and the first steps toward independence.
Jeff: This is act one. Borrow time finding mine.
{Music}
I walked in, holding someone else’s hand. Notes were taken. Plans were made. Meetings had my name on them. But another voice spoke first on my page. They said, here’s what you need and here’s how we’ll help. And I listened, learned and watched till I started speaking for myself. IEP on the table goals written down in ink. But somewhere between the lines I started learning how to think. I raised my hand. I asked a question. I said, here’s how I learn best. Still supported. Still protected, but starting to take the test. Borrowed voice. Finding mine. step by step I cross that line. Not alone, but not behind., Borrowed voice, finding mine.
Pete: There comes a moment when the meeting ends.
Lori: And the room looks different.
Sree: Because the system changes.
Jeff: College doesn’t come with an IEP folder.
Lori: There’s no automatic seat at the table.
Sree: But there’s opportunity.
Pete: If you’re willing to speak up and keep speaking.
Jeff: Act two is about learning how to use that voice, not as a backup plan.
Lori: But as the main one.
Jeff: This is act two. This is my responsibility.
{Music}
You can’t push open doors. Different rules than before. No one’s calling meetings for me.
I’m the one who knocks now. Disability services knows my name. They explained the path, not the road. They don’t walk it for me. I carry my own load. I talk to professors. Some listen, some learn, some take a little longer. But I stay steady. I don’t, burn, this isn’t a crutch. It’s a tool in my head. I’m building the bridge now I understand this is my responsibility, my education, my accessibility. I ask, I explain, I stand my ground cause it’s my responsibility, Now.
Sree: Once you learn how to advocate in college.
Pete: You realize something important.
Lori: That skill doesn’t disappear after graduation.
Jeff: It follows you.
Sree: Into interviews.
Pete: Into job sites.
Lori: Into careers that people once said were impossible.
Jeff: Act three is about turning experience into confidence.
Pete: And confidence into opportunity.
Jeff: This is act three. Same job, different way.
{Music}
Studied the field. I know the trend was growing. What pays, where I can bend. I know my skills. I know my worth. I’ve been preparing since school days first. I don’t hide how I work. I explain it clear. I don’t need fixing. I just need tools here. Bring on the screen reader. Accessibilitise them docs. Yeah. Let loose the solution creator. Anyone seen my Braille dots. Same job, different way, different route, same destination. I bring solutions, not excuses. Experience is my qualification. I’ve learned to ask. I’ve learned to show. I’ve learned what helps me. And now I know. From classrooms to careers, I’ve earned my same job, different way.
Lori: Advocacy isn’t something you lose.
Pete: It’s something you sharpen.
Sree: It’s not about special treatment.
Jeff: It’s about equal access.
Lori: And believing you belong in every room you enter.
Pete: From K through 12.
Sree: Through college.
Jeff: And into the career you choose.
This is Ben, Blind abilities – The Musical.
Lori: No waiting.
Pete: Just doing.
Sree: Thanks for listening.
Jeff: Good night.
{Music}
Blind Abilities. The musical. Every voice rises. Standing tall. Different ways of seeing. Strong and real and true. It’s not what’s missing. It’s what we do. From Braille in our fingers to the cane in our hand. We’re learning, living, making our stand. Blind Abilities – The musical. Come take the ride. Come hear it all.
Jeff: I thought it was really neat that they mentioned IEP and soon and Cheryl, you both went through the IEP process. What was that like?
Cheryl: It was interesting. I didn’t actually start working or having one until I was in, I think, the later part of third grade, I got through kindergarten all the way up to third grade without anybody noticing. I couldn’t see. So that was interesting.
Jeff: Oh, really?
Cheryl: Yeah.
Seyoon: I remember having on record one of the longer IEPs. I think my first IEP was like at least 4 or 5 or six hours long. I heard I remember from my parents, but I think a lot of the vision professionals were aware that my eye condition is progressive and they were very proactive. So Saint Louis is very unique in the sense that they actually have an organization called Special School District, which is a an organization that works with a lot of Saint Louis County public schools in providing that additional specialized services. So they’re itinerants a lot of teachers of the blind and orientation mobility instructors actually travel between school districts, and then that’s what they’re able to do. So. You know, seeing my eye condition pretty early on. They were able to get a pretty head start on Braille and cane travel. And I think that kind of took me right up to transition.
Jeff: When did you realize that your voice was going to be the advocate. I mean your parents were probably the advocate at in the beginning, but when did you start voicing your thoughts and asking questions.
Seyoon: For me I think I started really driving it like, I know my freshman, sophomore year in high school, like I got to have a little bit more voice and and then that’s what the teachers really want to. That’s what the, the educators want. I think that’s that was kind of where I was headed. But yeah, just realizing the fact that they were able to allow me to have a little bit more involvement in my education plan was pretty empowering. And I got to kind of talk about like, what am I working on? What are my goals like, where do I see myself like, especially when it comes to orientation, mobility. And I really loved bus travel like on was one of my favorite things. So getting to get out in the community and getting to live independently. So those are some of the goals I got to really expand on for sure.
Lori: And this is Lori. And that’s the thing that people really need to know, is that they really do have the ability to have a voice in what their IEP for their children or the child wants. I’ve known people to write their own IEPs when they got to a certain age to really advocate for themselves of what their needs are.
Cheryl: And I think for me, it was I kind of drove a lot of it myself. I kind of knew that I was going to lose my sight, and I think I kind of maybe understood that sooner than other people. And so I wanted to prepare myself. And so I think towards the end of eighth grade, my TVI had given me like a chart of Braille, and I’m like, I want to learn this. So I went that summer and I taught myself. So by the time I got back to school. I already knew, like the alphabet and like I had just went far above, you know, because I knew that’s what I wanted to do. So it wasn’t really something that they had, like, told me I needed to do. But I was like, I need to do this. So that’s what we did.
Jeff: So coming out of high school and going into transitioning, when you went to college, you pretty much both of you sounds like you pretty much knew how to advocate for yourself.
Seyoon: I will say I wasn’t 100% ready for that next big chapter, but I think I had a very supportive teachers who at least gave enough of the scarce to to make me realize, like, hey, look, I’m not going to have a paraprofessional in the classroom for subjects like math and science. And that that didn’t quite register with me because, you know, the services I received as a result of the IEP were very, you know, they’re very hands on with me about a lot of those subject areas, especially Stem. I’ve taken some computer science classes for Hobby and fun elective in high school, and I knew that was I think it was called scratch, and that was a very visual way of a teacher teaching students how to code. And I just had a really hard time, and I was losing so much of my vision between like the ages of 14. I want to say till around 16.5. So my vision went from, I am reading a 40 point, you know, large print, which in itself is already pretty daunting. And it slowed me down a lot, especially in math. Right? And all of a sudden I just went kaboom! And I’m like, I can’t, I just am going to drop print completely. Just going to quit using print entirely. So I went completely non-visual. I asked my TVI like, I really need to learn Nemeth code. I need to learn Braille music because I was in marching band all all throughout. And I learned a lot of that music through recordings and audio. But there’s a point where you have to be able to have music in front of you. And same thing with math, like for longer algebraic equations. I can’t do everything Auditorily now.
Jeff: Lori, you went to college and that’s when you first got the test out accommodations, assistive technology and that type of stuff in an educational arena.
Lori: Yes, I remember my first semester of college. I think I was in the disability office every day because first of all, I was a non-traditional student. And so just not knowing how the whole accommodations, it was all new to me. So I would go into the disability office and we’d go over my syllabus knowing what tests I was going to have and making arrangements for, you know, more time or a note taker or just whatever accommodation I thought I was going to need trying to get. You know, the biggest thing for me was getting books. Back then it was RFB and D and trying to get my books. There was times where I didn’t even get my books for that semester until the end of the semester. So having a note taker, making sure that the teachers were supplying me with their PowerPoints ahead of time, or whatever information I could get for those classes was very, very important.
Jeff: Yeah, for me too, being a non-traditional student and being new to this, I found out that every teacher was different. You had to like, introduce yourself. And I learned really quick if you don’t introduce yourself as that, I’m the blind person in the classroom. One teacher, I went to a meeting in his office and he says, I thought you were just kind of snooty because you never really looked at me. You just kind of looked past me and stuff like, you know all this stuff. And I thought, oh, I can see better if I don’t look at what I’m trying to look at. So we cross that bridge together. And then he understood and then we discussed things. So from there on, every semester, a month ahead of time, I was contacting my teachers and figuring out the book situation, figuring out how we’re going to work it out. But every teacher I had, I had to communicate with. So it really brings forward the point that it was something new, but it was something that I wasn’t comfortable at first with. But then it really helped As long as the person trying to teach you understands you.
Lori: Yeah, I think that is key. Communicating with your teachers and expressing your needs and helping them. I mean, you’re teaching them a lot of times you’re teaching the teacher because this is all new to them.
Seyoon: I was a traditional student, so I was on that very, you know, specific pathway and I mean very defined pathway for a lot of students, you know, high school right into college, post-secondary, ed, that type of thing. And similarly, it was not much different than, you know, both of your experiences being a non-traditional in the sense that a lot of professors, a lot of gaps are not accommodated or used to students with disabilities right in, in their unique challenges and their needs and so forth. So I, I also spend, you know, a number of many hours at the school’s accessibility office just trying to figure out what is the best way to access my class materials. How do you access accommodations? And, you know, I remember my very first meeting. It was during a freshman orientation, and I made sure to have a physical copy of my latest IEP to give it to the school’s accessibility office, because that kind of at least gives the access office staff you know what to expect and what type of accommodations would I benefit from? So things like extended time, you know, rehabbing a reader for exams, being able to use, you know, my own computer to write, you know, written portions of the exams, but things like that. But you can have all of that in place, but then you can still walk to an instructor that might not be aware or might just not know. So I think it was between like my trips often included, like going to the access office or the professor’s office hours because they just didn’t know they have the best intentions at heart, but they just don’t know how to convey. And, you know, a visual content that, you know, instructional content into something non-visual.
Cheryl: Yeah. And for me, I was basically a non-traditional student as well, but I was kind of in a weird situation as well because my husband was in the military at the time, and so I had reached out to because I was still a resident of my home state, and I had reached out to them to see if I could get help with like vocational rehab. And they said they couldn’t help me because I wasn’t living in the state even though I was a resident. And then I reached out to the state I was currently living in and they said, well, we can’t help you either. So I had no help at all from either one. And so I was like, okay, I gotta do this on my own then. And so like, Lori was talking about RFP and, and that’s literally what I had those CDs.
Lori: Yes.
Cheryl: Fortunately at that time I had ZoomText with the reader and I could manage even though I should have had JAWS, but I just had to do what I had to do to get through it. And I had mostly supportive professors. The accessibility office was not helpful at all. Most of the time they wouldn’t return phone calls or whatever, so I just always felt like I was on my own, but I wasn’t going to let them stop me. So I got through it and I did well.
Lori: So I think one of the biggest things that helped me was networking with some of the students in the classes that I had. I remember there was a group of us, we’d get together and do a study night before a big test or something. And, you know, I would always say, well, you know, I can’t drive. You guys are more than welcome to come to my house and I’ll provide snacks. And then we would just sit around and we would go through our notes. And that was very helpful to me too, because getting a note taker can sometimes be a crapshoot. What they might put down as an important note wouldn’t be what I would think would be relevant. And luckily, I was an audible learner, so I think that I probably did have a little bit more of a recall on memory of what was said in class, but I think eventually I was taking my own notes with a 20-20 pen and with the rays lined paper and just doing the best I could because I’m like, okay, you know, this person’s getting paid to take notes, but there’s no content here. But having that social group of friends in the classes to play off some questions and stuff, and that was very helpful too.
Cheryl: Yeah, and people are very helpful. You mentioned the notes. Sometimes I had to reach out to other students to see if I could get their notes, because at the one university I went to, the note takers were volunteers. So sometimes they, you know, like if they didn’t come to class or whatever, like, so, you wouldn’t get anything. So you just kind of, for me anyway, I just kind of started like, okay, I’m just doing this myself, you know?
Lori: Yeah, absolutely. And I think requesting if you can the PowerPoint that the instructor has is helpful too. I always cringed when they said, oh, this test is going to be a cumulative. It’s like, oh crap. I can’t remember what happened in September. It’s December you know.
Cheryl: Yeah. And they don’t have all the tools that they have now. Like now you can just record and it transcribes for you and.
Lori: Exactly, exactly.
Seyoon: I’m wishing like I wish I had all the AI tools that we have now. Like being able to, you know, generate a fully automated alt text.
Lori: Mhm. Yeah. I mean just like this recording you can transcribe this and just it’s all here. Mhm. You know.
Jeff: Boom. I remember American literature I got this book and I thought oh good I’ll just scan it with Kurzweil you know page by page. It was on this type of paper that was almost like a parchment. And it would burn right through and pick up the words on the backside of the page to it wouldn’t read them backwards, but it was just gobbledygook. And all of a sudden, now what do I do? You know? And this was the week that we were reading the book and stuff like that. So I had to figure out a whole new plan. And so you almost become your own solution creator. You have to be able to come up with solutions, because usually it’s time crunch and you got to get stuff done. I think one of the biggest things for me was I am a people person. So some people gathered around me in math class outside the classroom, there was a sitting area and they’d come up and ask questions. Pretty soon we had to move to a table and the teacher saw me doing that, so she got me into tutoring. So tutoring was really cool because I used a magnifier back then, CCTV, and I turned it the black like a chalkboard and white. So I would draw and I’d turn around and here’s my little class. I’d have 4 or 5 students sitting there, and I was tutoring, so I’d always take like trigonometry. Then I would tutor algebra, then I would always rotate it, tutor the class that I just graduated from. And it was fun. But I think building relationships with the classmates around you really helps, because there’s time crunches and when you just want to ask a question, what do you do on the chalkboard? You know, they can just tell you real quick. So networking is huge.
Lori: Yeah. Everybody has their own focus point that they’re strong in. And that’s where I think that comes into play. Because what you may not know, Cheryl might know from the class and better explain it. So it is helpful that way.
Cheryl: And those are really good skills for later on to.
Lori: yes. Work, you know, networking and collaborating with your peers at work. So yeah, that’s a great transferable skill.
Cheryl: Mhm. And like Jeff was talking about the uh creating your own solutions. I mean that’s kind of in the workplace. You’re going to have to be doing that too.
Lori: Yeah.
Seyoon: God equips us to be very adaptable in situations where, you know, you have deadlines and so forth.
Jeff: Yes, I used to look at these TV shows where they always say, and we’re on a deadline, and I’m thinking, you got $1 million budget. You don’t have no deadline, you know? But in real life, deadlines are everything. They’re everywhere. Especially at the workplace. Things have to get done. Classes, school papers, and everything has to get done. And if you don’t think there’s deadlines, just wait till one of your pieces of technology goes on the blink.
Lori: Absolutely.
Jeff: I’m going to read this all on my phone now. I’m going to read this. Get out those tapes. Oh, that was the day.
Lori: I think that’s the biggest thing for me as a blind person. I could never procrastinate anything. I always had to be 1 or 2 steps ahead of the syllabus if I could, if I saw the syllabus that I needed to have a book read by November 30th. Well, I’m not a fast reader, and knowing that the book wasn’t on NLS and we didn’t have bookshare at the time, I had to sit underneath the CCTV and read it. Well, the time it takes me to read two pages, somebody could have a whole chapter or two chapters read. So I always had to be proactive and start things a little earlier than others, I think.
Cheryl: Yeah. Now they have the CCTVs with OCR.
Lori: Yeah, exactly. Well, and they’ve got bookshare.
Cheryl: Yeah.
Lori: Oh, I can’t even imagine having access to some of the tools that the kids have today. It’s just amazing. It’s just completely amazing what is available to the blind and people that have a reading, you know, disability. Boy, I sound ancient, don’t I?
Cheryl: Yeah, we’re just a bunch of dinosaurs.
Jeff: Well, I think one of the things I used to tell students is when you start looking for jobs and graduating from college stuff, you can’t bring the disability services office with you. And so when you have them looking up books or solutions for you, you’re going to have to start learning from those. What did they do? Who did they contact? How did they do that? How do you convert a PDF? All these things that you may have had them do, or you may have had them assist you with, when you leave that college, you’re on your own. So it’s a great time to start developing techniques and wean yourself off the disability services. And you become everything that you’ve learned from K through 12 to college. And then you’re going to the workplace. You’re going to be that person that you have your solutions, you have the tools that are going to work for you in the job. And that will help you, especially during the interview, because that person that’s hiring you is probably going to doubt or wants to know how you’re going to do, how you’re going to access all these things. So building your arsenal of tools that you have at your disposal to use, is highly important.
Lori: Like I mentioned, that first semester at college, I was literally in the disability service office, I swear, every day. But by the time I graduated, I saw her maybe once a semester. I had my legs underneath me. I had a great social network. I knew how to advocate. I knew how to talk to my teachers and arrange things on my own. And yeah, and the only thing I probably regret is I wish I would have went to a full ATB center prior to going to college, because I think learning JAWS or Braille prior to going to school, I would have saved myself a lot of time. That’s the only thing I regret is not having the full ATB the full package deal before going to college.
Jeff: You’re talking about adjustment to blindness training?
Lori: That is correct.
Cheryl: Yeah, yeah, I agree, I wish I would have had like now I’m teaching students stuff that’s like, man, that would have made my day much faster. But I also had my kids too. I had two kids.
Lori: And yeah, the family kind of took a back seat for a few years, unfortunately for me to reach my goals, which I’m sure my kids don’t regret it. I mean, I’m sure they’re glad that I accomplished what I did because I provided for them. You know what I mean? But I live a successful life and work and pay taxes, you know? But there’s always going to be that little spot in my head, in my heart that said, man, you know, it really took away from my kids at that prime time of their life. And if I would have had more skills, it probably wouldn’t have taken me as long to accomplish my schoolwork.
Jeff: That’s what you’re doing through K, through 12 through whenever you start losing sight. You can’t just snap your fingers and do it, because a lot of trial and error and finding what works for you and finding out what really works for you is tough. Because all these gidgets and gadgets coming from all these companies, I would say 90% of those gidgets and gadgets that I thought about when they were advertising them and pushing them out there, they don’t even exist anymore. All these miracle things like this will do this for you, but there’s nothing better than what works for you right now. That’s what you’re going to fall back on. You might try a few other devices, few techniques, but if you have something that works for you. I’m not scanning like I used to scan, but my phone, That iPhone can take a picture and read it to you just boom. Wow. That’s awesome. Yeah, when you’re going into the job market and stuff, part of me was like, do I tell him I’m blind? I said, well, okay, well, what’s the cane for? I mean, you just told him some people talk about disclosing. Well, I suppose if you have enough sight where you don’t have to use a cane, that might work if you can make great eye contact and everything like that. But, you know, the disclosure wasn’t tough for me because I had a cane with me. And that kind of was the white elephant right off the bat.
Seyoon: You know, I spent about seven months after I graduated with my master’s degree just looking for employment. But I was very fortunate. And, Jeff, you know this, I have been working at the Apple Store for about two years. And it was it was a hustle and bustle while I was, you know, trying to work and part time and try to be a full time student at the same time. And, but I, you know, I realized later on that this is something that a lot of. It’s pretty typical for a lot of, you know, undergrads, graduate students to be doing is working in being a student at the same time, just to bring in income. So I know I had tried to do a few job interviews with in the company to try to, to get promoted and so forth. And I know a lot of times I felt like it was just like my interview skills and not so much over my disability. I feel like where I kind of got stuck. But yeah, kind of, you know, if I had any job interviews, you know, I’m not I’m going to have my guide dog with me. So I don’t know if you could, you know, when it comes to disclosing blindness, you know, it’s their choice as far as whether what they make out of that.
Lori: That’s the big thing. I mean, every interview that you have is a learning experience. You’re taking away something for the next one. It’s like I told my kids they started off at McDonald’s and dairy Queen. You know what? It probably wasn’t the greatest job. I mean, it’s not a career that you you know, you’re going to be a long term goal for you, but you’re learning time management. You’re learning customer service, you’re learning organization skills. And those are all the basic skills, all the transferable skills for that career.
Jeff: When I was in college, just because there’s a college, it doesn’t mean that all the teachers are on the same page. And I think if you’re going to be applying for a college, make sure that when you do your tours, go over to the disability services office. They call them all different things. I call it that. But go in there and talk to the person. They might have three different counselors and they’re one might handle one area of disabilities, but talk to the one that handles blind and visually impaired and communicate with them. See what they have, see what their system is. See if they’re contactable because at first you may need them. And like Lori said at the end, you know where they are, but you know you don’t need them because you’re doing the work. You’re getting that experience on how to do what works best for you, and you’ll take that to the workplace. So it’s a good point that if you’re going to look for a college, check out that office. You guys got any tips?
Seyoon: I guess when it comes to, like, tips and advice, I think the biggest thing would be just being open minded to change. I think that’s a really good one. Right. You’re gonna encounter many different people in life. But, you know, as it relates to your post-secondary education, no matter when you decide to go to college or if that’s even something in your pipeline, I think it taught me a great deal of how to navigate situations where, you know, people might not understand blindness, and it didn’t allow them to learn with you, and you learn from them, right, because they’re teaching you, but then you’re also teaching them something they might not even know, right? So unless they have friends and family who might be blind, you know, in their experiences could be vastly different in their own personal life, how they view blindness. So just being willing to educate, you know, learn together.
Lori: Yeah, I agree, I try to be that poster child. Um, I’m just using that as a but I might be the only blind person someone ever meets. And if I’m having a bad day, crabby or just, you know, acting entitled or whatever, that’s not setting a very good example. So I agree with you. I keep an open mind, be able to roll with the punches, and as much as they don’t know, teach them, you know, use it as a teaching ability. I mean, you’re learning from them, but they’re going to also learn from you. And hopefully you’re setting a good example so that they have some idea if and when the next blind person comes along. But hopefully they understand that all blind people are not the same. My needs and your needs and Cheryl’s needs and Jeff’s needs are all probably all different, but I think just setting a good example as a blind person and making it a good experience for all.
Cheryl: I think my piece of advice would just be perseverance. And don’t let anybody kind of tell you what you can and cannot do, or try to move you into a different like if you feel strongly that this is what you want to do, keep with it. I don’t know if you want to include this or not, but when I was in my Dietetics program, I was the first person ever in my university to go through that program as a blind person, and a lot of it was unknown. And there’s not really a whole lot of people who are in this program. So there wasn’t really anybody for them to, like, reach out to. And so when I signed up for my Organic Chemistry course, I was met with the professor at the beginning of my class the previous semester. He came in and he was like, oh, I heard you signed up for my class. And I’m like, yes, I did. And he was like, well, he’s like, you’re not going to pass. And I was like, what? You know, because this just took me off, you know, like I was not expecting this at all. It’s 8:00 in the morning. It was before 8:00 in the morning. And he was like, my class has a high DoA, which is, you know, DOA or withdrawal.
Cheryl: And, you know, he’s like people that can c can’t pass this class. You’re not going to. And I was like, okay, well he had already went to student disability service and told them to get me out of his class, and it was not what I was expecting. And I hope a lot of people don’t ever have to go through that. But I wasn’t going to let him stop me. I just knew that I had to change my game plan, because I knew I wasn’t going to get the help from him, and I knew I wanted to pursue this degree. So and he was the only one that taught the class. So there wasn’t another choice. And so it was just, you know, walking into his class that first day and knowing that he absolutely didn’t want me in there, you know, just being professional about it. I mean, I was angry and I could have thrown a fit and everything, but I knew I was like, I just need to get through this. And over time, I did well in there. I actually got an A minus on my first exam and he could not believe it. He’s like, how do you do this? Like.
Lori: Great.
Cheryl: Yeah. But at the end of the semester, I actually got an email from him as an apology and he, I guess, thinks more highly of blind people than he did in the beginning.
Lori: So awesome.
Cheryl: So sometimes you’re going to get the, I hope you guys don’t. I hope nobody does to have that extreme of an experience, but just stick with it, you know, because I could have just changed my mind and decided to go into something completely different because of him, but I wasn’t going to let him. So perseverance.
Lori: I think that’s a great story. You know.
Jeff: The tip I’ll leave you with is when you’re deciding on a campus, tour it, learn it, and get some O&M instruction, if you can, to orientate yourself with the campus. What buildings are where? Where’s your dorm? Where are you living? Where are the bus routes? Where’s the coffee shop? That’s very important. And that’ll help you set up your classes so you don’t have to travel. Like at the University of Minnesota. You don’t want to take classes on the east side, then the west side, then the east side, or even on the Saint Paul campus. I mean, it can get spread out on certain campuses. Sure. There’s campuses that you can travel all indoors winter round. That’s another thing you want to consider. Like MCTC in Minneapolis, You can go from class to class to class through skyways, and you never have to touch ground outside and bear the winter weather’. So there’s a lot of things to consider when you’re choosing your campus and orientation. and Mobility is really one huge one, so if you have an opportunity, get an O&M instructor and have them show you around, see where this is and that is, and you can probably check with your vocational rehab, your state services and see what they can do for you.
Seyoon, Cheryl, Lori, thank you all for coming on. And to all of you listening. Thank you. And until next time, bye-bye.
{Music}
Blind Abilities – The Musical. Every voice rises. Standing tall. Different ways of seeing. Strong and real and true. It’s not what’s missing. It’s what we do. From Braille in our fingers to the cane in our hand. We’re learning. Living. Making our stand. Blind Abilities – The Musical, Come take the ride. Come hear it all.