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Dear NCDE: What are Best Practices for Supporting Blind and Low Vision Faculty Fellows on Our Professional Exchanges

Date:

Question

I have a request for some guidance on best practices hosting visiting faculty with visual impairments.  While I understand that every situation is unique and may be handled differently,  I was wondering if you might be able to share with me some general information about standard/expected level of support U.S. universities are obligated to provide for fellows with visual impairment.  From your experience what are the steps that typically take place when an international faculty visitor with a visual impairment arrives on campus?  Are there any best practices that we should keep in mind? 

Justin’s Response

It’s nice to correspond over email. I am a program specialist with MIUSA’s National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange and second vice president of the National Federation of the blind of Oregon. Please allow me to share some of my thoughts in writing, after which I make myself available for a meeting over zoom if you think that would be beneficial.

Accommodations Provided

At a typical American university, the following types of accommodations would be provided depending on the individual’s situation:

  • Textbooks in screen reader compatible or enlarged formats
  • Extra time on assignments and exams
  • Notetakers

In some situations, universities might offer:

  • a staff to orient the visiting faculty to the campus including to their classes each term

Universities would not and are probably not required to provide:

  • In-home assistance for activities of daily living
  • A sighted guide around the community
  • A laptop with assistive technology

It seems like this arrangement works pretty well for people in the United States, as most of them learn skills of daily living as a prerequisite for going to college and living on their own. It unfortunately does not work quite as well for folks from other countries, where expectations appear to be quite a bit lower across-the-board than they are in the United States. Adults may come to the United States without the ability to do tasks like preparing food for themselves, moving around the community, or handling money, and that is where requests for a family member to travel with them, or a personal assistant may come from. Types of assistance that are typical in other countries include:

  • Sighted guide assistance from friends and family
  • In-home aids paid for by the state
  • Exemption from certain payments such as museum admissions
  • Pensions that are not dependent on earnings
  • Tactile guides on the ground in places of public accommodation such as train stations or shopping centers

It’s best to clearly communicate expectations for prospective and current participants on your program. IREX has some great materials for their Mandela-Washington Fellowship that can give you a good idea of what this might look like. I recommend reading the resources for prospective  fellows. 

In our preparatory workshop for the roughly 20 to 30 participants with disabilities who participate each year in the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) and Youth Exchange and Study (YES) programs, we have seen a mix of skill sets from those who are quite independent and those who have some space to grow. Sometimes universities have steered individuals to nearby training/rehabilitation centers where they can learn some basic independent living skills. Most states have some sort of a training center, and while ILC staff will most likely be accustomed to having the state pay for Americans to attend, they can be open to out-of-pocket options for those who do not access state funding. I personally recommend one of these training centers as they all mix a structured discovery approach to teaching with philosophical explorations around internalized ableism and low expectations.

The typical training program lasts nine months, but they can easily shorten it for someone who may only be able to participate over the summer.

I recommend also taking a look at our guidance for being independent as a blind person in the United States, as well as information for individuals understanding their legal rights and responsibilities while studying in the United States.

Accessible Documents

All written documentation of the program should be compatible with screen readers, and screen enlargement technologies. Please take a look at our resources on digital accessibility to get started.

The main things to keep in mind across-the-board are:

  • Selecting software services with documentation on how to use the platforms with a screen reader
  • Proper heading, subheading, sub subheading structure in documents
  • Alt text in images
  • Tables that are structured using HTML or Microsoft Word as opposed to pictures

Digital accessibility in itself is not very technical. The biggest challenge is developing a culture around digital accessibility to ensure that those responsible for document creation are following the above guidelines. Microsoft, WordPress, Drupl and other services offer plentiful documentation for creating screen reader and zoom compatible documents. In fact a sure sign of a quality software provider is the ready availability of instructional materials both for creating screen reader-compatible content and for creating content with a screen reader.

Assistive Technology

Blind and low vision people do not always come from developing countries with all the assistive technology that could benefit them in their work. Sometimes these tools can be overlooked even if there is funding to buy them, because sighted people perceive them as luxury rather than essential goods. Examples of assistive technologies and their uses:

  • Windows or Mac laptop
  • A screen reader allows a blind or low vision individual to access all the functions of a laptop computer. For Windows there is NVDA and JAWS and for Mac there is VoiceOver. The only one  that costs is JAWS.
  • Scanner with ABBYY FineReader or OmniPage software can be used to convert printed text or inaccessible PDFs into accessible formats.
  • BeMyEyes is a freely available desktop application that describes graphics, slideshows and more, and it can be very useful working with sources of information that have not been made accessible.
  • I worked with a program a while back that had put braille over the keys on a laptop intended for a fellow, making it extremely disorienting to get around the keyboard. I do not recommend adding braille to laptop keyboards as typing experts advise against reading the letters on the keys as you type and typists need the tactile markings on the “F” and “J” keys that get covered when there are braille stickers.
  • iPhone
  • VoiceOver is the built-in screen reader that makes iPhone applications accessible. IOS also includes screen enlargement.
  • The built in compass app gives clear cardinal directions regardless of data availability and can be used to orient in new spaces
  • Google maps, apple maps and other tools can give info on directions and street names 
  • SeeingAI and BeMyEyes are applications that use the iPhone’s high end camera to read everything from street signs to menus to handwritten bills in restaurants. This is why I recommend considering an iPhone if funding is available for accommodations. Far from being a luxury, it facilitates much more independence than would otherwise be possible.

I hope this information helps. I’m happy to answer any follow-up questions that you might have about these or other topics.

Sincerely,

Justin Harford

Our responses to all inquiries are confidential. While Dear NCDE posts are loosely based on inquiries that we have answered, all personally identifiable information is omitted. To ask your own question use the contact form.

Author: Justin H

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