Unequal access to education

I am often asked this very searching question and my response is as follows:
Yes, we are still struggling to gain equal access to education, and why is this? My thoughts are as follows.

We are constantly fighting to gain access to textbooks, both in printed format and in accessible electronic formats.
We are continually fighting to gain equal access to websites that offer distance learning courses.
We seem to be constantly fighting to gain access to access technology that is current and able to help us navigate websites plus more.
We are also constantly striving to break down attitude barriers so that we can communicate more effectively with professors and university officials.

That precious day when all of these things could become a reality for blind persons is still a few steps away but I will not give up hope.

I’m Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and urging you to go out there and share my thoughts with others.
Visit www.afb.org to learn more.

Accessing web based courses

As technology continues to steam along, blind and sight impaired students need to find a way to keep up. It is only going to become more popular so what do blind and sight impaired students do? This is the big question for me who loves to take web based courses.

We can lobby for more understanding from web developers, educational institutions, and professors and teachers. We can start by doing this in an orderly way using logic as our mainstay. We can offer to work with the above mentioned to make web based courses more accessible to us.

There is no doubt about it; we have no choice in the matter and if we have a hope and Prayer of being able to have access to online education and distance learning courses, we must speak up now. Education is one of the cornerstones of society and we as blind persons have every right to be able to access it like anyone else.

If we are shut out from web based courses then there goes another avenue for us to be treated equally. Time for us to identify ourselves.

I’m Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and encouraging you to go out there and share our concerns with others. Visit www.acb.org to learn more.

The right to education

The right to education is for everyone; it is not a privilege.  It is there for all no matter what and as a blind person who has been so fortunate to have been able to receive a master's degree in Business Administration from one of the best universities in the world, McGill university of Montreal, I feel even more strongly that all blind persons should be given every opportunity to reach for the skies. 

 

They should be given equal access to learning whatever they desire.  They should be given equal access to the Internet and other resources that are used by the mainstream student and every effort should be made to ensure that they receive the best training and attention possible.  No school, college, or university should be allowed to offer excuses.  Technology has come along far enough to enable texts to be produced in alternate formats such as Braille, large print, and in readable electronic texts.

 

There is nothing to stop professors from being able to include blind and partially sighted students in their classes.  There is nothing to stop distance learning providers from making their online courses accessible to the blind and partially sighted and there is nothing to stop institutions of learning from opening their doors to blind and sight impaired students. 

 

I'm Donna J. Jodhan your friendly accessibility advocate wishing you a terrific day and inviting you to go out there and share my thoughts with the rest of the world.  Visit www.nfb.org or www.acb.org to learn more.

 

 

Blind Parents and Sighted Kids

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of seeing first hand how my friends as blind parents interact with their little sighted boy.  I was very impressed and am here to tell you that yes indeed!  Blind parents can and do make fine parents to sighted kids.

 

My friends have a three year old boy Graham; the light and joy of their lives.  Melanie is partially sighted and Brian is totally blind.  They are wonderful parents and Graham is just a joy to be around.  From my observations, he seems to understand that his parents are blind but sometimes he forgets; he is just a kid still.

 

For example:  If they are seeking to find out where he is he would say in his tiny voice "I'm over here."  I love the way he describes things to his parents in his childlike way.  Whenever they need to, they would tell him to hold on to their hand as they walk.  Whenever they go walking, Graham seems to know exactly what to do.  I was so impressed when Brian asked Graham to tell him where the garbage was and like clockwork, Graham took him right up to the garbage bin.

 

Graham is only three but just imagine what a fine young man he will be by the time he reaches his teens.  He would have had years of experience at interacting with blind persons; something that so many of our sighted kids miss out on.  What if we were to have some kind of training session for our young ones?  Maybe put it in as part of a schools curriculum?

 

When I went on my ski trip to Utah earlier this year, I was privileged to see that one of the schools in the area was teaching their kids how to guide blind skiers.  Good work!

 

I'm Donna J. Jodhan your friendly accessibility advocate wishing you a terrific day and encouraging you to go out there and help educate our kids on how to interact with blind persons.

Visit www.nfb.org to learn more.

How I Did It at University

Things are very different today when it comes to how blind and sight impaired students do such things as take notes at lectures, read their text books, and interact with the mainstream student.  They use electronic note takers that are equipped with special access technology, they are able to receive textbooks in electronic format, large print, and Braille, and they are finding ways to integrate more easily into the mainstream student population.

 

When I attended university, I taped almost all of my lectures and then I had to go home and listen to them and then take notes in Braille.  I received most of my textbooks on cassette tapes, and I either typed my exams or had oral ones with my professors.  My exams were given to me either in Braille or on cassette and my interaction with the mainstream student population was very limited; mainly due to my own shyness.

 

By the time I completed my Master's degree, computers were just coming into play so you see!  I did not have the luxury of the electronic age.  Nevertheless I managed to succeed and there was one thing that I always adhered to and it was not taking any extra time to do my exams.  Even when it was offered to me, I always refused and my reason for doing this was that I felt that it was imperative for me to complete my work in the same length of time like everyone else.  It was important for me because when I stepped into the real world, I would be fully ready and prepared to compete with the rest when it came to completing tasks and jobs in a specific length of time. 

 

I have continued to be a student since graduating and within the last few years, I have had the luxury of being able to take courses using electronic methods but I still continue to stick to my way of completing exams in the time allotted to the mainstream person.  If you would like to learn more about how blind and sight impaired students go about getting textbooks in electronic formats or if you would like to learn more about some of the note takers that they use, then you can visit the American Printing House for the Blind at www.aph.org.

 

I'm Donna J. Jodhan your friendly accessibility advocate wishing you a terrific day and asking you to go out there and share my blogs with others.

Building Bridges and Breaking Down Barriers

This is something that I have been preaching for years now; we need to start building bridges and breaking down barriers.  For too long, the blind community as been going the other way on these two tasks but I think that we are finally getting it.  I have an idea to promote my idea this day and let's see what your thoughts are on this particular subject.

 

Why not make our blind and sight impaired kids the new builders and breakers of tomorrow?  Why not give them the opportunity to help us build bridges and break down barriers?  They are our hope and promise for the future.  They will be the ones to carry the torch beyond the big blue horizon and they will be the ones to help fulfill our dreams.  They will be the ones who are going to be charged with carrying on our work.

 

With all of this in mind, there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting them involved in starting to build bridges and break down barriers.  If we can help our blind and sight impaired kids to understand what they need to do in order to accomplish all of this, if we can help them to avoid some of the more common pitfalls that we have inadvertently blundered into, if we can cultivate healthy attitudes, motivation, and commitment into them at an early age, and if we can assure them that their future will be as bright as they want to make it, then at the end of the day we would have accomplished our mission. 

 

I'm Donna J. Jodhan your friendly accessibility advocate wishing you a terrific day and urging you to go out there and share my blogs with the rest of the world.  To learn more about how you can motivate blind and sight impaired kids to help build bridges and break down barriers, visit www.acb.org.

If I Believe

If I believe in me, then others will believe too and in turn, if I believe in others then soon the world will start believing.  This has been my motto for all of my life and it continues to work for me.

 

When I was a kid, I believed that if I worked hard enough I could achieve my objectives at school and it worked.  When I was a teen I believed that if I pushed myself hard enough I could accomplish my goals to obtain a master's degree in Business administration and you know what?  I was one of the first blind persons in Canada to graduate with a master's degree in business administration from McGill University.

 

When I graduated, I believed that if I tried hard enough, I could become a member of any blue chip Canadian company and you know what?  I did it in grand style.  I worked for companies like the Bank of Montreal, IBM Canada, and the Royal Bank of Canada. Through good times and bad times, I kept on believing in myself and when I was downsized in the 90s, I still kept on believing in me.

 

I have been in business for myself for the past 15 years and for the most part it has been a continuing struggle to keep believing in me but at the end of the day belief is what keeps me going.  As a professional student at heart, I have managed to use belief to become one of the first blind persons in the world to obtain certifications in Microsoft Systems Engineering and Novelle Network Administration and I will keep on using belief to enrich my academic as well as my professional life.  I am also going to use belief to convince others to believe in themselves.  As I see it, belief is the only way for us to keep on believing.  If I continue to believe in me, then my task to help the kids of the future believe in themselves will only become easier.

 

 I'm Donna J. Jodhan your friendly accessibility advocate wishing you a terrific day and urging you to go out there and share my blogs with the rest of the world.  I invite you to contact me anytime at donnajodhan@sterlingcreations.ca.

As a Blind Child

I consider myself to be extremely fortunate; as a blind child I was surrounded by loving and devoted parents who were determined to help me live as mainstream a life as possible.  I also had two brothers, a granny, and other family members who helped me to enjoy so much.  This does not mean that they did not try at times to protect me from certain obstacles, objects, and daily challenges.

 

I learned to fly a kite and pitch marbles.  My dad used a big ball to play football and cricket with me, and he taught me how to swim in the ocean and ride a bicycle.  Heck, he even showed me how to surf and ride the waves.  Dad was my nature buddy; walking with me in the lush green meadows, smelling and identifying the various flowers, and holding those timid little butterflies in my hand.  He ran with me, walked with me, and we had so much fun!  He even took me fishing and showed me how to make boats out of large coconut leaves.

 

My brothers played hide and seek with me, ball games with me, and helped me to embrace the mainstream world.  Mom and granny were my teachers of the domestic side of things.  I hung out in the kitchen with them, learned how to write printed letters, and got a wonderful education on fashion and design.  My cousins filled in so beautifully, helping me to grow up in a wonderful world.  They read to me, cut out clippings from magazines for me, and walked with me on the beach as well as everywhere else; from quiet spots to busy streets. 

 

I had pets; big happy dogs and delicate little birds.  I played with all of them and I learned so much from everyone.  I looked at it like this:  Dad was my teacher of all things outside the home; from nature to politics, and from economics to religion and literature.  Mom and granny were my tutors of life; from the kitchen to the clothes closet and from the school to the church.  My brothers and cousins helped me to have fun.

 

O what it was to be a blind child and I loved it all!  Then came the skates and skis and I was moving on to other things.  I grew up but still I continued to be a blind child!  I still am in so many ways; if only it is in my mind on those quiet nights as I wait for the Sand man to escort me into dreamland.

 

I'm Donna J. Jodhan your friendly accessibility advocate wishing you a terrific day and asking you to go out there and share my blogs with the rest of the world.  You can visit me anytime at www.sterlingcreations.ca.

Barriers to Careers

Now, please do not laugh when I tell you this one! Believe it or not, most of society still thinks of us blind folks as only being able to play music for a living. Really! They think of us as musicians and probably so because of the successes of people like Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, and so on.

Years ago I went on a trip with my parents to Europe and had just graduated from University. My proud papa was going around telling everyone that I had just graduated. Before he could tell them what degree I had graduated with, one very innocent gentleman piped up and said, "Isn't it nice that she got her degree in music!" I gently told him no, I had just obtained my degree in commerce. My parents later told me that the poor man looked as if he wanted to disappear under the table.

In actuality, blind persons face several barriers to careers. For some reason, society seems to have preconceived notions about what blind persons can and cannot do for a living, or I should say that many persons do not even think that we are able to work. They look upon us as people to be taken care of rather than productive and contributing members of society. They falsely believe that we can only work such careers as: piano tuners, teachers to teach other blind persons, social workers to help other blind persons, basket makers and weavers, and musicians. A very disheartening picture if I may say so.

I'd like you to visit my company's website at www.sterlingcreations.ca to see what I do for a living and if you would like to know more, feel free to send me an email at donnajodhan@sterlingcreations.ca.

I'm Donna J. Jodhan, your accessibility and special-needs business consultant, wishing you a terrific day and inviting you to go out there and tell the world that blind persons can do a lot more than just play music or weave baskets for a living!