Hamid Mehdizadah, a blind student, completed his undergraduate studies in Political Science in the Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies. He is now in his first year of the Graduate Program in Political Science, specializing in international relations and political theory. We asked Hamid for his perspective on the student academic experience.
Q: As a blind student, what challenges/issues do you encounter when doing research and studying?
A: The major materials in my field are books and journals – visual information, of which very little is available in a usable format for me, sometimes only a few of the, say, 10 sources I might want to use. Whereas a sighted student can take it for granted that when they need a book they can simply go to the library and get it, I need to use an alternative format such as Braille, audio, or electronic format which can be read by computer. It can take a great deal of time to search out and obtain materials in alternate format – often up to two months or more. In addition, only approximately three to five percent of all printed books are translated into alternate formats. Even transcription services can be limited, usually to readings that are required for a course.
Some books in alternate formats, for example those at http://www.bookshare.org containing alternate format books donated by members and supporters, are available only to US residents. It would be most useful to focus on harmonizing such initiatives and making any necessary changes in copyright or other laws to make these alternate formats more widely available.
Q: How do the services offered by the Libraries’ Disability Services department help you to deal with any or all of the challenges you have identified?
A: Disability Services can certainly deal with some of the challenges I encounter. Once a list of required readings is available, Disability Services will transcribe them into an alternate format if one does not already exist.
In addition, more and more online (digitized) journals are becoming available to me. However, there is no single format for digitized material, which means that only some materials are accessible to me. It would be most useful if standards could be developed for digitized materials.
Q: Do you use any of the adaptive equipment when working in the Libraries? Please describe this equipment, how you use it, and how it may assist you in furthering your research and study.
A: The Adaptive Technology area of the Scott Library has several technologies which are helpful to me as a blind user. I can use a standard computer since I know the computer keyboard layout and function keys, with or without the JAWS reader. The JAWS software can be installed on any standard computer to allow reading aloud, using synthetic speech, any Windows layout including Microsoft applications such as Internet Explorer, Word, Outlook and so on.
Using JAWS I can read screens character by character, sentence by sentence, or in other groupings that I choose. It does take some time to train the ear to the synthetic speech interface. One of my favourite websites is http://ocw.mit.edu , MIT’s open courseware site with 1200 online courses – a wealth of information for courses that allow me to pursue interests such as languages or linguistics.
I use the scanner with OCR software to take printed documents ands scan them into electronic format. Scanners do have their limitations, such as with mathematical formulae or handwritten documents.
Finally, if I want a book which is not available in alternate format and cannot be scanned, I can ask a human reader to read the material to me.
Q: What can your professors do to assist your academic progress?
A: Faculty members can do several very important things to enrich my academic career at York:
Make course reading lists available as early as possible. If I don’t know what my required readings are until September, there are seven books on the list and it takes at least two months to transcribe these to alternate format, sometimes I won’t receive my readings until the course is almost over. This makes it very difficult to catch up before the end of the course.
Use the Internet. If the course has a supplementary website with other online materials, this can enrich the course experience for me. Many professors already post course outlines, readings and other materials – even the text of lectures – on a course website. Every professor has the choice to put a little or a lot on the web – but even the minimum, such as a course outline and reading list, is very helpful. All my professors this semester have websites. Even a couple of years ago I might arrive in class with no foreknowledge of the course outline – but more often now, I can arrive prepared.
Never assume, always ask. I don’t expect others to know what my situation is – come and talk to me. As a blind person, I am the best expert on my own disability, and if someone asks me how to make my academic experience better, I am happy to tell them.
Avoid stereotyping persons with disabilities. People often try to put those of us with a disability into a mold. I don’t fit a mold. I consider myself a regular guy who happens to be blind – like everyone else I can take a course and do well (or not so well, if I don’t apply myself). So please, treat me like everyone else in many respects – unless I ask for help. And when I am researching and studying, help me by making things more accessible to me.
I may have to work a little harder or come up with creative solutions for things that sighted people take for granted, and although I have encountered challenges both in the working world and the academic sphere, I have also found creative ways of coping with them.
For more information on library services for users with disabilities, click Library users with disabilities under SERVICES on the Libraries homepage.
