DescriptionChristy is an undergraduate student with very low vision, and lives in the student residence on campus. She likes it because it's a short walk to classes and has a lot of helpful features for people with special needs, "it's got ramps and hand rails everywhere!" She feels pretty comfortable walking to classes and other buildings by herself. She's interested in becoming a Cell Biologist and is taking 5 classes this semester, most of which are large lectures with labs like BIO 1A. Her French class is only ~20 other students so it's quite different from most of her science classes. In her science classes she feels like she needs to learn too much material in the time given. For example, Organic Chemistry is too much. Most of Christy's classes have sites in bSpace (the Sakai Learning Management System), but some use them more than others. It's always a struggle to keep track of everything she has to do with her courses, study sessions, etc. She says, "it would help me it if all my coursework were in one place -- I have to open so many tabs." Christy often finds herself creating "to do" lists but infrequently follows through with checking things off the list. Somehow she manages to stay on top of things. She often wishes that her bSpace course sites could help her "remember" when assignments are due. She'd also love to be able to have some sort of electronic Post-it notes on the computer to collect links and remind her what to read or get done tomorrow. Whenever she has extra time she organizes her typed-up notes on her laptop. Christy's low vision makes it difficult to use the mouse when she's using a computer. She uses the keyboard heavily and often she uses screen magnifier to see portions of the screen, but she finds it's quicker to use text-to-speech support in conjunction with the keyboard. Christy has a laptop because there is only one computer lab on campus for students with special needs that has assistive technology-enabled computers and it isn't always convenient for Christy to go there, especially if she's working on projects with other students. She consciously tries to give files simple and meaningful names and text labels, so she can access them easily using a screen reader. She is also very aware of the file extensions, because she can't distinguish the file types very well by the little icons. A good day for Christy is a day with only 2 classes, where she gets out at 2:00pm and can play games and hang out with friends--one of her favorite things to do is to hang out with friends and be social. She also spends quite a bit of time on the phone talking with friends. Her cell phone doesn't have any special accessibility features built into it, but she figured out how to use the keypads and basic calling and receiving functions, so she doesn't have to strain her eyes all the time trying to see what's on the screen. On a bad day, Christy has lots of school work to do. She'd really like to be involved in more extracurricular activities, but usually spends so much time trying to get through her school work that she can't find the time. However, she has made time to be a member of an advocacy group on campus for low vision students. The group lobbies to improve campus accessibility for students with visual impairments, to work out the perceived discrimination issues, to help the students with special needs understand what their rights and responsibilities are, and to put them in touch with campus accessibility resources. |