Post secondary math materials

[Susan Baker]

Good afternoon!

I am not 100% sure this is the correct forum to post this question in, but any insight or direction you can give will be appreciated. For students in the K-12 who use UEB with Nemeth, when they go off to college and have to take general math courses just to fulfill college requirements (let's say they are going for a non-math or non-science major, perhaps something along the lines of education or social work). Would they still be able to order their books in the UEB with Nemeth code or would there be a possibility they would be receiving their class books in UEB?  Can you give me any info on how that process would play out?

Thank you very much.

Susan Baker

[JanaBrailles]

Hi Susan,

My experience has been that students who go off to college ask for the materials they require and use. That being said, if they request Nemeth (or embedded Nemeth), that is what they should receive. If they ask for UEB, that is what they should get. I can’t speak across the board, but only what my past students have indicated to me. If you have a college-bound student, THEY should be articulating what THEY use to DSPS when trying to acquire their texts. Some colleges and universities have a certified transcriber and others contract out. I know when a former student of mine was going to UCI School of Law, the “transcriber” the university had was merely dumping stuff into a translator (that person did not even know braille!) and that is what they were giving her. She came to me (as her transcriber through jr. high and high school) asking if I would be willing to communicate with one of her professors in order to re-do some of the work she had requested because the transcriber had strung all of the law briefs into one document and she couldn’t tell where one brief ended and a new brief was beginning. She and I both had conversations with their disabilities department and after she spoke up MANY times, they finally complied. She is now a disability rights attorney!

The student should be their own best advocate for what their needs are. The schools should be complying (through DSPS) with the requested medium.

I hope this helps.

Jana Hertz

Transcriber and Educator Services Committee

[Susan Baker]

This was very helpful information, and I especially appreciated your thoughts that we need to let the student, at this age, take charge of voicing their needs.  Thank you.

Susan

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