COLLEGE, HERE I COME!

By Jody W. Iannuzi

jody@thewhitehats.com

So, you just graduated from high school. Congratulations! I'm sure that by
now you are extremely excited and completely terrified as you anticipate
going off to college. You are leaving home for the first time and going off
on your own away from parents and little brothers and sisters.

You've gotten good grades in high school and you've been accepted to a
college of your choice. Are you ready for college, I mean really ready?

As a blind student you have always had to do things your own way and not
necessarily the same way other students have done things. Now there are
additional challenges to meet at college. Before you panic, remember how you
have approached challenges in the past. When you approach a new situation
one step at a time it isn't as overwhelming as jumping in unprepared. Yes,
you will have new challenges, but you know you can handle them.

Before classes start you have a lot to do. You will want to visit the campus
to get a full orientation to where the different buildings are. Your family,
friends or an O&M instructor can help here. Start with a visit to your dorm
room. This will be your reference point. It might be a good idea to contact
the housing office and request a single dorm room. Sharing a room with a
roommate is difficult when you have all kinds of adaptive equipment talking
all the time. Locate the bathrooms and figure out where the toilets, sinks
and showers are and how they work.

Will you be doing your own laundry? Where is the laundry room? How do you
operate the machines? You can start doing your laundry at home to get in the
habit of caring for your own clothes. The added bonus is that your mom will
be really impressed!

Next, visit the dining hall and find everything there so that you will be
familiar with where the trays, utensils and the food line is. Then find the
tables and don't forget to locate the trash and find out how to return your
tray.

Contact the Academic Advising Office and get a copy of your schedule so you
can find out what classes you will have. Visit each building and find each
classroom before the first day of class. Make notes and map the classrooms
so you can find them easily when rushing from one class to another. This
won't take long, so don't worry. Changing classes will seem routine in a
short amount of time. (Don't forget to find out where the bathrooms are
too.)

After locating the classrooms, find the Student Union building, Library,
Administration Building and locate the Office for Students /with
Disabilities. Locate other important places like bus stops and other
landmarks. Many colleges have a bell tower that rings every hour. You can
use this as a reference point. Or perhaps your campus has a fountain or a
traffic pattern that you can easily identify. Don't worry if it all seems a
bit confusing, all students feel lost and confused at first, so join the
club. It will all seem familiar soon.

Long before classes start you will want to order your textbooks from
Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic. You can find out what books you will
need from the college bookstore or the department offices for each class.
Many colleges will do this for you but you should learn to do it for
yourself. This will give you more flexibility in ordering time and you will
get to know the staff at RFB&D. This skill will come in handy years after
you graduate from college when you want to do research for work or just
order a book for enjoyment.

The objective to college is to teach you the knowledge you need to become a
professional. You have probably had a great deal of assistance in school up
to this point. Many schools and colleges will provide notetakers, aides,
readers, escorts, special transportation and many services where they will
do things for you instead of you doing them for yourself. Be careful of
this, it is a well-meaning trap.

When other people do things for you, you aren't learning to do them for
yourself. Imagine going to a lawyer who still needs help finding their way
around and they need someone to take notes for them. Not very professional,
right? You should also work on your independent living skills too. You will
be eating in public and there won't be anyone to cut your food for you or to
help you in the basic skills of good manners. You can be a very accomplished
professional but if you need someone to cut your meat people will think you
are not capable.

Contact the local public transportation system and ask them for a bus route
schedule in Braille or other media you can read. If you haven't taken public
transportation before you might want to explore this with someone who will
go with you at first. You will want to explore your local area and you can
do this one step at a time too.

Don't forget you are going to college to have FUN too! You will meet people
that live in your dorm and you will meet people in class and at the dining
hall, but you might want to get a list of clubs and associations that meet
on campus so you can meet people with similar interests. You can also expand
your own interests by joining all kinds of activities that might not have
been available to you before.

College is a completely different environment than high school. You will
find that a lot of the social negatives of high school are a thing of the
past. You do have a lot more freedoms and a lot more responsibilities.

So now you know how to find your classroom. It's time to meet the
instructor. Professors have office hours and it is a good idea to meet your
professors before class. This will give you an opportunity to explain your
abilities and needs in class. You can describe how you will take notes and
how you will be responsible for doing your work. You can request that the
professor repeat what he writes on the board and describe how this is the
best way for you to follow his instruction without needing assistance. Ask
if you can get class handouts on floppy disk or if they have a website you
can access to get this information. You might want to work out arrangements
for taking tests. Many professors will be happy to work with you directly by
giving oral exams and other professors will prefer that you work with the
Office for Students with Disabilities who can also administer exams for
them.

By taking the initiative, you are showing the professor that you are in
control and you have confidence to do the work. This will dispel any
hesitation they might have on having a blind student in their class. You
might be their first blind student, so you can instruct the instructor.

Visit the Office for Students with Disabilities and get to know the staff.
Let them know what you need help with and let them know what you are able to
do on your own. At first you might need their assistance until you find your
own way. There are usually opportunities to talk to other disabled students.
This can be reassuring in that you will discover you are not the only
student on campus with the added challenges of being disabled.

College is a wonderful opportunity, a great challenge, and a lot of fun!

BE ALL YOU CAN BE!