visually impaired student in art history course
Theresa P. Ammirati
Situtation:
We have a student here who had a traumatic brain injury which left her
with a number of problems (memory impairments,residual emotional probs.
and visualimpairments. She wishes to take an art history course
which has students viewing slides, among other things, and using that
slide viewing as a basis for papers and exams. This student took an art
history course, from the same teacher, last year. The teacher
agreed--reluctantly--to allow her to use photographic reproductions in
art books and textbooks instead of the slides, and was unhappy (the
instructor that is) about doing so. Additionally, the student had other
issues, specifically problems with writing papers (tied to the traumatic
brain injury), so all in all, her work was not entirely satisfactory.
The teacher would like us to tell the student she cannot take the
course. We are offering to meet with the student and teacher, before
registration, to discuss possible accommodations.
Question:
Is the teacher within her rights to say that the slide viewing is an
essential feature of the course? That is, since it's not a course about
slide viewing, but about paintings, must the student be able to view slides?
Is there anything else I need to know before meeting with teacher and
student?
Thanks, Theresa Ammirati
Cal Montgomery
> The teacher would like us to tell the student she cannot take the
> course. We are offering to meet with the student and teacher, before
> registration, to discuss possible accommodations.
>
> Question:
> Is the teacher within her rights to say that the slide viewing is an
> essential feature of the course? That is, since it's not a course about
> slide viewing, but about paintings, must the student be able to view slides?
It would seem to me that if the student cannot look at the artwork in the
traditional format, but can look at the artwork in another format, that's
analogous to a student who can't read the textbook in hardcopy but can
utilize a speech programme and an e-text to get the information, or a
student who can't understand the lecture in aural form but can follow it
with the assistance of an ASL translator.
In other words, I have a hard time imagining how being able to look at
slides rather than reproductions on paper could *possibly* be considered
an essential requirement.
I'm a TA. I've run into students I don't personally like, and students I
had no idea how to teach. Nonetheless, I am accepting money and tuition
reimbursement for my services to this school and to *any* of its
undergraduates who choose to register for whatever course I'm assigned to
in a given semester. I chose to take this responsibility on. And that
includes using *every ability I have* to communicate the material to my
students. It includes doing things differently if the usual ways don't
work. (They often don't, but that has a lot to do with me and very little
to do with the students. My ways do seem to be working -- on the first
test, which was a good, fair, test, we had 80 A grades and 30 non-A
grades. Normally in this course you end up skewing the grades so as to
get 10 - 15% As.) So if a student comes along whom I find really really
hard to teach, I have two options. I can quit, walk away, and let some
other person deal with the student (and with all the other students, and
with my salary), or I can stick it out, try really hard to do some
teaching, and probably learn a whole lot myself.
For example, today a young woman came to my office hours and we worked
for about an hour. She is having trouble with things that, to me, have
always been obvious. (I have the good fortune to be working in an area
which I love and am good at this semester.) As a result I ended up
playing and experimenting with new ways to present the material. I
believe my student went away with a better understanding of the
coursework. I know I came away with a better understanding of how to
teach. And as a result, I think both of us were glad we met.
OTOH, when (as happened last year) profs are permitted to transfer classes
into rooms that they know ahead of time are inaccessible to me, we end up
with them learning that I'm not a "really important" student, me learning
that ADA and 504 mean little or nothing in the "real world", and a whole
lot of mutual frustration and resentment getting built up. I don't think
this is why any of us came to school.
Cal