Life for the Blind prior to ADA

Good Saturday Morning Pia. 

To answer some of your questions regarding how blind students managed prior to the passage of ADA. 

Yes.  Reader's were provided, either paid for by the state or through a very excellent volunteer service. 

None of the blind students at the University of Washington used scribes back in the 60's.  Some of us whose Braille skills were pokey, taped lectures and then laboriously went back through then and made notes in the evenings.  But most of the students at the time had good Braille skills and used slate and stylus to take notes. 

Proof reading was certainly a problem since we used typewriters to do our reports and term papers.  For written reports I would first Braille out my report and then carefully type it line by line, hoping that I did not strike a wrong key.  When I first returned to college as a blind man, I entered the community college near me for a couple of quarters, to get myself back in the habit of not sleeping or doing anything but studying.  This college had just opened and they had a wonderful resource room.  There were tape recorders and a row of typewriters.  I took my Braille notes and typed up my term paper and proudly turned it in.  My instructor looked at the paper and asked me to wait until the room had cleared out.  "Carl," he said in a sad voice, "There is nothing on these pages except dents." 

We went into the resource room and discovered the problem.  The entire row of brand new typewriters did not have a single ribbon.  At least he gave me extra time to type my paper over.  Final exams were left to each professor and me to work out.  I made a habit of becoming acquainted with each professor and instructor prior to the start of the quarter, checking out what books and additional materials I would need to have read.  I would farm out much of the reading to a core of dedicated readers in advance, and they would drop off the finished tapes in plenty of time to study prior to exams.  I also had live readers ramming through materials that came in too late to farm out.  Some professors loved to begin a class by saying, "I found a new book that addresses this topic much better than the one I had assigned..." and off I'd trot to the book store to grab a copy and call in the readers. 

But the final exams were always done by a reader.  There was one exception when the professor said, "I'll read the exam to you."  Fear gripped my heart.  Think of it, bumbling me being tested by the fellow who wrote the exam.  But it turned out to be even better than if I'd had a volunteer.  We sat outside on the veranda and he began.  The exam turned out to be a multiple choice.  He would read the question and then, one by one he would read the possible answers.  He was so proud of his clever writing that he would chuckle at the obviously wrong answers and read the correct answer in a very solemn voice.  I received an A. 

But usually I would bring a reader to a private room and we would plow through the exam.  No professor ever set a time limit.  The class had the hour to do the exam, but using a reader could take longer.  Mostly I did finish in the allotted time, but not always.  No one ever graded me down for that. 

 

A few years before I entered the University of Washington, an Angel dropped out of the sky.  She came from Chicago.  A retired professional photographer, she moved to Seattle to care for her mentally ill daughter.  This Angel was one of those people who just had to be of service.  she looked around and found two areas to dive into.  She began arranging drivers for wheel chair folks, and she began lining up readers for the blind. 

Her name was Edith Mardy.  Edith brought all of her business ability and organizational skills to her volunteer work.  She would go to the various women's clubs and do presentations, finding many ladies from well to do families just looking for something to do.  Most of my readers were wives of bankers, professors, lawyers, doctors, and businessmen. 

Edith would keep lists.  I would call her and tell her how many readers I was looking for.  She would give me names.  I would call and make arrangements.  Edith would check back later, both with me and with the readers to see if all was going well.  Woe be unto any student who received a bad report from one of Edith's readers.  You had one chance to mess up, and then you would not be on her list any longer.  As a result this service ran for years like a well oiled machine. 

I could rave on for pages about this amazing woman. 

Carl Jarvis

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Pia

To: Carl Jarvis

Cc: Bob Hachey ; acb-l@acb.org

Sent: Friday, July 20, 2012 9:35 PM

Subject: Re: [acb-l] Not a cause to celebrate: Hotel boycott

Carl, did you get readers and scribes in college to take notes and read
tests for you or write answers?  How did you proof read your written
papers if they were done on the typewriter?  Did they give help with that?
Just interested in what was provided before ADA.  Now they have to provide
that stuff, but wondered how you took a test in college and if they gave
you any extra time to do so.  If not, how was a test taken and what was it
like?  Interesting stuff.  Thanks.

On Fri, 20 Jul 2012, Carl Jarvis wrote:

> Bob and ADA Fans and Foes Everywhere,
>
> For the disabled community as a whole, ADA has brought significant
> improvements. Anyone can Google ADA and read all about it.
> As far as ADA's impact on the blind...yes, I said "the blind", it's
> debatable. Has the percentage of employed blind gone up over the past 22
> years? That old number of 70% is still nipping at our heels. Has the
> standard of living gone up? Last time I checked the figures it appeared
> that a big bunch of us are at or below the poverty line. What about those
> much needed home care services that are used by elderly blind folks in order
> for them to continue living in their homes? After an initial surge to a
> point where home care was almost at a survival level, the dollars began
> going off to fight for Freedom, and blind elders once again sank into
> lonely, dangerous lives. Dangerous because so many of them were forced to
> cut corners, skipping meals, failing to seek medical attention, and opening
> their doors to strangers who offered help as a way to gain access into homes
> and steal their meager belongings.
> As far as education, assuming there might be a job at the end, I see only
> improvement in the kinds of equipment students now have at their disposal.
> And that is not to be lightly dismissed.
> My entrance into college as a blind man was in 1965.
> Services for the Blind equipped me with a Perkins Braille Writer, a 5 inch
> reel to reel tape recorder, and a portable type writer. All of which I
> carried about with me, along with a white travel cane and, because this was
> Seattle, an umbrella. I'm a big man and it was a struggle. I have no idea
> how some of the slender, inactive blind students did it. Most of my classes
> were cleverly situated so I had to run at neck breaking speed in order to
> get from one to the next.
> But we were given a study room in the library, with some equipment
> available, and we had the services of a VRC who came once or twice a week to
> provide guidance and to run interference if we had problems with some of the
> instructors or professors.
> But mostly he taught us self advocacy, which was a valuable skill to have.
> All schooling, books and direct expenses were paid for by the state of
> Washington.
> We were the envy of other disability groups. This was long before curb cuts
> and ramps and reasonable accommodations were put in place.
> No wonder at the White House Conference on Disabilities, the blind attendees
> were run down by angry chair users.
>
> Carl Jarvis
>
>       ----- Original Message -----
> From: Bob Hachey
> To: acb-l@acb.org
> Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2012 10:54 PM
> Subject: Re: [acb-l] Not a cause to celebrate: Hotel boycott
>
> Hi Michael,
> You make a very powerful point here. I agree with you that without the
> ADA
> we'd not have the level of accessibility we do today. Has it been too
> slow?
> you bet. Do we still have a long way to go? Again, you bet, especially
> when
> it comes to employment.
> Here's an interesting question to ponder. I wonder how we here in
> America
> stack up against the rest of the developed world. That is, Europe,
> Japan,
> Australia and others? For instance, in terms of audio description and
> accessible set top boxes, England is considerably ahead of us.
> One more thought.
>
>
>
>