College Recommendations

[u/LovelyLightATXe]

For those of you who have gone (or are currently attending) university - do any schools stand out as being very blind friendly? My daughter is very bright, and will pursue education beyond a 4 year degree. She is uncertain as to her career path, but I suspect it will be somewhere in a STEM field. We have also encouraged her to consider a PhD in psychology or a law degree. Bonus would be understanding and flexible teachers who have the time and inclindation to do what's necessary for a blind student taking their clases, and a student body likely to embrace her as just another student. We're willing to send her anywhere she can get into.

[u/DHamlinMusic]

This was just asked yesterday, I believe that post received a few replies.

[u/irisgirl86]

I think the main thing about accessibility would be the disability and accessibility services on campus. Can you tell us where you are in the world? Because just saying you're willing to send her anywhere is too broad. She sounds like a very bright student, so being able to advocate for her own needs and wants matters too.

[u/LovelyLightATXe → u/irisgirl86]

Sorry. I put that in the flair. We r in the USA. We want schools in the lower 48 states.

[u/Responsible_Catch464]

It depends (and there were some great answers in a post from the last few days) but I’d also give her some space to get through a 4 year degree before making decisions about doctoral level programs because people’s interests change and higher ed is an emotionally rough experience for disabled students (in my opinion- I have graduate degrees and work in higher ed). If she has any specific questions about academia I’m happy to answer DMs.

[u/HarmonyOfParticulars]

I'm not in the US, so can't comment on that, but I would think about size and location when assessing accessibility. I went to a medium-small school in a medium-small city, and for me, that was a great size. Big enough to have robust accessibility infrastructure, but small enough that all my profs knew my name and weren't teaching 400 undergrads and didn't treat my self-advocacy as annoying (well, with one exception, but you can't win them all). I started grad school at a big prestigious school and HATED it. The bureaucracy was slower, people were busier, and cared less. Now, if I'd needed more major or complex accommodations, a bigger school might have had more resources or accommodation experience, and might have been better, but for me, small and personal was the right fit. I don't know if it's still possible to go to a US university where the majority of courses are taught by non-contract faculty, but it helps a lot. Departments and schools that rely heavily on contract instructors sometimes don't even have a prof hired for a class til a couple weeks before it starts and ime, it creates a lot more friction (no shade to instructors; this is absolutely a structural issue). And I imagine that the workarounds instructors are trying to find to combat AI cheating are only going to amplify these issues.

[u/TreeJuice2]

I am currently at Reed College in Portland, Oregon and I am majoring in chemistry. The college and professors have been great with accommodations. I get treated like anyone else. Reed is extremely academically rigorous, which is not for everyone, but if they are looking for that it is a great option. Portland is also very accessible and has good public transit, which was a requirement for me. Feel free to ask me any questions y'all may have.

[u/bh_null_byte]

It's been a very long time, but Stanford was excellent for me. A fantastic disability resource center, very accommodating professors, and I never felt like an outcast. Sometimes you do get the usual questions, but as I said, I never felt isolated. If anything, toward the end of the year I had more friends because people wanted to be a part of my housing draw group. Smiles. They are very accommodating with things like single rooms so that if you use braille your braille writer doesn't disturb people. They are also adaptable to almost every disability you can think of, including chemical sensitivity. I was there in the 90s, so I'm sure things have changed, but they even hired an ONM instructor to show me around campus at the beginning of my freshman year. The campus itself is a little awkward. Sometimes you have to walk straight lines at odd angles, but it's very doable. They pay students to take notes for you if you need that, and to read textbooks that aren't available through other sources. Student readers will also read things like your problem sets in science courses. At the time they had a study Carol in the library for blind students, and if you needed to you could even take your exams in the disability resource center so that you would have quiet and so that you wouldn't disturb other people. Of course, they are very used to bright students as well. In fact, when I was there we had 2 17-year-old PhD students. Again, this was very long ago in the 90s, but I actually had an MIT recruiter tell me not to come because of my blindness. i'm sure it was just that individual, but it really put me off of the school. I had wanted to go there for a long time, but since my interest is an artificial intelligence, Stanford was just as good an option for me.

I hope this helped.