"From Where I Sit" Video Series

Gloria L's Story – Faculty Response Video Transcript

Dr. Hank Reichman:
I found it an effective story. I had one almost specific thing that came out of it for me was, you know, the thing with the handouts or, you know, when she showed the Xerox...

[ everyone groans ]

All:
We all cringed!

Dr. Hank Reichman:
I pretty much stopped doing, you know, Xeroxing from books. Largely because so much stuff is available online and, you know, I can just put it on the BlackBoard site in a PDF file and stuff. I — it almost would have been helpful, more for me, if there were somewhere in there where it could explain that alternative in some way to show how she used an online posting because, you know, my first — okay. Her scanner scans it in, but, if it's already electronic, is there a particular format that is better for her.

Dr. John Berteaux:
When I use paper copies, I always try for the best copy available because it's just hard to read for anybody, period. They're just hard to read and, if students aren't reading their work or not otherwise accessing the work, what's the point. I think it's better when things are available in electronic form in the first place, because then they can be manipulated, again, by anyone who may want a larger font or a different font or a different presentation That makes it tough for the more creative faculty member who sometimes does things at the last minute. But, when you do that at the last minute, either that has to be designed in where there's a last minute solution that produces good copies for students, or the faculty member has to be smart enough to use good copies in the first place. The bad copies, there's just no excuse for. It's, hey — find another source.

Laurie Isenberg:
If she wouldn't have come to me at the beginning of the class with the form that indicates that she's disabled and let me know, I never would have know known anything about her disability, and I do expect things to be turned in on time and so just that little piece of the story that if something is one day late or two days late or three days late, it should be okay. It's not okay unless I know. So, are we working on the assumption that we'll always be notified or do we have to just accommodate any student who says, "Well, I can't always turn it in on time"?

Dr. Jennifer Egan:
This story I liked, and it did make me think about how much early notification is helpful and that you know what the student is doing, you know, if they're scanning pages into their computer, you know, that that's helpful, if that's what they're doing. It would help me if I know that that's what they're doing, and I was reminded of a story where I had a student who was having — had a custom-made reader that he was waiting for SDRC to get him someone to read it on tape, but he sat through half the quarter, and I didn't know he was waiting for it, and that he needed it and, you know, this horrible reader full of incredibly dense political theory, I mean, he suffered mightily, in part because I didn't know, and I don't know what exactly I would have been able to do to help him in the meantime, but I think the not knowing is really crucial and the sense that if you're left in the dark, and you don't know what the student needs, you don't know what it means when they say, "Can I have extra credit," or "I didn't do the reading" could mean anything.

Dr. Donna Wiley:
Every student may have something in their background that makes it difficult for them to do everything that's expected of them in class, and in our situation, again, as Jennifer said, with our resources and our class sizes, I mean, I'm starting to feel like, whew, how can I possibly do this and how can you organize a class and how can you have expectations that have to be met if everyone has a background that makes it impossible for them to meet those expectations and what's realistic and what's not but as a story I found it very engaging, very powerful, I mean, she's definitely got a severe situation, and I admire what she's having to do to succeed but, as a professor, I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed.

Dr. Don Gailey:
I think this is one of the benefits of this particular story is that it does raise, I think, for the first time among the stories we've seen, the stigma that's associated with disabilities and the difficulty many students have in expressing to a professor or to anyone about those disabilities.

Dr. George Station: Yeah, the disclosure issue is a major issue. I know it's major for the faculty and students. It's really difficult to support a student who doesn't disclose that they have a disability, and it's not a physical disability where the faculty member can actually, you know, as a layperson could figure it out.