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<p class="MsoNormal">I recently had a positive experience that might be helpful to some of you accommodating blind students in computer science courses.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As well as being a full-time college staffer I am also an occasional student, especially when the college offers a course that will help increase my skill set.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Computer science courses often cover visual concepts like UML, flow charts and graphical design tools. I am less intimidated than many blind students by all the visual stuff because I was a software engineer for thirty years.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I am currently taking a course in database design and implementation. Our first lab was to draw the extended entity relationship model for a database of our own creation. I explained early on to the instructor that I am visually impaired
and unable to draw. I suggested that I submit a draft of a text-based extended entity relationship model for her to examine, and if appropriate, would she accept a final version for grading.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">She liked the idea: it’s always best when the student figures out their own assignment accommodation, because it shows a willingness to do the work. My first draft had some problems and we met and discussed how I could improve my understanding
of the concepts I was hazy on – I had trouble with the concepts of disjoint specializations and partial participation, for those of you who know this stuff.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Anyway, She liked my final version so much that our next lab (which is entity-relationship model mapping to the relational model) that she is asking the other students to use a similar format to complete our second lab.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I’ve attached my lab to this message. If you are a database wiz you will note that I’ve still made some mistakes, but it’s pretty clear that I mostly understood the material. If the attachment doesn’t come through I am happy to share it.
<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">--Debee<o:p></o:p></p>
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