Accommodations

Again, I feel very lucky that I have parents that have stood by me through the year and have supported me every step of the way through from Elementary School through Junior College and now in the University setting. I could not ask for any better parents.
I would like to address something that I have a love/hate relationship with. Accommodations. Now, let me explain why I have a love/hate relationship with them. I love them. I love the help that I can get. I hate them because every time that I use them it reminds me that I have a disability.
In my circumstance, there are many opportunities that I could take advantage of that I do not. One of these is a note taker. This is where someone in your class gets paid by the school, not you, to take notes, copy them and get them to you. The Junior College that I attended used a special paper that you put another sheet under and it copies through. I am not sure if they had the writer hand it over to the student in need or had them take it somewhere and then have the the student in need pick it up. Where I am at now, again I do not know the exact process, but I do believe that the note taker takes the notes to the Disability Recourse Center and then they somehow get the notes to the student in need. I do not use this, and never have. I am not sure why I never have, but now that I have my pen that does everything but comb my hair and brush my teeth, I do not need to use it.
Many times you can rent an audio recorder for the semester from the school. This is great if you are afraid that you will miss something. When I first started college my recorder felt like a mini brick and I was always too embarrassed to use it. I felt like I was screaming "Look at me. I have a disability." The last recorder that I borrowed from the school was quite compact and I did not feel nearly as self cautious about it.
Text in another format. Each school should have the ability to put textbooks into alternative formats for you. I have mine put on audio, which is great. It is kind of annoying because it sounds a lot like I am listening to a computer talk (mostly because that is exactly what is happening). This is a great way to help me study. I can put the disk in and listen while I have the book on my lap and follow along. I have to admit, it is no boring that I do not generally force my roommates listen to it with me.
Extended time and quite rooms to take tests in. Next to my books on audio, this has got to be my favorite. I set things up with the Disability Resource Center and my instructors at the beginning of the semester and then whenever there is a test, I go take it in a separate room. Even if they do not have a separate room just for me, I am OK being away from the class. I feel I relax better if I am in a room with people taking different tests with different times lengths and starting at different times than me. There is where part of my anxiety lies, is with testing.
There are things that you can get yourself to help and not have to go through the school. One of my favorite (free) things is a downloadable program onto the computer that you can copy and paste papers into and it will read them back to you as written. The free version is the one that I use, and it defiantly sounds like a computer talking, but it is better than nothing. Apparently the version that you pay for is better, but I find that the free one serves its purpose well enough for me. Again, I find the computer voice annoying enough that I use it when I am fairly sure that my paper is close to being finished and is in need of the final touches. This program can be found at www.naturalreaders.com. Going along with that, if you are like me, typing is painfully slow and your spelling is awful. There is a program that takes voice to text. I have not tried this program, however I am told that it works really well. One thing to be aware of is that if you have a really thick accent it has a hard time picking that up. This program is called Dragon Naturally Speaking. This is for a PC. There is also a version for Mac called MacSpeach. Both of these programs run about $200 when I checked. I am thinking about getting the one for Mac, however as of this writing I have not. Windows Vista (and I am sure Windows 7) comes with a built in voice something rather. I am not exactly sure if it can take voice to text, but I do know that it can voice what is on the screen. I am quite computer illiterate so do not ask me where to find it or any specifics about it, sorry. I found it to be more hassle than I wanted to but for the effort for for my use, but some of you might find it to be useful.
For my Dyslexia there are some transparent sheets of different colors that you can use to place over text. I personally use the blue and green. They are the less strenuous on my eyes and seam to help lessen the glare. I mostly reserve them for home use, but could be used in the school or work place as well. These sheets can be very expensive, so a cheaper way to get around this is to go to your local store that carries office supplies and get the colored binder tabs that are colored and transparent. It is cheap, it you loose it it is not the end of the world, and you can use all of the different colors to see what works best for you.
Again, I love my Pulse Smart Pen by LiveScribe. I will not go into much detail about it because everything that you need to know can be found at www.livescribe.com including videos about it. Two things, you have to use specific paper with it that you can either order online or print straight from their website and two it is a little more on the expensive side. Given those two things, I willingly shelled out the initial cost, got a great deal and for what it does I think that it is well worth the cost. For an extra cost you can get a program that takes handwriting and transfers it into readable text. It can even read my chicken scratch and transcribe it with decent proficiency. I do not think that I can say too much about how I love this invention. I no longer feel like when people look at me I am screaming "Hi, look at me, I have a disability... or 5." Instead, I am the envy of people, once they realize the awesomeness that I hold in my hand.
If you are like me you can never remember how to write a proper Works Cited page and figuring out APA verses MLA formatting is a nightmare. Fret no more my friends. If you have not already found it, there is a great website called www.easybib.com On this site you can tell them what format you need your bibliography written in and insert pertinent information and they will email it to you in the format that you need it.
Each school of higher education will have Disability Resource Center, possibly by a different name. Also, each accommodation has its own requirements. Be sure to contact your specific school to find out about their programs, accommodations and requirements.