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[cosmolinguist]

I think I need to talk to my disability advisor -- not that that's ever done any good, but maybe it will one day! -- because I don't know what to do. Now I'm in my third year there's lots of "you have to do more self-directed reading" for my coursework and...while I expect that and am fine with it in theory, I understand it's part of what's expected of me, but I don't know how to do it.

Reading is exhausting for me. Just finding accessible things, downloading them, OCRing them, keeping track of them, that's all a pain in the butt. I wish I knew how screenreader users skim-read because I have no idea.

I tried asking one of my lecturers if she could help me narrow it down and she's like "look at the chapters [not specific about which ones] in this textbook..." which, doesn't help at all! I have to choose a language to work on for the semester and I'm stressed and feeling a bit "behind" on that already even though technically I'm not. But I know I can't do things at the last minute because reading is difficult and I'm so slow at it so I just constantly have this anxiety that I'm falling behind.

These must be problems that're solved, wheels that I don't have to re-invent, but I just can't see how and I'm not confident of a lot of help.

Comments

[ewt]

I have one idea that might help, if you'd like to hear it. (I'm not a disability advisor and I have no idea if it would work for you, so, if you don't want advice that is fine too!)

[cosmolinguist]

Sure, go for it. (I've had way more help from friends than my disability advisor.)

[ewt]

When I watch YouTube videos, there is often an option to watch them at 1.25 speed or 1.5 speed or even faster, which I find helpful. You may already be doing this, but I wonder if any screenreaders have a similar function. It wouldn't be as fast as skimming can be, and it won't solve the various setup issues, but it might still save some time.

(When I "skim" what I actually do is read a sentence or two on each page, or perhaps at two locations in a page if it's crowded, to see if it's anything like what I'm looking for. I don't know how easy that is to do with a screenreader though.)

[cosmolinguist]

Oh yes I already listen as fast as I can process the text, which is rather a lot faster than the speed at which people normally speak.

But you still have to get through all the words, not just a sentence per paragraph or per page or whatever.

[ewt]

Yeah, I figured it was a long shot or very obvious.

The other thing that occurs to me is that if the disability person does not have any useful ideas, a librarian might.

[barakta]

I can think of a few options.

Your disability service could recommend "more guidance for reading" for you from tutors, so not just be vague, but have a chat with you and recommend some specific authors, or journals. We used to do this for blind/VI students and make it clear you guys can't skim and skip like sighted folk can.

I presume you know about skimming the title/keywords/abstracts/conclusions methods of reading texts? Another trick I've used is look through the bibliography of good articles for anything else I might want to follow. (I think these are a bit 101 for you tho)

And yeah, most fluent screenreader users are running at 1.5x or higher, the fast fuckers are at 600-900 wpm cos they're used to it. One of your issues is that you see too well to be good at screenreading so you're used to reading with your vision which only goes so far and craps out at uni levels of reading.

I recently joined a twitter thread by the sister of a severely sight impaired student asking about study strategies that VI folk use. It is at https://twitter.com/itsmehibah/status/1165231527069962240 and there's various responses. If useful, I can go through that tomorrow and pick out the useful bits and summarise them for you. It was one of those Twitter is Being Good moments.

[cosmolinguist]

you see too well to be good at screenreading

Yep, this is where that becomes a problem.

Your disability service could recommend "more guidance for reading" for you

This is on the disability support plan that was written up when I started uni, but I've never seen it implemented and I don't know how to enforce it.

[barakta]

You probably have to draw tutors' attention to your plan. You "don't seem blind" and tutors won't remember plan details (and I don't know a good way to make them).

I'm thinking phrasing like "Can I talk to you about reading, my support plan say XXX, I'm REALLY struggling with self-directed reading because my sight impairment (or whatever words you use) mean I can't skimread, I read very slowly and I have limited stamina for reading. I'm very stressed about getting behind."

And if they're not specific enough, say so, ask them to prioritise the chapters or give you a note which says which order is perhaps best.

If tutors still won't be helpful your choices involve moaning at disability adviser or some form of complaint :(

Is there anything friends could do? I know I read super fast but I don't speak linguistics and am useless on a phone and live too far away.

I'm sorry this is all more stress and work for you, you don't deserve that.

[cosmolinguist]

I'm thinking phrasing like "Can I talk to you about reading, my support plan say XXX, I'm REALLY struggling with self-directed reading...

Yeah I think a couple of my lecturers are going to get emails to this effect tomorrow. I did try telling one of them already and she didn't get it, but I can try saying the magic words "disability support plan." She's generally a sensible human so here's hoping I just didn't explain it well enough the first time.

[barakta]

Email may work better cos they have time to read and process in a way f2f might not (but I don't know how you spoke before). You shouldn't have to keep invoking your disability plan but...

Hope you get some more joy.

[cosmolinguist]

Annoyingly, I've just realized I don't have a copy of the plan right now (it must've gotten lost when Batty Bennett re-imaged my computer without my permission or consultation!) so I can't quote chapter and verse at them but I think I might send the email today anyway.

[barakta]

Arg. Hope you can get disability services to send you another copy. Also FFS FFS at BB for not sending you your fucking data. I don't use them anymore as a DSA quote entity cos they're really shit even by low standards of shittiness (shame cos as people they're really nice and do great accessible events) but are shit and slow and crappy and incompetent.

[silveradept]

I have no advice, just aggravation at a university that isn't taking even the basics of accessibility seriously.

[otter]

Also no advice, but strong desire to kick folks in the butt. I deal with disability services of all sorts, for myself, my family, my friends. And nearly always, they fall short of doing what they have in the plan, whatever plan that is.

ETA: I make a lot of phone calls and get VERY clear about the needs that aren't being met. Sometimes that helps.

[cosmolinguist]

I deal with disability services of all sorts, for myself, my family, my friends. And nearly always, they fall short of doing what they have in the plan, whatever plan that is.

My experience is exactly the same. I'm glad it worked out well this time.