My second semester of freshman year in high school (which was in January 2012), I received approval to start using a laptop in the classroom. I had an IEP for low vision and dysgraphia, and was beyond thrilled to finally have a device in the […]

I’m one of the new students in your class this year. You probably have some idea of who I am, since you recently got a copy of my SAP, 504, or IEP. Before the school year begins, I have listed ten things that I want […]

During my sophomore year of high school, teachers constantly were forgetting to enlarge my assignments (a little more on that here), leaving me to figure out how to make them accessible myself.  I normally would leave class to go ask a paraprofessional to enlarge the […]

I had the opportunity to take a class my junior and senior years of high school that allowed students to test for Microsoft Office certifications. These certifications, which are internationally recognized, included Word, Word Expert, Excel, Excel Expert, and PowerPoint. The Word, Excel, and PowerPoint […]

As a student with low vision and chronic illness, my college experience has been very unique. I have learned to rely a lot on technology for my success, and having a desktop computer in my apartment has helped me be able to balance everything. Here […]

As a college student with low vision, chronic pain, and chronic migraines, the items I bring to class to help me succeed are often vastly different than my classmates. This doesn’t mean I have an unfair advantage, but rather that I use different tools to […]

Before I even started at my university, I had already talked to almost three dozen faculty and staff members on the phone and in person to ensure that I would not have any disruptions in receiving my approved classroom and housing accommodations.  Because of this, […]

At my university, the Office of Disability Services has its own testing center that students can use to take quizzes and tests assigned in the classroom, as well as midterms and final exams.  There are single rooms with CCTVs and long tables, small cubicle-style areas, […]

Every state has their own form of standardized tests. In my home state of Virginia, we have the Standards of Learning exams, most commonly referred to as SOLs. At least one of these tests is administered a year, from third grade to twelfth grade, and […]

On my seventeenth birthday, I presented at a science fair affiliated with my school district about my research on how the color of paper can affect the readability of the text on the paper.  This was the first time I really investigated how important contrast […]