College

:wink:
Hello Lea.BOY DO I UNDERSTAND YOU!!!!!!
First of all, don’t worry. What college do you go to and where?
I am at Humber in Toronto and they are terrific!!!!!
My history is that I was in a Media Copywriting course doing Photoshop, quark and illustrator and having the same problems as you. I quit at the second semester, did night courses instead, found a g reat councellor within the system, was loosely diagnosed as a maybe for symbolic ld, which means math is tough and word questions a re worse. I then am retrying for the full Media course at Humber for this year, all of the teachers knowing now my problem. We have here at Humber a special ssd service, a special students service which helps ld students too. It is great nd they mke you feel brilliant instead of dumb. which of course we are in many areas my dear. It is just that our neurons did not connect properly in the math logic right side of our brains but that’s ok because was can learn to learn in different ways, but we will get it. so don’t worry. you may just need to take certain things slower or get your teacher to tutor you away from class so you can ask questions at your own pace and not have to keep up with the class. I have had a tutor now, the same teacher actually s my class, but when I get to class, I know it pretty well so I don’t sit here and want to cry through the whole thing trust me this works.
sincerly, Thornbird

Whoa Lea,

I have felt the same way my entire life! It’s nice to know someone else is going through it too. I feel so alone sometimes. I’m sure things will get better for you. Keep trying. :D

Lea:

I was also good at spelling and bad in math. One key is to know how you learn best and to convert the different and changing class material into your way of learning, which may take creativity and time. Many classes have a workbook or text for visual learning. Just the act of converting will help you to learn. I knew I would have trouble with learning computer work so, I would also make step by step procedures for getting to screens and for working the screens as much as possible. This way I would have something tangible to take away from each class and to use as needed or on the job.

You know that you don’t learn by listening so, you must pick your best and second best ways. If raw material is not available in the class for your method of learning, you must ask the teacher to help obtain it or find it on your own in book stores, online and libraries. Don’t be a sitting duck for an F. I did all I could, not that you don’t, and would get C’s. I would study in my car, in back of the book stacks in libraries and get up at 3:00AM. I tried everything. It took 5 plus years to get my BS in Bus. Ad. during which time I took summer sessions to keep my GPA up. I was on probation twice. Plus I worked full time in a gas station 5 days a week and farm work on weekends. I had no life.

I was poor at listening, so I took copius notes verbatim with my own shorthand. For math I used to create my own formulas since I could never make the book’s and teacher’s work. I used to check out math books from libraries up and down the state no matter where I was in order to find better formulas.

The reason I went to the n’th degree to “get it” was that I felt that I was not stupid and I was fascinated with general knowledge about life. I am still doing the n’th degree thing and am still frustrated but, Ritalin helps.

Good luck,

Les

Hi Lea and everyone else

I’m all of the above too. I would love to work with computers, I like being with myself and I’m quiet because of slow verbal working memory. But I just cant learn photoshop and software like that - I cant understand anything, even when i spend all my time trying to learn it. I guess i’m just not suppossed to work with that.

Hello everyone, my name is Joe and I am attending a 4 year school in ohio. I have been diagnosed wiht an LD since grade school, like most of you know, it has been a hard road filled with many tutors and… blank stares. Now, I am in school to be a teacher of history and english. :D many people were surprised to hear this, I just knew i could do it. But, many still doubt my ablilitys. I graduated high school, with some fairly low grades… and i am here now… studing for 3 hours a day just to try my best. But i am glad i can discuss things here, because no one here beleves i even have an LD. And when i tell them, they just dumb things down for me. well… its late now.

Joe

If and when Lea graduates does anyone think she will get anything better than blank stares when she leaves acedemia and enter the real world?

Does anyone seriously believe that Lea will gat any sort of accomodation?

Some people would call accomodation special treatment and they would be right. Lea is special. She has worked many times harder than her peers and she will probably be rewarded with blank stares and disbelief.

Welcome to the real world!

If you don’t give her the blank stare — or the “give up, it’s no use!” lecture — and I don’t give her the blank stare, and Ellyod doesn’t…
Believe it or not, accommodations sometimes happen.
Doesn’t make Photoshop any easier to figure out, so sometimes you have to rethink plans, but it’s worht trying a few different avenues before giving up [ and sometimes the different avenues pay off indirectly… especially if you practice being positive; if you are looking for blank stares, you *will* find them].

Why was my post deleted?

I will attempt to paraphrase.

To assume that Lea is somehow bring this mistreatment she is getting the the usually ignorant non LD world is unfair to Lea.

When someone posts here who has LD we should not make assumptions about that person’s plight especially when we have no evidence on which to base those assumptions.

What Lea is talking about is something that we all have experienced. To minimize or discount her concerns and observations is bad enough but to imply that somehow she is responsible for the mistreatment she is recieving is worse than the mistreatment itself.

If this forum is for support why is Lea being told that when the mostly ignorant non LD world misunderstands here and does not believe her she ends up getting the same treatment here?

There is no reason to assume that what Lea has experienced is something she caused. I was shocked and deeply offended bu Sue’s response to Lea in that it sounded so typical of those people who exploit the disabled for monetary gain.

Sue do you understand anything you have read so far that I have written?
I hope you do becuase attitude like yours toward people like Lea are sometimes a bigger impediment to us than the neurological factor that cause us to have LD in the first place.

Sue you should really consider talking with some real LDer instead of talking at them. Then you may learn just how much you don’t know,

Again your response to Lea was shocking and offensive to all of us with LD.

Please have the courage and intellectual honesty to let this post stand and let others here have a chance to read ir and decide for themselves whether or not you are blaming the victim.

[quote:9f16ec0e5d=”Sue”]If you don’t give her the blank stare — or the “give up, it’s no use!” lecture — and I don’t give her the blank stare, and Ellyod doesn’t…[/quote]

I don’t understand that sentence. What am I not doing?

[quote=”thornbird”]:wink:
Hello I go to Mt. Sierra in Monrovia, ca. I am studing multi media. I am in photoshop 1 right now.

I know nothing about adobe photoshop but I do know that the person who was asking about help deserves to be treated with respect and no blank stares and whatnot. Sometimes, and this is all I know, you have to just ask for help. You do your work and just look people in the eye and ask for help learning stuff, that is not a bad thing to do and as long as you do your work, no harm will come to you. It is not nice to sometimes think negative. All of us with l.d’s have to work a heck of a lot harder than most other folks with school work and what have you. As long as you work hard and stay positive and true, then all is okay. Do not let negative comments on a message board effect you, for if you allow negative comments to effect you, all you will do is blankly stare at things and wonder what if.

[quote:4e7c50a1a1=”merlinjones”]I know nothing about adobe photoshop but I do know that the person who was asking about help deserves to be treated with respect and no blank stares and whatnot. Sometimes, and this is all I know, you have to just ask for help. You do your work and just look people in the eye and ask for help learning stuff, that is not a bad thing to do and as long as you do your work, no harm will come to you. It is not nice to sometimes think negative. All of us with l.d’s have to work a heck of a lot harder than most other folks with school work and what have you. As long as you work hard and stay positive and true, then all is okay. Do not let negative comments on a message board effect you, for if you allow negative comments to effect you, all you will do is blankly stare at things and wonder what if.[/quote]

Great advice MJ!

Lea if you are reading this I posted what I posted in order to validate your observations and experiences. When you hear negative comment like you get blank stares and discounted by morons those negative remarks are uncalled for. It is no different than some sleazy defense lawyer blaming the battered wife for her lout of a husband beating her.

The idea that the mistreatment you are experiencing is somehow your fault is about as negative as it can get.

Unfortunately too many women end up convinced that things somehow must be their fault and somehow they “deserve it.”

Lea what you do deserve is what the ADA calls reasonable accomodation and you are NOT getting it.

The blank stares you are getting is really their way of telling you to go away because they really don’t want face their legal obligation to you and other LDers.

Lea I would suggest you make a bit of a scene and see if you can turn this guy around some.

I would further suggest that you contact a disabilities lawyer and see if they can have your school investigated to determine if they are ADA compliant. You can also threaten them with an ADA compliance audit.

I would also suggest that you organize with other LD students. There is strength in numbers.

You may want to try writing to Adobe and see if they will send you any tutorials that may be helpful.

I can also suggest if you are going to make PhotoShop/digital photography
a carreer, because of your disability and lack of real accomodation available you may need to specialize in something like photo restoration and color correction. Rubber stamp and curves, master those tools and strive to be the best. In time you will probably surpass your instructor.

Best of luck Lea!

To ellyod (regarding the sentence you didn’t understand):

You’re not treating her badly, which is what LD Man says happens all the time.

I was saying that we can make a difference for each other, and take some of the edge off the bad stuff. Doesn’t mean to pretend it’s not there, just not to let it turn you bitter.
I”m also not saying that a person is responsible for others’ bad treatment. Seems I struck a sensitive spot with that, and it’s an important point. No, there are blank stares and they’re not *because* people are looking for htem. The bad attitudes and simple ignorance are really frustrating, and *they’re* the folks who are in the wrong, not the folks at the receiving end.
However, I have watched students utterly misinterpret teachers actions, because they were expecting and anticipating mistreatment. These are teachers I know — and it’s simply impossible to convince the student that he should bother to attend, becaukse the teacher is going to fail him anyway. Student adds fuel to his “everybody hates me” fire (because, after all, he does fail), and still doesn’t learn to read or write. (And, sadly, sometimes the skills and abilities really aren’t there — and the person works really, really hard but still doesn’t pass because she really didn’t understand the reading, and thinks that it’s the teacher’s fault, because, after all, she worked *so* hard.)
I am sure that sometimes a positive attitude can be an impediment. More often, though it isn’t, and so when I don’t know, I play the odds. I could wax as cynical as anybody; I’ve tried it both ways. I’ve found there’s a significant degree of self-fulfilling prophecy.

Asking for accommodations with a chip on the shoulder doesn’t really increase the odds of getting them. It tends to project a sense of entitlement. Asking with the name of a lawyer on the letterhead, now, is being assertive…

I think when assumption are for facts not in evidence everybody loses. My experience tell me that if an LDer has a complaint that complaint is valid most of the time. My experience tells me that if an LDer asks for accomodation that request is valid and rarely unreasonable.

I really don’t think that we are the victims of our own doing as much as ignorant people want to believe.

Lea didn’t come back here because she figured she just experienced more of the same. I think we should ecpect people to view our needs with some skepticism but being skeptical is very different than being rude, boorish and callous.

Sometimes I think if I could I would trade this LD for some physical thing. At least people could understand that.

Educators need to know that most lders are not trying to scam them. They also need to take the attitude that if one does “so what”.

LD is as real and as serious as a heart attack and people need to get that through their thick skulls.

Agree… the way to get it through their skulls is the challenge…requires in most cases an individualized skull-getting-through plan…

Hi Lea, I hated school soo bad I used to go to the nurse so I could go home. The schools wanted to put a caral (walls around me) so I wouldn’t watch everyone else, or day dream like you.. I am in college now and just found out I have a language learning disability. The doctor was shocked that I didn’t quit school it was soo bad. I don’t understand anything unless they take the time with me or give me a sheet with the basic stuff I need to know. What I did was i went to the special ed person at the college they usually do a small screening to see if its worth you going for the full test. Its about 6 hours.. But its worth it, totally worth it. And now the school is helping me with my classes. I totally recommend you asking the school if they have any services they can help you with.. Good luck.

Dude, these are online resources that can help you learn more about that adobe photoshop; most all of the are free. I like the last one, because I looked at it, and was like; “Well heck, this could be understandable if I knew more about the photoshop!” Maybe these will help, some of them have screen shots where you can see what all buttons you have to press and all of that stuff.

http://www.designertoday.com/tabindex-16/tabid-19/DesktopDefault.aspx

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshop/

http://www.photoshop101.com/

http://www.graphic-design.com/Photoshop/

http://www.intelligentedu.com/newly_researched_free_training/Free_Photoshop_Training_and_Tutorials.html