Review meetings and accessibility resources. including tactile drawing boards and Braille transcriptions, helped this Tucson native succeed in a highly visual course.
Vic Verbalaitis El Inde Arizona Evamaria Tanori-Contreras enjoys college life at the University of Arizona.
Tucson native and first-generation college student Tanori-Contreras was the first blind student to take the organic chemistry course at the UA last fall, according to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. And not only did she take the course, but she earned a high A. “A lot of the time in my classes, I have to put in probably twice or three times as much work to understand the material,” Tanori-Contreras said. “But in this class, I feel like my amount of outside work was average compared to my other peers, and not necessarily extra.”
Working alongside the UA’s Disability Resource Center, Njardarson was able to transcribe into Braille the textbook used for the course, allowing Tanori-Contreras to stay on track with the pace of the class. Using a special Braille font that he obtained from the DRC, Njardarson also was able to create custom content in Braille for her to work on.
Tanori-Contreras recommended a model of tactile boards that she preferred, and the DRC was able to provide enough of them for her, Njardarson and each of the preceptors. On Mondays and Fridays after lectures, Zimmerman said that Tanori-Contreras and the preceptors would meet in Njardarson’s office to go over the day’s lecture material. On Wednesdays, Njardarson met with her one-on-one, where he said he would ask her about what was working well and what they could improve on to support her learning experience.
At the end of the semester, Tanori-Contreras finished the course with a high A, a feat that many students struggle to achieve.
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