Story of the Day 9/ 8/ 2014

Everything was moving slowly, this morning.
I read the comics while drinking my coffee, and saw one that showed a sad-sack character tearing off the Sunday page from his calendar
and being faced with the new page saying "Moan-day".
I have no idea how prescient that will be.

I got to work about 15 minutes early.
That gave me enough time to set up my work area the way I like, to start on a second cup of coffee and to chat with Mary.

After a few minutes, my cell phone started ringing.
I excused myself from our conversation and picked up my phone.
It was my daughter, Sarah, calling me.

Sarah only calls if it is an emergency.
She doesn't call hoping that I will answer.
If I answer,
it won't do her any good, because she is deaf and can't talk or hear on the phone,
but it means that she can't wait any longer for me to notice my email or my texts,
because something needs my immediate attention.

A call from Sarah can mean her friend might need to go to the hospital,
or she has been in an accident, or her luggage has been lost.
It could be something less serious like asking what a friend whose hands have been numb for 3 days should do.
Which might actually be just as serious, except that, from the description I think he has developed carpal tunnel system from playing video games.
At any rate, a call from Sarah is never anything casual.

I check my texts.
There is one from her saying "Sykpe!!!!!" with a deliriously long line of exclamation marks.

You see, Sarah cannot speak on the phone, but we Skype regularly.

I was explaining this, yesterday, to my mother, who is 80 and does use a computer,
and has even heard the word "Skype" before, but wasn't quite sure what it was.
Skype is a phone call, but it has video
which means it is a very good phone service for Sarah, who can sign to me, and see what I have to say in return.
Skype is accessed via the Internet, not over a landline;
and we have it set up on the computer I use, at home.
It can really be accessed from any device that uses the Internet and that has a video camera.

The only problem is that I have a dumb phone.
A dumb phone is, obviously, not a smart phone.
So, I cannot use it to Skype.

I also do not have a computer at work,
nor to I carry a laptop or iPad or any other electronic device that could allow me to Skype with her.

I explain to Sarah where I am and that we need to text.

My daughter is in her second year at college.
She attends Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).

RIT is in Rochester. It gets very cold in the winter and no one picks it for the weather.
It does, however, have pretty good services for its deaf students.
RIT has a large number of qualified interpreters, and they also provide note taking services.
You see, if you are deaf and watching the interpreter in order to follow the lecture,
your eyes and attention have to be on the interpreter, not staring at a page while you take notes.
Hearing people can listen with their ears while they use their eyes to do other things.
Deaf people can't.

So, RIT is known for having good services.
Except that they don't.
Or, at least, as of this morning, they do not.
You see, they have decided to cancel the interpreter and the note taking services for my daughter's Biology class.

I tell Sarah, via text, to ask her teacher to call the office of Access Services.
My reasoning s that they will pick up the phone and be helpful to the teacher, who also has an interest in having services in his classroom for his deaf students.

Sarah, however, lets me know that she is not actually in class, right now.
This class meets later.

I relax. We have some breathing room.

I tell her to email the office of Access Services .
I also ask her if there are any other deaf students in the class.
There are three.
I tell her to contact them and have them send similar missives.
Sarah, however, doesn't have their contact information or their full names, so she is on her own, for the moment.
She sends me a text of what her email says. I add a sentence.
Then I tell her not to worry.

Except, I am worried.

This is the third week of school.
Why did they suddenly decide not to allow these kids' services?

Many hours later, she calls me.
On my cell phone.

This time I am home, but I didn't hear the Skype beeping because my son, who is also deaf, turned off the volume.
He must have been worried that it would bother him.....

At least, this time, I can actually Skype with Sarah.

Sarah has, by now, received three different emails.
All from Access Services.

The first is from the person responsible for scheduling the note taking.
She sees that it was cancelled on my daughter's account, but it isn't cancelled.
She has no idea why Sarah's schedule says that.

The second email is from a different person who is in charge of the interpreter services.
Again, this person sees that on Sarah's schedule the interpreter has been cancelled,
but the interpreter was not cancelled and this is...confusing.

The last email is from an administrator.

Apparently, according to Sarah's schedule the interpreter and the note taking have both been cancelled.
But they are still intact as services for the other three students.
And no one from their office cancelled the services.

This person tells my daughter that there must be a computer bug- one that has affected only her account.

After all, it is Monday.
I just forgot to pay attention to my horoscope,
I mean, the comics.