Tips for Staying Organized in College When Blind or Low Vision
Life can easily become disorganized, and this can lead to stress, especially in college. Staying organized is challenging for any student, but for those who are blind or have low vision, it can be even more complex and also more essential. This article shares practical strategies to help blind or low vision college students stay organized throughout their college journey.
Step 1: Digital Organization
As college campuses (both in-person and entirely online) institutions embrace an ever-evolving technologically savvy environment, you’re going to encounter most of your course materials electronically. This means that your data storage, file maintenance, and digital workspace upkeep need to be top-notch. Some tips for managing your digital academic environment include:
Use a consistent folder and file-naming system, especially if you use a screen reader.
Course names, titles, and numbers would be a good way to manage all your reading/homework assignments/essays, and other tasks on your computer. It also makes it easier for your screen reader to navigate.
Utilize cloud storage.
Using cloud storage makes your assignments accessible on multiple devices. If you’re on the go, either for classes, long commutes, work, or internships, this is especially useful so that you can access all of your course materials that you may need.
Taking notes is a critical academic hallmark of college life. Familiarizing yourself with the note-taking tools that work best for you and your vision will help you keep up with notes in classes.
This includes, but is not limited to, tools such as:
All of these tools integrate with screen readers and allow for features such as tagging, headings, and audio recordings. However, please note that you may need an accommodation for audio recording in class; this would be arranged through your campus disability services office.
Use a digital calendar.
In college, you’ll find that you’re often juggling multiple due dates, classes, assignment information, projects, and social events. Creating a digital calendar system will help you stay organized in your busy college life.
Systems like Outlook or Google Calendar work well with screen readers in particular; syncing your calendar to include deadlines, schedules, and reminders will help you have a more seamless organizational experience.
Have a digital color-coding system if you have low vision.
If you have some remaining vision and prefer to use a color-coding system when organizing, try a high-contrast color system and use text labels to maintain your color-organized system.
Similarly, if your vision perceives specific colors, using the colors that you can see best is helpful.
Make use of virtual voice assistance.
“Alexa, what time is it?” “Hey Google, what’s the weather?” “Hey Siri, when is my project for economics due this week?” Using virtual assistance can provide you with quick and easy navigation of your schedules and deadlines when you’re in college. Find the one that works best for you.
Step 2: Workspace Organization
In college, you’ll often be sitting down to study, read, write, work on a project, attend classes, etc. As a result, maintaining a clean and clear workspace is essential to your ability to focus, find what you need, and access materials.
Let’s be honest, we’ve all encountered the chaotic sticky notes all over the desk, the never-ending pile of papers that blend in the background (especially when you’re blind or low vision!), or the pile of random pens, highlighters, and pencils that you stashed somewhere in the back of a drawer. Maintaining organization within your physical space is just as essential as ensuring an organized digital environment.
Use a tactile system.
Organize supplies using bump dots, braille, or raised stickers.
Maintain a consistent layout.
Always keep your books, technology, and supplies in the same place so that you do not waste time (or energy!) trying to find them.
Manage your cords/cables.
We all have electronic devices with tons of charging cords. When you’re blind or low vision, there’s something very frustrating about trying to find the correct cord or untangle a uniquely challenging mess of cables. Use Velcro or tie specific cords together to try to keep them organized.
Step 3: Accommodation Organization
As a blind or low vision college student, you’ll want to have a clear idea of the types of accommodations that will work well for you in the classroom, labs, cafeteria, or dorms. Some accommodations that especially assist with organization for blind or low vision students include, but are not limited to:
Audio-record your lectures.
This accommodation will help you supplement your own note-taking and allow you to catch things you might visually miss in class.
Use electronic textbooks.
Having all of your course text materials available to you electronically is critical, especially when you’ll be managing a lot of reading in college.
Some institutions will utilize Bookshare, create accessible versions through their disability services office, or work with the publisher to obtain accessible electronic versions of texts.
Remember, you’ll want to request e-text early, as this type of accommodation can take some time, as the disability services office will need to work with you and your professors.
Be proactive with deadlines.
While this is not necessarily an accommodation, it is recommended that you get into the habit of being proactive about checking your course syllabi early to schedule project/assignment/exam deadlines in your digital calendar system. This will not only allow you to stay organized, but can also help you foresee any potential barriers to access before they arise. Testing space can often fill up quickly. Therefore, submitting your exam request is crucial.
Step 4: University-Support Organization
Your college campus is full of strategies you can use to stay organized. This can be especially important as a blind or low vision college student because you’ll likely need to utilize some or most of these resources at some point during your college career.
- Disability Services: You’ll likely want to work with the disability services professionals on your college campus as early as you can to make sure that your accommodations are in place and that you’re proactively getting the materials you need for each semester.
- Professors: You’ll want to communicate early and often with your professors, especially if you encounter any barriers in class to access. Your professors want to help you as best as they can. Still, they cannot do so if you don’t tell them.
- Peers: Organize with your peers so that you can arrange study groups or peer groups to help you if you are missing visual materials in class, etc.
Step 5: Time and Task Organization
Balancing both academic and social environments in college can be a tricky task. Still, if you utilize effective time/task organization strategies, you can better prepare yourself for staying on track with all your work, projects, and extracurricular activities.
Use apps to help you stay on track.
Accessible apps like Microsoft To-Do, Todoist, or Reminders can help you create recurring tasks such as weekly assignments, recurring deadlines, or exam dates.
Prioritize tasks.
You’ll likely want to prioritize your schoolwork in a way that makes sense for you; labeling tasks with words like “urgent” or “long-term” can help you navigate all the various and changing deadlines that you’ll encounter in your classes.
Learn to chunk assignments.
In college, you’ll often find that it’s easy to get bogged down or overwhelmed by everything you have to do each semester, especially when it comes to large projects or projects/papers that require a lengthy time to complete. You’ll want to learn how to break down these longer deadlines into smaller tasks that you can complete over time. This will allow such tasks to feel less overwhelming.
Conclusion
You’ll want to find the systems that work best for you when organizing and managing your time in college. The ideas outlined above will hopefully help you generate some ideas specifically tailored to your needs so that you can manage and tackle all of your college to-do lists.
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