5. school days, accommodations, & finding the lunch table

by Cassandra Mendez · Published September 22, 2020 · Updated July 29, 2023

hi hello hey Flair fam!

We’re thrilled about fall rolling in, and fall also means it’s back to school season! While we haven’t been in school for a while, we wanted to take you, our lovely listeners, on our journey through school as blind girls. Even though 2020 has been a very different year and current students have new challenges, we thought it would be fun to share the good, bad, and very funny from our experiences.

We’re starting to feel really comfortable podcasting, so you’ll hear some of our fun, derpy moments just being ourselves. 🙂 We start by just chatting about what we’re excited about in the fall, leading us into our back to school topic. Then, we proceed pretty chronologically from elementary through college, stopping to talk about both the services we used and accommodations we had along with the social aspect of growing up blind. Finally, we wrap up with a little game of telling stories of our experiences. We hope you all enjoy this episode since it’s packed with stories and fun moments within our typical rants and information.

collage of early elementary aged casey and cassandra. casey wears her red and white school uniform and looks up shyly holding a book. cassandra runs out of a school bus with a wide smile and messy hair with a graphic tee and denim skirt — Casey + Cassandra in elementary school (2000/2004)

show notes

Cass starts out by yelling “Is it working,” to check her mic but we just left it in because it was hilarious lol
Cassandra’s guide dog Romana turned 6 on September 15 when we recorded this episode! Wish her a happy belated birthday in the comments!

elementary

Cassandra gives her history fun fact on the Individualized Education Plan (not Program oops), which came through the IDEA Act of 1997. IEP and IDEA (National Center for Learning Disabilities)
Casey lists some accommodations we used and we thought it would help to see them for those that are unfamiliar:
- CCTV (Closed-Circuit Television) magnifier (American Foundation for the Blind)
- monocular (Maxi Aids)
- dome magnifier (Maxi Aids)
- slant board (Amazon)
- orientation & mobility (Wikipedia) also check out episode 2 where we talk about O&M
Cassandra mentions black tea has an astringent property that helps cauterize bleeding (Colgate)
Cassandra and Casey laugh about Cassandra’s whistle in first grade because she’d just wander around until she was lost lol

high school

Cassandra mentions bioptic lenses (Ocutech)
Cassandra mentions getting her state ID for her 16th birthday instead of her license
Casey mentions getting her pink (Barbie) car for her 16th birthday