Most visually impaired students go through their middle and high school experiences with an aid to help with enlarging or Brailling papers, reading aloud tests, and monitoring extra time on tests. A visually impaired student’s relationship with his or her aid is crucial to the academic success of the student. Personally, I cannot claim that my aid and I have seen eye to eye on every matter, but I can genuinely say that I love my aid and my high school experience would not have been complete without her.

When we have our aid’s assistance in middle and high school, we legally blind students tend to yearn to be independent and dream for the day when we can finally won’t have assort of second school mother by our side. But as I have heard from many blind college students that despite the liberation of independence, you will miss your aid and everything she did for you once no longer have her in your corner. Here, I have listed some the more unusual benefits to having an aid that I will miss when I no longer have her help in college:

1. You always have someone to talk to. Ever have a lunch period or study hall in which none of your friends are in? Ever have a day when you just want to talk to someone? I certainly have, and I have spent way too many free periods hanging out in my aid’s office complaining about teachers (from my end), gossiping about the latest high school drama scene, raving about sports and current news, whining about boring classes (again, mostly form my end), and filling each other in about life.
2. You have someone that you trust for advice on adult problems. Ever have a time where you just don’t know how to approach this one teacher or which courses are better than others? As your closest ally, your aid is probably the only adult in the school you are comfortable enough trusting with some of your significant dilemmas. I’ve had my aid give me advice on which teacher I should choose to write my rec letter, which colleges I should consider applying to, what to write in my NHS appeals form etc. Other than your parents and other relatives, your aid is likely the adult who cares most about you and your future, and who you know would help you in any way possible. After all, her whole job consists of helping you succeed.
3. If you lose a handout, have no fear! You can always go to your aid for the normal sized copy or ask her to send you the electronic one. Being not the most organized person in the world, I have relied on my aid for this almost everyday- she’s saved me from losing quite a few points to say the least.
4. You have access to exclusive information about your teachers. Don’t you want to know a teacher’s comments about you or when they’re in the wrong mood for you to ask for that grade bump? Teacher’s love the company of another adult in the classroom and more likely than not, confides in your aid about their life, pet peeves, and complaints. From my aid, I have even learned which teacher like and hate me, which is very helpful when picking teachers for rec letters.
5. You don’t need to lug around five tons of equipment around the school. Being visually impaired, many of us need special equipment to assist us in class. For me, I need a VisioBook, a bulky ten-pound machine, for board work. Even back in middle school when I used large print instead of audio, my aid would haul around the stack of enlarged textbooks from class to class. You may think that this is trivial, but trust me its not; on the day I have a substitute aid and need to carry my equipment myself, I drop books right and left, can’t crowd weave, and suffer from exhaustion when trudging down the halls, and subsequently am five minutes late to class.

These are only a few of the pros that come with an aid, beside the obvious enlarging and Brailling papers and reading materials aloud. Ultimately, aids are great people who are there to make your life easier. At the end of the day, all they want is to see you succeed and help you in any way possible. So be nice and appreciate your aid while you have one!