Jorge Vivar is driven, intelligent, warm-hearted and set on success.’
He also suffers from cerebral palsy, a non-progressive condition in the brain that causes physical disability in human development.
Vivar, a media production senior, is one of the students with disabilities benefiting from the academic and physical accommodations provided by the Justin Dart, Jr. Center for Students with DisAbilities. He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy in Mexico when he was 9 months old, but he was the first in his family to finish high school and graduated from community college with honors.
Vivar has overcome his inability to communicate orally by typing with his left index finger – one letter at a time.
‘I have my life planned out,’ Vivar wrote to The Daily Cougar.
Vivar made a point to credit CSD for his accomplishments.
‘The Center for Students with DisAbilities at UH helped me to better myself in the career area and to be a more independent person,’ Vivar wrote.
The facilities at CSD are equipped with soundproof stations for testing and a lab consisting of 20 computers which provide students like Vivar with an equal footing they may not find at other universities.
Additional academic accommodations provided to Vivar by CSD are textbooks recorded on CDs, tape recorders and notes in 14-point font size.
The CSD also supplies voice-output software that reads computer screens and documents in a synthesized voice for students with visual impairments, as well as software that uses spoken commands to edit documents and type papers.’ ‘
In addition, CSD provides accommodations for students with psychiatric disabilities such as anxiety, learning disabilities, sensory disabilities, mobility issues and physical disabilities.
‘I really appreciate all of them, and I don’t see any improvement that they can make.’ They’ve been giving me all the necessary tools and equipment that I need,’ education senior Shade Ben-Kalio said.
Ben-Kalio cannot see far away, read small print or drive.’ She has difficulty finding places and seeing her peers in class. Her dream is to return to Nigeria to help children with disabilities.
‘I am thinking of going back soon to help out and inform them about all the technology available and try to see if there is a way that I can obtain equipment here to transfer over there,’ Ben-Kalio said.
The CSD assigns hearing-impaired students with interpreters, or captionists, who escort them to classes and extra-curricular activities.
‘We make every effort to make sure that hearing-impaired students are represented and that they can fully understand and comprehend what’s going on around them like they need to,’said Shannon Richards, interpreter coordinator at CSD.
One problem deaf students can encounter is the culture breach between American Sign Language and spoken English. Written notes may incorporate slang that will not translate to a student who has grown up only speaking American Sign Language.
‘The interpreters are there to process everything and make it to where the (hearing-impaired) person can actually understand.’ Whereas if it was just written on the board somewhere, they might not get it,’ Richards said.
Richards said that technology called ‘remote interpreting’ allows students to carry a microphone or a Web camera into the classroom. A captionist at a remote location then translates lectures and notes for students on the computer screen in a way they can understand.
Valerie Wright, UH alumna, was diagnosed with severe hearing impairment at age 4.
She has difficulty taking notes while trying to listen and watch the professor. It is especially difficult for her to watch online video presentations or listen to the electronic aspects of exams.’
The center and her teachers, helped her overcome these obstacles by providing captionists and answering questions she had after class. Wright also found it helpful when professors posted lecture notes on WebCT.
‘If there are listening aspects of assignments or exams, the professor is willing to modify that for me, whether it be to take the assignment completely by reading and writing or by reading aloud the audio conversations to me, so that I better understand by reading lips,’ Wright said.
Students with disabilities have options when it comes to meeting their foreign language requirement.
Substitutions for foreign language courses are available to students with hearing, sight, speech, learning or memory disabilities.’ Some students have also opted to take American Sign Language to fulfill a foreign language credit requirement.
‘We have had students who are deaf and have completed their foreign language requirements, and we have had students who are blind and have completed their foreign language requirement. The choice is theirs,’ CSD director Cheryl Amuroso said.’
One of the most important services offered at CSD is the one-to-one disability-related counseling.
Alan Russel, assistant director and counselor for students, said the students with impairments may lack confidence, which is the most difficult aspect of being disabled for them to overcome.
‘I let them know that they have already overcome obstacles and challenges to get to the University,’ Russel said. ‘It is a fact of life that some people are insensitive out of fear and ignorance towards people with disabilities. Do not let these people deter you from success. Don’t let them project their own prejudices on you.’
The faculty plays an important role in providing academic as well as physical accommodations for students with disabilities.’
Lynn Lankin, associate director of the Moores School of Music, allowed a blind student in her ‘Listening to Music Masterpieces’ course bring a seeing-eye dog to class and sit in the front row.
Lankin said on test day, the student would take the listening portion with the rest of the class, identifying the music and typing answers on his laptop.’ A teaching assistant would then look at the student’s answers and transcribe them on paper.’
For the written part of the test, the student would take the test on the same day at the center.
CSD is designed with extensive general accessibility features such as curb cuts, ramps, accessible parking, wide doors, lowered telephones and elevator buttons to name a few in a long list.
Federal and state laws mandate that the entire UH campus be accessible to all students, with Texas Accessibility Standards determining rules for sidewalks and buildings.
‘UH is extremely accessible in terms of buildings and classrooms.’ There are issues that come up,’ Amoruso said. ‘But facilities planning and construction are generally very good about fixing problems that are reported – older buildings and sidewalks break, buttons break and different things like that.
‘And of course we don’t have an unlimited budget, but they prioritize the most important accessibility problems and are generally responsive of them. There is always room for improvement.’
