By HEATHER HEMINGWAY
heather@du2.byu.edu
For the blind and visually impaired, living in a world where education is often the key to success is a challenge. Yet, although attaining an education is difficult, it is not impossible.
From the time she was six, Heather McComas attended the West Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind. Although she was not born blind, she lost all sight in her right eye as an infant due to a retina blastema--or in other words, a tumor growing on the optical nerve. Because of overexposure to radiation treatments as an infant, she spent her childhood with a shrinking left eye. By the time she was 13, all vision was lost.
'Even though being blind was hard, I just dealt with it and went on with my life,' McComas said.
Her friend and Brigham Young University senior Sarah Long, also attended the West Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind. Not only did she attend the school, but her mother, grandfather, and great-grandmother also attended due to congenital cataracts -- an optical disease where a sticky film grows over the iris and pupil. Although she has had corrective surgery, her limited eyesight still grows worse.
'Attending the school was the best thing that ever happened to me,' Long said.
Even though the school helped her cope with her disability, it sheltered her from reality. The school catered to her every need.
Although the Disability Act of 1990 required that all universities and public facilities were to make accommodations for the disabled such as wheel chair entrances and Braille under signs in buildings, blind and visually impaired students still often face obstacles in their education.
When Long was a freshman at BYU, her life became even more challenging. Without the benefit of family or trained teachers, she had to not only meet academic and social demands, but also find her way around campus. She had to locate facilities and obtain services that were once offered by her school.
Merlin Madsen, a psychology instructor at Ricks College, has had many blind and visually impaired students in the last decade.
'The blind and visually impaired who make it to college are extremely bright,' Madsen said. 'They come up a few weeks early before school starts and memorize the whole campus.'
Actually, Long had memorized the whole BYU campus. Coming to school a week early to learn mobility around the university campus, she was first taught to look for landmarks such as Cobblestone sidewalks. Later she learned to decipher the shapes of the buildings. Once inside a building, Long learned to gain her bearings by counting doors and fire extinguishers.
And like Long, BYU Alumnus Grant Hansen, also found it challenging to be a visually impaired student.
Although Hansen did not use a cane or seeing-eye dog, he had low vision, dealt with night blindness and had undergone three eye surgeries.
Thus, once the sun had gone down, it took extra effort for Hansen to get around.
'I just had to know ahead of time where I was going at night,' Hansen said.
He said another obstacle was taking class notes.
'Notes on overheads and chalk boards were terrible for me--even from the front row,' Hansen said.
Although professors could have been more considerate by making their class notes bigger and easier to read, most professors were unaware of students with low vision, Hansen said.
'Frequently, visually impaired students don't make professors aware of their problem because they want to appear like everyone else. I didn't want any special exceptions. I struggled to do the best I could.'
He also struggled to appear as an 'average Joe.'
Hansen recalls people sometimes made fun of him because of such things as not recognizing them from a distance or mistaking them for someone else -- similar to the problems of the fictitious character 'Mr. Magoo.'
Hansen said he felt the parody on the cartoon/movie character 'Mr.Magoo' was insensitive to the blind.
'How many movies have you seen that make fun of deaf or crippled people? What people don't understand is that there are varying degrees of blindness. People are always considerate of the blind because their disability is obvious,' Hansen said. 'The 'Mr. Magoo' character appeared aloof, but was visually impaired.'
However, Hansen said for the most part, BYU students are kind and understanding of the blind and visually impaired -- as long as they are aware of the disability.
'My problem was that most people didn't know about my eye problems because I wanted to appear as normal as possible.'
Helen Keller recognized this need for acceptance through education almost a century ago.
The adult blind must be trained in trades and skills so that they can become self-supporting and self-respecting, Keller said.
With education, the blind and visually impaired are no longer limited to crafts or trades involving a sharp sense of hearing or manual dexterity. Through technology, media services and new legislation, professional capabilities have been greatly extended.
In the United States, according to Public Law 89-522 enacted in 1966, the blind and visually impaired may receive free library service by mail. Such services include books and magazines recorded on audiocassette tapes, Braille volumes, and magnetic tapes for a reader with access to playback machines.
Because of much lobbying, the visually impaired have access to additional devices to aid in their education. Such devices are hand-held telescopes to see distances away, hand-held microscopes to see minute details, closed circuit television which enlarges print, and computer magnification systems. Although such an intricate system can magnify up to 50 times larger, it is quite costly--prices range from $1600 to $2500.
Besides needing special resources and services, the blind and visually impaired need special appliances such as Braillewriters, tape recorders, mobility aids and mathematical instruments.
Due to recent technological advances, education for the blind and visually impaired is becoming more feasible. Blind and visually impaired computer users no longer have to struggle with overlapping windows, icons, and other non-character based features of windows.
'Without my Notex 486, I was lost,' McComas said. 'I couldn't (tell) what I was doing. Using the Notex 486, I could easily take lecture notes and complete class assignments.'
The Papeinmeir Notex 486 is similar to a personal computer but instead of having a keyboard, it has a Braille writer layout.
TeleSensory, a leading worldwide manufacturer of sensory aids, has also developed products that have helped blind and visually impaired computer users gain access to print and electronic information through special software.
In addition to TeleSensorys new computer technology, new media services are becoming more available to the visually limited.
In 1977, Charlie Winston was a journalism instructor at the University of South Carolina when his retina detached causing his vision to slowly fade away.
'When you lose your vision, you just do what you have to do,' Winston said. 'It becomes second nature to you and you don't think about it.'
Because of such adversity, he developed Telability Media, a newsletter for the disabled. In 1991, when the Easter Seal Society stopped producing their newsletter for the disabled, Winston took over their mailing list and renamed the newsletter.
Winston said 'Telability,' combines the prefix 'Tele' as in telecommunications and 'tell' with the word 'ability.' Thus, combining disability with the media.
Telability Media, offered free of charge, is a non-profit newsletter developed for the benefit of the disabled. When the sixth volume came out in 1992, circulation reached 810. Circulation now reaches over 1700.
In addition to Telability Media, Winston also publishes the only annotated reference directory with mass media listings for the disabled.
'I began this directory because disabled people need more timely information,' he said. 'Blind people, especially, get information very late.'
This $40 directory is published in six alternative formats: Braille, audiocassette, print, large print, diskette, and on-line. Sections includedin each format are magazines, newspapers, organizations, radio, and television.
In 1988, Oklahoma resident Jim Stovall also lost his vision due to a degenerative disease of the retina. His loss of sight, however, resulted in his development of Narrative Television.
NTV is a descriptive dialog inserted between the dialog of television programs.
This new innovation now makes it possible for blind and low vision viewers to 'see' television programs and classic old movies on syndicated networks and are a free service offered by one third of the cable systems in the United States, Stovall said.
Today NTV is used in over 3.5 million homes.
Other unique services for the blind and visually impaired include the Descriptive Video Service, that not only describes TV programs, but newly released videos. DVS is available in most areas at video stores such as Blockbuster Video.
Another unique service is newspapers such as the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and USA Today read over the phone. However, this service is available only in select cities.
Because of such technological advances and new media services, education has broadened to more expandable limits and the blind and visually impaired have the opportunity to study many professional fields.
Now the 22-year-old McComas has an associate's degree in computer technology from Marshall University in West Virginia. She plans to attend school in the fall to work towards a bachelor's degree and then put her skills to work, producing more computer programs for the blind.
The 21-year-old Long, studying family science and geriatrics, is now anticipating graduation and plans to do a field study in Romania working with children in orphanages.
Hansen has a master's degree in political science, has run for political office, and is now a school administrator in Idaho.