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Respos In Residence

Creator: n/a
Date: 1962
Publication: Toomey J Gazette
Source: Gazette International Networking Institute


Page 1:

1  

Respo students who are attending college or graduate school in wheelchairs, respo doctors, professors and lawyers in wheelchairs who have graduated -- comprise the impressive and successful group we present on the following seven pages.

2  

Each one has solved seemingly insurmountable physical impediments to attend college or graduate school. They are all respiratory polios. Some use iron lungs or chestpieces at night only; others use portable types full time. Some have "graduated" from the use of equipment, but bear the resultant weaknesses. Almost all have little or no use of their hands; some have the use of their feet only.

3  

Some of the problems included: Northern snows, second floor classrooms, oral exams, no-hand note-taking, no-hand lab dissections, foot-typed term papers, transportation, and reluctant admissions and vocational rehabilitation offices. Naturally, they also had the usual quad problems of being fed, being dressed, being bathroomed, etc.

4  

Positive pressure, self-generated, has resulted in scholarships, degrees, honors, fellowships and financial independence.

5  

Obstacles were cleared by parents and friends who acted as attendants, faculties that installed ramps and moved classes, professors who taped their lectures and gave oral exams, vocational rehabilitation officers who gave encouragement and financial assistance, and fellow students who dissected, took notes and pushed.

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