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Empowering Ability Through Adaptations. My name is Nick Vanderwall. This is my junior
year of college. Blind people can do the same things. I’m
no different, yeah, I can't drive, but that is a minor detail. Just because you have a
disability doesn't mean that you are disabled. You are enabled in different abilities.
My ultimate goal would be to get a TV show started about disabled outdoors. Showing that
disabled people can hunt, can fish, really do anything in the outdoors just may take
a few adaptations. >> The RCPD gets you to look at things differently
instead of just thinking about how you're not going to be able to do this or thinking
about your limitations. It just helps you to think about in a way
about what you can do. The things that I've learned here go into the real world.
Val was incredible. We would go through my calendar and schedule things in advance. I’ve
never used a calendar before. She helped me get into the habit of it.
It just amazes me that people donated money to get this started. People I don't even know
are helping me tremendously. They don't want anything from me besides you to succeed. Knowing
that I have the RCPD on my side like I can handle anything.
>> My name is Valerie Nilson, and I came to MSU in 1981, where I really began to appreciate
what the office was doing and the philosophy. I applied for a new position being created,
learning disability specialist. It was early in the development of disability offices on
campuses across the country. There was a lot of training that was available.
Much of the training in the professional field of disability specialists was directed at
people working with students with learning disabilities, because all over the country
people had once thought you grew out of it. It didn't follow you into adulthood. Well,
they learned that that was wrong and it is pervasive throughout one's lifetime.
Students with learning disabilities have ability. They have smarts, their intellect has no bounds,
but they're born with a different way of being able to process the information.
Every person with a difference whether it’s a hearing loss or other physical obstacle.
We are able to function at different levels, and we are able do whatever we want as long
as we go for that goal. And it is important to remember that if you
use the resources, and you use them appropriately, they can support you enough to get through
your education and really go out and get exactly what you want.
My name is Jennifer Miller. Dr. Jennifer Miller. I always forget to add that part.
My sign name is Jennifer. I graduated from MSU Veterinary Medicine Program in 2010.
There are several advantages to being deaf in the area of medicine. Many many advantages.
So I would say that in my current job now it hasn’t really been a struggle. I've been
really successful at managing and functioning. In things in deaf culture with body language
recognizing that a person is upset that they need more help understanding an issue, those
are things that maybe not all hearing vets notice right away. But because of my background
in deaf culture, I am able to see by body language alone that something needs a little
bit more support or assistance in understanding what's going on. Also, it is very advantageous
when dealing with animals because when you live your life not being able to hear things
ahead of time, you become very aware of what is going on around you. So you notice maybe
a few seconds before that a dog wants to bite or a cat wants to take off. So those advantages
in my career have really been very helpful. is