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[ Music Plays ]
My name is Alex and this is my story.
This is my story.
Hi my name is Eric, and this is my story.
This is my story.
This is my story.
[ Music Plays ]
Ben: My major right now is in social work, I'm a grad student here.
Beth: My major is vocal performance.
Alex: I'm majoring in English language and linguistics.
Christian: I'm majoring in biological systems engineering.
Eric: I'm a junior here at UW-Madison, I'm going for horticulture.
And I guess with that I'd like to become a plant breeder.
Kate: I'm a second year student in the master's of public health with an emphasis in
community health education.
Christian: I also recently came back from Iraq about two years ago.
And basically I've just been everywhere with many different cultures
and it's really helped me understand different people all around the world.
Tanika: My passion in regards to raising awareness, surrounding social issues through
the arts.
Ben: I'm just like everybody else, I don't want to be treated like I have a disability.
If I need help I'll ask for it.
Beth: I think of myself as just a normal student.
My blindness is just another part of who I am.
Kate: My particular disability is dyslexia.
And it's been a huge frustration because a lot of people don't know what that really
means.
Tanika: I have a seizure disorder that affects my short-term memory sometimes, as well
as my ability to attend class.
Alex: I stayed up really late the night before the SATs playing Dungeons and Dragons
with all of my geek friends.
[ Chuckles ] And I still got a 1600 so I guess
that ought to say something about both psychiatric disabilities and geekery not getting
in the way of academic pursuits.
Eric: What I'd like my friends, faculty and co-workers to know about me that I'm Deaf.
Based on my speech and my word recognition, sometimes they forget that.
Kate: It might take a little longer and I might have to ask a few more questions, but
that I have really high aspirations for myself.
And I really hope that they see that I want to succeed as much as I do.
[ Music Plays ]
Beth: Every Thursday we get together as a voice studio with my teacher and my fellow
students and we sing for each other and we give comments.
And it's just a time to kind of relax and enjoy listening to people singing, giving
positive feedback, and learning from one another.
Tanika: I had not taken algebra for about 16 years before returning.
I was very anxious about entering into a math class
and it was just a very big sense of accomplishment to have gotten through it and passed.
Kate: I spend most of my time at the Health Sciences Learning Center.
It has a great atmosphere where
all the students gather from various medical professions, whether they're in med school
or the PT students.
And it's a place where you can get coffee and really socialize with friends.
And even though you're surrounded by the atmosphere of the libraries as well as the school,
it's just kind of a place where everyone can let everything all hang out.
Christian: There's a particular club that I'm in which is Muir Woods Mentors.
And every other Friday we go out with kids and mentor them and
we show them around nature since they're inner cities schoolchildren so they don't
really have that much exposure to nature and the environment.
Eric: Studying abroad over winter break in Costa Rica, I'd have to say it was magical.
I mean the things we did,
we learned about horticulture yet we also did things like zip-lining and snorkeling.
Ben: The feeling I had was actually getting a 3.5 GPA in my first year of grad school.
I was really stressed, like I didn't know if I can cut it.
After the first year I got a 3.5 and I was very happy about that.
[ Music Plays ]
Christian: It's actually a very hard curriculum here at UW-Madison and there's a lot of
resources where you
could get help like extra tutoring or from your TAs.
And they're very supportive of you.
And frankly I don't think I would have made it this far without any of these people's
help so I'm very grateful.
Eric: The McBurney Disability Resource Center had been a great help throughout my
academic career.
Just put in an accommodation request for sign language interpreters, captioners, even
note-taking, I mean
I just have to tell them when are where and for which classes that I would need the
services for and then they'll coordinate that for me.
Beth: Every semester they have helped in getting me my textbooks.
They helped to provide a music braillist, who brailles my music every semester.
If I need a volunteer to help me with certain things during the semester,
they are able to provide that.
And also just to talk to people if I need some help with something.
So they have been really wonderful.
Christian: I was given extra time on exams and that's really helped me even out the
playing field.
I was just as smart as everybody else; it's just that I just need a little bit more time.
Tanika: Helping me to advocate for myself with professors when extensions had been
needed in regards to papers or exams
in the event that I've not been able to attend classes as a result of my disorder.
Kate: They've helped in coordinating note takers for all of my classes.
They've helped in providing me with information about adaptive and assistive technology.
And they've also given me the tools and the language to approach and address professors
regarding my assistive technology needs.
[ Music Plays ]
Eric: A great way to improve access to UW-Madison would be to have an increase in the
overall awareness about how do we accommodate students with disabilities.
And I can say personally, sometimes professors, they want to accommodate students, but
they just don't know how to do it.
Ben: So any advice that I'd give to a person that's in a wheelchair that going to school
on this campus.
I would just say first, try to look at this campus as a whole
and strategize how you can get around from point A to point B, try to figure out where
the hills are, where's the
quickest way to get from one building to the next, without have to go up a big hill.
Kate: Really get to know your professors.
Once you make that initial appointment and sit down and talk with them and let them know
where you're coming from,
I found more often than not that the professors really want you to succeed as much as
you do.
Beth: I think for me that the most important thing for improves access on campus is the
UW website itself.
I use a screen reader in order that
I access the website and sometimes I find it difficult to navigate the webpage.
Christian: If I had any advice to give students who have a learning disability it's that
to take it easy and just be yourself.
Don't put yourself down.
You're just like everybody else.
And really focus on your studies, be serious about it.
And honestly you're no different than anyone else on this campus.
You can do it.
You can do it if you really want to do it.
[ Music Plays until end ]