Tuesday, February 19, 1985/The Battalion/Page 5
A&M handicapped services aid students
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By KIRSTEN DIETZ
Staff Writer
||v While most students don’t
think twice about opening a door,
drinking from a water fountain
or taking notes in class, for some
handicapped students these tasks
are almost impossible.
■ “It’s hard for people to imag
ine unless they’ve been in that
position,” Dr. Charles Powell,
coordinator of handicapped serv
ices, says.
K Angela Roebuck, who is con
fined to a wheelchair, says she
must wait for someone to open
doors for her, because there are
few electric ones on campus.
■ Powell says she also has prob
lems reaching many elevator but
tons and water fountains.
■ “When you can reach the water
fountains, you can’t get your
knees underneath them,” Powell
says.
■ Ray Olivas, who also is in a
- wheelchair, says he hasn’t en-
■ countered many problems on
j Campus.
I “I think for the most part it’s
| real accessible,” he says.
K Olivas did say, however, that
he and another handicapped stu
dent once missed a week and a
half of a class in Francis Hall.
Francis Hall has no elevators, and
the class was moved to an accessi
ble building.
I Belinda Johnson faces differ
ent problems.
Sj Johnson is legally blind. She
fecan see objects and colors but
B ||can’t identify individual faces,
g' Johnson says she has a problem
with equipment, such as comput
ers, which are not adapted for the
blind. She tapes all her class lec
tures and later transcribes them
into braille.
I On campus, Johnson says
sometimes officials are careless
about leaving manholes uncov
ered. She says several years ago
another blind student fell into an
uncovered manhole on the Quad
rangle.
Johnson says she also has prob
lems identifying cement trash
Cans because they blend into the
surroundings.
1 She says her biggest problem is
other students distracting her
guide dog.
| “All the students want to pet
her when she’s working,” she
says. “That’s my main problem
because she’s so friendly. She
loves people.”
All three say they’re treated
well by other students.
Roebuck says, “It’s a lot differ
ent than how* you’re treated on
the street. They (other students)
are really very friendly and, any
thing you need done, they’re
more than willing to help.”
Olivas, who attended Texas
A&M before he was injured three
years ago, says he is not treated
any differently because of his
handicap.
“I think a person in a wheel
chair has to be a little more out
going to meet people,” he says.
Olivas says he felt a little intim
idated returning to school six
months after his accident.
“When I was first here, I never
noticed anyone in a chair,” he
says. “Now I notice everyone in
chairs.”
Roebuck also was nervous
when she first came to Texas
A&M.
“You don’t really know how
people are going to accept you,
you don’t know what the student
body’s attitude is going to be,” she
says.
“But once I got here and got
into it, it was no problem.”
Both say their parents also
were nervous when they went
away to school.
Roebuck says, “I think all par
ents are. It’s letting go of a child.
But, when they’re handicapped,
it seems to enhance it.”
The more severely hand
icapped, such as quadriplegics,
face even more challenges. T hey
must have an attendant to do ev
erything for them, Powell says.
Besides helping students who
are blind or in wheelchairs, the
Office of Handicapped Services
also helps those with learning dis
abilities, such as dyslexia.
Powell says it is hard to esti
mate the exact number of hand
icapped people on campus be
cause many do not come to his
office for help.
“The majority of the kids who
are here day in and day out num
ber less than 35 people,” Powell
says.
He says accessibility at A&M is
not much of a problem because
the campus is flat and has lots of
curb cuts.
But, he says, “Obviously it
could be better.”
The office budgets about
$45,000 a year for curb cuts,
equipment repairs and building
access ramps. But, Powell says,
the office usually spends more.
Powell examines all new Uni
versity building plans to make
sure they are accessible to wheel
chairs, as required by a 1973 fed
eral law.
The office has tried to add
ramps to buildings built before
the law was passed, but some
times this is impossible. For in
stance, he said some steps are too
steep to put a ramp on.
If a handicapped person has a
class in a building that is not ac
cessible, the building is made
physically accessible or the class is
moved to another building.
“If there is a person who needs
to be in a class, we do it,” Powell
says. “If it costs $ 12,000 to build a
ramp because a person needs to
go into a building, we build a
ramp.”
The office also administers and
oroctors tests for the blind and
earning disabled in the office.
“During finals we had as many
as 13 people in here at a time,”
Powell says. ,
The office also helps the blind
and learning di’sabled with their
reading.
In particular, Powell says Al
pha Phi Omega (APO), a service
organization, reads lots of books
onto tapes which then can be
used by blind students.
The office also has a van that-
transports disabled students
around campus.
During student orientation,
the office registers and counsels
handicapped students.
“It’s very important for the
learning disabled and the people
in chairs not to be overloaded be
cause of their disability,” Powell
says.
He says the office uses many
volunteers, and APO is its most
reliable source. Members paint
curb cuts, make tapes from
books, tutor and give tests. Last
year, the organization raised
more than $2,600 for the office.
Also, some departments lend
the office tools, to help repair
wheelchairs.
“Really, what it amounts to is
that whatever the needs are, is
what we do — if we can do it, ? ’
Powell says.
Photo by JOHN MAKEL Y
Jeff Scott, a junior marketing major, demonstrates the
handicap-adapted bathroom facilities in Dunn Hall.
Optical fiber
systems use
increasing:
AT&T official
By PAM COLEMAN
Reporter
Optical communications are here,
and many companies are putting op
tical fiber systems in the ground as
fast as they can, a Bell Laboratories
official said Monday.
Dr. Kenneth A. Jackson, head of
the Optical Material Research De
partment for AT&T Bell Laborato
ries, said new systems are going in all
over the country.
Jackson spoke to about 75 profes
sors and students as part of the Rob
ert A. Welch Foundation lecture se
ries. The foundation supports
research in chemistry and physics.
A transmission system consists of
a transmitter, a transmission me
dium and a receiver. In an optical
transmission system, the transmitter
is usually a laser, the transmission
medium is an optical fiber and the
receiver is a photodetector.
An optical fiber is a glass core sur
rounded by glass cladding that is
covered by a protective jacket. Light
is transmitted through the fiber by
successive internal reflections. The
glass is extremely strong and takes
up less space than other systems.
Materials used in the production
of the fibers must be pure, Jackson
said. Using a method called mod
ified chemical vapor deposition, the
pure glass is formed into tubes,
which are then collapsed into solid
rods. The rods are drawn into fibers
that are made into cables.
“About a dozen companies will be
wiring up with optical fiber in the
next few years,” Jackson said. “I
think AT&T is planning to put in 20
or 30,000 miles of fiber in the next
two years.”
He said there is still a lot to be
done in terms of the devices and
production methods used in optical
fiber systems.
“People are working very hard to
make single mode high frequency
lasers that will do long distance
transmissions,” Jackson said.
The optical fiber systems will in
crease the capacity of present com
munications systems.
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