Disability Resources offers help to needy students
Maiaika Velazquez
Life’s hard enough dealing with school, hunting for that dream career and trying to create a fulfilling social life would put even Paris Hilton to shame, right?If everyday life were only that easy for Kelly Gibbs and Delanie Pacheco.
Both Gibbs and Pacheco are disabled and though their lives are far from simple, they strive to make the most out of each and everyday.
“Generally speaking, 10 percent of any population is diasabled in one way or another,” manager of MCC Disability Resource and Service department, Wink Harner said.
“We have documented somewhere between 900 to 1,110 students per semester.”
Pacheco, a 26 year old female, was born with cerebral palsy and currently utilizes an automatic wheelchair.
When asked why she decided to attend college, she replied, “I wanted to prove to myself and other people that I (could) do it even though I had a disability,” Pacheco said.
For future disabled MCC students, Pacheco advises, “Just keep your head up and find a group of people you can connect with.”
The MCC Disability Resource and Services department offers any service that students may need including interpreters, note takers, audio textbooks, audio textbook creation, on campus computers equipped with dictation software and accessories, physical access provisions through the MCC Maintenance staff and much more.
“Whatever the disability is, we provide them the accommodation that helps them have access to the classes.”
The department has just received a recent endowment from the Special Olymics and those funds will also go toward offered services and new services the department might be looking to acquire.
MCC also offers the Specialized Services program for students through the Counseling Services Department.
These students receive help with self/esteem to help them with social skills by being exposed to the general population and anything else they might need.
According to Lloyd, her students or her “eager beavers” as she calls them, have wonderful attitudes, “are motivated and want to succeed.”
Lloyd sees the MCC campus as a welcoming environment, an environment that perpetuates the idea that a student’s disability or bad luck in life does not have to hold them back.
