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Friday, March 8, 1974
University Daily Kansan
Blindness Doesn't Stop Dana
Aside from her friends, Dana's closest companions are her cassette recorder and her cane.
She goes about her daily business "pretty much like everyone else," except for one person.
Dana Nelye, Boise, Idaho, graduate student, has been blind since her premature birth 23 years ago when she was placed in an incubator and fed pure oxygen. She is able to distinguish only light and dark and wears glasses for protection.
"At the time, they didn't realize concentrated oxygen could cause eye pain. They didn't understand a couple of years after I was born because they couldn't understand why in rural areas, where hospitals didn't have such good equipment, there were fewer instances
Daria also has a slight, and hardly noticeable, case of cerebral palsy. But she lets neither the palny nor her blindness rester her activities,
She shares a typical room on the sixth floor of Lewis Hall. The spread on one bed is brightly colored and covered with stuffed animals; the other is plain. The blue cinderbelts are decorated with colored maps of the New York City subway system are tackled to the bulletin board.
"Like everyone else," Dana says, she had a few problems getting around when she first arrived at KU to study music education and music therany.
Dana's typewriter, braille-writing machine, record player and cassette and reel-to-reel tape recorders contrast with the textbooks on her roommate's desk.
But now, she says, "I'll make a new discovery, which means finding a new fork in the sidewalk or a new set of steps. And if I don't think I'm going to do that, have reference points just like you do."
The maps, Dana says, were a gift from a girl on her floor who thought it was time to replace Dana's month-old collection of Christmas cards.
Dana speaks very distinctly and is acutely conscious of words and tone of
voice. She says she couldn't get along with a roommate once because of the girl's voice.
"Part of the problem was that she never varied her tone of voice, whether it was 'steak for dinner' or 'laundry on Tuesday' to sit there and wonder what did she think?
"You have a different perspective using just auditory cues."
Studying is less of a problem for Dana now than it might have been 20 years ago. She can take advantage of organizations that provide the Blind which tapes hardcoded textbooks.
Dana takes a cassette recorder to class, but she also takes notes. She writes in braille with the help of a special slate and a wooden known down alphabet of dots onto ordinary paper.
"You just look at it and it's right there," she says.
Her term papers are written first in braille and then typed. The final draft is often taped by a friend and she types it from the tape.
Because Dana has never known any other way to read and write, she learned braille
"I've always typed my own papers—since paners were invented," she says.
But she says, "I think it would be very difficult to learn as an older person. They don't know."
Dana also uses "talking books," recorded literature borrowed from libraries for the
She climbed nimbly onto a chair to take a knitting book from the high shelf in her room.
"They don't design these shelves for people who aren't very tall."
She says most of her reading for pleasure is done through talking books because she can put a "book" on the record player and do another activity. She likes to favorite books are "Christie" and "Gone
With the Wind" Dana's copy of "Gone With the Wind" was about 27 records loun
She likes movies and television for entertainment and news. One of her favorite actors is Robert Young (Marcus Welby) because she likees the person he portrays.
"I also like to watch the 'Today Show' and 60 Minutes." You know, there are a lot of documentaries if you know when to look for it and really no excuse for being uninformed.
Dana is also a baseball fan and has even played the game. She's looking forward to getting a special basketball with a built-in basket when she goes home for vacation this week.
Home for Dana is Bose, Idaho, and her family. She is very close to her mother. He is much more distant.
Professor George Boberg, associate professor of wind and percussion, guides Dana's drumsticks to the sounding board during a percussion lesson.
"I feel very sorry for someone who has never had the opportunity to have a really close relationship with their parents," she says.
in her pretty way. Dana describes her
brother as "two years and four months"
before she was born.
"When we were younger, when we were small, we would have absolute fistfights. He's not one to talk, like I am, but both love dogs. It's really a crack-up seeing him with Snip," she says. Snip is the family dachshund.
Dana's stepfather, also a music major, influenced her decision to study music in college. A high school teacher suggested music therapy, in part because of Dana's own experience with physical therapy sessions as a child.
STORY BY LINDA A. HALES PHOTOGRAPHS BY CARL DAVAZ
Above: Dana takes exams in isolated rooms. Here, Katelyn Independence, M., graduate student, test sees questions on math and physics.
"I've never really thought seriously of doing anything else but music. I have a friend who says, 'Ten years from now I don't know whether I want to be in music or whatever that's what I think of when I look ahead. I want to work with people and with music."
Below: by using the piano, Dana tries to demonstrate to her young student the relationship between them.
Dana is an accomplished organist and likes music by Brahms. She plays from braille music which doesn't use a five line stuff. Each hand must be learned separately.
Dana walks to class with Catherine Farley, Dubuque, Iowa graduate, not because she needs help, but because they are friends.
Left to right are Kathy Mallett, Dana, Catherine Farley and Nina Sloan, Kansas City, Kan. special student, engaging in a favorite pasttime of eating M&Ms and watching television.