Section A·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Tuesday, May 1, 2001
Rachel Maaario and her aude dog Hamlet pause while playing in their back yard. The pair, along with Magario's mother Marilene and sister Rebecca, enjoy playing fetch with Hamlet, who gets to remove his working harness when at home.
Student life requires patience and adjustments
Continued from page 1A
blinded. Marilene decided her daughter would receive the best education possible.
"Idecided to dedicate my life to her," Marilene said. "Idecided to be her teacher."
Rachel Magario takes notes using a Lite Braille 40, which she can connect to a laptop computer that can process her notes into text and read them back to her in a computer-synthesized voice.
Rachel still attended school, but Marilene, now 59, taught her at home, too.
She made sure Rachel learned the standard alphabet — she learned Braille in school — and other things that teachers thought Rachel couldn't learn. "People think blind people are different beings," Marilene said. "They think they are insecure, isolated and without education."
She taught her daughter to be independent, taking her to the same places other children went, and telling her nobody with vision was better than she was.
Marilene also taught Rachel not to accept being judged by different standards in school.
"When she was very young, her friends made fun of her because she couldn't climb a wall, so I told her I would go and hold her hand." Marilene said. "She climbed the wall and then told me, I climbed the wall, and that wasn't so difficult."
Rachel said teachers tended to be more lenient with her in preschool and middle school than they were with sighted students.
Sometimes they wouldn't let her do school assignments involving graphics, telling her she wasn't required to do them. She said teachers weren't demanding about her writing and grammar.
"I would try to do things and they wouldn't let me. They would say, 'I exempt you from this, I exempt you from that,' she said.
"But I'm thirsty for knowledge. I like to learn."
Finding the right place
Rachel speaks six languages (her native Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, English, Arabic and Japanese) and plays the guitar and the piano.
Rachel said she decided to study journalism when she was 12. When she told people she wanted to become a journalist, they laughed. Her desire to prove them wrong brought her to a new country.
Rebecca Magario, her sister, said Rachel always had been ready for challenges, prepared to fight to show that she could do what a sighted person does.
Rachel spent her childhood moving from town to town in Brazil because her father worked as an engineer for a multinational company. She had lived in five states in Brazil and in four cities in Chile by age 19.
When it was time to go to college, Rachel was living in Chile. She knew she would need to leave home because Chilean universities wouldn't let her study journalism. Blind students there are limited to studying sociology, education and law.
She started thinking about coming to the United States when she was 10, because she perceived it as a country that helped blind people develop to their full potential. "Here was one of the best countries for disabled people and also professionally," she said.
When Rachel was 19, she won a scholarship offered by the New York-based Institute of International Education.
Four U.S. colleges accepted Rachel, including two in the New York area, where her mom didn't want her to go. "I wanted her to go to a small town," she said.
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First challenges
When Marilene received a video and brochures from the University of Kansas, she liked the area and decided Rachel should come to Kansas.
Rachel's experience in the United States started on a sour note. She arrived a day late to an orientation for international students because her mom, who came with her, had a delay in getting her visa. Instead of arriving at Kansas City International airport Saturday afternoon, when International Student Services staff members were waiting for her, Rachel arrived Sunday.
"Nobody was there. My English was bad, and my mother didn't speak English," Rachel said. "But I finally found out that we would need to get a shuttle to go to Lawrence."
Things didn't get better right away.
Rachel spent days and nights crying
She took only three courses her first semes-
inher McCoulton Hall room because she thought she was falling behind in her classes.
"I rarely cry, but I was angered at the way things were going." Robeal said.
Even though the professor wanted to be helpful, Rachel recalled, "I would sit in her office, and I wouldn't understand anything she was saying."
"My English was terrible. I definitely wasn't ready for a big lecture room," Rachel said.
ter— English as a foreign language.
Japanese and environmental science. She said she wasn't prepared for the classes.
Rachel had studied English since childhood but wasn't yet comfortable with classes taught in English. It wasn't just her school work. Another big hurdle was getting around campus.
"I was lucky," she said. "Mike Shuttle would get volunteers to help me during the first two weeks, and
then my friends started to help."
Shuttic, who worked for KU Services for Students with Disabilities and now works at Oklahoma State University, said Rachel was independent and fearless, but unaware of problems disabled students faced.
"Iwould try to do things and they wouldn't let me. They would say, 'I exempt you from this, I exempt you from that.'"
The University and Disabled Students
Rachel Magario Santos, Brazil sophomore
Rachel complains that the University's Services for Students with Disabilities hasn't always done what she asked. Rachel's request to have the University provide shuttle transportation to and from classes was denied.
Lorna Zimmer, director of Services for Students with Disabilities, said her goal wasn't to provide everything disabled students wanted but to provide equal opportunity to them, making them capable of achieving what other students
Zimmer said most KU students would like to have free transportation to campus and that by providing Rachel with the shuttle service, her office would be giving her an unfair advantage. She said it was Rachel's obligation to make sure that her home was on the bus route.
Another of Rachel's pressing needs is getting books on tape.
Rachel doesn't live on the bus route, making it difficult for her to use KU on Wheels. Instead, either Marilene or Rebecca drives her to campus every day.
Rachel couldn't use the University's shuttle transportation service designed for students unable to walk because she was able to ride regular KU on Wheels buses, Zimmer said.
She says the University gives her the tapes only after classes have started, making it harder for her to study and get good grades.
Zimmer said her office tried to work with students, but added that to receive tapes on time, students have to
enroll at the first opportunity and notify her as soon as they enroll. However, Rachel said she does that and still doesn't receive the tapes by the time she needs them. Instead, she relies on her friends.
Sergio Guerra, Mexico City, graduate student, reads books for Rachel during his free time.
"I learn a lot when I help her." Guerra said. "You need to be the link between what is there, the book, and her. She has a lot of potential, but she needs the help."
Hamlet
Another friend Rachel relies on Hamlet, a shiny black Labrador who
has used his brown eyes to guide Rachel since 1998.
Hamlet was trained at Guiding Eyes for the Blind, a non-profit institution in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., that provides the dogs for people who can't afford them.
Guide dogs like Hamlet usually live from 13 to 16 years, but can work an average of only eight years. They are trained for a full year before they are matched with a person. After Hamlet was trained, Rachel went to New York state for training sessions with him.
She was apprehensive at first. "I've never been a doe person," she said.
Although he helps Rachel immeasurably every day, Hamlet is not as intelligent as most people think, Marilene said.
But she needed Hamlet, and it didn't take long for him to grow on her. "I never thought I could love a dog, but I love him," she said.
"He doesn't guide her," she said. "He's a dog. She guides herself. He only makes her avoid hitting things."
Hamlet's natural instincts become clearer when he and Rachel go to the supermarket. Guided by smell, Hamlet always takes Rachel to the dog food section. Almost like a child heading for the candy section, Hamlet is just hungry.
The Accident
Less than a year after coming to Lawrence, SheAHulley suffered a serious setback. She and Hamlet were struck by a car while crossing Jayhawk Boulevard in front of Strong Hall.
"I thought I was going to die," she said.
The first thing Rachel thought about after the car hit her was Hamlet. "I didn't want another car to run over him or me, she said. "So I went to the sidewalk, and he followed me."
Rachel was badly injured. She had two crushed vertebrae and a concussion. Hamlet had internal bleeding and a distention, and also was badly shaken. Because he now associated Rachel
with being hit by a car, he was afraid to be with her and had to be retrained.
Rachel's troubles weren't over. Five months after the accident, she developed a kidney disease she believes resulted from strong medication given to her after the accident.
Brebcca said the semester after Rachel's accident was a nightmare because she couldn't walk, and she received several incompletes in classes.
"She would stay most days in bed, throwing up." Rebecca recalled.
Rachel's kidney problems forced Marilene to leave her husband and son in Brazil to care for Rachel. Now she lives in Lawrence, going home twice a year.
Since Marilene has been here, Rachel has recovered and is learning to adjust to her environment.
When Rachel is at home—a house at the corner of Ohio and 19th streets where she lives with her mother and her sister Rebecca—she moves quickly through the familiar rooms and plays with Hamlet, who wags his tail.
Everyday Life
Rachel's freedom to bound around the house is possible because of a few rules.
Nothing can be left on the floor because Rachel might trip over it. Doors can never be left partially open. Although Rachel can detect if a door is open or closed by air movement, she can't detect if it's partially open, which sometimes causes her to run into doors.
Rachel's closet is carefully organized by her mother so she can pick clothes, which she usually knows by touch. She rarely has to ask if clothes match because she knows them so well.
Marlene does the cooking, cleaning and laundry, allowing her daughters to concentrate on their studies, but she can't read for Rachel or help her with her homework because she can't speak English. To succeed in school, Rachel also needed help from her professors.
Adjusting to School
Charles Marsh, associate professor of journalism and Rachel's adviser, was responsible for getting Rachel the Lite Braille 40 and a laptop with the JAWS software to help her at the school. The device allows her to type notes in Braille and then transfer them to her computer. The computer reads her notes using a program called JAWS, which allows her to listen to a computer-synthesized voice reading her notes in English.
Marsh, who is teaching in Italy this semester, also lets Rachel use his office so she can stay in the School of Journalism between classes, checking her e-mail or talking on the telephone.
Marsh said he respected and admired Rachel. "I think and I hope that I've treated Rachel the way that I treat any other student," Marsh said. "I certainly learn a lot, though, from working with her. If you work with Rachel, you need to be as creative and determined as she is. It's never a case of 'Can we find a solution?' Instead, it's 'What are the possible solutions'?"
Tim Bengtson, who teaches one of Rachel's classes this semester, said he tries to read overheads aloud and to be available to answer her questions.
He also tries to empower her. Rachel was in his office when he got a phone call from a friend visiting Lawrence. The friend asked Bengston if any of his students could give his family a campus tour. Rachel, who was listening to the conversation, offered to show the family around the campus she had never seen.
Bengtson's friend called it one of the best tours he'd ever had.
"They said it was phenomenal," he said. "She knew the campus very well, including the buildings' history.
Looking at the future
Rachel's friends admire her strength. Guerta said Rachel had pursued things that would be difficult for people who see.
"Her blindness is just another challenge. Her perseverance will make her succeed," he said.
Marsh agreed. "I think Rachel will be very successful in some area of professional communications," he said. "She's so sensitive to others' needs that I think she could have a great career in marketing or public relations."
Tomomi Hosono, a recent graduate and a friend of Rachel's, said that for Rachel, being blind wasn't a weakness. Instead, she said, it gives Rachel strength because it allows her to read people's thoughts and hearts.
"People who are sighted tend to ve on their eyes too much and to forget to see invisible parts of life," she said.
Edited by Megan Phelps
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