October 31, 2003 Student
Life
This feature, "Student Life," returns with a new
name, replacing "Student News." The intent, however,
is the same. "Student Life" brings readers the best
of student-produced journalism at Utah State University. Featured
items are written by students for The Utah Statesman,
the official student newspaper of Utah Sate University, or The
Hard News Café, the online publication from the
Department of Journalism and Communication. Both publications
are award winning and present the talents of Utah State's journalists-in-training.
Student Highlight
Aside from the busy day-to-day routine of classes, Utah State
journalism student Earl Scott is a stringer for the Salt Lake
Tribune. Earl's most recent article, covering the East High
School versus Mountain Crest High School soccer game, appeared
in the Oct. 22 issue.
This week's piece is from the Utah Statesman by writer
Amber Bailey
Blind student sets sights high
From The
Utah Statesman 10/30/03
Rhett Jones is 26 years old, has a bachelor's degree in history
and sociology and is earning his master's degree in history
right now.
Yet, he has never seen a textbook.
Rhett Jones is blind.
About 500,000 people in the United States are blind, and each
year 50,000 more will become blind. Studies have shown that
only cancer is feared more than blindness. However, blindness
does not need to be the tragedy it is generally thought to be,
according to a National Federation of the Blind pamphlet. With
proper training, knowledge and opportunity, blind people can
be productive, first-class citizens.
Jones has proven this to be true. "Where there's a will
there's a way," is his motto.
Jones was born on May 30, 1977, in Tonopah, Nev. to Rudy and
Janice Jones. Right away his parents noticed there was a problem
with his eyes. Tests found him completely blind.
His earliest memory is of preschool. He went to a special school
for the blind where he learned Braille and mobility. When he
was 7 his parents moved to Ogden. There he spent five more years
in a school for the blind. When he was 11, his parents wanted
to mainstream him into a regular school. That's where he went
from then on.
In the seventh grade Jones developed a love for music. In the
eighth and ninth grade he was in a music group, Solemn Ensemble,
where he played the piano. In high school he was also involved
in Solemn Ensemble and played in the band and orchestra. The
year his school went to state, he played a piano solo.
After high school he couldn't figure out what he wanted to
do with his life. All the while he kept writing music and playing
instruments. He arranged some Latter-day Saint, pop and contemporary
songs. While learning the art of music, he decided he wanted
to learn more. So he enrolled for classes at Weber State University.
While attending Weber he served as a stake missionary for The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for two years in
Riverdale. His mission included serving with other full-time
missionaries and also members in his stake and ward. He wanted
to go on a conventional mission, but he wasn't allowed. But
that was OK with him.
"It was cool, I got to serve a mission and go to school,"
he said. "The only bad thing was all the meetings."
From his mission he developed a love for languages. He learned
to speak Spanish fluently and he would like to learn more languages.
Jones received his bachelor's degree in history and sociology
from WSU in the spring of 2001. He chose history because he
loves learning about the past. He already sees himself as a
historian. He saved all his papers from when he was an undergraduate
because he doesn't like to throw things away.
"It's a historian kind of thing," he said. "I
just keep them in a box. Maybe [someday they will] be a museum
piece."
While working on his bachelor's and master's degrees, Jones
has been a teacher's assistant for three professors. He has
given lectures on Utah history and the Civil War. His favorite
part of being a teacher's assistant is grading his classmates'
work.
"[It's] kind of cool, [I get] to see all the answers that
people put on their tests," Jones said.
While at WSU, he also worked at their disability resource center
and took notes for a deaf student.
He has done all of this to get experience because when he's
done with his master's, he would like to get a doctorate in
history. Someday he would like to teach at a university.
He reinforces this goal every day whenever he checks his e-mail.
Every time he puts in his e-mail address, drjones@cc.usu.edu,
he remembers his goal. He remembers why he's in school.
All of his siblings have also graduated from college or will
graduate soon, including his younger brother, who is partially
blind. It shouldn't have happened, Jones said.
"Just like the jackpot at Vegas, two times it shouldn't
have happened, but it did," Jones said.
Now Jones is beating the odds - with school, with hobbies,
and in life.
He credits his parents for his work-with-what-you-have-and-do-your-best-with-what-you-have
attitude. He feels his parents raised him just like everyone
else. His parents have the same expectations they do for any
of his other siblings.
"When I'm at home, I don't get out of taking out the garbage
or doing the dishes," he said.
These are Jones' challenges. His challenges are the more mundane
things, the things most people don't think about because they
seem so simple. These also include handling money, doing laundry
and crossing the street.
How do you track money when you can't see? Coins are easy -
the shapes can be felt. But paper money is a little more difficult.
How can you tell if it's George Washington's or Andrew Jackson's
face staring back at you?
Jones separates his money by placing the larger bills in the
front and the smaller bills in the back.
And how does a blind person sort laundry? Jones keeps his laundry
separated by putting them in different baskets. Just in case
they get mixed up, he puts cuts on the labels to differentiate
between them. One cut in the label means it's light, two cuts
mean it's dark and no cuts mean it is white. The system seems
to work. He has only washed a red shirt with his whites once.
Having to cross the street is another obstacle.
"Theoretically, people are supposed to stop when it's
red, [and] go when it's green - it's not always the case,"
Jones said.
He still gets nervous doing it. Yet he conquers what some may
say is the biggest obstacle - college - without thought or worry.
His current GPA is a 3.4. He wishes it were higher. Jones feels
his GPA has slipped because of bad habits he picked up from
his roommates. Last year, two of his roommates were theater
majors and they always had movies in his apartment. Sometimes
he found them more entertaining than reading about the War of
1812.
But this year is better. His only roommate is working on his
doctorate and they don't even have a television. If Jones wants
to hear the news he listens to the radio.
"I don't miss the TV," he said. "[I] don't spend
a lot of time watching it."
Instead, Jones spends most of his time reading for his classes
using his computer in his apartment.
Jones has a special computer program, Job Access Window Speech
(JAWS) that allows him to read all of his textbooks. It looks
like a regular computer because it has a screen and keyboard.
But his computer reads back to him e-v-e-r-y t-h-i-n-g h-e t-y-p-e-s,
or everything he needs to read.
He credits his professors and the disability center for making
it easy for him to learn.
USU's helping hands
The mission statement of the Disability Resource Center (DRC)
for Utah State University is to provide students, faculty and
staff with assistance and information in providing access and
accommodations to individuals with disabilities.
Furthermore, the mission of the Division of Services for the
Blind and Visually Impaired is to assist individuals in achieving
maximum levels of independence and, whenever possible, developing
goals toward competitive employment.
It offers a variety of services that provide clients with opportunities
for training, adjustment, outreach and rehabilitation. These
services are available free of charge to those registered with
their agency. In order to receive these services, a person must
be living in Utah, be 16 or older, and have significant vision
loss. All services are available to their clients anywhere in
Utah.
Some of these services are classes including orientation and
mobility, Braille, computer training, activities of daily living,
peer group sessions, social skills, diabetic management, wood
shop, crafts and individual counseling.
Mainly, the DRC provides students with disabilities with alternative
means to access information.
"A lot of faculty post things on the Internet [which is]
not accessible for [blind students]. We have the ability to
reproduce material," said Diane Hardman, director of the
DRC.
The DRC also has rooms set up particularly for blind students
with enhanced computers and screens. If those are all being
used they also have computers in the Merrill Library and the
Cazier Science and Technology Library.
In addition, the DRC offers hundreds of textbooks on tape for
students who are blind.
However, the DRC is trying to move away from tapes to digital
format that will allow easier and better access for their students.
USU's Disability Resource Center is viewed as a leader for
other universities. It's ranked first in Utah and was recently
cited in a national magazine, The Disability Compliance and
Higher Education, for providing phenomenal service to their
students.
"People seem to think we're doing a good job," Hardman
said.
The DRC allows Jones to function as a regular college student.
And that's what the center wants. The DRC allows time for students
with disabilities to just be students, with abilities. Their
slogan reads The disAblitiy Resource Center, emphasizing what
students can do rather than cannot.
And Jones proves that. When he isn't in his classes or studying,
he likes to do the things most students do. He dates, likes
bowling and loves hanging out with his friends.
Because Jones is blind, he says he gets to know his date for
who she is instead of her outward appearance. He says he really
gets to know women and see their personalities.
He has heard that communication is 80 percent non-verbal and
10 percent auditory. For him, 100 percent of communication is
auditory.
That's how he sees it.
What a blind man sees
When asked what he can see, Jones can't explain it.
"It's not black," he says, although he probably doesn't
know what black is. Shapes and colors are all arbitrary to him.
When asked what would be the one thing he would most like to
see if he could see, he said, "[I would like to see] the
stuff they don't let you touch in museums. I want to see that,
the stuff behind the glass."
Jones said he would also like to know what's going on around
him.
It's been suggested by the National Federation of the Blind
pamphlet that seeing people should ask blind visitors if they
would like to know if the lights are on. Jones usually keeps
them off.
And it could also be asked, are a blind person's lights on?
Are they able, competent people who can function and live in
this world just like anyone else?
The answer to those questions are yes.
This time, Rhett, the lights are on.
By Amber Bailey
utah
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