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Education is the tool and knowledge is the payoff!!!
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Thanh Diep is college graduate and here's what she had to sa
I am a Vietnamese American woman with Cerebral Palsy (CP). I socialize with people with
the assistant of my Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device called a Pathfinder." Attending San Francisco
State University was a very long seven and very difficult years. My major was Liberal Studies and I graduated with my Bachelor
of Arts from there in May 2005. It was very difficult trying to keep up with all the readings, although I took three or four
courses per semester. I got many of my textbooks on book on tape, or scanned them into the computer in
order for me listen to it. I could understand something faster, if I could listen to it instead of trying to read it by word
by word. I got many accommodations with my courses from the Disability Programs and Resource Center (DPRC) on campus, which
provides people with disabilities with some resources, education and direct services. It took a while for them to scan my
textbooks into the computer and send it to me by e-mail, or give me a CD with the reading materials. Although I always tried
to buy my textbooks and get them to the DPRC, before school started, I was often behind with my readings because scanning
them into the computer took a very long time and I had to find some time to listen to them also.
I had some good and some bad professors. Some good professors were very understandable about
my accommodations, such as letting me to take the exams in another quiet room with some extra times with a student assistant
from DPRC and giving me some extra times to complete the assignments, when needed. Also, they were fine when I explained to
them about some of my reading situations and I told them that I was doing my best to catch up with it.
On the other hand, not all professors were very nice. They under estimated my abilities
to understand at the beginning of the semester just because I was in a wheelchair and I could not speak verbally. Some of
them did not have the patient and time to know me better, while others realized that they made a mistake. I was able to show
and teach them what I could do and could not do
I also got many note takers in classes from DPRC. Some note takers were good and some were
bad. Sometimes I had to report them to the DPRC for not showing up in class on time, or taking the notes really bad that I
could not read or understand. When a note taker did not show up in class or was running late, I asked for a volunteer in class
to take notes for both of us and I gave him/her some double sided of note papers. So I could have a copy and she/he also could
have a copy as well.
And lastly, I struggled with issues related to finding and affording qualified physical
care attendants. At one time during my college years I had no alternative other than to attend the University without an aide,
and return home when I needed to eat, drink, and use the bathroom. This significantly impacted the quality of my life, and
yet I endured it and continued to search for and eventually hire an aide.
Nowadays, I like to express myself through the creation of arts, animations and videos at
Creativity Explored II in San Francisco, which is for people with developmental disabilities, where we can express ourselves
through the creation of arts. We do many drawings, varieties of abstract paintings, write stories, make animation videos,
and many more art forms that we do there. I have also written a book and created soundtracks for three animated films with
the assistance of my AAC device. I also like to volunteer at a middle school once a week and mentor a student with his/her
AAC device. I would love to work with children with or without disabilities and teach them about disability awareness and
art in the near future.
