Disability services provides light at the end of the tunnel

Giancarlo Mariani was once plagued with feelings of being unworthy  and foolish, but with the help of Disability Services at Sinclair Community College, he has learned to overcome.

“When I lived in Italy, my teachers used to call me stupid and lazy,” Mariani, Sinclair student said. “To them dyslexia was fictitious.”

As a child, Mariani said he was reprimanded for not being able to finish tests, in-class assignments or complete writing assignments the right way.

“In elementary school, I was sent home because one time, I was saying the words right but writing the words wrong,” Mariani said. “My teacher thought I was being funny.”

He said that day was the day he realized his teachers and other classmates thought he was an idiot. For Mariani, it was a constant battle of trying not to feel helpless.

And then he moved to Ohio and enrolled at Sinclair. His first quarter here he was referred to Disability Services.

Students with physical, learning or psychological disabilities can get referred or seek out the help of Disability Services, according to Holly Brown-Wright, manager of Disability and Tutorial Services. First time students seeking help must fill-out a form and provide proper medical documentation to be assisted.

Once the paper work is verified, disability services provide students with various accommodations, Brown-Wright said.

While the accommodations needed vary from person-to-person, Mariani was given testing extensions, access to teacher’s notes and the ability to record lectures in class. He said that has benefited him greatly with his education.

“I don’t feel brain damaged anymore,” Mariani said. “I no longer have to look at the watch during every test; therefore I am more calm, more relaxed.”

Other accommodations disability services provide are adaptive equipment/furniture, ADA workstations, larger prints, note-taking assistance, reader/writer services and tutoring.

Kristann Harrigan, an adjunct instructor for 14 years, believes that Disability Services has helped her in both her role as a teacher and as a student. While she teaches both philosophy and humanities, she said that there is always a need to further her education by taking classes.

Born with cerebral palsy, Harrigan gets around the school in a motorized wheelchair. She described cerebral palsy as having a stroke that damages the nervous system.

For Harrigan, accessibility is one key to her success at Sinclair.

The accommodations that disability services offer her as a student include getting an extension on tests, because she writes slowly, and ADA computer stations. As a teacher, she has an accessible mouse, one classroom she stays in all day, a computer that has voice recognition and furniture that meets her needs.

“Disability Services is one of the reasons I have been successful here at Sinclair,” Harrigan said.

Brown-Wright also believes that Sinclair has helped a lot of students succeed, but there are so many students unaware of disability services.  She hopes that raising awareness will encourage students to seek out help for their problems, because she feels that no student should have to struggle on their own.

Something that Mariani is grateful for every day.

“I am getting better,” Mariani said. “I still have a long way to go, but disability services has changed the way I look at myself.”

While the nightmare of having dyslexia is something he deals with on a daily basis, he is grateful for the fact that there is a service that helps him manage. From being called stupid and lazy to having a more successful out look on his education, Mariani knows that he still has a long way to go.

“Sinclair offers so many accommodations depending on what you need,” he said. “There is a chance that what you’re dealing with, Sinclair has a service for. All you have to do is speak up and who knows, maybe that is all the accommodation you will need to succeed at Sinclair.”