![\"Jessica](\"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/IMG_3880.jpg\")
When a student registers with Disability Services, that student will be eligible for assistance on campus at no cost to them.<\/p>\nAccording to Sinclair Community College Disability Services Interim Manager Debra Moody, there are over 500 students at Sinclair who are registered with the office of Disability Services.<\/p>\n
The office of Disability Services is located in Building 10 on the fourth floor, and students with physical, medical, psychological or learning disabilities are encouraged to bring documentation from their healthcare provider if they wish to register with the department.<\/p>\n
When a student registers with Disability Services, that student will be eligible for assistance on campus at no cost to them.<\/p>\n
Moody said that the type of assistance a student receives depends on what type of disability the student has, but two of the most common requests are for students to get extra time for tests, or to take their tests \u201cin a distraction-free environment,\u201d which is usually Sinclair\u2019s Testing Center.
\n
\n\u201cOur goal is to help students be successful, and kind of level the playing field,\u201d Moody said.<\/p>\n
By \u2018leveling the playing field,\u2019 Moody means that disabled students often face challenges related to their particular disabling condition, and that can adversely affect their scholastic performance. The office of Disability Services can assist students in adapting to those challenges.<\/p>\n
However, not all Sinclair students who are disabled choose to register with the office of Disability Services.<\/p>\n
Jessica Bunn, an accounting major at Sinclair, has been using a wheelchair for 16 years. She told the Clarion that she did not register with the office because she enjoys being independent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf somebody asks me, \u2018do you need help?\u2019 I usually say \u2018no, I\u2019ve got it,\u2019\u201d Bunn said.<\/p>\n
Being in a wheelchair doesn\u2019t seem to have slowed her down\u2014Bunn works a part-time job in retail during the school year and she even takes on a second job during the summer.<\/p>\n
Bunn\u2019s feisty spirit is belied by her petite stature; she is barely five feet tall, with a slight build and a contagious smile. She can often be found zipping around Sinclair\u2019s campus on her sporty, titanium-frame wheelchair, which features aggressively-cambered, hand-built wheels\u2014and she can do wheelies.<\/p>\n
Bunn told the Clarion she finds Sinclair\u2019s campus layout to be relatively manageable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do like how all the buildings are connected on the third floor and basement,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Another Sinclair student who navigates Sinclair\u2019s campus in a wheelchair is mental health technology major Heidy Louisa.
\nLouisa is originally from Connecticut, and has been working the same part-time job after school for about three\u00a0years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI work with the best people in the world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Louisa said she has not yet registered with the office of disability services.<\/p>\n
Louisa is passionate about music and sings for her church choir. She told the Clarion that she has been taking voice lessons in Sinclair\u2019s Music Practicum for about six months.<\/p>\n
Louisa said she was called to ministry when she was 22, and that music and singing, as well as her coursework at Sinclair are part of that calling. Her passion became evident when she explained her reasons for studying the subjects that she does.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cried when I got my acceptance letter,\u201d Louisa said. \u201cNow that I know\u2014on a spiritual level\u2014what I am called to do \u2026 I have so much peace from that. Being able to pursue that [at Sinclair] is a huge blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Communication major Kraig Knight is another Sinclair student who gets around campus on wheels. He said he is registered with disability services.<\/p>\n
Because of the nature of his disability, Knight needs assistance with note taking. He has taken classes at Sinclair and Wright State, and he said that Sinclair\u2019s office of Disability Services is superior to the one at WSU.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are always there when I need them,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are really flexible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though Knight is happy with the services the office provides, he said he would like to see Disability Services get more involved on campus.<\/p>\n
Knight uses a Power Chair to get around, and he said he finds Sinclair\u2019s campus relatively easy to navigate, except during winter when the snow and ice build up.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, if it\u2019s really icy, my chair will fishtail,\u201d Knight said with a smile.<\/p>\n
Knight is well known on campus, but he is quick to downplay his celebrity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just an outspoken guy who doesn\u2019t let his disability get to him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Business management major Tim Carroll is in his second year at Sinclair, and has been disabled for over 40 years. He registered with disability services last semester.<\/p>\n
Like Bunn, Louisa and Knight, Carroll also gets around in a wheelchair, and he said that accommodations for disabled people have definitely improved since the last time he attended college.<\/p>\n
Carroll is a\u00a0soft-spoken\u00a0East Coast transplant who likes the slower pace in Ohio, and also the fact that there is less snow. He said that when he took classes at Northshore Community College in Massachusetts, the buildings were quite old, and not updated for students with disabilities.<\/p>\n
Carroll was not yet in a wheelchair back then, but got around with crutches. He said he found it was much more difficult to navigate the older buildings because there were no elevators.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a lot different than [Sinclair],\u201d he said. \u201cBut I managed\u2014I was young back then.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeremy Finton, who is a Sinclair alumnus as well as adjunct faculty in the hospitality management and culinary arts departments, said that Sinclair\u2019s elevators bring to mind an aspect of being disabled that many able-bodied folks may not often think of.<\/p>\n
Finton, who uses a wheelchair, said that he doesn\u2019t have many problems getting around Sinclair\u2019s campus. However, he did mention that sometimes folks in wheelchairs get crowded out of the elevators in the busier buildings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat just comes with the territory,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Finton injured himself in a diving accident many years ago, shortly after graduating from Sinclair\u2019s culinary arts program. He has been on Sinclair\u2019s adjunct faculty for about 12 years.<\/p>\n
Finton has found an outlet for his athletic abilities with paralympic wheelchair racing. He said that he raced for the U.S. team in the World Championship Paralympic Track and Field races in New Zealand and Australia in 2011. He also took silver and bronze in the Nationals in Atlanta, Georgia in 2006.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/jeremy-fintondisability.jpg\")
As a faculty member at Sinclair, Finton appreciates the opportunity to make a connection with students.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally, the good thing is having the flexibility to make it work for them,\u201d he said. \u201cThe weather, the snow, babysitting \u2026 I\u2019ve noticed that a lot of students just give up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Moody, Finton said he focuses on what can be done to make the situation better for struggling students.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely about enabling the students to be successful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
According to Sinclair Community College Disability Services Interim Manager Debra Moody, there are over 500 students at Sinclair who are registered with the office of Disability Services. The office of Disability Services is located in Building 10 on the fourth floor, and students with physical, medical, psychological or learning disabilities are encouraged to bring documentation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s5s3vR-11208","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11208"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11240,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11208\/revisions\/11240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}