I am Kate. I’m born on the 10th of April in 1990. I live together with my parents, sister and little brother in Wolvertem.

It is a quiet and rather green environment.

In this presentation, you will get to know me and my life as a college student.

Until June 2008, I went to school in the Sint-Theresiacollege in Kapelle-op-den-bos, a rural town in the province of Flemish Brabant, at the border with the provinces East-Flanders and Antwerp. My study subject was social sciences.

Now I’ll study to be an occupational therapist. This will be a great adjustment.

This means getting up early,

Since college isn’t located nearby. Moreover it’s not that simple to get there by public transport.

That’s why I will search for a student room so that I only have to travel less. It will be different. I’m used to being at home with my family. We live here in a rural, green environment . This contrasts sharply with the centre of the city of Ghent.

I will have to take care of myself and I will miss my family. But I will get used to it soon.

The perfect location. I have a student room near the college building. I only need to take the elevator to attend classes.

It’s not really big (approximately 11m²), but there’s room for a single bed, a wardrobe, a desk and a little washbasin. It doesn’t have to be big for me. I think the room is cosy and on top of that it is low-priced. We are not allowed to have a television in our student room, because of fire risk.

There I can slaap late

Besides attending classes, I take a very active part in college affairs. Nowadays I’m a member of the students’ council. I plead better adaptations for people with a disability. There, I tell that I have dyslexia and dysorthographia.

There, I also speak against the word ‘handicap’. Isn’t that an awful word!

At that moment, I get the feeling that we’re put on a stamp on our forehead. That’s hateful!

It’s not easy to study at College with a disability. That’s why I get It’s not easy to study at College with a disability. That’s why I get

some extra support. To receive this, I have to take several steps. some extra support. To receive this, I have to take several steps.

It’s running from here to there to hand in the necessary pieces of It’s running from here to there to hand in the necessary pieces of

evidence. Why do I have to hand in all these items of evidence. Is evidence. Why do I have to hand in all these items of evidence. Is

one time not enough? one time not enough?

After a long time, I finally get my support. E.g. Sprint Plus package. This is a software package that will support technical reading and reading comprehension, spelling, strategic writing, learning and studying.

In addition to this, I receive the text books on a USB-stick. That way I can convert the font into Arial 12. That works better for me. But why can’t the professors adapt their text books spontaneously? That way it would be accessible for every student?!

Each year, we have to do a work placement. At the end of

our study career, we will have done 1000 hours of internship.

That way every student gets the opportunity to come into contact

with the actual practice. The university college allocates a trainee

post to us. We are not allowed to chose it ourselves. It’s a pity that

my trainee post isn’t near home. I will have to go by public transport .

Handing in a report of the internship forms an obstacle. Oh oh! This is hard, so hard! Everyone who does a work placement thinks it’s hard. Writing errors are not allowed in the report. The same goes for me. We have to hand in the report at the final day of our practical training. A lot of points are at stake, therefore I let several people read it again. A lot of things enter into this: terminology, use of words, sentence structure, grammarand spelling in general.

Wish me luck!

This internship took three weeks. It was a physical practice in a geriatric department of a hospital. It was fun! We could try out a lot of things. It’s by trial and error. It was a pleasant atmosphere, and the colleagues were great. I felt like one of

them.

First Year:

Work placement 1: First half year.

Work placement 2: Second half year.

I worked with children with a mild or severe intellectual disability! I got good supervision. That’s nice. We’ll go for

it the next two weeks!

I worked with elderly people in a home for the elderly. Once again, for two weeks. Fortunately, I

got good supervision again.

Second Year

Work placement 3: First half year.

A tense moment! I’m really curious how it will work out! Ben echt benieuwd wat dat gaat worden! When I take an exam, I get 20% more time on condition that the exam takes less than 4 hours.

I just have to ask the extra time at the beginning and hand in a document which is used in evidence. In addition to this, I have Besides that, I have to write ‘dyslexia and dysorthographia” on the exam form so that they don’t subtract points because of writing errors.

Actually it’s ridiculous that I have to mention this over and over again. This since the professors get a list with all the students who have right to extra accommodations. Now it’s like I get a stamp on my forehead!

Because of my disability, It’s not easy to express things on paper. Sometimes, I don’t write answers because of this. I can explain these things during my oral exam. Butthis is considered as introducing new subject material.

an

I can also get an oral exam. It is a general rule that I can only explain things that are alsowritten on my exam form.

Isn’t that illogical?

From 8th September up to 11th

September I went, together with 3 other

students, to Slovenia. We represented

Belgium on the YOU + I = TOGETHER

conference!

What a great experience. The conference was on students with a disability in higher education. We’ve learned about the situation in other countries relating to inclusive education. It looks like Slovenia is behind. They have a reduced study offer for students with a disability, most of them

economy oriented. And what if you don’t have any interest in economics…?! In comparison with Ireland, Belgium is still integrating students, whereas Ireland is allready working on inclusion. So there is hope for the future. I would certainly like tocontribute to that.

I have a lot of animals: sheep, cows, rabbits, fish and a bird. We used to have two birds, but our cat jumped on the cage. One of the birds was so upset that he died because of a heart attack. Shortly after this happened, our cat also stood away from home.

Aaaah, I begin to get impatient when I think about it.

Okay, I’ve passed my theoretical driving exam. It’s about time that I take driving lessons. That way, I can take my practical driving exam soon.

Once I’ve got my driving license, I can finally buy my own car. Transport will be easier then.