By BRANDI LEWANDOWSKI
The State News
Melissa Peele graduated in December with a little help from her fellow MSU students.
“I’ve had numerous books read to me by other students and I’ve also called on them to help me research papers,” Peele said.
Peele, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English, has been blind since she was four months old.
When she became a student at MSU in 1994, she utilized a reading program provided by the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities, 120 Bessey Hall. The program recruits students to read course materials onto tape and to read to visually-impaired students.
Peele said she appreciates student volunteers, but program leaders say more volunteers are still needed.
“There are lots of us that are visually impaired or dyslexic here,” Peele said. “I’ve always found that the readers are very accountable but that there’s a steady decline in numbers because there’s only so many readers to go around.”
Michael Hudson, director of the center, said the reading program, which assists about 50 students, is one of his favorite programs at MSU.
“We are always looking for more people,” Hudson said. “At the beginning of the semester we have our highest demand for readers. We have 13 sound-proof recording studios here and read a couple hundred books and hundreds of course packs every year.”
Most volunteers for the program are members of Tower Guard at MSU. Tower Guard is an honors and service student organization. Its main commitment is to help visually-impaired students.
“They are our heaviest contributors by far,” Hudson said of Tower Guard volunteers. “The students put in four hours of reading every week. After a school year they have tallied about 120 hours.”
Carl Oliver, president of the group, is volunteering this semester.
“You come in here and there are books laying out for us to read,” Oliver, an economics and math junior said. “I think it’s kind of fun actually. You just spend about an hour in here and talk into a microphone or read to another student.”
Oliver said he enjoys the diverse content of the books that he reads out loud.
“I kind of like getting to read something that I wouldn’t read otherwise.” Oliver said. “I get to read stuff about what I want to be doing and about things that are so different from my classes.”
The center also uses e-text to scan books.
“We take the bindings off the books, scan them and then the computer will read the books back to the students,” Oliver said. “In one semester, the usage of the e-text has tripled. It’s the future of the reading program.”
For more information contact the center office at 353-9643 or e-mail the office at rcpd@msu.edu.
