Bakersfield College student Mike Gomez has a high school diploma, he once had a $40,000 a year job as a head air conditioning technician and he has been in college for years.
He also cannot read or write.
Gomez is not blind, but as a member of the Braille Institute he uses the Braille system to study as well as a Kurzweil 3000 audio computer software program, which helps him to “scan” his class textbooks. He listens to this audio computer program “multiple times” to fully understand the content of the material.
Gomez uses the computers reserved for supportive services students in BC’s computer commons. Tearing out pages from his textbook, Gomez places each page in the Epson Perfection 3170 Photo machine which functions much as a typical copy machine. He then presses “scan” on the computer, and the page appears on the computer screen. With his earphones in place, the computer reads to him the page’s material. Gomez said he usually starts at the bottom of a list of homework questions and works his way up. He finds this way less confusing. But without the program, Gomez said, he would feel lost.
“If I haven’t scanned the material, I’m a zombie in a test situation,” Gomez says.
Speaking approvingly of the Kurzweil program, he said, “I can retain what the program is talking about. Depending on the question (for his agriculture homework), it may take me about 20 minutes to answer. If the question is straightforward, I can answer it quickly. I answer questions by hearing.”
Gomez said that he cannot read or write in either Spanish or English, and that the Department of Rehabilitation that tested his reading ability says he reads at a first-grade level.
“I was a premature baby, and I got bronchitis and fevers, and they burned up part of my brain,” Gomez said. “I’ll never be able to learn like everybody else.”
But despite his disability, Gomez has become a good student, his professors confirm. Professor Marlene Tatsuno, who teaches Gomez’s ceramics class said that she can “work well within the parameters of what he can do, and there is an agreement between us that he will present a project rather than write a research paper for me.”
Bill Kelly, BC professor of forestry, said that Gomez has displayed a great amount of “gung ho and enthusiasm” in Kelly’s forestry class.
However, the limitations that Gomez deals with are galling. Because of an on-the-job injury, Gomez had to quit working. So, in addition to his academic problems, he must also deal with financial difficulties, which do not serve his special academic needs.
Gomez said he cannot afford the $1,300 Kurzweil software program he depends on to study. The software, he said, is “way out of my pocket range.” He said he is very dependent upon the Kurzweil program available at BC. Without this program, Gomez said, he would be “frozen,” especially since his wife cannot either read or write, and his children are not at a very advanced reading and writing level.
Without the unique program, Gomez depends on, he said he would not know what is going on in his classes. He said one time he could not apply the Kurzweil system, and he had nowhere to go to study.
“I couldn’t study for a test, and I got behind,” Gomez said. “I felt left out. I rely on this equipment, and if it’s broken down … at the time, the tutoring center was closed, too.”
Gomez said the Kern County library system does not offer any Kurzweil programs, and he said that the library officials told him they never will.
He said there are other people in his position who need help.
“I’m not the only student like this,” he said. “There’s a high population of people like me out there, and there is no support system at BC to guide them. It ain’t there. There are kids out there who don’t know about the (Kurzweil) system.
“I honestly believe they (BC) don’t care. They got counselors together (at BC) to decide what to do with me. They rated me and gave up. Some professors told me that I don’t belong here. What gives them that right to say that? I believe BC takes the 10 best students and works just with them.”
“They have a testing facility for the blind and deaf, and they’re accommodating to them, but they’re not as accommodating to me or others like me. If you’re going to help one student, you should help the other and not show favoritism.”
Gomez was discouraged by the fact that Student Services would not assign a student to take notes for him, as they arrange to do for the blind and deaf. Overall, Gomez said he feels that there is no department on campus that fully serves his needs.
Angelica Gomez, director of BC’s Supportive Services, said, “Supportive Services tries to provide equal access to an education to all disabled students.
“If Mr. Gomez is a student with Supportive Services, and I can’t say whether or not he is because of the confidentiality laws, then he needs to meet with a counselor here and determine how best to deal with his educational limitations. All I can say is that we try to provide reasonable accommodation to all disabled students.”
Some BC officials are sympathetic to Mike Gomez’s disability and cause, but they feel that the financial status of the community college system is not at its peak, and that this lamentable financial situation is proving to be detrimental to all connected with the community college system.
Dean of Students Don Turney said, “I guarantee you BC is doing all that it can to help him and others like him – financially. I truly sympathize with Mr. Gomez. My heart goes out to him. But it’s all financial. When budget cuts come down the pipe, everybody gets hurt. It’s not fair, it’s not right, but that’s the way it is. I’m tentatively optimistic that the state’s financial picture will get better. BC then can offer more to supportive students and all other students. But until we get more money, we can’t make promises we can’t keep. My hat’s off to Mr. Gomez. It is truly an amazing feat he’s done, and I’m proud of him.”
Gomez intends to drive forward a plan of action to make BC more accommodating to people with his type of problem. He plans to speak to higher-ranking administrators, call Sacramento, and he is ready to present a petition demanding better community college services to people like him.
“It’s hard when it’s one person and one voice, but a hundred voices will be heard,” Gomez said. “If one person yells, no one hears, but if it’s 10 to 15 people yelling, more will hear.”
Gomez said he lost his job a year ago as an air conditioning technician because of an injury. This injury forced him to go back to school. Gomez said that he was seriously injured on the job when he fell from a balcony that was tenuously supported by a two-by-four in place of a guardrail that gave way as he tried to retrieve equipment from that area. He fell from the third floor of a building, rupturing two discs.
He was not allowed back to his job, and so, going back to school for more education became a necessity.
But with his inability to learn in a conventional way, he said that his “motivation for going to college has been dropping and dropping.” However, he said he realizes that it takes “motivation to fight for what you need.”
He said that he believes that he must fight for his own education, and for the education of others like him.
“If we (the community) don’t get people like me educated, we will have a big problem,” he said.
“We will have to feed these people and pay for their medical expenses. It’ll take just a little bit of money to get these people educated. No one can work for just minimum wage. You can’t take care of a family on minimum wage.”