IRVINE : A Way to Stay in Sight of His Goals

When Velanche Stewart transfers to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo this fall, a special state-of-the-art computer system in his dorm room is going to help him with his schoolwork in a most visible way.

Stewart, a recent Irvine Valley College graduate who is legally blind and hearing impaired, is one of 10 community college students selected to receive $10,000 in special adaptive computer equipment as part of the 1992 High Tech Center Student Achievement Awards.

With the use of a special IBM software program, the words on Stewart’s new computer screen can be enlarged up to 16 times, which will allow him to read and write with greater ease.

“I feel like it’s almost Christmastime,” the 28-year-old Irvine resident said. “It’s quite a surprise. I’m still trying to figure out how I’m going to get all this stuff in my dorm room.”

Although Stewart can participate in classroom activities by sitting in the front of the classroom and using a special optical lens attached to his glasses, he still has a difficult and often exhausting time reading regular-size print and computer screens. The deluxe new computer system, presented by the Community College Foundation and IBM, will help ease those difficulties.

“It will make things a bit easier as far as saving time, saving energy, and it will definitely help me to do my work,” Stewart said. “It will just help me to be more productive.”

In addition to the computer package, Stewart will receive a special laser printer adapted to copy the larger type and a closed-circuit display machine, which enlarges the text from any book or publication and displays it on a 20-inch color monitor.

“It’s going to be so much easier because it’s getting harder and harder to read regular text,” he said. “My vision might be getting worse, but it doesn’t mean I can’t participate in regular things.”

Since Stewart started school at Irvine Valley College in 1988, he has been working on similar adaptive equipment in the campus high-tech center. He has also worked full time at an Irvine fast-food restaurant to help put himself through school.

“Being visually impaired, it was kind of a struggle to make the two ends meet and to have to settle for less than I know I could do,” he said.

But college adaptive computer instructor Leslie Levy said Stewart’s commitment to education and lots of hard work have enabled him to become very proficient with the computer programs.

“He’s just worked through this,” she said. “He’s just hung in there.”

Stewart is one of about seven disabled students who use the adaptive computer equipment each semester, Levy said.

When Stewart transfers to Cal Poly this August, the computer equipment will be installed in his dorm room so he won’t have to travel to a specialized computer center. Once at school, Stewart said, he plans to devote all his time to his studies. A business administration major, he hopes to work as an accountant or in a similar business-related field.

“The world is going to be my oyster,” he said.