by Dana Meade
Contributing Writer

Jana Norton was too smart a child to be limited to just one hour a day in a remedial class. However, the Seattle School District thought an hour was all children with cerebral palsy could handle. Throughout her elementary years, Norton would hopefully ask her parents each September what classes she’d be allowed to take at school the coming year. But the answer was always the same.

Norton, and her parents knew that she was capable of much more. In the early 1970’s, there was so much ignorance around disabilities, that the school district denied her an education, and told Jana’s parents they’d have to prove she could handle any program beyond what they were offering.

Norton’s parents took on the challenge, effectively changing the world for more than just their daughter. They started by writing letters to the school district, then to the Washington State Legislature. Then they took their fight to Washington, D.C. With the aid of a University of Washington law student, they wrote and helped put into action Student Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Public Law 94-142 of the Mainstreaming Act of 1975.

The Rehabilitation Act states that people with disabilities cannot be denied the benefits of any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance, including education. The Mainstreaming Act mandates that schools allow students with disabilities to be in regular classes, and that schools work with students to create an individual, detailed plan to help each student achieve his or her academic goals.

Shoreline Community College is no exception to the world that Jana’s parents helped open to her and all other students with disabilities. In fact, Shoreline offers students with disabilities a multitude of special services, and solutions to the challenges that these students face every day. Claire Ball, who works in Special Services, says that Shoreline doesn’t just follow the letter of the law; it follows the spirit.

For example, if a law states that an entryway has to be a certain number of inches wide to get a manual wheelchair through, Shoreline will figure out how many inches wide it needs to build the doorway to get the largest electric wheelchair through.

Ball said that SCC Special Services exists to provide equal access, both in the classroom and on campus. Staff will meet with any student who has a disability—from invisible disabilities such as attention deficit disorder and dyslexia to more visible ones such as cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis. Staff will then determine what assistance is needed.

Ball explained that assisting students is a very individual process, and there is not a set program for even two students with the same disability. She also said that many students with disabilities don’t want to draw attention to themselves, and she assures them that the department does everything it can to protect their anonymity.

In a multi-level, stadium-style classroom with no ramp to the front, a student in a wheelchair anticipating oral presentations could call Special Services. The office would then work with the professor to move the presentations to an accessible classroom without broadcasting the reason to all the students.

When a visually impaired student needs to study in Braille, staff can have textbooks converted. Deaf students are given an American Sign Language interpreter or, if the class is longer than an hour, two interpreters to prevent repetitive-motion injury. Newly deaf students who do not yet understand ASL well enough are given a captioner, who sits in the back of the class and types notes onto a screen so the deaf student can read all that is being said during a class.

The Community Integration Program, which is funded by King and Snohomish counties, is a branch of Special Services. It offers an adaptive technology center, as well as full personal-care assistants to attend school with students and give them one-on-one tutoring (see accompanying story on next page).

For students who need a complete career change due to a disability, the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation helps people with disabilities of all types find employment. The department works on vocational and career counseling to support a student’s job search, and is even able to support students financially while they earn a degree. A DVR liaison works in the Special Services center.

Special Services doesn’t always just assist; sometimes it changes lives. Ball remembered a student who had a severe mental-health disability. He first came to the college with his father, who walked him through registration and made all appointments for him because he had difficulties socializing. The student received all the assistance the Disabilities office could give him. Through his years at Shoreline, he used these services less and less, and his self-confidence grew more and more.

By the time he graduated, he was waving at Ball from across campus, saying hello to people, and excelling in his classes.

After working in this office for 11 years, Ball now knows, for the first time, what it means to be disabled.

Last spring she dislocated her ankle, and was forced to use a wheelchair, crutches, and a cane. Though it was a rough seven months, she finds herself strangely thankful for the insight her injury gave her. Her department can assist students, and they can try to educate the campus, but no one can really empathize until they have to ask for assistance to do simple things.

These are just a few examples of the many services offered by Shoreline’s Student Services center. Students can thank Jana Norton’s parents for helping make education without discrimination possible here and all around the country.

On her first day of fifth grade, Norton’s parents had a surprise for her. They told her to go speak to the school secretary, who would take her to her class. Much to her surprise, the secretary took her upstairs, where the regular classes were being held at her elementary school.
Jana was finally able to receive the education she’d desired and she excelled all the way to the University of Washington, where she majored in math and minored in English. Today, she is a tutor in the Shoreline Community College Tutoring Center.

It makes sense that Norton is a tutor. She has been teaching people all of her life simply by living hers. She knows that people are surprised when she wheels up and asks where they’d like to sit for their tutoring session. It doesn’t faze her when they are at first nervous and overly nice, because once they hear her critique of a paper and she begins helping them with a problem they realize that she is an intelligent tutor. They become engaged, ask her questions, and are always thankful for her help.

Norton loves tutoring because she helps students see that someone like her can be a productive member of society.

Recently, she gave some kind advice to another student with disabilities: If she focused on her accomplishments and goals, her disability would almost vanish. It is clear Norton is living those words.

Photo by Lindsay Ginn/Ebbtide
Jana Norton of the student learning center helps student Eyob Michael with his homework.