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.
There I can slaap late 
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.
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
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
evidence. Why do I have to hand in all these items of evidence. Is
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, grammar
and spelling in general.
Wish me luck!
First Year:
Work placement 1: First 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!
Work placement 2: Second half year.
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.
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.
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!
I can also get an oral exam. It is a general rule
that I can only explain things that are also
written on my exam form.
Isn’t that illogical?
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. But
this is considered as introducing new subject material.
an
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 to
contribute 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.
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.
Aaaah, I begin to get impatient when
I think about it.