Visually impaired duo among UMS graduates
KOTA KINABALU: Two special needs individuals were among the students graduating at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) yesterday.
Harryson Tai, 23, from Papar who has sight disability graduated with a Degree in Social Science and Anthropology and hopes to be able to continue with his Masters study next year.
He also said that he aspires to become a lecturer.
“Because I talk a lot, the career suited for me is one that requires a lot of talking,” he said on why he is opting to become a lecturer.
He added that as a sight impaired student, the challenges he faced range from not knowing the content of the slides being presented by his lecturers during lessons, to not being able to get reading materials for the sight impaired at the university library.
However, he said that his friends and lecturers made up for what was lacking and helped him as much as they could.
“I seek out my lecturers after class for the slides so that I don’t get left behind my other classmates. I also have friends who help read books for me,” he said.
He added that he recorded or typed the content of these books so that he could have easy access to them.
Ally Racheal Yunus, 25, from Kudat is also sight impaired yet she graduated with a Degree in Social Science with Honors (History).
Like Harryson, she also plans to continue her studies to a higher level because she feels that her present knowledge is still inadequate.
And like Harryson, she is also grateful to her friends who acted as her volunteer readers so that she did not miss out on her studies.
She added that she was born a normal child, but her eyesight slowly deteriorated over the years.
“By 15 years old, I could not see anymore,” she said.
Following the loss of her eyesight, she lost hope and missed two years of school.
Ally decided to pick herself up again after that, realizing the hardship her parents were undergoing, and was glad to finally reap the fruits of her hard work yesterday.