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2004
Student diaries - week 1 |
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| Darren's
a techno addict! |
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Follow
the ups and downs of life for a disabled university student in Staffordshire.
Darren is a self professed geek, his passport says 'Country of Origin:
internet; on it. He's blind and is studying a mixture of Computing
and History at Keele University... |
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::
Links »
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Ouch
homepage
Ouch is a website from the BBC. Its aim is to reflect the lives
of disabled people right here and now in the third millennium
Ouch
student diaries
Four disabled students post diary entries all about their experiences,
about living away from home, social life and the high and low
points of accessibility: on campus, in their accommodation and
for study resources. |
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Week
one diary excerpts
 ...The
day of reckoning finally arrives, after over two months of anticipation.
I'm only a little apprehensive because I am very much looking forward
to moving out of home again. Having spent the last two years at a
boarding school for the blind, leaving home doesn't faze me and homesickness
is something long gone...
Our kitchen is equipped with an unusual unit which is a convection
and microwave all-in-one thing. I had no idea how to use it so my
food options for the rest of the day were limited to a sandwich, an
apple, half a bottle of sparkling peach-flavoured water, and a flake
ice-cream dessert bought from the supermarket yesterday... Made a
point of asking my mobility officer this morning to show me how to
use the microwave before we did anything else...
...As students began to arrive, I found my nerves mounting for the
rest of Saturday afternoon. I'm usually a pretty confident person
when approaching new people, but I felt extremely reluctant to follow
everyone's advice of politely knocking on doors and introducing myself.
So instead, I just went next door into the kitchen, found some more
stuff from my freezer shelf and set about making tea...
We then went back to halls where I signed onto the internet successfully.
I then got a call from the guys who bumped into me last night, and
we arranged to go out to one of the other bars on campus later. Cool.
I'm one for going out for a quieter more civilised social drink, but
I'm not really into the clubbing thing to be honest. I'm sure I would
be if I didn't need my hearing quite so much, but there you go...
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BBC
Stoke and Staffordshire
Cheapside
Hanley
Stoke-on-Trent
Staffordshire
ST1 1JJ
tel: (+44) 01782 221281
e-mail: stoke@bbc.co.uk
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