Blind student sets sights high

Rhett Jones is 26 years old, has a bachelor's degree in history and sociology and is earning his master's degree in history right now.

Yet, he has never seen a textbook.

Rhett Jones is blind.

About 500,000 people in the United States are blind, and each year 50,000 more will become blind. Studies have shown that only cancer is feared more than blindness. However, blindness does not need to be the tragedy it is generally thought to be, according to a National Federation of the Blind pamphlet. With proper training, knowledge and opportunity, blind people can be productive, first-class citizens.

Jones has proven this to be true. "Where there's a will there's a way," is his motto.

Jones was born on May 30, 1977, in Tonopah, Nev. to Rudy and Janice Jones. Right away his parents noticed there was a problem with his eyes. Tests found him completely blind.

His earliest memory is of preschool. He went to a special school for the blind where he learned Braille and mobility. When he was 7 his parents moved to Ogden. There he spent five more years in a school for the blind. When he was 11, his parents wanted to mainstream him into a regular school. That's where he went from then on.

In the seventh grade Jones developed a love for music. In the eighth and ninth grade he was in a music group, Solemn Ensemble, where he played the piano. In high school he was also involved in Solemn Ensemble and played in the band and orchestra. The year his school went to state, he played a piano solo.

After high school he couldn't figure out what he wanted to do with his life. All the while he kept writing music and playing instruments. He arranged some Latter-day Saint, pop and contemporary songs. While learning the art of music, he decided he wanted to learn more. So he enrolled for classes at Weber State University.

While attending Weber he served as a stake missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for two years in Riverdale. His mission included serving with other full-time missionaries and also members in his stake and ward. He wanted to go on a conventional mission, but he wasn't allowed. But that was OK with him.

"It was cool, I got to serve a mission and go to school," he said. "The only bad thing was all the meetings."

From his mission he developed a love for languages. He learned to speak Spanish fluently and he would like to learn more languages.

Jones received his bachelor's degree in history and sociology from WSU in the spring of 2001. He chose history because he loves learning about the past. He already sees himself as a historian. He saved all his papers from when he was an undergraduate because he doesn't like to throw things away.
"It's a historian kind of thing," he said. "I just keep them in a box. Maybe [someday they will] be a museum piece."

While working on his bachelor's and master's degrees, Jones has been a teacher's assistant for three professors. He has given lectures on Utah history and the Civil War. His favorite part of being a teacher's assistant is grading his classmates' work.

"[It's] kind of cool, [I get] to see all the answers that people put on their tests," Jones said.

While at WSU, he also worked at their disability resource center and took notes for a deaf student.

He has done all of this to get experience because when he's done with his master's, he would like to get a doctorate in history. Someday he would like to teach at a university.

He reinforces this goal every day whenever he checks his e-mail. Every time he puts in his e-mail address, drjones@cc.usu.edu, he remembers his goal. He remembers why he's in school.

All of his siblings have also graduated from college or will graduate soon, including his younger brother, who is partially blind. It shouldn't have happened, Jones said.

"Just like the jackpot at Vegas, two times it shouldn't have happened, but it did," Jones said.

Now Jones is beating the odds - with school, with hobbies, and in life.

He credits his parents for his work-with-what-you-have-and-do-your-best-with-what-you-have attitude. He feels his parents raised him just like everyone else. His parents have the same expectations they do for any of his other siblings.

"When I'm at home, I don't get out of taking out the garbage or doing the dishes," he said.

These are Jones' challenges. His challenges are the more mundane things, the things most people don't think about because they seem so simple. These also include handling money, doing laundry and crossing the street.

How do you track money when you can't see? Coins are easy - the shapes can be felt. But paper money is a little more difficult. How can you tell if it's George Washington's or Andrew Jackson's face staring back at you?

Jones separates his money by placing the larger bills in the front and the smaller bills in the back.

And how does a blind person sort laundry? Jones keeps his laundry separated by putting them in different baskets. Just in case they get mixed up, he puts cuts on the labels to differentiate between them. One cut in the label means it's light, two cuts mean it's dark and no cuts mean it is white. The system seems to work. He has only washed a red shirt with his whites once.
Having to cross the street is another obstacle.

"Theoretically, people are supposed to stop when it's red, [and] go when it's green - it's not always the case," Jones said.

He still gets nervous doing it. Yet he conquers what some may say is the biggest obstacle - college - without thought or worry.

His current GPA is a 3.4. He wishes it were higher. Jones feels his GPA has slipped because of bad habits he picked up from his roommates. Last year, two of his roommates were theater majors and they always had movies in his apartment. Sometimes he found them more entertaining than reading about the War of 1812.

But this year is better. His only roommate is working on his doctorate and they don't even have a television. If Jones wants to hear the news he listens to the radio.

"I don't miss the TV," he said. "[I] don't spend a lot of time watching it."

Instead, Jones spends most of his time reading for his classes using his computer in his apartment.

Jones has a special computer program, Job Access Window Speech (JAWS) that allows him to read all of his textbooks. It looks like a regular computer because it has a screen and keyboard. But his computer reads back to him e-v-e-r-y t-h-i-n-g h-e t-y-p-e-s, or everything he needs to read.

He credits his professors and the disability center for making it easy for him to learn.

USU's helping hands

The mission statement of the Disability Resource Center (DRC) for Utah State University is to provide students, faculty and staff with assistance and information in providing access and accommodations to individuals with disabilities.

Furthermore, the mission of the Division of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired is to assist individuals in achieving maximum levels of independence and, whenever possible, developing goals toward competitive employment.

It offers a variety of services that provide clients with opportunities for training, adjustment, outreach and rehabilitation. These services are available free of charge to those registered with their agency. In order to receive these services, a person must be living in Utah, be 16 or older, and have significant vision loss. All services are available to their clients anywhere in Utah.

Some of these services are classes including orientation and mobility, Braille, computer training, activities of daily living, peer group sessions, social skills, diabetic management, wood shop, crafts and individual counseling.
Mainly, the DRC provides students with disabilities with alternative means to access information.

"A lot of faculty post things on the Internet [which is] not accessible for [blind students]. We have the ability to reproduce material," said Diane Hardman, director of the DRC.

The DRC also has rooms set up particularly for blind students with enhanced computers and screens. If those are all being used they also have computers in the Merrill Library and the Cazier Science and Technology Library.

In addition, the DRC offers hundreds of textbooks on tape for students who are blind.

However, the DRC is trying to move away from tapes to digital format that will allow easier and better access for their students.

USU's Disability Resource Center is viewed as a leader for other universities. It's ranked first in Utah and was recently cited in a national magazine, The Disability Compliance and Higher Education, for providing phenomenal service to their students.

"People seem to think we're doing a good job," Hardman said.

The DRC allows Jones to function as a regular college student. And that's what the center wants. The DRC allows time for students with disabilities to just be students, with abilities. Their slogan reads The disAblitiy Resource Center, emphasizing what students can do rather than cannot.

And Jones proves that. When he isn't in his classes or studying, he likes to do the things most students do. He dates, likes bowling and loves hanging out with his friends.

Because Jones is blind, he says he gets to know his date for who she is instead of her outward appearance. He says he really gets to know women and see their personalities.

He has heard that communication is 80 percent non-verbal and 10 percent auditory. For him, 100 percent of communication is auditory.

That's how he sees it.

What a blind man sees

When asked what he can see, Jones can't explain it.

"It's not black," he says, although he probably doesn't know what black is. Shapes and colors are all arbitrary to him.

When asked what would be the one thing he would most like to see if he could see, he said, "[I would like to see] the stuff they don't let you touch in museums. I want to see that, the stuff behind the glass."
Jones said he would also like to know what's going on around him.

It's been suggested by the National Federation of the Blind pamphlet that seeing people should ask blind visitors if they would like to know if the lights are on. Jones usually keeps them off.

And it could also be asked, are a blind person's lights on? Are they able, competent people who can function and live in this world just like anyone else?

The answer to those questions are yes.

This time, Rhett, the lights are on.

By Amber Bailey