Las Vegas student to push for more aid for disabled

Hans Smith is on his way to Washington, and the Johnson Junior High seventh-grader can't wait to talk to his congressman.

Hans, who has cerebral palsy and is unable to write without a computer, travels from class to class with a cart carrying a computer, scanner, printer and track ball.

Through equipment and software discovered by his mother, the A student is able to scan worksheets into his computer, complete assignments, print them out and hand them in as efficiently as the rest of the students complete their assignments.

Now he wants to see his state-of-the-art software made available to other disabled students.

He'll have his chance May 1-6.

Through a letter-writing contest sponsored by Lutheran Brotherhood, Hans was selected to travel to the RespectTeen National Youth Forum in Washington, where -- along with 51 other students -- he will express his concerns to his congressmen and participate in educational tours on influencing public policy. The forum is working on getting him in to see Rep. Shelley Berkley and Sen. Harry Reid, both Nevada Democrats.

The main issues chosen by the students are drugs, pregnancy, crime, environment, gun control, domestic policy, education, health care, government issues and child abuse.

"This is very much an honor to be going to Washington and representing handicapped kids, not only in the state of Nevada, but in the nation," Hans said.

In his Jan. 8 letter to Berkley, Hans wrote, "I am concerned about the need for better computer equipment to help further the education of handicapped students. Their needs often are not met by school districts.

"My wish is that all handicapped students could have the equipment, software and trained staff they need to make school a better environment for learning."

Looking for a website or a national organization that would gather and make available all the information would be a promising solution, his mother, RuthAnn Smith, said. "There needs to be some way that the assistive technology teachers in the schools know what's out there so they can tell the parents."

Hans credits his mother for his equipment. "It's because of my mom that I have it. All throughout my education, my mom would have to find the materials."

His mother said she has put years of effort into finding the best computer programs for her son and found many programs aren't familiar ones.

Some disabled students are still computing math problems solely through the use of personal assistants who write as the students dictate, she said.

"These kids who can't use a pencil and paper need to find their own way to do math," she added. "They can't grasp the concepts until they do the problems themselves."

Special software called Math Pad enables disabled students to compute math problems on their own as efficiently as other students do, RuthAnn Smith said.

"If they don't have the opportunity to do their own work, how do they know what their best is?" Hans said.

Math really came alive for Hans through the use of the math software, his mother said. "It would be helpful to other parents to know that things like Math Pad exist."

"A decade ago there was nothing along these lines," Sue Lucia-Terry, coordinator for assistive technology in the Clark County School District, said. "It's a system that made huge improvements over the past five years and will continue to do so."

"That would be absolutely fabulous it there were a consolidated website," she added. "The more focus we can have on assistive technology I think is wonderful."

Under federal law, the Individual Disability Education Act, a student is provided assistive technology.

"It gives you a sense of self-esteem when you do your own homework," Hans said. "So often handicapped people are downgraded by people in this world. I want top see a lot of handicapped kids saying 'See, I can do this.'

"I know what it feels like to accomplish the goals you want.

archive