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Blind Bar-Ilan MA Student Succeeds

At Bar-Ilan University we believe that education in general, and academic education in particular, is a tool for social leadership that can close societal gaps and empower weaker sectors in society. This is why we created the Social Action Unit – an organization within the University that enables thousands of students to express their hidden learning potential, despite their physical, emotional or socio-economic limitations, and gives them the necessary tools to fully integrate into Israeli society.

In the coming months the Canadian Friends of Bar-Ilan University will bring you an on-going series of student success stories as part of our mission to support the Social Action Unit.

We continue this month with the story of Guy, an MA student at Bar-Ilan University’s Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work.

Guy is 37 years-old and studying for his MA in Social Work. He earned his BA in Social Work from Bar-Ilan's Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work. He lives in Ganei Tikva, a Tel Aviv suburb located approximately ten minutes from Bar-Ilan. He is married, has a three-year-old son and another baby on the way.

Guy is blind as a result of Diabetes, with which he was diagnosed with at the age of ten. He became fully blind in his right eye following unsuccessful surgery which resulted in a torn retina. Though doctors were encouraged by the functioning of his left eye, he underwent an additional three operations. Despite these procedures, he could only see shadows and needed the assistance of a walking stick. He became fully blind in 2004, during final exams at the end of his second year of study for his BA.

Guy had no idea how to cope with this new reality. It was a very confusing and difficult time. One of his first thoughts was to discontinue his studies. But he decided to continue his academic pursuits and turned to Bar-Ilan's Social Action Unit.

The Social Action Unit immediately assigned to Guy a student who read him all the required reading material for his courses, read him the questions to his exams, and wrote the answers he dictated to exam questions. The Social Action Unit also assigned a separate, quiet room for Guy to take his exams (as the reading and dictation would likely disturb his fellow students also taking the exam) and his lecturers came to this room in order to make sure that all the exam questions were clear.

Guy's accomplishments as a BA student, for which he highly credits the Social Action Unit, won him acceptance into the MA program in Social Work. "If the Social Action Unit hadn't helped me, I would have stopped studying. I was accepted into the MA program because of my grades, but I never would have achieved what I did without the Social Action Unit," he says.

Now well into his Master's study, Guy expects that, due to his disability, he will be granted a one-year extension and will earn his degree within three years as opposed to the two years in which students are generally expected to complete their study. The Social Action Unit is still highly involved in Guy's progress, assisting him in searching for essential materials in the library, conducting research, reading, and assisting with the writing his thesis, which will focus on the ability of a blind person who uses a walking stick, as opposed to a guide dog, to form close social relationships.

Guy works in the outpatient mental health unit at Tel Hashomer Hospital, where he counsels five patients on a weekly basis. He firmly maintains that the Social Action Unit has an incredibly strong effect -- not only on the disabled but on all those whom the Unit assists -- in bringing the experiences the Unit imparts upon them to the community-at-large.

Guy says the sky is the limit once he completes his Master's degree. He would very much like to work in the field of mental health in the public sector, to work privately and even, perhaps, to continue conducting research, pursue further academic study, and to practice Social Work and help those in need.

The Social Action Unit at Bar-Ilan University is responsible for our students’ wellbeing and looks after those with special needs including those who have hearing impairments, vision impairments, physical disabilities, medical disabilities, and emotional difficulties as well as those who come from Israel’s peripheral areas and disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Today the Social Action Unit assists approximately 1,000 students who reside in Israel's peripheries and/or who have special needs. Support for these students comes in a variety of services, including:

-- Individual counseling during University registration

-- Personal and group tutorials

-- Personal advice regarding academic and administrative matters

-- Assistance with photocopying educational material

-- Borrowing equipment such as laptop computers and hearing aids

-- Exam adaptation assistance such as the allotment of additional time during a test, testing in small groups, writing exams on the computer, reading aloud for visually impaired students, dictation of exam answers, and more

-- Workshops for improving study skills

-- Vocational training towards completion of degree study

Each of these services provides students with the technical, emotional and professional support they need in order to enable them to obtain their academic degree. With the support of the Social Action Unit, each student is able to learn as an equal among equals, as independently as possible, and integrate into Israeli society.